Manchester City don’t want to defend their WSL title. They want to build a dynasty

Legacy, dynasty, whatever they want the world to be. These are the terms Manchester City talk in these days. These are the terms that bring about a £10million new training ground, along the wall of which is emblazoned Andree Jeglertz’s mantra, “We will find a way to win.”

So they did, on a weekend when only two of the Women’s Super League’s big four teams enjoyed winning starts. In the best moments here against Birmingham City, it all became a showcase of how complete this City team are — or at least what makes them so difficult to beat. How do you stop an ever-changing threat? It is their in-game reinvention, from minute to minute, that makes fending off City so wearying. The 3-1 margin of victory could have been wider had City not at times missed that final bit of polish at Joie Stadium.

They were never going to answer the big questions here that will really determine their future: how they will cope with battling on all fronts, and how they will cope without the injured Vivianne Miedema, whom they tried and failed to replace on deadline day. Those go into what it takes to stay at the top but are musings for another day.

On Sunday, they picked up where they left off, which was all they had to do. 

It wasn’t until forward Mary Fowler stabbed in a goal at close range from a deflection four minutes into the second half that City were finally unshackled. From there, they were that zipping force that borders on overstimulating, like looking at a financial trader’s seven-screen dashboard. Soon after, striker Bunny Shaw rose highest, with the perfectly vertical ascent of a rocket, to nod home Kerstin Casparij’s corner for City’s second. To watch Shaw in full flight must fill defences with a sense of pure helplessness.

Then Jegelertz broke Beth Mead: Manchester City edition out of the box, and the former Arsenal winger gloried in her free role, denied a debut goal following the kind of interplay with Shaw and midfielder Lauren Hemp that will strike fear in opposition managers. She turned provider for Shaw’s second from a corner, the striker leaping to repeat the earlier trick. 

Jegelertz is loath to use the phrase ‘defending the title’. It is too passive; City must attack it again. What defined the WSL’s last great dynasty — that of Chelsea — was reinvention, even if Jegelertz insisted last season’s transformation from also-rans to champions was never as drastic as it seemed (the former Manchester United boss Marc Skinner pointed out that even before last season, City had accumulated players good enough to win the WSL). Their erratic finishing positions over the years — 3rd, 4th, 2nd, 4th — probably masked how close they came: a title decided on goal difference in 2024, and one on points per game during the pandemic.

Perhaps too modestly, Jegelertz has insisted that City’s squad had the solutions all along. He reminded them of just how much they were capable of, positionally and mentally, so that the idea of winning the title no longer needs to be voiced in hushed tones. City finished 17 points behind Chelsea when Chelsea won their most recent title, and maybe after a while that inculcates a sense of shakiness, or not-quite-worthiness.

Dynasties are built on the best kind of entitlement, a sense that your destiny is your own, even when it isn’t. 

City won every single WSL match here last season but they began with an unsettled, frenetic quality, typified when Shaw’s shot almost cleared the stand, arrowing out for a throw-in on the opposite flank. Aoba Fujino slipped when cutting the ball onto her right foot for a one-on-one with Birmingham goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley. Some 26 minutes had passed before City felt comfortable enough to pass it among the backline. Until that point, Birmingham had looked dangerous, conquering the space vacated by City’s adventurous full-backs (in fact, Oceane Hurtre robbed a dithering Jade Rose on the edge of stoppage time for a consolation goal). 

Veatriki Sarri drove on, Birmingham’s Hurtre robbed Ayaka Yamashita early on, and the only thing that stopped her tapping into the open goal was the awkward angle. Jegelertz conceded City’s road to victory “didn’t feel smooth”. But they found a way to win. 

This is a fitting enough point to wonder what goes into making a dynasty, or even what defines success. At the WSL’s inception, City made a then-unprecedented investment, jolting everyone else into line. They won acclaim for sharing with the boys’ academy, as well as for feeding the players and laundering their kits. Their move to their new training ground was precipitated by the realisation that fitting in around the boys’ academy schedules would no longer cut it. It remains to be seen whether their decision to make Shaw the highest-paid women’s player in the world sets a similar bar in an already stratified financial framework. 

Manchester City’s Beth Mead attempts a shot at Joie Stadium (Martin Rickett/Getty Images)

Newly promoted Birmingham are apt opponents to inspire that line of questioning, given the power shifts that have taken place since 2012 when they won the FA Cup and finished second in the WSL. Champions League campaigns gave way to a period in which their facilities and treatment of first-team players became a national talking point, but ownership changes mean Birmingham, under young manager Amy Merricks, now face different kinds of questions. 

Their summer window, which included signing the former Manchester United pair Millie Turner and Lisa Fjeldstad Naalsund, was eye-catching. They marked their return to the WSL with the kind of opening fixture that leaves you wondering if the computer behind it all has a sadistic side. “It’s just 11 v 11, and that’ll be our philosophy,” Merrick said of preparing her side to face City. “We respect opponents, but we’re not gonna fear anyone.”

“Our biggest priority is to become an established WSL side,” she continued. “That’s the first step that we need to take and we want to be competitive in every game that we’re playing. That’s why getting that goal today is huge. We’re staying in the game for so long, in critical bouts of time. At the moment, we’re building layer by layer.

“This league is very different compared to the league we’ve just come from, and we respect that. The experience that we have — like Sophie, Millie, Lisa — that have played in this league. That will also support us to add the layers that we need. There’s a lot of sustained possession in this league, and I think if we can sustain possession for longer bouts of play, it will help us as well. There’s a lots more to come, but our biggest priority for us is to make sure we establish ourselves. We have to do that by competing, being hard to beat and always having a very good group.”

Even as they slogged on, City had the whiff of champions. Birmingham had mustered two goal-line clearances by the 17-minute mark. Hemp, making her 200th appearance for City, was left well alone to shuttle down the left. Then City surged into something like dominance, during which time Baggaley built a case to demand double time for her Sunday afternoon’s work. She saved Alex Greenwood’s header from close range, denied Fujino, and saved confidently from Shaw’s header. 

By then, you wondered how long Birmingham could hold out. Not much longer, as it transpired. After all, this is what champions do. It sounds prosaic, but it is true: you cannot dethrone those who always find a way to win.