Michele Kang at London City Lionesses: Late drama, grand ambitions – and big sunglasses

“You brought the sunshine with you, then?”

Michele Kang laughed politely. It was the second time within the space of five minutes that someone had directed the typically British phrase her way. “Actually, I’ve been in Europe for the past two weeks, and the weather has been terrible,” she said, laughing.

Two days after being announced as the new owner of Championship side London City Lionesses (LCL), the American businesswoman found herself at Grosvenor Vale — a 4,085-capacity football stadium tucked away in a west London suburb called Ruislip (pronounced Ri-slip) — to watch her new team take on bottom-of-the-table Watford Women in an away game.

Dressed in a full-length double-breasted Dior coat, silk scarf and designer sunglasses, which stayed firmly fixed to her face throughout, Kang’s presence at the side of the pitch was hard to miss in a sea of puffer coats, beanie hats and scarves pulled up over cold faces.

For the fans and family members who had made the trip across London, it was a first opportunity to see, and possibly even greet, the woman taking over their club — the one fully independent women’s-only football outfit in England’s top two professional leagues.

For the players, it was a first chance to impress. They had met her the previous day, Kang having flown in that morning to a private airport and made her way straight to the training ground to introduce herself to the team, when she did (reportedly) remove those sunglasses.

What were their first impressions?

“She’s a strong individual who’s going to get things done,” says a smiling Grace Neville, the scorer of London City Lionesses’ first competitive goal, who has been with the team since their formation in 2019 when Diane Culligan took over the running of it from Millwall.

Neville says the team had heard rumours over the past few weeks that “something could be happening” but didn’t know much more than that. When she found out the details, the defender said she was “over the moon. She’s ambitious about women’s football and she wants to give all of the girls as many opportunities as she can”.

“I’ve been here from the start,” Neville continues, “so I’ve seen the growth of the club. We’re grateful for Diane’s work and now Michele’s gonna give us the opportunities that we need to kick on and get into the WSL (Women’s Super League).”

The pre-match sun and positivity did not last long at Grosvenor Vale. After seven minutes of playing time, City found themselves 3-0 down to a side they were three places above in the league and had beaten 3-2 at home earlier this season.

As the half went on, the momentum shifted to the away side and, six minutes before half-time, captain Lois Joel scored to reduce the arrears, much to the relief of the small group of travelling fans who had made the journey north.

Attendances at City’s Princes Park home stadium in Dartford have grown this season. City have set four records in the space of seven home games, averaging around 550 at each game. But the travelling support remains small, mostly made up of players’ family members and friends.

Before kick-off, The Athletic is told to look out for one superfan who makes it to every game and is the only person to own a 2022-23 away shirt — which has not even been on sale.

“It was a gift from the marketing manager,” says Simon Coy, opening his jacket to reveal the pink top that makes him easy to spot. He has been supporting the team since its inception and says he’s often a rarity at away games as someone who doesn’t have a “natural association” with the team.

His came as a result of his grandson’s christening, which took place in one of the function rooms overlooking the pitch at Princes Park. “I looked out the window and thought, ‘Who’s this playing out here?’. Nothing was advertised when you came into the ground. You wouldn’t even know they were playing.”

It was City, and that was Coy’s first live encounter with the women’s game since watching the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France that summer. “Every week since then, I’ve turned up. It’s been good for me,” he says.

Friday’s news came as a surprise, he says, and as soon as he heard it, Coy did some research into Kang’s background. Her entry into women’s football began in 2020, with an investment in NWSL side Washington Spirit. Seven months ago, Kang negotiated a deal that would make her majority owner and CEO of Lyon, the eight-time winners of the Women’s Champions League.

“With some of the associations she has, it can only be good news,” says Coy. “You’re talking about Lyon, Washington Spirit; big followings, big clubs, access to much better facilities, maybe, who knows?”

He sees it as a chance City to have the investment and recognition they deserve after some very tough years, as well as two seasons when they were, as he says, “on the cusp of greatness”.

In 2021-22, City finished second in the league, behind Liverpool, who were promoted to the WSL. Last year, they were in the fight for promotion for much of the season but fell away, finishing third, three points shy of promoted Bristol City, but with a better goal difference.

“Maybe with a little bit more finance and a bit more backing, they’d have made that final leap,” says Coy.

As he’s speaking, Kang walks past, sunglasses still firmly on and heading towards the food truck selling hot drinks just outside the ground. What would he say to her, given the opportunity?

“Establish more of a presence and identity. They play in Dartford, but they’re not associated with Dartford in any way, so it’s hard to build a fanbase. That is what they need more than anything else.”

Coy talks wistfully about the team City had last season and the one prior. “They were so together, win or lose, and they just ground out the results one after the other.”

But towards the end of last season, cracks started to appear. Players were left uncertain about their futures, and that of the club.

At the end of the season, an email signed by all 20 players was sent to the owner, Culligan, urging her to seek new investors or a buyer, saying the club’s “very existence” was under threat.

“They were getting towards the end of the season and there was no confirmation of contracts being renewed — and obviously players need to know where they’re going,” says Coy. “And so that very talented team split. It was a lack of communication, maybe. A lack of foresight. Maybe there just wasn’t the budget there to guarantee these places.”

It was a difficult summer for those players who stayed.

Grace Neville’s father, Mark, is also at Grosvenor Vale, along with her grandparents, who have brought a seemingly bottomless flask of coffee to provide warmth for any City fan they come across.

He recalls the frustration of a summer with only four registered players when “you’re playing for a club that last year only missed out by one game to go up to the big time”.

“A lot of the players who left, they left for a reason,” Mark Neville says, “and it was background, it was managerial, it was the setup behind the scenes. In the first four or five months of this season, Diane has probably proved to the girls who left that, actually, if you did stick around, there could be some good news.”

He says the news of Kang’s purchase came as a surprise, despite knowing the background, but that his immediate reaction was that it was “100 per cent good news”.

“I looked her up straight away,” he continues, “and I thought, ‘She’s got pedigree and she’s got the financial backing’. In football now, if you’ve got finance, you can talk. It’s been hard as a standalone club without the big brother behind you.”

Mark has seen posts on social media from supporters of Spirit and Lyon suggesting that Kang needs to focus on their teams first, but he feels that having a group of teams can only be a positive for all involved.

“If I was a chairman, I would use the resources of all the teams and see if you’ve got the money to bring players over,” he says. “Does she bring some of the players that are on the fringes at Lyon or in America over here and strengthen a Championship side to reach the WSL?”

His attention is soon drawn back to the pitch, where City started the second half far more competitively than they did the first.

With 11 minutes remaining, Neville was quickest to react to a shot parried by Watford keeper Jacqui Goldsmid, reducing the deficit to one goal and injecting some drama into the closing stages.

By this stage, Kang and Culligan had positioned themselves behind the Watford goal, where they cut very different figures. Kang was cool and composed, while Culligan was unable to stand still — and even less able to stop herself from bellowing her team on: “This way girls, come on!”

The announcement of seven minutes of stoppage time gave City a boost and after two of them, academy prospect Grace Jarrett, making her first league appearance, put in a perfect cross for Lucy Fitzgerald (who provided the assist on London City Lionesses’ first competitive goal) to poke it over the line.

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Culligan screamed in delight. Kang broke into a wide smile and clapped her hands. Then the two women came together.

“We gave away three goals so easily at the start. I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’,” Kang said, laughing.

“That’s football,” replied Culligan.

After the final whistle, both teams gathered in their huddles in the centre of the pitch. Culligan motioned to Kang to follow her and led City’s new owner onto the pitch to join in. It wasn’t a moment for Kang to talk, but for her to listen to manager Carolina Morace’s closing words as she sent her team off for a winter break with an important point.

Kang left soon afterwards, bound for another plane journey, with sunglasses still on in the increasing darkness.

“I think she was happy with us and saw our personalities when we came from three goals down,” said Neville. “It was a gritty performance. We had to grind it out to get the draw.”

Players and the new owner have now had a taste of each other. And safe to say, both were left with a sense of excitement over what could be to come.

(Top photos: Wing Chong/@thoughtsofawing)