Manchester City’s women players can concentrate on the game with their worries taken care of, says Richard Jolly
From Manchester to Melbourne, horizons have been broadened and ambitions expanded. Manchester City are creating a club in Queens, New York and they have grand plans for their ladies rather closer to home.
The relaunched, renamed Manchester City Women’s Football Club will enter this season’s Super League.
Along with New York City FC, the recently purchased Melbourne Heat and the 2012 English Premier League champions, they are part of City’s global expansion.
The philosophy underpinning their mushrooming was eloquently explained by Patrick Vieira, the former City midfielder turned coach of the club’s Elite Development Squad.
“Football is global. There’s no colour; it’s just the passion and the love for the game,” said the 1998 World Cup winner. “You can be tall or small, white or black, woman or man, you’ll love the game. I think it is fantastic to have created that club.”
For Toni Duggan, the forward signed from Everton to spearhead City’s challenge, the project was part of the allure. “I wanted to be a part of it from the start,” the England international said.
“I didn’t want to buy into it three years down the line when the club was successful.”
Technically, the beginning came in 1988 when Manchester City Ladies FC were formed. A relationship with the club became closer before it was formalised in 2012 but with a rebranded team and a host of signings, it has the feeling of a new start.
“Bringing the players in shows the commitment of the football club that we want to do really well,” Vieira said.
He has first-hand experience of the benefits of a successful women’s side can bring to a club.
“When I was at Arsenal the [ladies’] manager was Vic Akers, who was our kitman,” the former Arsenal captain said. “So some of the lads would go to watch their training and some of their games. It was a really close [relationship] and it was good football.”
Indeed, Akers had a record Arsene Wenger could only envy. Arsenal won nine successive titles before being deposed by Liverpool last season. Manchester, however, was something of a backwater in the women’s game.
While familiar names featured in the standings – Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Liverpool – England’s unofficial footballing capital was not represented. Manchester United disbanded their team in 2005; City have never previously played in the top flight.
They will benefit from the facilities and knowledge the club already possesses. When the Etihad Campus, City’s new training complex, is completed, the women’s side will share a ground with Vieira’s youngsters, just opposite the first team’s home.
“That was another massive pulling factor,” Duggan said. “There is no women’s team out there that has got their own stadium. We are going to have the best facilities.
“Manchester City have been quite clear in saying the women have access to them. Hopefully that can bring us on as players.”
So, too, should a more prosaic reality. They can concentrate fully on football.
“I used to work nine-to-five,” said Duggan, a former youth worker. “Many of the other girls did teaching. I used to work nine-to-five and then go training. This is a full-time profession for us. We are never going to be as successful as the men,
“I don’t think many sports are, but we want what we deserve. The likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea are now making players go full time and that’s a great thing for women’s football.”
The 22-year-old striker has gone from part-time player to colleague of the stars. Duggan remembers her introduction to life at City.
“Vincent Kompany came up and said a few kind words and welcomed me to the club,” she said. “That’s another thing as well: the club as a whole is one team, it doesn’t matter who you are, they welcome you and the players have been great with us. Hopefully they can get behind us and support us.”
The influential Vieira has pledged they will. “They’re part of the Manchester City family,” said the Frenchman. “I’m sure the first-team players will go to watch some of their games.”
There is a shared ethos, an attacking attitude that encourages a scorer like Duggan, who aims to emulate her male counterparts.
“It’s exciting when you are seeing [Edin] Dzeko and [Sergio] Aguero and ‘the Beast’ [Alvaro Negredo] scoring week in, week out,” she said.
“Hopefully I can buy into the philosophy too and be scoring as many goals as them.”
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