Five of the 12 current WSL teams play in the capital – Arsenal, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Tottenham and West Ham – while London City Lionesses moved to Hayes Lane in the summer, home of men’s League Two club Bromley, in the summer.

London City Lionesses have also relocated their training facilities to Aylesford in Kent, and Zubizarreta believes the club’s set-up is worthy of top-tier football.

“If you only invest in players but not staff or facilities it doesn’t make sense. It has to be at the same level,” he said.

“The facilities we have are impressive. The first time I arrived at the training centre, I know all the ones in Spain and it’s much better than even the training centre of Barcelona. Any player can be attracted to this environment.

“We need to put everything in the correct place, but we want to invest and give the first team very good facilities so they can improve, and the correct space for the academy to work with the young girls who at the beginning only want to play football.

“Let’s see if we can bring some of them to the first team.”

With captain Seamus Coleman sidelined, Nathan Collins will continue to stand in as skipper.

The Brentford defender took the armband for the closing stages of the England game after Coleman limped off before and retained captaincy duties against Greece.

“I probably didn’t take in the moment as much as I should have, but that’s just the way I am,” Collins, 23, said of deputising for Coleman last month.

“My family did – I think they were crying in the stand. Honestly, it means a lot to me and my family.”

Collins, who has started all seven of Brentford’s Premier League games this season, added: “I think in this camp, it’s really easy being a captain of this team as there are so many leaders. I could go through this team and you could name six or seven boys who would help me out, chip in, talk, motivate, and it makes my job easier.

“We’re missing a few of the older boys, past leaders, and it is time for boys to step up and time for us to start showing our leadership.”

Guardiola, 53, and Begiristain, 60, have a long association, having played alongside each other for Barcelona and Spain.

Begiristain became director of football at Barcelona in 2003 and was influential in Guardiola being named the Spanish giants’ manager in 2008.

“When nobody else would take a risk on me, when maybe three per cent of the people at Barca believed in me, he was the one who insisted on my appointment to the first team,” Guardiola said previously., external

“None of this would have been possible without him.”

It is why Begiristain’s exit could be seen as the start of the break-up of the Catalan inspired success at City, which includes chief executive Ferran Soriano, who also used to work at Barcelona.

Begiristain left Barcelona in 2010 and took up the director of football role at Manchester City two years later, before being reunited with Guardiola in 2016.

Speaking in 2021 about Begiristain, Guardiola said of their relationship: “He is the most humble person I ever met. He never goes to the media. Always, the success is for the other ones. He is always behind the scenes.

“You don’t find these type of people in this world because their egos are always so high – and I put myself as an example [of that].

“He always gives the credit to the players, to the manager, for the chairman, and the chief executive.

“That’s why it’s a pleasure working with him because I can do my job completely free, accepting the good moments and the bad moments and sharing together.

“In the bad moments we are closer than ever and in good moments we celebrate together with a glass of wine.”

The addition of Lee Bonis to the Northern Ireland squad would appear to be a direct consequence of his goalscoring exploits for his new club ADO Den Haag in recent weeks as the former Irish League striker has settled in at his new club, culminating in that treble on Friday evening.

Northern Ireland’s strikers have found goals hard to come by, so the inclusion of the in-form Bonis, despite being untested at international level, adds some more potential firepower for boss Michael O’Neill while he awaits international clearance for prolific Ross County forward Ronan Hale.

Callum Marshall, Dion Charles, Josh Magennis and Jamie Reid, the strikers named in the original squad, have scored just 15 goals in 109 games for the national side.

O’Neill will be hoping for no further injury absentees, having already had to plan without first-choice goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell and defender Dan Ballard, while still getting accustomed to life without Manchester United’s Jonny Evans, who has retired from international football.

Balmer also moved from Larne to ply his trade in the professional game in England, and now Scotland. He is another in the latest of a number of promising young players keen to impress the NI boss and make his way on the international stage.

Uncapped duo Curtis Jones and Tino Livramento have been added to the senior England squad for this week’s Nations League matches.

Liverpool midfielder Jones earned his first call-up in May as part of Gareth Southgate’s provisional 33-man squad for Euro 2024, but did not make the final cut.

The 23-year-old was part of the Young Lions side that won the 2023 European Under-21 Championship under current England interim boss Lee Carsley.

Newcastle full-back Livramento was part of Carsley’s senior squad for last month’s games against Republic of Ireland and Finland but did not feature.

Captain Harry Kane again trained away from the rest of the squad at St George’s Park on Wednesday but is expected to be fit.

Manchester City midfielder Jack Grealish also missed training as a precaution with a minor knock.

The Three Lions host Greece at Wembley on Thursday before playing Finland in Helsinki on Sunday.

GMP are one of several organisations who regularly communicate with WSL clubs to ensure security at matches.

However, it is ultimately the clubs’ decision on whether they want to allow players to continue to sign autographs after matches.

Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor says it is “a difficult decision” for clubs to come to as they want to maintain the authenticity of the women’s game.

City have several high-profile players in their squad including England internationals Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp, as well as Netherlands striker Vivianne Miedema and Japanese star Yui Hasegawa.

But having witnessed first-hand the growing crowds and pressure on players to make time for fans, Taylor supports City’s controlled signing sessions.

“We try to do it now in a more guided way. We have a specific amount of players. We do an alleyway, where it’s more controlled,” said Taylor.

“Sometimes after games, you [would] ask security guards and they would say ‘this is bonkers, we’re going to have an accident one day’. So you see it from both sides.”

Elsewhere, Tottenham are continuing to review the situation at their home ground Brisbane Road, while Arsenal are playing more games at the Emirates Stadium.

Spurs boss Robert Vilahamn said clubs “always need to check security for players” but insisted they have a “really good bond with fans” and they want to keep that.

There are mixed views among players.

England goalkeeper Mary Earps was one of the first to highlight the difficulty in keeping fans happy after receiving criticism for not signing an autograph in 2023.

Chelsea defender Lucy Bronze, who has played at Barcelona, Lyon and Manchester City in recent years, said the measures have been taken to keep the fans safe, as well as players.

“Not every stadium is ready for this volume of fans. The fans are used to having that reaction with players, which we love as well, but at the end of the day you can’t speak to every fan,” said Bronze.

“We still have those interactions. Although I might not be signing [autographs] I still get to see them and that’s what I enjoy.

“Signing a piece of paper is nice, I get that, but I know when I was a fan I went to watch [ex-England international] Rachel Yankey and thought, ‘Whoa, this is amazing’.

“I didn’t need the picture and signature to go with that.”