Gareth Taylor disappointed at manner of Chloe Kelly’s Manchester City exit

Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor has expressed his disappointment at the manner of Chloe Kelly’s departure from the club.

England forward Kelly has secured a loan move back to Arsenal after being restricted to just six appearances for City in the Women’s Super League this season.

The 27-year-old, who scored the Lionesses’ winning goal in the Euro 2022 final against Germany, accused City of “negative behaviour” towards her in a scathing social media post earlier this week.

She also claimed that her mental well-being had been affected after being “dictated” to by City over which clubs she was allowed to join.

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City play Arsenal at the Joie Stadium on Sunday – Kelly is ineligible to face her parent club – and when quizzed about the player’s controversial departure, Taylor said: “I’d rather not go into specifics.

“What I will say is it’s been really disappointing to come to this and obviously the ending it transpired to.

“I always try to represent the club in the right way, in the good moments and difficult moments, and certainly work for a club that has real integrity.

“It’s been disappointing and a challenging couple of days for many people, not just myself, and it’s never good to hear a player has not had a good experience of being at the club.

“I’m sure that’s not the case for the whole period, maybe just the more recent period for not playing.

“We’re in a selection-based business where difficult decisions have to be made for the betterment of the team and sometimes players can fall on the sharp end of that.”

Kelly, whose City contract expires in the summer, has made just one WSL start for Taylor’s side this term.

She said in an Instagram post on Wednesday that her future lay elsewhere and she wanted “to be happy again”.

It was reported Manchester United made an offer to sign Kelly on a permanent basis before she completed her temporary move back to her first club Arsenal.

Taylor said: “We’ve certainly not stood in the way of a player being able to go and make a move that they want to make.

“Sometimes we have to look at what the best offer was and Arsenal made the best offer for the player. It was a simple one for us.”

The City boss added: “I’ve tried to give you a bit of an insight on it and I can’t go into any real detail about how we see it on our side of the story.

“We wish her all the best at her new club. She’s achieved the move she was looking to do and that’s it.”