Welcome back Kyra Cooney-Cross
Kyra Cooney-Cross returns to training this week. On a personal level, she has been through something very difficult. Processing grief is difficult enough but it’s harder still when you live so far away from your family. This article will deal with the football aspects of her return and how they can burnish the Arsenal squad. But it goes without saying that, first and foremost, it is lovely to see her return and I know Arsenal fans everywhere wish her well as she reintegrates.
I am told the level of support Arsenal have offered during her absence has been above and beyond- the fact that the club allowed her to miss the second half of last season to be at home during her mother’s final months says as much. While back home, I am also told she has trained consistently with a private coach with a programme agreed by Arsenal. Obviously, it isn’t quite the same intensity and scenarios you would expect in team training.
She is also behind on pre-season training but, in reality, it’s not hugely different to a scenario where she had been out since January with an injury- absent the rehabilitation aspect of course. The beginning of the season might see cameo appearances but it shouldn’t take too long to rebuild her match fitness. Her arrival is welcome too, Frida Maanum has not featured in full training pictures since July 27th.
I won’t pretend I have total knowledge there but I am not hearing that there is anything serious. Geraldine Reuteler was not pictured participating in the BCD practice match against AC Milan in La Manga last week and I don’t have any information about why that might have been.
The presence of Stanway, Little and Mariona, with Russo also capable of playing as a 10 means Kyra’s reintegration- at time of writing- can be slow and steady. Once that has happened and she is fully up to speed, it will be intriguing to see how Cooney-Cross’ season pans out.
Before the Christmas break last season, Kyra had forced her way into the starting line-up having found minutes difficult to come by in the opening weeks of last season. An injury to Kim Little in November initially saw Victoria Pelova preferred in the midfield. I always found that decision difficult to understand, for all Pelova’s qualities, she certainly isn’t a number six.
After a chastening 3-2 Champions League defeat in Munich in which Arsenal were easily taken apart in transition, Slegers opted for Cooney-Cross over Pelova in midfield and the team looked more stable. Kyra impressed to the point that when Little returned for a WSL away match against Everton, Cooney-Cross kept her place with Mariona played in the higher position that she favours.
Arsenal won 3-1 and Slegers kept that midfield trio for a 3-0 Champions League victory in Leuven. The Gunners were unbeaten for seven games when Kyra came into the team after the Bayern defeat.
In short, Cooney-Cross had really just made her breakthrough when her sad family situation occurred. The Australian was missed in the second half of the season too as Pelova’s impending exit became increasingly clear. I know I reference this game a lot, but when Arsenal exited the FA Cup with a limp 2-0 home defeat against Brighton, Mariona and Little both started the game and you could almost smell the lactic acid.
Before now, Cooney-Cross’ path has been blocked by the dependence on the Mariona and Little double pivot. In 2024-25, KCC started the 2-0 away defeat at Real Madrid in the Champions League and didn’t start again until a heavily rotated side lost 5-2 away at Aston Villa in May. But that spell on the bench was less a denouncement of Cooney-Cross and more a sign of how reliant Slegers’ strategy was on the Little Mariona axis.
These are two hugely experienced players, asked to play in a complex midfield pivot without a truly dedicated six, as per Slegers’ preferences. It is difficult for any player to break that up, as Victoria Pelova also found. On the face of it, adding Georgia Stanway into the mix (as well as Geraldine Reuteler) provides even greater competition.
In one respect that is true, in another, I think it points to Slegers acknowledging that the midfield selection needs to become more fluid and less centred around a single point of failure in Kim and Mariona. The fact that Kyra is more of a 6/8 than a true 6 should not count against her because, well, so is Georgia Stanway and so is Kim Little. Kyra fits Slegers’ vision for a fluid midfield pivot.
And I know we say this every summer, but Kim Little will eventually lose her battle against father time. Cooney-Cross has a year left on her current contract, with Arsenal triggering her one-year extension option in the New Year. That option was triggered by Arsenal swiftly and with little deliberation. Obviously, what happens this season will have a significant impact on her future; she will be 25 at the end of the campaign and contemplating her prime years contract.
I suspect Slegers and Arsenal are trying to move away from a model where the squad is largely staffed by definite starters and players who are very firmly back-ups. I suspect Slegers and her staff would like a model whereby Little, Mariona, Stanway, Kyra and Reuteler are all used interchangeably. I suspect that Mariona would like to play a little higher up the field now she has entered her 30s.
I am assuming a lot here and, as ever, the vision and the reality do not always match in the heat of competition, when results and manager’s jobs are on the line. But there is certainly an opportunity for Arsenal and Kyra Cooney-Cross to have a mutually satisfying season and extend their relationship for longer. I am told by several people that Renee really values the player and her attributes.
Kyra has qualities not easily replicated in the other midfielders. She has an outstanding long diagonal pass, she is also a highly accomplished dribbler. I think these are qualities that Slegers will want to avail of, the question is how often? Whatever the long-term future holds beyond next season, I am pretty certain that Cooney-Cross will be a key cog in 2026-27.