Manchester City will hope to return to winning ways under new head coach Andrée Jeglertz ahead of the 2025/26 WSL season.
The Manchester City third kit’s beauty is to be debated, but its theme is very much applicable to the season ahead for the Citizens – rain or shine. After a few disappointing seasons, the blue side of Manchester will hope to win silverware with their new manager Andrée Jeglertz and make Manchester shine again.
The question is, can they do it? The Halfway Line previews all there is to know about the Cityzens ahead of the 2025/26 Women’s Super League (WSL) season.
How Manchester City finished last season
City did not manage to qualify for the UEFA Women’s Champions League in the upcoming season, as the side finished fourth in last year’s WSL table. It was a mediocre season for the Cityzens, with manager Gareth Taylor given the sack in March. He was replaced by interim trainer Nick Cushing, who previously led City to WSL victory in 2016. Cushing was unable to turn the tide for City after a tidal waves of injuries left his side without answers.
The Citizens lost the FA Women’s Subway Cup final to Chelsea, went out in the semi final of the Adobe Women’s FA Cup against city rivals Manchester United, and went out to Chelsea in the quarter final stages of the Champions League, after giving up a 2-0 lead from the first leg of the tie.
City missed important players such Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw, Vivianne Miedema, Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood for a large number of games. They were not the only players to miss out due to injury. Youngsters like Gracie Prior and Lily Murphy had to step in and did a decent job, but any team would drop their level with such significant players missing. It was the lack of strength in depth in some positions on the City bench that did not help the team either.
City then failed to really replenish their squad in January while the squad was already dealing with many absentees, and let Chloe Kelly go on loan to Arsenal. While arguably that decision was unavoidable, it did leave City light in attack when more players went into rehab.
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The new recruits
The Sky Blues have made five signings so far: Sydney Lohmann from Bayern Munich, Eartha Cumings from Rosengard, Jade Rose from Harvard Crimson, Laura Wienroither on a permanent move from Arsenal and Iman Beney from Young Boys.
Jill Roord (FC Twente), Laia Aleixandri (FC Barcelona), and Chloe Kelly (permanent move to Arsenal) have left Manchester.
Cumings boasts the goalkeeper union and it begs to leave the question where she fits in. In Keating, Yamashita and Startup, City already have three senior goalkeepers, and let’s not forget about Eve Annets, who has joined the senior squad on multiple occasions too. Cumings will however wear the number 1 shirt for City, so could that be a sign that she will play a lot of games? We will just have to wait and see.
In Jade Rose and Laura Wienroither, City have further boosted their defence. It was one of their weaker areas last season, especially with Greenwood out. Rose is a versatile player who can play both at centre back and fullback, Wienroither is an established right back. Wienroither joined City from Arsenal on loan in January and did not play a whole lot of minutes, so her permanent move up to Manchester is an interesting one. City do of course have a new manager in Andrée Jeglertz and it could be that thanks to his arrival, Wienroither sees some minutes on the horizon.
Teenager Iman Beney has shown that she can play at right wing back, as she played there during the Euros for her native Switzerland, but we will probably see her play further up the field for City. Beney is a very fast player and what we all have seen at the Euros has been very promising, so it will be interesting to see how she will do for City.
That leaves us with Sydney Lohmann. Her signing was leaked through the club’s shop, shirts with her name and number already available to buy without her having been officially announced. That official announcement followed a week later and Lohmann said “there is room for City to grow” in her signing interview. Lohmann is a player who is good when fit, but has been struggling with injuries. She’ll be looking to make an impact in City’s midfield, and hopefully for City fans, help the club exploit that room for growth.
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Andrée Jeglertz: from Denmark to Manchester City
After Gareth Taylor’s sacking, the club needed a new manager. They have found that manager in Andrée Jeglertz, a Swedish national with a wealth of coaching experience. He won the Champions League with Umea in 2004 and lost the Champions League final to Arsenal in 2007, so he is no stranger to battles with the London reds.
He has also coached the Finnish women’s national team, Linköpings and most recently he coached the Danish women. Jeglertz was announced as City’s new head coach the day before the Danish women played their first match at this summer’s Euro’s, certainly an interesting timing to say the least.
Jeglertz prefers a possession-based, free-flowing and attacking type of football and prefers to win the ball back as high on the pitch as possible. He focuses on player development too, saying he wants the players to become better every day and wants to help them fulfill their potential.
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Lionesses stars amongst Manchester City’s key players
Having missed out on a lot of last season and having been one of England’s best players, Lauren Hemp could be out to extend that form into the upcoming domestic season. She has been one of the players City missed so much. Each time she’s on the pitch, she makes an impact with her direct runs and excellent deliveries into the box. With Bunny back on the end of those, City can possibly score a lot of goals from that tandem this season.
Similarly, Alex Greenwood’s return will be much anticipated among City’s fans. City’s defence has been leaky, especially in her absence, having dropped 11 points from winning positions last season and conceding 28 goals (in comparison, third placed United only conceded 16 goals last season). Greenwood is not only solid defensively, she also has the ability to pick out the best of passes in her team’s build up play.
Manchester City predictions ahead of the WSL season
City will probably have most of the players who missed significant parts of last season back fit for the season opener on the 5th of September against rivals Chelsea. City will have to be a little more active in the market to really create that strength in depth and sign maybe one or two more players to really compete.
On the other hand, with City not having Champions League football to deal with this season, it creates less load on the players as it’s easier to rotate for Subway Cup group stage matches. If they manage to not go into an injury crisis again, and Jeglertz’ style of play resonates with the players, they can go far this season and possibly win some silverware again.
I’m sure the players are ready to let go of the rain and will want to shine ahead of the 2025/26 WSL season.