Former Bristol City Women’s general manager Grace Williams has admitted that the Robins have had to “plan to run two different clubs” while preparing for their promotion to the Women’s Super League.
City had fallen out of England’s top flight in 2021 and after two seasons in the Championship won promotion back to the WSL, however, the landscape of the women’s game has changed completely since their last visit to the topflight.
“So commonly in the women’s game players are on one, two-year deals here and there,” explained Williams.
“That is starting to change, we want to secure players for longer, we respect the players, and the players respect the club as well. We know that we have Shania Hayles and Fran Bentley for next year, they’re on year one of two-year deals.”
Lauren Smith’s side have the advantage that they have been able to secure the future of club captain and top scorers Hayles and Abi Harrison, but that does little to reduce the difficulty of the challenge they face as one of the WSL’s smallest sides.
“Realistically in the WSL we are competing with huge Premier League sides that are ready to inject a lot of money into their women’s team.
“Although we have brilliant support from Bristol City and Steve Lansdown, there’s a limit to how much money we can put in compared to those other clubs. That’s the disparity in the Women’s Super League at the moment, we’re going to have to increase our spend.”
“Our budget is set by our board and the increase into the WSL is absolutely huge as you’d expect. We’ve tried to shorten that gap essentially by operating as best as we can as a Women’s Super League club while we’ve been in the Championship.
“I think if you walk into our offices in a few months’ time and we’re in Super League, what you’d see in how we operate, and train and our staff wouldn’t be too different at all.”
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With Reading looking the most likely to be the team that Smith’s Bristol City side replace in the top flight, the Robins will be the only member of the top tier that aren’t an affiliate of a men’s side currently competing in the Premier League.
The investment possible for the likes of Manchester United, who only formed a women’s side in 2018 but could be set to win their first WSL title this season, is so much greater than anything that is able to be provided by Lansdown as City’s owner.
While in the Championship, City have managed to integrate several academy players into the first team while remaining competitive at the top of the league, but with the goal of consolidating in the WSL, Williams recognised some principles may have to be sacrificed.
“Could you maybe, in a championship game stick a 16-year-old on for a game or a few minutes? Absolutely. Can you do that as well in the WSL? Obviously, that depends on the individual, but there may not be as much free rein.
“You can dual register players with local teams, and we’ve found that we’re able to use teams in tier three and tier four, where we can expose them to senior competitive football bringing them up a bit ready to, fight and battle.”
