Are London City Lionesses the Galácticos of the women’s game?

This question came in from @badgercyclist on Instagram as well and it’s a really interesting one. He asked how dangerous London City Lionesses are right now, with all the big names they’re being linked with and the ones they’ve already signed.

I’ll be honest, they worry me, but not for the reasons you might think.

On the pitch, they’re clearly trying to build something serious. When you bring in players like Mary Earps and you’re linked constantly with the likes of Alexia Putellas and others, people are going to sit up and take notice. It feels a bit like watching a Galácticos project forming in front of your eyes. If you remember Real Madrid under Capello, that spell where they just went out and signed Beckham, Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, that kind of thing. Every summer was a statement.

So yes, London City Lionesses are a bit like that. Big name after big name. Huge ambition. Lots of noise.

The bit that worries me isn’t “oh no, they’re going to dominate the league overnight.” It’s what that approach might do to the wider game if it isn’t handled well.

At the moment, most women’s clubs still have to be really careful with money. Even clubs like Arsenal. The short version is that the margins are still tiny. You can’t just throw money around forever without thinking about what happens in three, four, five years’ time.

If you’ve got one club that’s able to pay huge wages, it drags the whole market up. That sounds fun on paper, because we all want the players to earn more, but if the rest of the league can’t match those wages yet you’ve suddenly got pressure on every club’s budget. That’s when you can end up with teams over spending just to try and keep hold of their best players

The other thing is pathways for younger players. If a club fills every spot with a superstar, where do the young ones play? We all talk about wanting more talent coming through, wanting more depth in the national teams, and that only happens if younger players actually get minutes. A Galácticos style project can block that very easily if you’re not careful.

So when I look at London City Lionesses, I see a club with big plans and big names, which is exciting, but I also see a project that could shift wages and expectations really quickly. If the game as a whole isn’t ready for that, it can cause problems.

My hope is that they build something strong and sustainable, not something that burns bright for a couple of seasons and then collapses. Ambition is brilliant - we need ambitious owners and ambitious clubs. We just need it in a way that grows the game, rather than creating a bubble that bursts and potentially hurts everyone.