Melanie Reay is leading the way through the maze of corridors inside the Academy of Light when a corner is turned and she almost collides with Régis Le Bris. The managers of Sunderland’s women’s and men’s teams stop for a brief, friendly chat. It is a commonplace occurrence at this fully integrated, Premier League standard, first-team training ground where Jobe Bellingham, Enzo Le Fée, Wilson Isidor and the rest of Le Bris’s players share facilities, the canteen included, with Reay’s squad.

Similar sorts of arrangements remain depressingly rare with too many men’s managers paying lip-service to the importance of their club’s women’s side but would have palpitations at the idea o...
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