Manchester United goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce said she believes the club has the quality to challenge for the Women's Super League (WSL) title this term after a productive summer in the transfer market.
United finished third in the WSL last season, securing a place in the qualifying stages of the Champions League. They also missed out on the FA Cup, losing out to Chelsea in the final, but Tullis-Joyce is confident her team can challenge Sonia Bompastor's side for the major honours in the upcoming campaign.
"I'm really proud of what we did last season," she said. "That moment when we secured Champions League football was a real accumulation of all the work and effort we put in to make the top three. Now, I'm really grateful we have the opportunity to build on that.
"This league is crazy -- I love it! Every league that I've played in has its own strengths and attributes but playing the WSL, there are some incredible players, incredible teams and the tactics that are involved are just amazing. It demands you to be the best version of yourself. Even now with London City Lionesses coming up and you see some of the players they're bringing in, it's very exciting to be a part of this league."
United will begin their WSL season at home to Leicester City on Sunday. Skinner's squad has been bolstered this summer with the additions of Fridolina Rolfö and Julia Zigiotti Olme from Barcelona and Bayern Munich respectively, with Manchester City's Jess Park also joining the club on deadline day.
Reflecting on United's ambitions for the new campaign, Tullis-Joyce said: "For me personally, doing as well as we can automatically sets us up for a title race.
"I truly believe we have some amazing players. We have a lot of talented players already here and we've added even more players who can improve our potential."
While United's summer signings have boosted excitement ahead of the new season, head coach Marc Skinner said the club is unable to match some of the fees being paid for players by some of United's WSL rivals.
London City broke the women's transfer window with the £1.43 million ($1.9m) signing of Grace Geyoro from Paris Saint-Germain on Monday with Alyssa Thompson joining Chelsea from NWSL side Angel City FC in a deal sources have told ESPN is worth an initial fee close to $1.3 million (£1m).
"I've literally just found out this morning," Skinner said on Monday. "I saw the Chelsea one. Chelsea are deep into Champions League competition every year, they've won the league for how many years, so you understand that kind of level of investment. Arsenal won the Champions League.
"Who would have thought that in this window, we'd have four £1 million players? I just think we won't be able to, right now, go to those levels of transfer fee. I'll be honest with that. The reality is we have to try and find our own way to do it. We have to look at our investment in how and where we put that in the winter window, for sure.
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"It's moved so quickly. London City signed Lucia Corrales as well and that was, at that time, the eighth biggest world transfer. We're not in that realm, so we've got to find our own way.
"The reality is, the window is shut now, so we have to do a refresh review and I'm sure it's something we can address a little bit later as we start to now go: 'Right, we need to adapt.' But what is for certain is we have to adapt. We have to evolve and we have to try and find the space in the market where we can bring top players to Manchester United."
Information from ESPN's Emily Keogh contributed to this report.