“We’re building something big”: Fernández on London City | OneFootball

Anne Butzelaar, Women's Football Editor

Jana Fernández believes London City Lionesses are building something capable of leaving a lasting mark on the Women’s Super League after committing her future to the club with a new contract.

The Spanish defender, who signed a new deal until 2029, has been one of the players to experience London City’s rapid transformation first-hand, arriving before another summer of major investment and watching the club evolve both on and off the pitch.

For Fernández, the opportunity to continue developing alongside that project made remaining with London City an easy decision.

“I’m being a bit more mature in my game and knowing which are the different scenarios that before maybe I wouldn’t face that much,” she said. “I’m really happy to be building something big with the club. I think it’s really important what we are doing and to be part of it for some more years is really special. I think I can still learn so many things from all my teammates here, from the coaches, from everybody, and I think I’m in the right place to do so.”

Fernández arrived in England having spent the majority of her career at Barcelona, where possession dominance often meant defenders were required to deal with relatively few defensive situations.

The WSL has forced her to adapt.

“As a Barça player, as you may know, we used to have a lot more of the possession, a lot more of the ball, at least in the league games,” Fernández said. “One of the aspects that I’m trying to work on mainly is my defensive aspects. Maybe before I would face one or two defensive actions at Barcelona; now I have 15 or 20 per game, which makes me have to be ready for it.”

It is a challenge she has embraced.

“I’m happy that I’m learning some new things,” she added. “I’m also learning a lot from the teammates I have next to me because some of them have a lot of experience and they can help me improve a lot as a player.”

That learning process has been accelerated by her relationship with head coach Eder Maestre.

Fernández believes Maestre’s willingness to involve players in tactical discussions has allowed her to understand her own game on a deeper level.

“He’s really close to us,” she said. “He really tells you what you need to improve and what he wants from you. I think that’s something I’ve not had before as much as I have with him. We’re both quite nerds about football. The best thing about him is that we can talk about different opinions, different things that we see on the pitch, how he sees them off the pitch, and then find a solution.”

For Fernández, that openness has helped create clarity throughout the squad.

“He’s really clear on what he wants, and I think that’s something that for a player is really important, to know what you have to do and what you’re expected to do. If different opinions appear, which sometimes can happen, he’s somebody who’s super open to hearing us, finding options and seeing how we can feel more comfortable on the pitch.”

London City’s squad has undergone another significant change this season, with a number of established international players arriving. Among them are some familiar faces for Fernández, including former Barcelona teammates Alexia Putellas and Mapi León. For the defender, those pre-existing connections provide an immediate advantage.

“It feels incredible, I cannot lie,” she said. “It’s just knowing where they are without looking at them, knowing where they’re going to be, knowing which movements we used to do that were working for us and trying to reach those positions and those passes that will keep us comfortable. I feel really comfortable playing with them. I know them for many years, so obviously that makes it much easier.”

However, Fernández is keen to stress that London City’s progress cannot be reduced to the arrival of a handful of superstar names.

“I think everybody is doing a really good job this season on the chemistry,” she said. “I think chemistry levels have been unreal this season. We’re working on every connection during training. Of course, with players that you’ve played with before, it’s much easier.”

She believes the blend of different footballing backgrounds could help London City develop a distinctive identity.

“In my opinion, Spanish football is probably one of the best in the world right now,” Fernández said. “I think the way Spanish football sees football is a bit different, probably, and I feel like integrating this in an English league is going to be really interesting to see.”

The ambition is clear.

“[We want to] create a statement a bit in this league, being the team that dominates the game, that dominates the opponents, that basically has control of the game. That’s what we want to achieve.”

But Fernández insists that identity belongs to the entire squad rather than one nationality or group of players.

“I don’t know if it’s through Spanish players. What I do know is that obviously those connections help. But obviously we have to play as a team, and there are a lot of foreign players, English players and foreign players, that we have to mesh together and gel. That’s what we’re trying to do on the pitch because it’s the most important thing.”

That collective identity is something Fernández believes London City are building from the ground up.

For all the attention around high-profile summer arrivals, she sees the players who were already at the club as equally important in defining what London City want to become.

“It’s important to always have players that can show us what London City is because some of us come from different cultures, different teams,” she said. “But the good thing about this club is that we’re also building it all together. Even though I’ve been a long time of my life in Barcelona, I already feel at home and I already feel like I’m part of this.”

Fernández now sees herself as one of the players responsible for passing that identity on to future arrivals.

“I’m also trying to explain to all these girls what we are trying to build here,” she said. “I think it’s going to be like this every summer. Every person that comes in, trying to build this all together because it’s a building process. The club decides to get players in, and we have to explain to them and tell them what this club wants and what our ambitions are for the next decade.”

The scale of the transformation since Fernández joined has been significant.

“Since I joined, everything is changing,” she said. “That’s a good thing. Everything is improving. They’re building infrastructure just for us to train in, which is crazy. Even the signings that we brought in this summer, the type of mentality of the group, the football vision that Eder has, I think everything is about learning and improving.”

But despite the headline-grabbing additions away from the pitch, it is London City’s footballing progress that matters most to her.

“This season we’ve had a big improvement in the way we play from last season,” Fernández said. “Obviously the ideas were there, but I think we’re more ready now to be able to put them to work and to make them look successful, or try to look for that success.”

That progress was tested in the defeat to West Ham, with both goals coming from direct attacks into the space behind London City’s defensive structure.

Ahead of Charlton, Fernández believes it has provided an obvious area for improvement.

“I feel maybe our rest defence could have been better,” she admitted. “Sometimes we are so passionate about going to attack, but we have to be a bit more clinical in those types of actions because you can see West Ham had two clear actions and they punished us in only those two shots. As a defender, I think something that we have to improve is the rest defence, trying to avoid and anticipate these kinds of counterattacks that most of the teams in this league may look for against a team like us, because we want to be with the possession.”

That will again be important against Charlton this weekend.

And while London City’s ambitions have risen sharply, Fernández believes the wider league has improved at exactly the same time.

“Everybody stepped up,” she said. “All the teams have invested a lot this summer window. Everybody has levelled up their game. It’s going to be a tight season. It’s going to be little details. It’s going to be whoever does best or makes the fewest mistakes. Every team will be able to get points every weekend. That’s the best thing for us because it’s a competitive league.”

It is also what makes the challenge so appealing.

“To win the league is going to be really tough for everybody, and I think that’s the beauty of this,” Fernández said. “From outside it’s really nice, but from inside, obviously, it’s tough and it’s a lot of work that we have to put in to be able to reach those spots ourselves.”

For Fernández, that work is exactly why she wanted to stay.

London City are changing quickly, but rather than simply watching the project develop around her, the 24-year-old wants to help define what it becomes.