Leading from the Back: Houghton on Kompany and CFA significance | OneFootball

Steph Houghton has explained the impact that moving to the City Football Academy had not only on Manchester City’s Women’s team but the Club as a whole in her recently released autobiography.

The former captain and Club legend made the comments in Leading from the Back, released earlier this month and available to purchase in all major bookshops as well as the City Store.

The Club have been given permission to publish extracts from the book, with Houghton already reflecting on her move to City in 2014, conversations with Pep Guardiola around coaching and coming up against a teenage Phil Foden in training sessions.

But in the latest installation, all eyes are on the CFA, which will have been open for ten years in December 2024.

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The home of our Men’s and Women’s teams of all age groups as well as the operational centre for all Manchester-based staff, the facility is also the City Football Group’s global headquarters.

The move saw Houghton and her team-mates move from Platt Lane, a training facility that she still has plenty of fond memories from.

But she believes the CFA is a prime example of why City is such a special club and a key factor in why we have enjoyed so much success over the years.

It also fostered a real unity between everyone involved in the move, with Houghton describing some of her early interactions with fellow City legend, Vincent Kompany, and why she felt he was always destined for a career in management.

Read the full extract below…

“Things had been going really well at City and we surprised a lot of people with how quickly we progressed.

“We had spent the first season training at Platt Lane with the academy and playing at the athletics stadium and then it was time to move into the brand-new City Football Academy, which had been built across the road from the Etihad.

“The new complex had been a big pull in terms of going to City. You get sick of sharing grounds. You get sick of not really being the priority, having to get off the pitch if other teams wanted to play.

"At every club I’d been at, we had to share, and it just didn’t feel like home. To actually walk in the changing rooms for the first time and play on that pitch in a pre-season friendly was just unbelievable. I was actually quite sad to leave Platt Lane because it was so small, and everybody was so together there. I have so many amazing memories.

"That first season was special because of everything that went on, and also how we came back from everything. We thrived on adversity. And you always go back to those moments where you’re playing in the dome with those teams, playing with the likes of Phil Foden or whoever. There was a lot of firsts in that building and I was sad to leave.

WATCH: Watch: Houghton picks all-time City XI

“But going into the new building was: wow. We’d had a tour, but obviously, until you get in there the pictures don’t really do it justice. When you walk in, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is our own changing room’.

"Just to have your own locker, to have a seat, to be able to say, ‘This is mine.’ That’s huge and it was rare in women’s football, even at the highest level. Rather than moving from changing room to changing room, getting shunted around, this was ours.

"Even the pitches that we trained on. We never got booted off! You just couldn’t complain about anything. I think that was when our journey really started, when we moved into that building, and because everybody at City was moving in the same building at the same time, it felt like we all came together and started to go somewhere new.

“It wasn’t just the changing room and the pitches. The facilities were incredible and nothing was off limits. The first team moved to the same building, and it had everything you could think of. We shared a treatment room, we shared the gym, we shared the ice baths. We had our own pitch. Our staff had their own office, and we learned a lot from the other staff in the building.

"We did a lot of learning. Having conversations with people. I like to talk to people and find out loads of stuff, so it was really good for me. The women’s game has come on so much and the squad’s getting so much bigger, so there’s no longer enough room for us in that building and the girls are moving to a separate facility of their own, which back then would have been unthinkable. City deserve massive credit for the work they continue to pioneer in the women’s game. They never stop trying to advance.

WATCH: The Last Game: Steph Houghton

“When we moved in in 2015, the men’s team was on the other side of the building. But sometimes we crossed paths, and everybody was amazing. Not one person had an issue because we were the women’s team. We never experienced anything like that, no sexism, no nasty comments. And we didn’t put the men on a pedestal. It was always a really respectful environment, all the groups just saw each other as normal people who all worked for Manchester City.

"The men’s captain at the time was Vincent Kompany, and he was massive for me in terms of trying to do things together. He told me that if I ever needed anything to let him know, just anything at all. He had so much power at the club and so much influence it was great to have him in our corner. We never did really need him to help us out, but we knew that the offer was always there. To have that relationship was amazing. I wish we’d have crossed paths more often, but our schedules were very different.

“With Vinny, it was all pretty normal. We got on and I remember his daughter was mascot at one of our games in that first season at the new stadium. I think it was actually one of the first times we’d played there, and he pulled me to one side and asked me if I’d mind walking out with her.

WATCH: Thank you, Steph: Our captain’s best moments

“I think that was the first time I’d ever met him. We had to try and find her a kit to wear. My impression was that he was just absolutely massive and he had such a presence. I loved the way he played as a centre- half, and he was an inspiration given the way he approached playing in my position.

"When you listen to him and you speak to him, he has such a presence, an aura about him, and you understand why he’s captain. Maybe back then, I was probably a little bit more shy than I would be now, but just even having that little conversation and being like, OK, if you need anything, just let me know, was huge.

“He told me just to make sure that I just kept doing me rather than putting pressure on myself. Those little reminders really go a long way when they come from someone playing right at the very top who has lifted Premier League trophies for the club. It hasn’t surprised me at all that he’s done so well in his managerial career and that he got the job at Bayern Munich, one of the biggest clubs in Europe, at such a young age. You could see a mile off that he was going to be a manager, and a good manager.”

Keep across mancity.com and the official Man City app in the coming days for a final extract from Leading from the Back, where Steph reveals how she developed her leadership style after leading England to the 2015 World Cup semi-finals.