City's Culture Reset: From Nearly Team to WSL Champions

For years, City were the nearly team. The squad good enough to win the WSL, the pundits’ favourite to finally knock Chelsea off their perch – and yet, every season, something snapped late on. A wobble in the run-in. A collapse that felt bigger than the sum of its parts.

Then Jonas Jeglertz walked in and changed the temperature of the whole building.

A culture reset – and a title

Alex Greenwood calls it a “shift in culture”. The defender talks about how the players even changed “the language used” around the place as they started to openly target trophies, not just talk about performances. It wasn’t always comfortable. It wasn’t meant to be.

“It’s a little bit uncomfortable sometimes, but crossing that hurdle and being able to do that has shifted so many mindsets in this building,” she explained.

That mindset finally delivered. City not only claimed the WSL title, they ended a four-year wait for silverware. It didn’t feel like a one-off. It felt like a dam breaking.

Mary Fowler, who lived through the false dawns, put it bluntly to GOAL: “I think that in previous seasons, maybe we fell short because there was a bit of a lack in the mindset where we felt we were really capable of winning. But I think now that we've done it, it feels like, 'You are very capable and you can do that again'.”

The belief is no longer hypothetical. It’s banked.

Hunger, not relief

After a short summer break, Jeglertz returned to a group that had every excuse to exhale. Instead, he found players itching to go again.

“I've seen it already in the players,” he told GOAL. “They already have a confidence that is great, that is calm, but curious about how we take the next step. What do we do to become a little bit better? I already see it and that's something that we need to keep having the whole year.”

There’s no sense the title has taken the edge off. If anything, the pressure has sharpened it. This isn’t a squad dining out on last season. It’s one asking what comes next.

Two summer arrivals should only harden that winning edge.

Niamh Charles has come straight from Chelsea’s trophy production line, armed with five successive WSL titles and seven domestic cups in six years. She knows how to live inside a dynasty.

“That means that she has a little bit of a leader in her,” Jeglertz believes. “That is something that we are going to be able to use also in sessions and in how you win from one year to the next year.”

Beth Mead brings another layer of pedigree. Back-to-back European Championship wins with England. A starring role in Arsenal’s 2025 Champions League triumph over Barcelona. Big stages, big moments, and still a fire burning.

“You can see in her eyes, she's still very eager to be part of this and to learn more,” Jeglertz noted.

On paper and in the dressing room, City look ready to defend their crown. The question now is whether the squad can carry that culture across a heavier calendar.

The Champions League test

Last season’s title win came with a significant asterisk: no Champions League football. While Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United juggled Europe, City had clear midweeks and cleaner legs.

This time, Europe is back on the agenda. The schedule will bite.

That makes the summer business – or lack of it – impossible to ignore. Beyond Mead and Charles, only Carlotta Wamser has arrived, a versatile full-back who can cover both sides. Against that, nine first-team players have gone.

This was never going to be an overhaul. Director of football Nicky O’Neill said as much at the end of last season: “The depth is there. It’s not about a squad transformation. It’s about adding in the key positions we need.”

But early injuries have already started to tug at the seams. The most serious is Vivianne Miedema’s. The Guardian understands the Dutch forward may not return until 2027. City tried to move on deadline day, but nothing got over the line. The concern is real.

Left-back has been patched up smartly. Charles and Wamser arrive after Leila Ouahabi’s departure, while Mead helps refresh the forward line after Kerolin’s move to Barcelona. Beyond that, Jeglertz is betting heavily on internal growth.

Risa Shimizu, back from a loan at Liverpool, will be leaned on for depth at full-back. Sydney Lohmann and Grace Clinton are under the spotlight after stop-start first seasons hampered by niggles and missed chances. Both are expected to step out of the shadows.

Fowler, in her first full campaign back from an ACL injury, is another key piece. She showed flashes of her talent after returning in February; now comes the stretch where City need those flashes to become a habit.

Up front, the versatility is striking. Mead, Fowler, Lauren Hemp, Aoba Fujino and Iman Beney can all shuffle across the forward line, with several capable of leading it. That flexibility makes the lack of an out-and-out understudy to Khadija Shaw more understandable. City don’t want a passenger; they want a rotating cast of threats.

Youth at the door, stars at the top

Behind them, the academy conveyor belt has started to feed the first team with intent. Sacha Lewis, Amelia Oldroyd and Aoibhe Brennan have all signed their first professional deals this summer. Mayzee Davies, a Wales international who turned pro last year, is another who could quietly become part of the depth puzzle.

The spine of the side, though, remains untouched and formidable. Shaw, Greenwood, Hemp, Kerstin Casparij, Jade Rose and Yui Hasegawa anchor what is, on paper, one of the strongest starting XIs in the WSL. When Miedema finally returns, that front line becomes even more frightening.

Is it enough? That’s the tightrope.

City enjoyed an almost flawless injury record last season, a rarity in recent years. Replicating that while adding Champions League miles will be a serious challenge.

“We’ve learned and we will absolutely be ready next season,” O’Neill insisted. Jeglertz, for his part, felt the squad was too big last year, so he actually welcomes the expanded schedule.

“We have too many good players to play these few games we are playing,” he said in May. “Next year will be different because it's more games. The squad is built for that.”

He might be right. But there are pressure points.

A couple of injuries in the wrong positions could bite hard. If players earmarked for breakout seasons – Lohmann, who has since had hip surgery, or Clinton – don’t hit their stride, the gaps will feel wider. The fact City already start the campaign with several doubts and Miedema sidelined is a nagging worry.

Built for trophies, built for now

Elsewhere in the league, some rivals boast deeper benches. They also carry more questions about chemistry, identity and resilience. City don’t.

Replicating Chelsea’s long reign in this new, fiercely competitive WSL feels a stretch for any club. The era of one-team dominance may be gone. But City look built to live at the sharp end of every competition they enter.

Last season, they were the best team in England by a distance. Now they carry not just talent, but proof. Trophies change how a group walks into a stadium. They change how an opponent looks at the fixture list.

City have broken their decade-long wait for another WSL crown. With this culture, this core, and this hunger, why would they wait that long again?