Leading from the Back: Why Steph chose City | OneFootball

Steph Houghton explains why she left Arsenal for Manchester City back in 2014 in her autobiography, Leading from the Back.

Our legendary former captain’s book was released on Thursday 7 November and is available to purchase in all major bookshops as well as the City Store.

Over the coming days, we’ll publish extracts from the autobiography, beginning with two on release day.

Later today, we’ll share a fascinating section of Leading from the Back which focuses on Steph’s conversations with Pep Guardiola, including an invitation to witness City’s Men’s team train should she decide to pursue a career in the dugout.

But before then, Houghton explains why she chose to join the Club ahead of our first Barclays Women’s Super League campaign having just won a Cup double as Arsenal captain.

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Read the full extract below…

“I absolutely loved Arsenal, and I loved how I was playing. I loved everything about it, but my gut was saying I needed a change. I agreed to another meeting, which this time was in Manchester. I went up to the Etihad, met Gav [Managing Director Gavin Makel] again and also met Nick Cushing, who was going to be the coach. We spoke about where I potentially could play and he obviously wanted me to play as number six, just in front of the back four, because that’s where I predominantly played at Arsenal. We were in one of the suites in the Etihad, overlooking the pitch.

"At the time, Mark Sampson had come in as England manager or was just coming in. Brent Hills was caretaker manager for England. And he wanted me to play as a centre-half. So my mind was like, I need to come here and I need to be in one position. I need to be playing centre half and the way that City wanted me to play, I would have a lot of the ball. So I told them that I knew they wanted me to play six but I needed to make sure I was in the national team and I needed to learn how to play centre-half properly – and be coached on that every single day.

“They agreed to that, which was a big, big factor in terms of me going. It was a non-negotiable. And then we went over to City Football Academy. It was just a building site. A massive building site. We went on with our hard hats and yellow jackets in the little digger things and went round and imagined what it was going to be like. They showed us where our changing room was going to be. They said, ‘This will be your stadium. This is where you’ll drive in.’ You start to picture it, and you get excited.

"We didn’t speak about length of contract or how much money they were offering at that stage. But Matt [Steph’s agent Matthew Buck] after we came away from the meeting told me that we needed to start talking numbers and I gave him the green light to do that. I didn’t have a number in my head whatsoever. And it was getting closer and closer to the Arsenal season ending. I was going to be off for the whole of December because of the way that the league was set up. And Matt was telling me that City needed a decision.

"They were starting to build their team: Toni Duggan had already announced that she was going to be moving there, which was a big deal because she was a great striker. I was still wondering about who else was going to go. I asked Matt if he knew, and he told me he thought Jill Scott was going. I thought about phoning her, but it was awkward because I knew she was really happy at Everton.

“Maybe I would now, but back then, I didn’t want to pry that much. The rumours were there, though, and once I was getting close to signing I actually messaged her asking her what she was doing. Typical Jill: she messaged me back, asking me what I was doing. It was pretty awkward. I replied, telling her I thought that sky blue would suit us. To be fair to City, they had kind of shown me the team that they wanted to bring in, but there were big question marks over some people, like Izzy Christiansen, for example.

"Goalkeeper was a massive one for me. And it was no offence to the goalkeepers that were already at City, but I’d told them that if we were going to have any chance we would need a great goalkeeper. Especially in those first few years. I asked them why they weren’t going for Karen Bardsley, who was the England goalkeeper at the time. Matt also represented KB, and he said he’d have a word with Gav. She was about to go to America but she was unbelievable and I probably kind of forced that transfer!

“I think I was asking all these questions to try and put off the actual decision. Because it was effectively a start-up and a massive risk. When I moved to Arsenal, nobody was ever going to question my decision because they’d won so much, they’d got all these players, they’d already got the set-up. Going from a place where they’ve done it time and time again, a place which was a dream come true for me, to something totally unknown was a massive call.

"We started to talk about the contract. City would also pay for my accommodation. I could actually start paying into a private pension and I could start to save properly for a deposit because I would not be paying rent for an apartment or a house.

“The housing allowance was unbelievable, and it just changed everything. I could concentrate on being a footballer and not have to worry about money. I obviously spoke to my mam and dad about it. Dad told me that it was absolutely my decision, but I do think he was excited by the fact it was Man City. He thought that this was an opportunity that wasn’t going to come around again. That was the thing for me: if I didn’t move now, they’re just going to get someone else.

"How City made me feel was also a big deal. Arsenal never made me feel like I wasn’t important, but to know that you’d be a leader in something and be part of it for a long, long time – deep down, I knew I was going to go. I just needed to figure it out and give myself time. I called Matt at 9 p.m. one night and told him to tell Gav: ‘I’m coming.’”