Arsenal are set to sign the first women player for a £1m fee, as reported by The Guardian.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND: Olivia Smith of Liverpool inspects the pitch prior to the Barclays Women's Super League match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield on May 04, 2025. (Photo by Jess Hornby/Getty Images)
Photo by Jess Hornby/Getty Images
Olivia Smith is a 21-year-old Canadian winger who signed last summer from Sporting CP to Liverpool, reportedly for around £200,000. She has had an exceptional season with Liverpool.
Considering Beth Mead is 30 and Caitlin Foord is also 30, while Chloe Kelly is 27, in term of succession planning, it makes sense to go to a younger high potential player. It also very important to have two players by position so four wingers for two places in the starting XI.
Now the big question is she worth £1m? Chelsea back in the January window paid more than $1m for defender Naomi Girma and there was certainly a question mark about that price. Even though Girma is a world-class defender who should have been in the Ballon d’Or coversation last season.
KINGSTON UPON THAMES, ENGLAND: Olivia Smith of Liverpool controls the ball whilst under pressure from Keira Walsh of Chelsea during The Adobe Women's FA Cup Semi Final match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Kingsmeadow on April 12, 2025. (Photo by Peter Nicholls/Getty Images)
Photo by Peter Nicholls/Getty Images
Olivia Smith is a high ceiling forward and supply/demand dictates the price of the player. If Liverpool only want to sell at £1m, there is not much of a choice and the Arsenal Women with their £15m revenue can definitely afford to spend that amount of money.
But like the Girma transfer, it does beg the question of an ever-changing women football landscape where transfer fees and wages start to climb up really fast and the market is not ready and mature enough to absorb this. The knock-on effect on other players’ prices is going to create some distortions in the market.
Just a few years ago, there were only free transfers as players used to leave at the end of of their contracts. Now the industry is working at full speed with agents, players wages are on the up, budgets have gone up from the old times in the early 2000s where Arsenal Ladies were spending around £500,000 per year as pioneers in the women’s game up to more than £15,000,000 in 2023/24.
Obviously this is not a problem for teams like Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona or Lyon or NWSL teams with spending power, but it does create a problem for other teams with smaller budgets who will have to up their spending to compete.
We have seen in England teams who have had to drop division as they were not able to satisfy the criteria needed for WSL or WSL 2. In France, more than 50% of the Arkema Premiere Ligue clubs are in financial trouble as men’s clubs are struggling due to the repeated failed TV deals in the last two seasons. The industry is not mature enough at the moment to see more of those inflated fees.
LISBON, PORTUGAL - MAY 24: Victoria Pelova and Chloe Kelly of Arsenal celebrate victory at full-time following the UEFA Women's Champions League final match between Arsenal WFC and FC Barcelona at Estadio Jose Alvalade on May 24, 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images
So far, it has been an excellent transfer window for the Arsenal Women with two Academy players signing their first contract (Cecily Wellesley-Smith and Jessie Gale), Chloe Kelly signing up permanently, Taylor Hinds returning to the club and Olivia Smith also signing up.
If one more quality defender and one top quality midfielder could be added to the squad, Arsenal would be in good shape for the Champions League defence and the five trophies to be won in 2025/26.
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