Michael Gaughan’s coaching journey started in Scotland and took him as far as New Zealand and Australia. Now, he has taken on the role of Head of Player Development here at Glasgow City.
He will now focus on producing talented youngsters in our Academy and helping them reach our first team, where Gaughan will also be responsible for leading on the individual development of members of our squad.
It is a role he is raring to get stuck into. And while this is a new full-time position for him, Gaughan has been working in our Academy for the last few months since his return from the other side of the world.
He believes that has helped give him a head start, with the essential relationships and connections with coaches and teams alike already partly established.
Gaughan himself got in touch with Glasgow City whilst he was working in New Zealand. An admirer of the club, he knew it was where he wanted his coaching journey to continue when he got back to his native Scotland.
“I reached out to Glasgow City about coming in to do some coaching,” he begins to explain. “I worked in women’s and girl’s football the last four years, so it felt natural to come to Glasgow City. It felt like the best place for me to come.
“I’ve always respected the work the club has done. They have always had good teams coming through. It’s a unique club and the pathway they have is really cool. I want to be able to contribute to that.”
In New Zealand, Gaughan was the only full-time member of staff working with Palmerston North Marist’s senior team all the way down to the children’s fun fours sessions.
And in Australia, he worked as part of Melbourne Victory’s girl’s programme whilst the country hosted the 2023 World Cup. An invaluable environment to coach in, he tells us.
They are all experiences which Gaughan says will put him in good stead for his role at Glasgow City where he is ready to continue the work done by predecessor Kieron McAneny.
“It’s just working with the people at the club – players and coaches - and helping them improve.
“If a young person becomes a Glasgow City player with the first team, then that is great, but if they also end up moving on and contributing to the wider Scottish football landscape and society in a positive way, then that is also great.
“That would be the most rewarding thing.”
“We want to have sustainable graduates who play at the club, in Scotland or anywhere else in the world,” Gaughan responds when we ask what success would look like to him in a year’s time.
“We want to fill every team with players who will add value to our club and our squads as the progress.
“We want to invest in the coaches here because I know they are all so passionate about developing the women’s and girl’s game, so keeping them in place and just adding to it.
“In everything we do, it’s just about creating the sustainability. It’s a hard thing to do in a year, but if we put the building blocks in place then we are moving in the right direction.”
It is not only players who Gaughan is looking forward to developing. He wants to keep investing in the advancement of our coaches, including himself.
“I want to keep learning and developing,” he says. “I want to become a bit more comfortable in myself and find the consistency with my coaching.
“It’s about delivering sessions with consistency over a long period of time and figuring out who I am as a coach.”
And he hopes to learn more from those around him, too, including the likes of former Scottish internationals Sarah Crilly, Leanne Crichton and Leanne Ross.
“Just being able to lean on those coaches is going to be invaluable,” he adds. “Once I knew I was coming back to Scotland, it is something I was trying to actively seek out. Having it as part of this role is great.”
Glasgow City are currently recruiting coaches for our foundation phase programme, with a focus on our U10s. If you are interested, please contact michael.gaughan@glasgowcityfc.co.uk or sarah.crilly@glasgowcityfoundation.org