With the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League play-off against Belgium under two months away, manager Carla Ward would, no doubt, have been keeping a close eye on the transfer window in England, where most of her squad play.
By the end of last season, she had a cluster of players who were left without clubs, and a fair few more who had been getting limited game time. Her hope, then, would have been for fresh opportunities to arise so that her players are in good nick by the time those home and away legs come around.
On the whole, she’ll be happy enough with how it all panned out before the window closed on Thursday in advance of the season kicking off this weekend.
While Irish representation in the Women’s Super League is now at its lowest for many a year, Ward would prefer to see her crew getting plenty of playing time in the WSL2 – as the Championship has been renamed – rather than bench-warming in the top flight.
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There were 15 Irish players with WSL clubs last season, 12 of them making appearances in the league, but it’s down to nine this time around, with just six of them likely to get regular first team football.
Katie McCabe (Arsenal), Anna Patten (Aston Villa), Courtney Brosnan (Everton), Heather Payne (Leicester City), Leanne Kiernan (Liverpool) and Caitlin Hayes (Brighton) should all see plenty of action, Payne having joined Leicester from Everton during the summer.
But teenage goalkeeper Katie Keane, a summer signing from Shamrock Rovers, will probably have to bide her time for a chance at Leicester, as will 18-year-old Eve O’Carroll, who was blighted by injury last season at Manchester City. Megan Walsh, meanwhile, is likely to be understudy again to West Ham goalkeeper Kinga Szemik.
It is in the WSL2, though, that 19 of Ward’s players will be on duty this season. You’ll recall the days of “SundIreland” during Roy Keane’s reign as manager there. Well, the club has been greened again, five of their women’s squad Irish internationals.
Marissa Sheva, who signed for them last March, has been joined by goalkeeper Grace Moloney, who had been released by London City Lionesses earlier in the year, Jamie Finn (from Birmingham City), Izzy Atkinson (from Crystal Palace) and Tara O’Hanlon, who is on loan from Manchester City until January.
O’Hanlon’s progress will be of special interest, the 20-year-old full-back having had no luck with injuries since joining City in January of last year. Finn is on the comeback trail too from an ACL injury, while Atkinson had a miserable time of it with Palace last season, when they were relegated from the WSL, failing to start a single league game for them.
Hayley Nolan and Abbie Larkin remain at Palace, their hopes of a quick return to the WSL boosted by the fact that there are two automatic promotion spots this time around, with the third-placed team going in to a play-off against the WSL’s bottom side.
Lucy Quinn and Lily Agg just missed out on promotion last season with Birmingham City, so will hope to crack the code in this campaign, although Agg is still on the road to recovery from an ACL injury. Ziu is much further ahead in her rehabilitation from the same misfortune, so will look to push on during her loan spell from West Ham at Bristol City where former Irish under-19 captain Lia O’Leary is a team-mate.
Tyler Toland swapped Blackburn Rovers for Durham this summer, with Chloe Mustaki leaving Bristol City for Nottingham Forest. Mustaki will have Jessie Stapleton for company at Forest, the 20-year-old set for her third loan spell in the WSL2 after previous shifts with Reading and Sunderland. A sign of how highly West Ham rate Stapleton, though, is that they extended her contract before she left for Forest.
After being released by Manchester United, Aoife Mannion joined Irish team-mate Emily Murphy at Newcastle United, goalkeeper Sophie Whitehouse remains at Charlton and two more players left the League of Ireland for the WSL2 during the summer, Kiera Sena (Cork City to Southampton) and Joy Ralph (Shamrock Rovers to Sheffield United).
Two of Ward’s veteran players have, though, yet to find new clubs – Ruesha Littlejohn, who left Shamrock Rovers in June, and Megan Campbell. Campbell was appointed assistant coach at fifth-tier Bolton Wanderers during the summer but still hopes to carry on playing at a higher level. Both players are free agents, so can be signed outside the transfer window.
Emma Byrne, meanwhile, will remain part of Ward’s coaching staff despite being made head coach of third-tier English side Lewes.
On the eve of the new season it was announced that minimum salaries are being introduced for the first time for players in the WSL and WSL2. No figures have been released yet, but Holly Murdoch, the chief operating officer of WSL Football, told the Guardian that the salaries would be sufficient to ensure that players won’t need to combine their football with part-time work.
