Personalised chopsticks and underwater treadmills: Manchester City Women find new ways to win

The new facility, which sits adjacent to the Joie Stadium, has its changing rooms a stone’s throw from the training pitch. Photograph: Manchester City FC

Previously the women might have shared a gym with City’s boys’ academy. Now their gym equipment is programmed for female athletes, includes specialist equipment for non-invasive shock wave therapy. Recovery drinks, bespoke for each player’s schedule or nutrition plan, are left waiting for them. On the staircase up to the lounge, canteen and staff offices, players with 100 or more City appearances are honoured, including Steph Houghton, Jill Scott and Izzy Christiansen, who is outside coaching the youth team.

The squad moved into the 17,000 sq ft building on 10 March, after the February-March international break, a day after the staff. They have since clinched the club’s first WSL title in a decade and reached the FA Cup final.

“We’re trying to build the winning machine,” says the managing director, Charlotte O’Neill. “If you look at this facility, it tells you what City Football Group thinks of women’s football and this team.”

The canteen has a menu built around the women’s team’s schedule, rather than being shared with the boys. Emma Deakin, the director of performance services, who was central to discussions about the design for three and a half years, says: “We’ve got three specific chefs that work with the women’s team – they work really closely with our nutritionist to plan menus. Over there [with the academy] the requirements are different and you’ve got 200 under-14-to-19 boys to feed. We can be really specific around the girls’ tastes and knowing what they want to eat and how to fuel.

“We were in that building [with the academy] and those facilities are amazing but it didn’t feel like a home for the women’s programme. It just felt like people were coming to work. [Now] it’s so much better.”

Physios and doctors are based adjacent to the gym as City aim to reduce the injury risk for players. Photograph: Manchester City FC

A chef also travels with the team for away games. City are trying to pride themselves on is reducing the injury risk and the physios and doctor are based adjacent to the gym on the ground floor.

Another key focus has been “togetherness”, and Jeglertz describes the players’ lounge, which converts into a team meeting room, as the “heart” of the facility. He says his favourite thing about the new building is: “just the possibilities of connections between me and the players. I see them every day, you don’t need to book a meeting [any more], you walk past them all the time, you can easily go [and] speak to a player.”

In reception the honours wall catches the eye. Most noticeably, a lot of space has been left for trophies to be added. The club intend to dominate and this new facility may just make that possible.