Transfer Rumours & Discussion

Arsenal confirmed Van de Donk.

Has anyone heard if Harris is leaving Liverpool?  I wondered if she would be tempted to join Donny Belles now that they are in WSL1, especially if players are fleeing Liverpool?

We will probably get the first Liverpool departures announced in the next couple of days. Their awards evening is tonight, so once that is out of the way there isn't any other reason to sit on things any more. We may also get some clues f some don't bother to attend.

Clubs might hold off on announcing WSL to WSL transfers involving England players until this week's England games are out of the way. Less of a distraction, less disappointment etc etc. The domestic side of things might be done and dusted but the season on the whole doesn't technically finish unless next Monday. But who knows.

Stout follows Beard to Boston.

Which keepers are up for grabs then? Earps? Chamberlain? If the situation there is as dire as everything suggests it's hard to imagine they will be able to go foreign.

Clubs might hold off on announcing WSL to WSL transfers involving England players until this week's England games are out of the way. Less of a distraction, less disappointment etc etc. The domestic side of things might be done and dusted but the season on the whole doesn't technically finish unless next Monday. But who knows.

Is this the excuse for why Fara's transfer hasn't been named yet? If I recall correctly the intra-WSL transfers weren't actually announced until after the The FA Women’s Awards last year. So the clubs might wait until after those and that would be two Fridays from now.

Guest wrote:Is this the excuse for why Fara's transfer hasn't been named yet? If I recall correctly the intra-WSL transfers weren't actually announced until after the The FA Women’s Awards last year. So the clubs might wait until after those and that would be two Fridays from now.

Also a good possibility, yes. The WSL does have a whiff of an over-managed PR event about it sometimes. And it makes for some really awkward moments when fans speak to or root for players who they have no idea are no longer at their club. I always wonder if the gains from sitting on news are really worth keeping people in the dark for.

Easton, Omarsdottir, Ryland and Smorsgard not renewing at Liverpool. http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/ladies/198621-liverpool-ladies-quartet-set-to-depart

Liverpool are obviously not against making announcements then. No English or England players amongst the names though. I guess we have to wait for the rest.

The WSL does have a whiff of an over-managed PR event about it sometimes. And it makes for some really awkward moments when fans speak to or root for players who they have no idea are no longer at their club. I always wonder if the gains from sitting on news are really worth keeping people in the dark for.

It goes both ways, Liverpool's still promoting a player that if rumours are correct has been actively seeking to leave the club for months. I'd imagine Liverpool would like to make a clean break from the players that don't or can't (for financial reasons) remain at the club and focus on who remains and their rebuild from there. I agree this does smell of WSL PR.

So that's five confirmed departures for Liverpool and at least one we're waiting on. I'll bet Bristol have six players who don't want to follow them down into WSL 2. Liverpool might as well just sign them all in bulk for the sake of actually having a team to field.

There are two ways to look at the confirmed list of departures at Liverpool. If you're the glass half full sort then you would say that bar Stout all of the others spent a fair amount of time on that extensive injury list meaning their contribution wasn't as big as it could have been anyway, so if they swap them for somebody fit and keep hold of everybody else then they might just be alright. If you're the glass half empty sort then you would point out how much they missed those players when injury kept them out, so they're going to miss them even more now they are truly gone.

I think by the time this is over they will be needing eight or nine replacements alone, with outright additions on top because their squad was never deep enough to begin with. And it sounds as though they don't have the budget for all that. Or Beard didn't anyway.

There are rumours of another sizable English contingent leaving Liverpool so by the time the dust lands I wouldn't be surprised if 9 to 11 players are gone. Squad change is always inevitable with a managerial change, especially if that manager brought in practically all of the players like Beard did and none of the players really had an affinity for the actual club. A rebuild isn't necessarily a bad thing for Liverpool, they tended to have several chronically injured players and for the past two years have really struggled for form as a team. They were extremely lucky to win the WSL title last year (they should have never won that game against Birmingham City) and even from the start of this year they have struggled and looked really undercooked. So it's not necessarily a bad thing for a club to do housekeeping and let the players go that don't want to stay or won't fit the system/style of the new manager. Whether or not this is a devastating move for Liverpool all depends on whether there is any money for the new manager to work with. Rogers has a hard task in rebuilding Liverpool and if he has the backing of the club money-wise I think that he can slowly build a team that in a couple of years can potentially be contenders, he has some talented youngsters in Pacheco, Zelem, Hodgson and Harris if she stays. If he doesn't have the financial backing, Liverpool will suffer the same fate of Everton and Bristol Academy before them and be relegated to the WSL2.

Well there are at least three staying at Liverpool: http://ladies.liverpoolfc.com/news/reds_trio_harris_hodson_and_zelem_sign_new_deals_with_club.html#sJFojHQ8i2um3mJG.97

Sigsworth returns to Doncaster http://www.nclfc.co.uk/news/sigsworth_joins_former_club.html#cMMvEHhdFaD7hD17.97

I forgot Sigsworth was even at Notts. The stats on their website says she only made the bench three times. Why is that?

It's all rather quite isn't it? We had already had a couple of WSL to WSL moves announced this time last year, and big ones too. But so far there is nothing this time around. I hope it's a case of clubs sitting on news rather than there just not being anything to tell us. The winter is long without transfers to keep up entertained.

We're still waiting for that supposed Fara to Arsenal move. I thought the announcement would have come by now. Bar that I don't think there has been anything else even slightly rumoured. And we can't even speculate based on what little has actually happened because most if not all of Liverpool's releases won't be staying in England anyway.

It sounds like many are taking the approach of not announcing a departure to another English club until they are also ready to announce who the new club is at the same time. Pretty much all of the exit news so far has related to players who have gone or will go overseas. So my guess is players who are moving to other WSL clubs have made their intention to do so known but just don't have their moves finalised yet. Which is pretty boring for the onlookers.

http://www.bristolacademywfc.co.uk/news/quintet_depart_bristol_academy_wfc.html#ZMoJ62FUZHGzuwc2.97

Christie Murray, Sharla Passariello, Lauren Townsend, Marije Brummel and Jade Boho-Sayo

That won't be the last of the Bristol exits. It will be interesting to see who sticks around in England. Boho-Sayo might be a worthwhile addition for some.

Tony Leighton ‏@Tony_Leighton
BIG NEWS 1 - @ChelseaLFC set to sign #EnglandWomen star @karenjcarney from @BCLFC - more news to follow....

Tony Leighton ‏@Tony_Leighton
BIG NEWS 2 - @MCWFC could be set to sign @GemD1987 from @ChelseaLFC after @FAWSL champions sign @karenjcarney from @BCLFC