CITY SPECIAL Loan star Lloyd could be back with the Blues
CARLI Lloyd has refused to rule out returning to play for Manchester City Women.
Lloyd’s short-term loan deal came to an end when the Blues finished the Spring Series and she headed back to Houston Dash.
But after winning the FA Cup, reaching the Champions League semi-final and coming second in the Spring Series with City, Lloyd hasn’t ruled out coming back to England.
She said: “I’m not closing any doors. I’ve had a fantastic experience and really enjoyed it.
“I am pushing for NYC FC to get a women’s team back home. That would be awesome, but right now my plan is to go back to Houston and we’ll see what happens in the future.”
Lloyd came to City on loan in February.
The FIFA Women’s Player of the Year scored on her Champions League debut against Danish champions Fortuna Hjorring, helping City reach the semi-finals of the competition in their first year.
Lloyd was unable to complete the dream loan deal when Nick Cushing’s side were knocked out by Lyon, who went on to win the competition.
But the 34-year-old did add an FA Cup medal to her trophy cabinet.
“Getting to compete in the Champions League was obviously something really special, and then playing at Wembley in the FA Cup final and winning that was pretty surreal and awesome,” said Lloyd.
“It’s been good. Life has just flown by so fast. Before you know it, we’re probably going to be in World Cup mode in 2019.
“I’m just looking forward to keep getting better and continuing to push on in my career.” KHALDOON Al Mubarak has apologised if City fans have been overlooked by the club, but called for more to be made of matchdays.
Despite the Blues again recording record profits this year, the price of season tickets has gone up and there were numerous instances during the last campaign of long queues preventing some supporters getting to their seats in time for kickoff.
City’s chairman hinted the core of the fanbase may have been forgotten at points as bosses have gone about targeting global expansion and appealing to new fans.
“Our club is going to go places successfully,” he said in his end-ofseason review. “I have no doubt about that. But we are not going to be completely successful if we don’t have our fans and community with us, hand in hand, fully committed to us. That is a relationship that is organic with this club. This club have a very special fanbase.
“What we must not do is to forget our core. That is a challenge. It’s not easy.
“When you are becoming global, competing in the Champions League, we’ve grown astronomically over the last nine years. It’s been an incredible growth strategy.
“With that, sometimes you miss things. We shouldn’t miss things when it comes to our fans.
“Our fans are a priority and should be a priority.
“If we’ve made mistakes, I apologise. But what I do promise you is that we will always try to do our best and as long as you keep telling us how we can help and what more we can do, you always have an ear here that will listen because I really care.”
The club and the supporters did come together for a memorable evening last month as Pablo Zabaleta said an emotional farewell to the Etihad.
A strong team performance sealed a win and all but confirmed a top four spot for the season, allowing an exhibition-style game to play out as Blues paid tribute to the departing star. After the final whistle, the majority of the crowd stayed in their seats as Zabaleta said his final farewell and was presented with some special gifts to mark his time in Manchester. While Al Mubarak was delighted by the occasion, he wants more of them, without there needing to be something to get excited about. Pep Guardiola had a number of things to say about supporters during the course of the season, calling for them to stop booing the Champions League anthem and suggesting his players need to feel more pressure on them during home games. City’s coach reportedly asked bosses to look at the atmosphere on matchdays as a priority for next season as he looks to build a side and a squad to challenge on all four fronts. That appears to be a message received by the chairman, who used his annual interview with City TV to call for the need to turn regular matchdays into special occasions going forward. Khaldoon Al Mubarak