Manchester City’s Cultural Shift: Jeglertz Transforms Team into WSL Champions
For years, Manchester City were everyone’s favourite “this might be their year” pick. The talent was obvious, the football often sparkling, the numbers strong enough to make analysts nod along. And yet, when it came to ripping the WSL crown from Chelsea’s grip, City repeatedly flinched at the decisive moment.
Last season, that changed. Not because the squad suddenly discovered how to pass or press, but because the club finally confronted what had been missing: a hard, uncomfortable edge.
A manager who changed the language
What Robert Vilahamn Jeglertz did in his first campaign in charge should not be brushed aside as a natural progression. The core of this City side had been good enough to win the league for years. The difference, as Alex Greenwood put it, was a “shift in culture” – and it ran deeper than any tactical tweak.
He challenged the players to change “the language used” around trophies and success. That sounds small. Inside a dressing room, it isn’t. It means calling things what they are. Targets, not dreams. Expectations, not hopes.
“It’s a little bit uncomfortable sometimes,” Greenwood admitted, “but crossing that hurdle and being able to do that has shifted so many mindsets in this building.”
Once the barrier went, the trophies followed. City ended a four-year wait for silverware and finally got their hands on the WSL title. The reaction inside the camp has been telling. This doesn’t feel like a one-off. It feels like a starting point.
Mary Fowler, speaking to GOAL, captured the before-and-after as plainly as anyone.
“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,” she said. “But I think now that we've done it, it feels like, 'You are very capable and you can do that again'.”
That is the shift. Same players. Different belief.
Hunger, not relief
Managers returning from a short summer break often talk about “reset buttons” and “fresh starts”. Jeglertz walked back into something else entirely: a group that has tasted what it has been chasing for a decade and is already asking for more.
“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 is no sense that last season’s title has taken the edge off. If anything, it has sharpened it. The pressure hasn’t eased; it has been redefined. Winning is no longer the dream. It is the standard.
That mentality has been reinforced by the calibre of player walking through the door this summer.
Champions joining champions
Niamh Charles arrives from the closest thing English women’s football has had to a machine. Five straight WSL titles at Chelsea, seven more domestic cups in six years. She hasn’t just lived in a winning environment; she’s been moulded by it.
“That means that she has a little bit of a leader in her,” Jeglertz believes. He sees value not just in her defending or her attacking runs, but in the way she carries the know-how of sustaining success “from one year to the next year” into every training session.
Beth Mead brings a different type of pedigree. Back-to-back European Championship titles with England. A key role in Arsenal’s 2025 Champions League triumph over Barcelona. These are players who have stood on the biggest stages and delivered.
“You can see in her eyes, she's still very eager to be part of this and to learn more,” Jeglertz noted. Mead doesn’t arrive as a finished article resting on a medal collection. She walks into City as a serial winner still itching to improve.
On paper, the culture, the mentality, the environment – all the intangibles that separate contenders from champions – look built to withstand a title defence. The question now moves to the hard numbers.
A smaller squad, a bigger calendar
Last season, City had one major advantage over their rivals: no Champions League. While Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United juggled European nights with domestic pressure, City focused solely on the WSL and domestic cups. This time, the Champions League is back on the calendar. The load increases. The margin for error shrinks.
And that is where the concern creeps in.
Beyond Mead and Charles, only one other senior signing has arrived: Carlotta Wamser, a versatile full-back who adds depth on both flanks. Set that against nine first-team departures and this is not the bolstering many expected, even if there was never an appetite for a full-scale overhaul.
“The depth is there,” sporting director Nils O’Neill insisted at the end of last season. “It’s not about a squad transformation. It’s about adding in the key positions we need.”
The logic is clear. The risk is, too.
Early injuries – most notably to Vivianne Miedema, who, as reported by the Guardian, may not return until 2027 – will stretch that depth immediately. City did try to move on deadline day to add further reinforcements. They couldn’t get any deal over the line. That in itself hints at internal concern.
The club have moved decisively at left-back, replacing Leila Ouahabi with Charles and Wamser. Mead steps into the forward rotation after Kerolin’s move to Barcelona. Beyond that, Jeglertz is betting big on players already in the building.
Risa Shimizu, back from a loan at Liverpool, will be relied upon for full-back depth. Sydney Lohmann and Grace Clinton, both hampered by niggling injuries and inconsistency last term, are expected to deliver more. Much more.
Fowler, now heading into her first full season after an ACL injury, is another key piece. She flashed her quality after returning in February. City need those flashes to become a weekly feature.
Versatility as insurance
If there is a counterweight to the lack of volume in the transfer window, it lies in the flexibility of City’s attacking options.
Mead, Fowler, Lauren Hemp, Aoba Fujino and Iman Beney can all operate across the forward line. Several can play through the middle when needed. That reduces the urgency to sign a pure centre-forward to sit behind Khadija Shaw and wait for scraps of game time.
Behind them, the academy conveyor belt is starting to feed the senior squad. Sacha Lewis, Amelia Oldroyd and Aoibhe Brennan have all signed their first professional contracts this summer. Mayzee Davies, already a senior Wales international and a pro since last year, is another who could quietly become an important depth option.
At the sharp end of the squad, the core remains intact. Shaw, Greenwood, Hemp, Kerstin Casparij, Jade Rose and Yui Hasegawa form the spine of one of the strongest starting XIs in the WSL. When Miedema finally returns, that front line moves from dangerous to downright terrifying.
But will it be enough across all competitions?
Built for more games – but one injury away?
Last season, City enjoyed something they hadn’t had in years: an almost spotless injury record. They rode that continuity all the way to the title. Repeating that trick while adding Champions League travel and intensity is a huge ask.
“We’ve learned and we will absolutely be ready next season,” O’Neill said, confident that the club’s planning and sports science will hold up under a heavier schedule.
Jeglertz, for his part, never hid the fact he felt the squad was too big last year. More games, in his view, are a blessing.
“We have too many good players to play these few games we are playing,” he said back in May. “Next year will be different because it's more games. The squad is built for that.”
The theory works. The reality is more fragile. There are positions where one or two injuries could cause serious disruption. That danger only grows if players earmarked for bigger seasons – Lohmann, who has since undergone hip surgery, or Clinton – fail to hit the levels expected.
City will kick off the new campaign already managing knocks and knowing Miedema will be watching from the sidelines. For a squad trimmed by design, it is an uneasy way to start.
Culture versus depth
Across the league, there are clubs with deeper benches, more options, more ways to rotate without a visible drop in quality. What they don’t all have is City’s sense of identity.
Some still look like collections of stars rather than teams. Others are searching for the cohesion that City now take onto the pitch every week. That matters when the games turn tight and the legs grow heavy.
A Chelsea-style dynasty, in this new, more competitive era of the WSL, feels a long shot for anyone. The league is too strong, the margins too fine. But City have put themselves firmly in the bracket of clubs who can challenge – and win – every major trophy they enter.
Last season, they were the best team in England by a distance. Now they carry that knowledge, that proof, into a new campaign with medals around their necks and fresh champions in the dressing room.
The days of waiting a decade for another WSL title should be gone. The real question is how often this group can turn a hard-earned culture shift into something even more daunting for the rest of the league: sustained, unapologetic dominance.
