Appointed in May as successor to Nick Cushing, Taylor has taken charge of his first training sessions this month, as City have returned to training for the 2020/21 campaign, ready to embark on a new era.
Alongside Nissan Goal of the Season winner Caroline Weir, Scott guest starred in Tuesday night’s We’re Not Really Here live show for the men’s team’s superb 4-0 triumph at Watford.
Reflecting on the first weeks back at the City Football Academy, the Lionesses legend declared she has been impressed with the new boss so far.
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“The standard is really high,” she explained. “He’s a winner – that’s what we need. To get to that next step and add more trophies, you have to raise the standard.
“He’s quite strict to be fair – he tells me off quite a lot. I thought he’d be more chilled!
“Gareth was always around the building with the Under-16s, Under-18s and Academy.
“We already knew him and he’s a great guy to be around.”
The past month has also unlocked a new chapter of Scott’s own coaching career with her first weeks in her new player-coaching role.
Although the midfielder asserts playing takes precedent, she added she is excited to embark on the new challenge under Taylor’s stewardship.
“They’re just trying to tell me I’m getting a bit old now!” she laughed – ever the joker.
“There’s not been too much change. I’m still focused on playing and I feel like I give a lot on the pitch.
“I haven’t been telling the players off just yet!
“It’s great to know there’s a career there after playing.
“Six years at the Club have gone so fast. When I came to this Club, we had a plan.
“We spoke about what we wanted to achieve on and off the pitch. We had ambitions of winning the league, we wanted to change the perception of women’s football and make it professional…
“But we lost four games in a row at the start and I was thinking: ‘How are we ever going to achieve what we want to achieve?’ but we did. We won the treble in 2017.
“The Club have been fantastic. You have to keep pushing. It’s good to reflect to see how far we’ve come and appreciate that but as human beings, naturally you want more.
“Hopefully, other teams in the league will join us. We need it to be a more competitive league.
“It is getting better every year but we need it to be more so that has a knock-on effect internationally as well.”
With the early conclusion of the 2019/20 FA Women’s Super League campaign, City were denied the chance to regain the league title, having lifted the trophy just once in 2016 with an unbeaten league season.
Having completed the 2019/20 term without silverware (and now with our new boss at the helm), Scott insists the team are equipped with plenty of motivation, especially after the lengthy break.
“We’re happy to be back,” she smiled. “I’ve been going into football, bouncing around!
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“We had four months away but now, no more shuttle runs at the local park!
“It’s great to be part of such a fantastic Club.
“We want to win everything. We play every game to win it and we’ll take every game at a time but we want to win everything.
“It would be foolish not to set those goals with the squad we have,
“You have to keep raising the bar.
“I’m excited for next season – I really am. Let’s look forward to it.”
