Transfer Rumours & Discussion

Guest wrote:I can remember some talk of not everybody at Chelsea being full time but I don't remember the details. It's certainly possible that she was one of the ones who wasn't and City are now giving her that. But I would have thought Chelsea have, or if not then very soon will be, in a position where players like her would be on full time contracts regardless of stating status. Surely we have reached the point now where anybody who wants to be full time - i.e. isn't still in education or prefers to keep a job - can be full time?

I hope so. Otherwise I have no idea why clubs are bigging themselves up. You aren't operating on a professional basis if you're having to be selective over who you give a professional level contract to and it is your circumstances dictating that not the player's.

She is more finisher rather than say creator

I agree with this but last season her finishing was extremely extremely poor too. She missed some real sitters last season. It will be interesting to see how fast it takes for her to gel and gain confidence at the Belles. Also no one at the Belles has the quality that Fors and Rosler had a creating and making Dowie the goal machine she was during the 2013 season. About Dowie's partnerships and consistent line-ups, I can see the Belles suffering from injury just like Sunderland did last year (and a good portion of the wsl clubs had changing line-ups due to injury from congested fixtures) since they will have much more stiffer competition in the wsl1 than they've had the past two years or even when they were still in the wsl in 2013. I'm surprised that some people on social media are predicting that the Belles will finish rather high in the table next season. I'm not sure why they think that Dowie, Easton, and Katrin can make the difference when the three of them had a hard time consistently performing for Liverpool last season. I think that the Belles will struggle at the bottom of the table.

I think from now on, any time a team comes up a lot are going to be saying "remember Sunderland?" and how well they did as if it is some kind of fact that any promoted side will have just as good a season just because. So it's understandable if some people think Doncaster could have a good year, and especially so because they signed those three players on top of the automatic assumption that Sunderland's season is replicable. For that to happen they need Dowie to be as prolific as Mead was, or at least considerably better than she has been for two years. A top form striker can paper over a hell of a lot. 

I think other teams have and are getting too good in comparison to last year for Doncaster to do what Sunderland did, unless Doncaster have more signings we aren't yet aware of. I'm certainly not going to pencil them in too high up my predicted table.

I was just having a look at the various transfer round up lists, and there have been no arrivals or even renewals announced at Birmingham yet. I wonder how much notice they had of Carney leaving? I hope for their sake they weren't blindsided by it, because they obviously struggle to sign players at the best of times and so replacing somebody like her when you didn't know from day one that you were going to have to would be a hell of a job.

They won't get another Carney in Carney's place, her influence was just too big for their budget to be able to attract an equivalent. It's possible though, that since she will have been one of their top earners, her exit will have freed up enough money for them to replace her with two new signings of lesser quality but who when combined could contribute what she did. It just depends on whether or not her would-have-been wages are actually still free to be spent, or if that money has already been shared out as pay rises for their other good players to convince them to stay.

Guest wrote:They won't get another Carney in Carney's place, her influence was just too big for their budget to be able to attract an equivalent. It's possible though, that since she will have been one of their top earners, her exit will have freed up enough money for them to replace her with two new signings of lesser quality but who when combined could contribute what she did. It just depends on whether or not her would-have-been wages are actually still free to be spent, or if that money has already been shared out as pay rises for their other good players to convince them to stay.

I don't think it's a bad thing that they can't get a like for like replacement. They would probably be better off with a couple of players in her place anyway since they only just avoided relegation last time out after pinning their attacking hopes on one individual. They were incredibly fortunate that Carney's return from injury happened to coincide with Liverpool becoming so depleted they just said eff it and that Bristol didn't have Boho-Sayo sooner.

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Arsenal, Chelsea and City were the ones after her.

I had heard of Arsenal's interest but not the other two. I could imagine Hayes wanting her though, but a possible move to Chelsea must have fallen through a while back otherwise they probably wouldn't have Carney sorted already.

or if that money has already been shared out as pay rises for their other good players to convince them to stay.

I wonder if Moore is thinking about leaving? I know she has that business of hers but she would benefit from full time training with the Euros coming up.

Guest wrote:I wonder if Moore is thinking about leaving? I know she has that business of hers but she would benefit from full time training with the Euros coming up.

Moore is one of the first you think of when it comes to potential leavers. And I wouldn't be surprised if Potter is looking at the fact she wasn't selected for England games at the back end of last year and wondering if her spot is under threat or already lost. Both could do with being in the best place possible.

If Fara does leave, Moore and Potter would be a good fit for Liverpool, hell they would be a good fit for Liverpool even if Fara stays.

I don't know if I should be surprised or not that this close to the Euros Carney has moved from a team where she was an absolute starter to one where she maybe isn't. Are circumstances so poor at Birmingham that better training but possibly not 90 minutes every game is a worthy trade off? I'm not saying leaving Birmingham was the wrong choice, but I am saying others who aren't Chelsea would have let her stay an absolute starter.

Guest wrote:If Fara does leave, Moore and Potter would be a good fit for Liverpool, hell they would be a good fit for Liverpool even if Fara stays.

That thought had crossed my mind too. Only one of the full time teams has space in not just their squad but their starting XI as well for the pair of them together and it's Liverpool. Everybody else would have to make the room first. But I can't help but think that if such a thing was in the pipeline we would have gotten wind of it by now.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone leaves Chelsea in the near future, making room for Carney to be a regular starter.

But I can't help but think that if such a thing was in the pipeline we would have gotten wind of it by now.

Really? How much notice did we have about Dowie and Easton going to Doncaster? Liverpool and Birmingham could be keeping it close to the chest.

Guest wrote:I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone leaves Chelsea in the near future, making room for Carney to be a regular starter.

Hayes responded to that Tony Leighton tweet which said Carney's arrival was sending Davison to City by saying it was rubbish. So-Yun just signed a new contract (two years?) after having offers from the NWSL. I can't imagine Kirby would leave so soon after the fuss which was made over her transfer fee. Which leaves Aluko.

Maybe Davison isn't going to City

Guest wrote:Really? How much notice did we have about Dowie and Easton going to Doncaster? Liverpool and Birmingham could be keeping it close to the chest.

I'm not sure you can compare Dowie and Easton to Moore and Potter since many journalists only bother if there is an England NT player angle to push. Moore and Potter would be a story. And we've already had a big departure out of Birmingham broken early so there is every reason to think others could, at the very least, be a rumour like Fara. But we haven't had even a whisper about Moore or Potter.

at the very least, be a rumour like Fara.

All the rumours around Fara were most likely due to Arsenal, they seem to tell certain journos everything and then those journalists gossip around like teenage girls. Carney's departure being leaked could have been from her agent or from Chelsea and not Birmingham. So if all parties wanted to keep this under wraps it could be done without our wonderful journalists knowing.

Guest wrote:Maybe Davison isn't going to City

I don't see an obvious destination for her. It's hard to see where any of players of her caliber who are already at Arsenal, Chelsea or City could go if not to one of the others in that group. She's at Chelsea now, if not City that leaves Arsenal, and given the circumstances of her leaving Arsenal it doesn't seem likely she would go back.

I don't see an obvious destination for her. It's hard to see where any of players of her caliber who are already at Arsenal, Chelsea or City could go if not to one of the others in that group. She's at Chelsea now, if not City that leaves Arsenal, and given the circumstances of her leaving Arsenal it doesn't seem likely she would go back.

I agree with her history that she would most likely not go back to Arsenal but I actually think they are in need of someone like her. She might go somewhere else than the big three for higher pay, unlike some of her teammates she's not on a central contract and might need more money than Chelsea are willing to pay her.

If So-Yun was out of contract and had offers on the table from attractive clubs, maybe Carney was signed as insurance on the chance that So-Yun left? And if she didn't leave then Hayes would just cross the how to field all her players bridge when she got to it. It's better to have too many options after all than not enough. And she likely will have known that if she didn't snap up Carney somebody else would.

Guest wrote:If So-Yun was out of contract and had offers on the table from attractive clubs, maybe Carney was signed as insurance on the chance that So-Yun left? And if she didn't leave then Hayes would just cross the how to field all her players bridge when she got to it. It's better to have too many options after all than not enough. And she likely will have known that if she didn't snap up Carney somebody else would.

That's as good a theory as any. On the surface Chelsea didn't look to particularly need Carney so the idea that she ended up there to preempt a possible exit which never materialised does fit. 

But at the same time, if we are heading into an era where three clubs at the top are breaking away and stacking themselves in the process then Chelsea taking Carney could be early signs of that. Likewise Arsenal taking Williams. Signing more than needed might be about to become the norm, and it's just going to look weird until we get used to seeing it.

It's weird because it means that quality players won't be playing as much as they should which will hurt us in the Euros come next year fitness-wise. I'd rather have our senior players playing as much as possible with youngsters around them who they can teach and help bring through not rusting on the bench coming on as a supersub or starting and coming off at the 60th minute. That's how the WSL and England will be sustainable and competitive respectfully. How can Chelsea, Arsenal, and City afford to have all these players with the wage caps? Surely all these players are wanting good wages and don't come cheap.

The current wage cap isn't designed to level the playing field, it's designed to make sure clubs are living within their means and not using too much of their budget on salary. Which is an admirable attitude to want to instill... but when you have clubs who are rich enough to never need to live within their means in the first place it's a bit redundant at the top end of things. They can still bump up their overall budget each year to afford whatever they like whilst satisfying the financial regs.

The FA have basically set up the rules to try and make the less able be functional clubs. But I do wonder if they have relaxed things too much for the better able. We should know in a couple of transfer windows time.