One in a Million (Great British Pounds)
According to The Guardian, Arsenal Women have agreed a deal with Liverpool that will see them break the transfer record by paying over £1,000,000 for the young Canadian forward Olivia Smith. This will top Chelsea's fee for Naomi Girma in January and be the first transfer to break one million pounds.
This is a deal that a lot Arsenal fans are, understandably, excited about. The club has threatened to spend significant sums of money in past windows (Keira Walsh and Alessia Russo spring to mind) but have always had their offers rejected. In the case of Alessia Russo, our offer still had value as it showed the player how much we valued her and she then signed for us in the next window on a free. In the case of Keira Walsh, Chelsea ended up beating us to her for half the price. For one reason or another, these deals have not come to fruition. It's refreshing to see Arsenal finally splashing the cash after getting most of our recent successful signings on a free.
Chelsea have been the big WSL spenders over the last couple of seasons. They have used their recent successes and slightly questionable manipulation of financial loopholes to secure players like Girma and Walsh. These deals provoked quite a lot of jealousy amongst Arsenal fans; we were in for Walsh and then seemingly backed off and Girma was very highly rated. The arrival of London City Lionesses and Michelle Kang's investment in the WSL introduces another club with deep ambitions and even deeper pockets. Being a WSL team has been getting more and more expensive and is about to get pricier still.
The concern was not whether Arsenal could compete on a financial front, it was if they were willing to spend the money for the best players out there or if they were just content in getting those who were free. In the last two windows, both the men's and women's teams seemed reluctant to spend money where they really needed it. This summer seems to be different. On the men's side, everyone is tired of perpetual second place finishes and a little more investment is clearly needed. On the women's side, the fear was that a Champions League winning side wouldn't feel the need to massively improve their squad. Although, as Tim Stillman has said many times, the club would have had a plan in place since before the final. Thankfully, they don't seem to be resting on their laurels.
Arsenal have been constantly raising the ceiling in terms of women's football. They are the most successful team in English history, having won more trophies than any other, despite falling a little behind Chelsea in most areas in recent years. And still, it is Arsenal, not Chelsea, who have won two Champions League trophies. They have broken attendance record after attendance record and have one of the most avid fanbases in women's sport. It only seems right, then, that the club would step up and push financial boundaries too.
After the initial excitement had died down, questions started to be raised about Smith as a player. She's young, she's only been in the WSL one season, can she really be worth all that money? I would argue that we wouldn't just be paying for the current player but for her future, and her ceiling for success is very high. Of course, things happen in football and she might not reach those heights, but the reward has the potential to be so much greater than the risk. And Arsenal had to be willing to take that risk, because if we didn't Chelsea would. We would lose a talented young player in an area of considerable need to an already stacked Chelsea side. This is not the only cheque we ever get to write. We're the reigning UWCL champions with a team that is bringing in more and more revenue. This will be the first of many £1m+ signings in women's football and by Arsenal Football Club.
My personal internal conflict surrounding this signing has nothing to do with the player. On one hand, I knew that a signing over the £1m mark was coming soon, and I'm happy Arsenal are the club to break that boundary. My love for women's football knows no end and I dream of seeing a day where it is considered equal to men's football by the wider audience. But one of my main issues with men's football is financial. At times, the Premier League is more of a capitalist enterprise than it is a football league, with huge sums of money being spent on transfers and wages. It's a land where money rules and it makes my anti-capitalist heart deeply uneasy. I can't help but think about what that money could do to change people's lives, rather than changing one man's kit from blue to red. I don't think that the WSL will come to emulate the PL exactly, but I do think that there's a very real potential that it becomes its own capitalist monster.
That said, I don't know if there's any way of stopping this trajectory. And ultimately, at this current moment in time, increased spending is good for women's football in a lot of ways. It also widens the gulf between clubs who are willing to spend on their women's teams and clubs who are not. This is deeply disappointing for fans and players but also feels like an idiotic move by higher-ups. The train is clearly leaving the station and they need to be careful not to miss a valuable opportunity. But, once again, aligning the merit of the women's game with it's financial success makes me uneasy. Women's football was valuable in so many ways before record signings and attendances and before players were household names. The beautiful game has always been beautiful. I just hope those in the priveleged position of decision-makers don't forget this.