If you move from one behemoth of a London club to another, especially when they’re the fiercest of foes, it’s inevitable enough that the fans you’re leaving behind won’t take kindly to your career decision. Such has been Katie McCabe’s fate since it was announced earlier this week that she was joining Chelsea after a decade with Arsenal.
How did the Arsenal faithful take the news? Not great. If the most heated of the verdicts on her choice of new employers were to be repeated here, it would just be a string of asterisks. “Traitor” was among the kinder of the slurs, “she’ll never be welcome again at the Emirates” another of the more, well, measured ones.
All of which prompted McCabe’s mother, Sharon, to take to social media to condemn the abuse her daughter has been receiving, while the Irish captain’s father, Gary, has also had his say.
The gist of both their arguments is that this one is on Arsenal.
Back in January, they said, the club told McCabe that they would not be renewing her contract, which expires at the end of the month, their chief reasoning being that they wanted to lower the age profile of their squad – McCabe turned 30 last September.
But after she completed one of her finest-ever seasons for them, marked by her name in the WSL team of the year, Arsenal had a change of heart and offered her a one-year contract. By then, though, as she was entitled to do, she had spoken to Chelsea, who offered her a three-year deal with an option for a fourth.
This will be the final big contract of her career, so that proposal was irresistible. It’s unlikely that her salary will hit the €500,000 levels Sam Kerr earned at Chelsea, making her the highest-paid player in the WSL, but she’ll earn a hefty enough sum, particularly when no transfer fee was involved. And Chelsea had to fight off interest from the likes of newly crowned WSL champions Manchester City and French champions Lyon, so they’d have had to be generous with their offer.
Marissa Sheva, Katie McCabe and Anna Patten.
Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
Marissa Sheva, Katie McCabe and Anna Patten. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
Arsenal’s offer was, said Gary McCabe, “an insult”. Is that how Katie McCabe saw it? “Look, I’m not going to go into the details,” she said at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Thursday morning in advance of Friday evening’s World Cup qualifying game against the Netherlands.
“For any parent using social media to see a lot of abuse thrown their child’s way is difficult to see. I’ve stayed off it this week because my full concentration has been on our games against the Dutch, and France next Tuesday. I’ve got a lot of support from Carla [Ward, Ireland’s head coach], my team-mates and the staff here with Ireland, so I’m in a good place mentally.
“I don’t condone any abuse. I don’t, obviously, think that’s the way forward when these things happen. But that’s football, these people are humans at the end of the day and have feelings. My way of dealing with it is removing myself and staying away from it.
“I empathise a lot with the Arsenal fans because it’s not an easy thing to see, a player who has spent so long at a club going to a rival. Spending 10 or 11 years at a club is really special and for me to be able to do that at a club like Arsenal was amazing. Growing up there, learning so much as a player and as a person, I’ve got a lot of respect for every single person at Arsenal and all my team-mates.
“But it’s part of football. Your time comes. I need to put myself first and this was the best case for me. I still feel like I’ve got a lot to give. Of course, it’s been difficult over the last few months, but I think it’s the right time now for a new chapter in my career.”
And she’s had no end of support from her fellow professionals, among them former English international Beth England. “Why aren’t the fans angry at the club? Arsenal had the opportunity to re-sign her, they messed up in January,” she said on the Added Time podcast.
“What do the fans expect? For her to go to a team that doesn’t have aspirations? She’s a mentality monster; she wants to win things. She has given so much of her life to that club, and the minute she has chosen to look after herself, they’ve turned on her. I’ve seen the hatred she’s getting – the hatred should be going to Arsenal for messing up in the first place.”