Эмэгтэйчүүдийн супер лигийн од тоглогчид өндөр зэрэглэлийн багуудаас шилжин ирж, шинэ сорилтуудтай нүүр тулж байна.
Алексиа Путеллас Барселонаг орхиж, Лондон Сити Лионесс багт нэгдсэн нь лигийн түүхэн дэх хамгийн дуулиантай наймаануудын нэг боллоо. Өдгөө 32 настай, хоёр удаагийн “Алтан бөмбөг”-ийн эзэн Испанийн шигшээ багийн хагас хамгаалагч ийнхүү өндөр түвшний амжилтаас татгалзаж, лигтээ дөнгөж хоёр дахь улирлаа өнгөрөөж буй багт хүчин зүтгэхээр болсон нь олон нийтийн сонирхлыг татаж байна. Тэрээр Барселонад 500 гаруй тоглолтод оролцож, 36 цом хүртсэн арвин туршлагаа шинэ клубтээ хэрхэн ашиглах нь анхаарлын төвд байна.
Сүүлийн жилүүдэд Фран Кирби, Жордан Ноббс, Лиа Валти, Милли Тернер зэрэг нэр хүндтэй тоглогчид мөн адил өөрсдийн удаан хугацаанд тоглосон супер клубуудаа орхиж, шинэ сорилтыг эрэлхийлэх болжээ. Тухайлбал, Арсеналд олон жил тоглосон Лиа Валти Брайтон багт нэгдсэн бол Фран Кирби Челсиг орхин мөн тус багт шилжсэн юм. Эдгээр тоглогчид зөвхөн ялалт байгуулдаг багт тоглохоос гадна залуу тоглогчдыг удирдан чиглүүлэх, багийн соёлыг төлөвшүүлэх зэрэг илүү өргөн цар хүрээтэй зорилгыг өмнөө тавьж байна.
Милли Тернер Манчестер Юнайтед багт өнгөрүүлсэн найман жилийн дараа Бирмингем Сити багт нэгдсэн нь түүний хувьд шинэ орон зай, манлайллын ур чадвараа харуулах боломж гэж үзэж байгаа юм. Лондон Сити багийн хувьд Мишель Кангын хөрөнгө оруулалт өндөр байгаа хэдий ч лигийн тогтсон дарааллыг эвдэх нь амаргүй даваа байх болно. Хэдийгээр багийн бүрэлдэхүүн өөрчлөгдөж, стратегийн шинэчлэлүүд хийгдэж байгаа ч туршлагатай одод өөрсдийн шаргуу зан чанар, ялалтын төлөөх тэмүүлэл нь ямар ч багт өөрчлөгдөхгүй гэдгийг онцолж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
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In a strange way, Alexia Putellas’ move to London City Lionesses this summer encapsulates an enduring thread of recent transfer windows in the Women’s Super League.
Perhaps you think we’ve been too bold: how can the most seismic transfer in the league’s history be part of a wider trend? How can a two-time Ballon d’Or winner joining an unproven club reflect a pattern?
Even as London City’s owner Michele Kang assembles the superteam she hopes will turbocharge qualification for the Champions League, signing the 32-year-old piques a different kind of intrigue. Namely, what was in Putellas’ thinking as she switched from Barcelona — where she made more than 500 appearances, helped win 36 trophies and became one of women’s football’s biggest stars — to a club in only their second season in the WSL?
Holding majority stakes in London City, record eight-time European champions OL Lyonnes and Washington Spirit of the NWSL, Kang’s influence stretches across the global game, but it cannot be escaped that Putellas has dropped down from the highest level with this move. The 147-cap Spain midfielder has shown a relentless winning ambition — how will she adapt to life as an underdog?
In recent seasons, other high-profile women’s players have grappled with similar questions: of opportunity, ambition, potential, what they still have to give and what they are willing to give.
In summer 2024, Fran Kirby left Chelsea after nine years and seven WSL titles. She joined Brighton & Hove Albion, finishing fifth in the WSL in her debut season there, 32 points behind champions Chelsea.
Eighteen months earlier, Jordan Nobbs moved from Arsenal to Aston Villa. Her long-time Arsenal team-mate Lia Walti joined Brighton in July, before Millie Turner left Manchester United, her club of eight seasons and with whom she won the 2023-24 FA Cup, for promoted Birmingham City a week later.
“I’ve been a competitor my whole life, no matter what I do, and I’m not going to lose that just because I’m maybe not playing for a team like Arsenal, who are competing for every single trophy every year,” Walti told The Athletic at a WSL media day. “I want to bring that into the team: to have that willingness to win no matter what. It’s a project. It’s a process over the next couple of years.”
When Walti was first considering a move to Brighton, Kirby got in touch. She could empathise with the former Arsenal midfielder’s desire to discover new aspects in her game, even though Walti is now 33.
“She had a similar experience, leaving Chelsea after many years,” Walti said. “Leaving Arsenal alone was a big step, because I’ve called it my home (since 2018). I also grew into a leader, somebody who could pass on experience, but maybe it was becoming less needed because you always had better and better players coming into the club. Being able to play with the best players didn’t require passing on your experience as much.
“I wanted my next step to be about something exciting. It is about passing on experience, helping young players grow and setting different goals with a team who’s maybe not competing to win the Champions League.
“It’s funny with Fran, because she said to me from the start, ‘Just watch out — I’m gonna be demanding and harsh sometimes’. I’ve never been the loudest person on the pitch. I’ve been more the person who’s trying to find solutions in the conversations between on and off the pitch.”
Walti playing for Arsenal in an FA Cup semi-final against Brighton in 2021 (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
At this point in the WSL’s existence, eight years since becoming a fully professional league, players now ageing out at the title contenders do so with all the advantages — finances, facilities, health — of only knowing full-time football.
They head into a changing WSL landscape, with different options than those available to their predecessors of yesteryear. By 2030, Brighton, for instance, should have opened Europe’s first purpose-built women’s football stadium at a cost of up to £80million ($108m).
The higher standards down the pecking order can help keep the brightest talent in the game for longer, with the next generation benefitting from that wisdom.
“If you use the analogy of a burning building, she is the one you want to follow,” Brighton defender Caitlin Hayes, speaking about Kirby, tells The Athletic. “She knows the way out because she has been in it for so many years and has got out with silverware. You’re always hearing Fran’s voice, but she’s a voice that you want to hear. Everything she does and says has weight.”
Any club’s longest-serving players must find the strength to draw from the well, season after season. Finding the motivation to go again requires a kind of laser focus that can border on the myopic. Different environments entail new challenges and refreshing perspectives, something that Turner considered when she left United.
“It was an important time for me to have a new challenge, enjoy playing football again and feel valued in the environment again,” the 30-year-old defender tells The Athletic. “It was quite a quick decision in the end, but it was over a long time that I’d been thinking that I needed to leave. I enjoyed every single moment being at United and it still feels like home — that will always have a special part in my heart — but it was time to move on.”
Turner left United for Birmingham this summer (Molly Darlington/World Sevens Football via Getty Images)
Turner helped United win promotion from the second tier, reach the Champions League for the first time and earn a club-record second-placed finish in the WSL. Crowds boomed along with that success, increasing the exposure and scrutiny.
“Because I was there for so long, you kind of grow with that,” Turner said. “At the start, it was, ‘Go play, go be free, do whatever you want’. With everything that goes on and getting more fans, the older you get, the better you deal with pressure. You block it out and turn it into something different. You know that you have to perform, but it becomes natural.”
The centre-back hopes signing for Birmingham will bring out latent leadership qualities.
“That was one of the reasons I wanted to make this move — I felt I could offer so much more,” she continues. “I can be more of a leader, and here is the perfect place (to do that). There are so many amazing players here who really want to learn.”
At London City, the question of expectation looms largest.
Kang has supplied game-changing investment, but the WSL’s established order is deeply entrenched: it is not inconceivable that this could be Putellas’ first season without a major trophy in seven years.
Putellas’ new team-mate Nikita Parris, who has won two top-tier titles and a Champions League in her career, suggests an athlete’s mental steel endures regardless of the context.
“I don’t think there’s a difference in mindset, because my passion, my determination, my drive — they’re the demands that I put on myself and don’t falter in any team,” the 32-year-old forward tells The Athletic. “You can’t differ. You don’t get to pick and choose a mindset.”
Only once has the make-up of the WSL’s top four changed since United entered the league in 2019 — when Liverpool, under the late Matt Beard, finished fourth two years ago. Compared to previous seasons, the top four appear penetrable in the campaign kicking off this weekend: United are exploring a wholesale strategic shift, and Chelsea are recovering from their worst league finish since 2019 amid changes in personnel and ownership.
WSL legends became so because of their major trophy hauls. If their next chapters involve disrupting the status quo, they will rank as just as transformative for the wider women’s game.
