London City Lionesses coach Jocelyn Prêcheur admits gap ‘huge’ to WSL after promotion | OneFootball

Jocelyn Prêcheur, the head coach of London City Lionesses, has insisted everyone associated with the club is not naive about the size of the step up to the Women’s Super League after reaching the top flight for the first time following Sunday’s drama-filled final day of the Championship season.

Lionesses will become the first club unaffiliated to a men’s side to compete in the WSL, following their 2-2 draw away at second-placed Birmingham City. Lionesses, who train in Kent and play their home game at men’s League Two side Bromley’s Hayes Lane ground, will be hoping to break the trend of promoted teams struggling and going straight back down to the Championship after Bristol City endured that fate in the 2023-24 campaign, collecting only six points in the WSL, nine points behind the second-bottom side, while this season Crystal Palace’s relegation has already been confirmed with them having accumulated only 10 points with one game remaining, seven points adrift.

“We have in mind what happened in the last two seasons, for sure, with the promoted team,” said Prêcheur, a former Paris Saint-Germain coach who took over at Lionesses last summer. “We don’t want to have the same story, which means we need to be sure we are strong enough, and it will be tough.

“I’m not naive – I know the gap is huge between the Championship and the WSL. After [celebrating] I’ll go back to work and start to ensure staff and players look at what are the priorities and what we need to be sure we can compete.”

Nonetheless, the Lionesses’ owner, Michele Kang, who also owns the French club Lyon and the American side Washington Spirit, insists they immediately intend to be a mid-table WSL team, revealing after Sunday’s game that her recruitment team are to have a meeting “first thing on Monday morning” to start work on the summer transfer window.

“It’s actually going to be much easier to recruit,” she said. “A lot of top players didn’t want to join a Championship team but now we’re in WSL I think it’s going to be easier to recruit. We’re very, very excited.

“We’ve been building the team to be mid-tier WSL, at a minimum, on day one. It remains to be seen, but we’ve seen so many clubs that go up and then come down, so we’ve been actually on purpose to be at least on day one someone in mid-tier, and who knows.”

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