Meanwhile Saudi Arabia are paying their womens team full time in a lower division and judging from the comments nobody gives a feck where the money is coming from. I am all for womens players getting paid, but I want the game to grow naturally not like this.
WSL chat - but mostly United miscellaneous
- Thread starter Lightbringer
- Start date
I tend to agree with you. I want women's football to grow, and Newcastle seem to have a good set-up and have done well to get to the 3rd tier. My worry is that this is where the real money will kick in for them and they will effectively buy successive promotions, losing many of their homegrown players in the process.
As a side point, any idea if the WSL is subject to FFP?
As a side point, any idea if the WSL is subject to FFP?
If it wasn't Saudi sportswashing I'd be fine with it, I think. I assume we massively outspent our rivals to make it in to the top tier.
I do not think it is the case that we "massively outspent our rivals" to get where we are. City, Chelsea and Arsenal are capable of offering double the wages we do. Arsenal offered a world record fee for Russo in January.
Our rivals in reaching the WSL. I thought that was pretty clear.
If striker recruitment proves fruitless we could play Galton down the middle.
Very similar attacking stats to Russo.
Very similar attacking stats to Russo.
The difference is United made their own money, Newcastle did not :-)
Our women's team wasn't operating at a loss back then?
I have no idea.The only womens team in the WSL that made a profit during 2021-2022 season was Manchester United. You have to go back and check the books I guess. But regardless its still Manchester Uniteds money, which is the point. The club can do whatever they want with the money they earned. United also brought back several former youth players that had to leave because we did not have a womens team back then. And we also caught up with Arsenal, City and Chelsea spending way less money, so we done really well and should command respect for that!
The point is that Saudi Arabia could buy a division 7 team and bring them to the champions league, but when they are there it would be really no merit for the club, it was all Saudis money, before that they were nowhere.
A part of me feels like this is the point of a conversation we should take it to another thread but I fear this is the 'another thread'.
I don't quite get this point because surely every team in women's football that has a PL counterpart could absolutely blow the competition away if they invested the amount of money they generally spend on a left back in to their women's side?
The point is that I would gladly accept if any club that is running the show on their own without state funding invests in their womens team, they earned the money and can do whatever they want with it. Hence why I respect Arsenal in the womens game but I have zero respect for Citys womens team.
When you have endless amounts of money you get no credit for me for investing in the womens team as a toy especially as its sports washing.
I am happy to discuss this in this thread as I think people give Chelsea and City womens too much respect, when their entire foundations on the womens side have been created by dirty russian oligarch money and state funding.
Agree with all this.
Compare this to my club Hammarby women in sweden, thats now 2nd in the swedish league and set to qualify for champions league Qs for the first time. The main reason for the clubs surge is the fans attending games and pushing the club into the top of swedish football. It did not happen overnight, but its authentic and if we ever get into the champions league we have done it ourselves, which is the only way its fully enjoyable to me. The journey is whats matter to me, not the titles. The journey is always ongoing, titles are temporary and if not earned the right way meaningless. Just my opinion of course.
Fair enough, but did we really massively outspend our then rivals, Spurs? I can see no evidence for this. Most transfers in the women's game are free or undisclosed.
Since promotion to the WSL, United received £200k for Lauren James, whilst Spurs spent a similar amount on Beth England. I know these are random examples, but if United had been spending big money then I am sure we would have heard about it.
As for oil money, of course it can make a difference and will give Newcastle an edge, but City lost 9 key players in 2022 and missed out on the CL this season.
It's a difficult one because, regardless of the money coming from a dodgy regime, the investment is obviously good for the club, the players, the fans and even Women's football in general
On the other side of the coin you have a team like Reading who are trying to do things organically but get relegated from WSL and instantly go part time, basically destroying everything they have built up overnight
Perhaps not in terms of transfer fees but I believe wages had a big part in getting Zelem, Greenwood, Chamberlain etc. to play in the Championship.
Possibly so, but we're they not all part of United youth? I may be mistaken on this.
Zelem was, Greenwood & Chamberlain were not.
The likes of Toone, Zelem and Turner had been in United's academy but had to go to other clubs once they reached a certain age as there was no further pathway at United while the rest of that initial team came in having previously been at other clubs (Lauren James was breaking through at Arsenal while Leah Galton was in Germany for instance).
I'm sure our wage bill was way above anyone else's in the Championship but currently we're significantly behind the top 3 in the WSL and it's not clear how serious the ambition is to match those 3 in terms of expenditure.
I do not mind admitting when I am wrong. It would be interesting to have an indication of wages - there is little information about, other than the average being under £30k/year. There are high earners - Sam Kerr on £415k/year - but as has been said, we are probably way behind the other top teams in the WSL
Not sure what’s going on with the women’s team at the moment. Weren’t most of these recent signings who never got much of a chance in the first team?
Couldn’t find a transfer fee anywhere so I presume she’s a free agent? Either way, huge signing in a position of need.
She announced she was leaving PSG a few weeks ago, so I assume she was a free agent. I think everyone was expecting her to head to Chelsea.
We have lost six players so far this window and signed non. They must be working on something big I reckon. Russo and Ona are massive losses to the first team where nothing but top class signings will replace them.
Jade never really looked like becoming more than a squad player and had some injury troubles as well.
Tara is an academy player. She's been out on loan in the championship for the past couple of years. I think she's carving out a career for herself, but it looks like she's not ready for us.
Tounkara and Cascarino are the ones who seemed to arrive and then just disappear.
Tounkara, I can understand - I suspect she was signed in case Millie Turner didn't recover as expected. Still, it was a bit sad that even when we needed injury cover, she still didn't get any minutes.
Cascarino is puzzling to me. She came in on loan and she came because she wanted game time. Presumably we thought we could use her and told her so? At any rate, she ended up with a handful of minutes and no obvious explanation why she didn't get more.
Thats a nice way of putting it. Agreed
Not a surprise to see him moving for a management role. I'm a bit surprised that it's for a Norwegian team, but I guess he's impressed someone at Brann and they've impressed him.
Good luck to to him.
ETA: just realised this is Sandviken, a team I have heard of
Not a surprise to see him moving for a management role. I'm a bit surprised that it's for a Norwegian team, but I guess he's impressed someone at Brann and they've impressed him.
Good luck to to him.
ETA: just realised this is Sandviken, a team I have heard of
I believe Brann are in the CL this season, so there's one extra incentive for him.
As expected City not accepting for finish 4th, heavy investment incoming from the sheiks.
Citys womens team bleeding money but still smashing out world record fees!
Citys womens team bleeding money but still smashing out world record fees!
There is still a major issue about where the most talented girls fit into grassroots and Academy football
Despite the growing popularity there is still a dilemma on whether it's better to play in mixed teams or girls only
Despite the growing popularity there is still a dilemma on whether it's better to play in mixed teams or girls only
Really happy for Olga. Technically very gifted, tidy midfielder, one of the most consistent players in our national team.
She’s played a lot together with Summanen for Finland and their skillsets complement each other very well.
She’s played a lot together with Summanen for Finland and their skillsets complement each other very well.
How nice of them to share a full-time result with us.
How nice of them to share a full-time result with us.
We do have a MUTV televised match coming up, though the timing means I guess not many of us will see it.
United v Everton
Preseason friendly
Thursday 31st August
On MUTV from 11:45am
It’s been removed from the MUTV schedule.
That's annoying. I wonder what went wrong.
It’s either cancelled/postponed (nothing on Everton social media either) or they’ve decided they want to keep this one under wraps too.
Looks like it's been moved to Saturday, to be played at Carrington. Then Liverpool on the 13th & Spurs on the 17th. Looks like there is no official 'game' against Bayern, but instead a training camp in Germany.
UNITED WOMEN’S SEPTEMBER PRE-SEASON FIXTURES
2 September: Everton (H) - Carrington (15:00 BST)
6 September: Bayern Munich (N) - adidas HQ, Herzogenaurach (14:00 BST)
13 September: Liverpool (H) – Carrington (12:00 BST)
17 September: Tottenham Hotspur (N) – TBC
No fans allowed to any of the matches. The club treating supporters just great once again.
2 September: Everton (H) - Carrington (15:00 BST)
6 September: Bayern Munich (N) - adidas HQ, Herzogenaurach (14:00 BST)
13 September: Liverpool (H) – Carrington (12:00 BST)
17 September: Tottenham Hotspur (N) – TBC
No fans allowed to any of the matches. The club treating supporters just great once again.
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