Katie McCabe moving to Chelsea has, predictably and understandably, drawn a lot of commentary and a lot of emotion. It is not a totally unique move by any means. When Lianne Sanderson and Anita Asante moved to Chelsea in 2008, then manager Vic Akers lamented, ‘You think you’ve the respect of players, and then they do that. It’s a sorry state of affairs.’
Katie Chapman moved from Arsenal to Chelsea in 2014 while still at the peak of her powers. However, clearly the context has shifted now. Chelsea were establishing themselves when Sanderson, Asante and Chapman moved. Arsenal and Chelsea is now a firmly established rivalry in women’s football and Chelsea and Arsenal have fought and continue to fight over the biggest domestic and European prizes.
There is also far greater interest now, the numbers of supporters on both sides and the coverage dwarfs what it was 10-20 years ago. McCabe moving across London was always going to invite a lot of strong feelings and if there is one player in the WSL you would bet on being at the centre of strong feelings from warring fan bases, it would be Katie McCabe.
Of course, a lot of this is a symptom of the fact that too few clubs are truly investing in their women’s teams and there just aren’t many clubs that an elite player can join and expect the same level of competition and salary. Look at the number of French players who have played for Lyon and PSG or the number of German or Germany based players who have played for Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg.
Lauren James has played for Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea. Niamh Charles is about to move from Chelsea to Manchester City where she will join up with former Gunners Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead. Keira Walsh has played for Manchester City and now for Chelsea and was very willing to join Arsenal in the summer of 2023. Georgia Stanway will join Arsenal this summer having previously spent seven years at Manchester City. Lucy Bronze has played for Liverpool, Everton, Manchester City x2, Barcelona, Lyon and Chelsea while Alex Greenwood has played for both Merseyside clubs, both Manchester clubs and Lyon. I would list Nikita Parris’ former clubs but I think you get the picture by now.
Elite women’s players make good money now, but not ‘retire at 35 and never work again’ money. They don’t really have the privilege or the choice to swerve such transfers in every scenario. Katie has a house with her partner Caitlin Foord, who will extend with Arsenal, in London so the prospect of not uprooting is clearly going to be attractive too- especially at a club who are always likely to challenge for the biggest honours and a club who are about to move one of their existing left-backs on.
There is also an interesting cross-section between Arsenal and Chelsea’s needs. Chelsea are losing big characters and leaders like Sam Kerr and Millie Bright and have a 17-year-old left-back in Chloe Sarwie who looks as though she can be the real deal in a couple of years. McCabe, who turns 31 this season, won’t roadblock her development and will likely help Sarwie along. Arsenal are at a different stage of their squad build.
Firstly, their squad needs to get a little younger. I believe part of the reason that McCabe was initially not going to be offered a contract was because Slegers believes there is an emerging leadership core in the squad with the likes of Wubben-Moy, Russo and Emily Fox and, sometimes, to allow new leaders to emerge and find their voices you have to lose some of your bigger characters. It’s not personal, it’s just life, it’s just football.
Where Arsenal draw deserved criticism is their last minute about turn on McCabe’s contract after she performed well at centre-half in Champions League games against Chelsea and Lyon. Firstly, regardless of her performances at centre-half (which still represent a small sample size overall), it doesn’t change the point about leadership and emerging leaders in the squad.
Secondly, even without the centre-half cameos, McCabe’s versatility was already really obvious across several positions. I don’t really understand why adding one more to her vast repertoire caused a change of heart. For their part, I am told that Arsenal were at least honest with the player about the role they foresaw for her and I believe there was acceptance and understanding that such an elite player wanted more for herself.
Arsenal know the squad needs to be bigger next season. The decision to keep Caitlin Foord, for example, has not stopped them pursuing other attackers like Selina Cerci and Lisa Baum (and I wouldn’t say, at this stage, that represents the totality of their interest in attackers but, as always, what they want and what they get won’t always match). My belief is they want to create greater depth and optionality and wanting to keep one of Foord or Mead and wanting to keep McCabe was part of that.
However, I still think, on McCabe, it represents muddled thinking. I have been expecting Katie’s departure this summer for around 18 months. If you ask me, I would keep the player all day long. But I respected the club’s stance to be bold and go in another direction and back an emerging leadership core. Whether you agree with it or not, it suggested firmness and direction- much like the decision to allow Vivianne Miedema to leave in 2024.
Miedema’s departure was not as acrimonious as I think many believe, sometimes a player and a club come to a natural end and when that happens, you shake hands and go your different ways. That move has worked well for Miedema and Arsenal got Mariona, who has been excellent. So it goes. But I am concerned that Arsenal faltered at the 11th hour on McCabe. Because, generally, I think the recruitment has improved enormously in recent years and I like what I am hearing about plans to restock the squad this summer.
Which brings me finally to the fan reaction. As much as I stand by my perspective that players should be allowed to choose what is best for their careers and the club deserve their share of criticism for the handling of this situation- I also think that rivalry, acrimony and animosity are all part of football. If we want this sport to grow, we have to stop babying supporters or ‘well actuallying’ them to death (and I have been guilty of that in the past, for certain).
People care and being annoyed, frustrated and upset are all branches from that tree. You can’t want people to care about the sport and then bleach some of the more indignant emotions out. Fans should be allowed to be annoyed, upset and frustrated (so long as they don’t over step the mark into abuse) about a long-term player joining a hated rival. It’s all part of the theatre and the drama and like it or not, it is what keeps people invested, keeps them coming back and keeps them caring. You have to let people feel and if people feel annoyed about this, then so be it.