While winning the Championship is an outstanding achievement, the WSL will be a huge step up for her side.
Kang insists they are not aiming to simply survive in the top flight, but to thrive.
And that is why at 9am, the morning after the promotion celebrations, her team – including manager Jocelyn Prêcheur, who she lured from Paris St-Germain and sporting director Markel Zubizarreta, who was poached from the Spanish FA – were already planning for life in the top tier.
“Our vision from day one, when we started out this journey a year ago, was building at least a mid-tier WSL team,” Kang adds. “We’ve seen a lot of men’s and women’s teams get promoted and the next year they get relegated.
“So we’ve been trying to build a team that when we got up, we can stay there and be very competitive. We recruited players that way and staffing that way.”
When asked how many players they’re aiming to recruit this summer, Kang jokes those decisions are “above my pay grade”.
“I do sometimes participate in convincing and persuading players to join us, but ultimately who we recruit is down to the sporting director and our manager’s job,” she says. “I have full confidence in them.”
That said, no-one would be surprised to see a host of international stars arriving at the club’s training base in Aylesford, Kent, before the new season starts in September.
Despite being in the Championship, Kang enticed Sweden internationals Asllani and Sofia Jakobsson, Japanese World Cup champion Saki Kumagai, and ex-Barcelona midfielder Maria Perez to join London City.
For Asllani, who had spells at PSG, Manchester City and Real Madrid in her career, playing under a female owner was one of the huge draws.
“For the first time, I was like OK we have a woman investing, not just talking, actually giving us all the resources we need to succeed,” said the 35-year-old, who won the WSL with Manchester City in 2016.
“You need to invest for us to reach success and that is what Michele stands for. She’s a power woman, she’s not a talker, she’s a doer.”
Read the full article here