Seconded on this.
I've been thinking for a while about how much effort the club put into the signing of England players, and how much emphasis they've put on the least City Women-specific part of the set-up - the training facilities - to big up how serious we are as a team. Combine that with the approach to coaches (even hiring and keep Cushing for so long was kind of weird) and the funding situation, and it all just smacks of the leadership not really caring to push things but still wanting the good publicity.
Sorry to be negative, but this is so generous. Any mention of our academy, in articles or from parents etc posting on here, is to talk about how lacking it is. And what did we revolutionise in the WSL back in the day? We weren't the first club to professionalise as far as I know and it's not like we went on the rampage and won everything, we pushed for trophies, won a few, and stopped the likes of Arsenal or Chelsea from winning on the cheap but that wasn't exactly revolutionary.
Same as above, like what? All we hear about is how lacklustre things are at the youth level and how nobody knows what the hell people like Gavin Makel or Jayne Ludlow actually do. I'd love to hear some details to actually feel optimism about the direction of things tbh!