It’s Krystle clear... there is no pressure
MANCHESTER City’s longestserving player Krystle Johnston’s life changed beyond all recognition when billionaire Sheik Mansour purchased the club in 2008.
But the 31-year-old insists there is no pressure on her team-mates to justify his huge investment by delivering the WSL 1 title this term.
Johnston is embarking on her eighth season with the club and, in her early playing days, combined a full-time job with British Gas with turning out for City in the lower reaches of the women’s game.
But, following the club’s promotion from the Northern Premier League in 2012 they committed significant investment that began the transformation.
Once they had secured promotion to the Women’s Super League, City quickly filled their ranks with England stars includ- ing dynamic midfielder Jill Scott, free-scoring Toni Duggan and skipper Steph Houghton.
All of City’s players are now full-time professionals, they play their home matches at the state of the art Academy Stadium and, under boss Nick Cushing, they won the Continental Tyres Cup last season.
Throughout all this the one constant that has remained is Johnston, yet she has revealed there is still a level-headed philosophy throughout the club.
Expectations
“There’s no pressure on us to win the league,” she said. “The manager made that clear right from the start of the season.
“It’s a wonderful place to play football and the changes in my time here have been massive.
“When the club was taken over it was fantastic news for Manchester as a city. For me, to be kept on when we became fulltime professionals, was a great achievement.
“To go from how things were before to playing with England players is such a massive change. We have a new ground, new training facilities, the club is unrecognisable.
“I used to work in an office for 40 hours a week then play a match at the weekend, so my life now has completely changed.
“My body has changed, we have nutritionists and everything is done right. It’s all about preparing on and off the pitch.”
Despite Johnston’s assertion that whether she has a medal round her neck or not come the end of the season does not matter, City are certainly doing their best to increase expectations.
Since the spine of their team excelled for England at the World Cup, City have secured four consecutive league wins and now sit three points behind leaders Chelsea with a game in hand.
Before the curtain comes down on their season, Cushing’s team still have second-placed Sunderland and reigning champions Liverpool to play in the run-in.
Retaining the Continental Tyres Cup is also on the agenda, but Johnston says the only thing they ask of themselves is to continue the winning habit.
“We have been playing well recently and got good results so confidence is high,” she added.
“But there is no pressure to have to win the league or the Continental Tyres Cup.
“Nick Cushing spoke to us right at the start of the season about what we need to improve on.
“We had a bit of an iffy start, but we are playing well now and hopefully that will continue.”