Nils Nielsen: Man City director of football aims to get WSL side back to top
- Published
Nielsen worked with Denmark men's under-18s before coaching the women's team
Manchester City want to be "the number one club in England", says the Women's Super League side's new director of football Nils Nielsen.
The former Denmark and Switzerland women's head coach was appointed this month.
The 51-year-old said his role will be to "connect the dots" by taking a lead on player recruitment and taking charge of coach and player development.
"We want to be back on top and get back to the winning ways," said Nielsen.
City last won the WSL in 2016 and have failed to get out of the Champions League qualifying groups for the past two seasons, and Nielsen said the club are "a bit behind the best teams" in the country.
"We need to catch up on that and that means we need to act short term. There are some elements to address right away and some we can take a bit more time to solve," he said.
"We have some very talented younger players. We have a lot of potential but we need a bit more consistency."
Nielsen took Denmark to the final of the Women's Euros in 2017 where they missed out to the Netherlands, coached by the now England boss Sarina Wiegman.
He was then in charge of Switzerland at Euro 2022 where his side finished third in Group C behind the Netherlands and Sweden.
But the Dane said it was an easy decision to transfer from head coach to a role behind the scenes.
"It's something I always wanted to do so when I got the opportunity in a great club like this I didn't really think about it that much," he said.
City are fourth in the WSL, level on points with Arsenal but outside the Champions League qualification places on goal difference.
But Nielsen does not think European qualification will affect their recruitment this summer.
"Even if we end up fourth this season it doesn't mean we have to close the club. I hope players can see the bigger picture and see that the club doesn't change because we have a year where we don't play Champions League," he said.
"We are still going to try and go for the same players that we're looking at right now regardless of the Champions League."
Nielsen is also keen to "integrate" the academy so it becomes "more normal" for players from the youth set-ups to play in the first team.
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