Pep Guardiola's support of Man City Women hailed by head coach Gareth Taylor

Taylor was appointed as Man City Women's manager in 2020 and has enjoyed regular conversations with Guardiola during his time at the club.

While Guardiola has dominated English football with City's men's team, Taylor hasn't managed to quite achieve such success with the women's side, who have failed to win the Women's Super League title since 2016.

City Women have won the FA Cup and Continental Cup during Taylor's three-year spell in charge but could only manage a fourth-place finish in the WSL last season.

Taylor has added former Wolfsburg and Arsenal midfielder Jill Roord to his squad this summer as he attempts to close the gap on Chelsea and has thanked Guardiola for his unwavering support ahead of the new WSL season.

Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, Taylor said: "I'm fortunate that Pep has been a real strong level of support for myself since I took the role. He's been in regular contact.

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"He comes to a lot of our training sessions because we're literally pitches away, so that's amazing. He's really supportive of us and what we're trying to do.

"He is just so humble, very engaging and very supportive as well to me when you think: 'How does this guy have the time to be able to do this?'

"He does tend to keep things very simple. It's not anything that's rocket science. What he does really well is that - as well as being a big innovator in the sport - his standards are incredibly high.

"He improves every player that he works with and I think it just goes to show that if you're an open-minded, young player who's coachable, then you have a real chance because the levels your game can go to these days is crazy. He's been great in that respect and I think it's something the club really take pride in. It's not necessarily what we do, but how we do it."

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Taylor is now hoping to bring silverware back to Manchester this season and is desperate to achieve his maiden WSL title, having finished as runners up during his first year in charge.

Asked what success looks like for City Women this season, Taylor said: "Winning trophies. We want to be successful. We enjoy it when we win silverware.

"Of course, the WSL is so difficult. It [winning the league] is something that's eluded me so far. I'm really excited about the challenge this season and it's so tough [because] there's 22 games [and] very little room for error.

"The levels are really improving from a lot of teams. Teams are starting to take more points off of one another now, so we have to make sure we take care of our own business and give it our very best shot. But, of course, we are here to win."

One issue which a number of players - alongside the Lionesses and Sarina Wiegman - have been vocal about is player welfare, given a rise in the number of ACL injuries across the women's game.

Some of the biggest names in women's football in Alexia Putellas, Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead and Leah Williamson have all faced long spells on the side-lines in recent seasons after rupturing their ACLs during matches or training.

Taylor joined leading coaches in women's football by calling for greater discussions around fixture scheduling and says more support is needed if the game is to continue its growth.

"It's making sure there's decent conversations around scheduling [and] decent conversations around player welfare. I think that's really important. This is probably something you could push for in the men's game as well," he finished.

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"We've got to be really careful that these players are not pushed to breaking [point]. We've seen some high-profile injuries take place in the women's game and we have to make sure we're supporting the players in the right way because the career is not a long career. You're talking 10-12 years if you're fortunate.

"To lose that for a couple of years through injury is really damaging. So, we need to make sure that the correct levels and the correct support is in place for these girls to be the very best they can be."