Last week, a player exodus at Liverpool continued apace as their two-times title-winning captain Gemma Bonner switched to Manchester City. Something is seriously wrong on Merseyside – of the starting XI that faced Chelsea, the Women’s Super League 1 champions, on 20 May, just three players remain on the books. The departure of Scott Rogers and the arrival of the former Rotherham manager Neil Redfearn from Doncaster Rovers Belles, the WSL2 champions, seems to have come too late to steady the ship.
There were high hopes for Liverpool for the 2017-18 season, a feeling that they would be involved in the small group looking to challenge the growing might of Chelsea and Manchester City, yet they never got out of the blocks.
By Christmas, they were third with three wins and two losses, three points off unbeaten Chelsea and City and two points ahead of Reading and Arsenal but having played a game more than them all. Not long after, there were rumblings that Rogers had lost the dressing room.
Liverpool’s season whimpered to a close with back-to-back losses against Reading and Chelsea leaving them a disappointing sixth, 16 points off the leaders. It was their inability to compete against the five above them that ultimately sealed their mid-table fate – losing eight games and winning two.
Before their final game of the season, against Chelsea, the first fall-out from the lacklustre season came when the experienced England goalkeeper Siobhan Chamberlain announced she would be leaving and she voiced her frustration in a statement posted on Twitter: “This season has been a frustrating one for me personally and professionally. With next season being my 20th year in senior women’s football, it’s important to be in an environment that challenges me every day and one where I can enjoy playing football.”
Her not-so-veiled attack included thanking the fans and her teammates, with Rogers notably absent. She added: “I also want to know that I am part of a project that is doing the most it can to develop the women’s game.”
The restructure of women’s pyramid has given departing players more power. With West Ham and Brighton joining the fully professional top flight and Manchester United promising a professional set-up, and targeting quick promotion, there are clubs ready to snap up players with WSL experience.
Chelsea and City have started to pick at the bones. Bonner is the second player to join City after Caroline Weir, a long-time target, was snapped up by Nick Cushing, who is keen to improve his squad’s depth, and Sophie Ingle, the Wales captain, has rejoined Chelsea five years after a season in south London.
Also announced as departing from Liverpool – destinations unknown – are the defenders Amy Turner, Martha Harris, the England international Alex Greenwood and the WSL 1-winning midfielder Kate Longhurst.
With the club’s top scorer, Beth England – 10 league goals, third in the league – likely to return to parent club Chelsea and the experienced Casey Stoney having retired mid-season to join Lionesses backroom staff the number of senior departures is up to 10.
If Redfearn is hoping to promote from the development squad he faces a challenge. Broken promises and Rogers’s dismissal of the majority of the coaching staff ruffled a lot of feathers. As a result, there are a number of rumoured exits at that level – the England Under-19 and Under-20 goalkeeper Emily Ramsey, a product of the Manchester United Centre of Excellence, has already announced her departure. With seven teams in relatively easy travelling distance now offering at least semi-professional football, the competition for youth signatures is fierce.
With disillusionment in Rogers, who was assistant to Matt Beard during the 2013 and 2014 title-winning seasons, many will wonder whether Liverpool should have parted ways, or at least announced that it would be his final season, sooner to ease concerns. Clinging on to the manager and his set-up for so long has seemingly driven many out and any promise of change at the top has not worked, with five players leaving after it was announced he would depart.
It may have been hoped that bringing in Redfearn, who was well liked at Doncaster, would stem the flow. Instead, Bonner and Ingle have gone since his arrival. Moving to Liverpool represents a step up for Redfearn – he will be working with a professional set-up in the top flight – but he has one hell of a rebuild on his hands. The former Barnsley midfielder is playing catch up as most other sides have their business well under way, though he is unlikely to have taken the job without being giving assurances on transfers and budget.
With competition for players, young and experienced, fierce, looking abroad may well be his best option, with playing in a fully professional league an attractive proposition. Whatever the 52-year-old does, he needs to work quickly – Liverpool have failed to answer any of the questions from players and fans on strategy or put out an explanation regarding the huge number of players leaving the club. This is a transition period on a colossal scale and how any pieced together Frankenstein team does next season is impossible to guess.
Talking points
• Katie Zelem has revealed she has left Juventus after winning the title with the team in its maiden Serie A season. The 22-year-old joined after four years at Liverpool, where she scored 10 goals in 38 games. Zelem is a product of Manchester United’s Centre of Excellence and a return to the new senior side wouldn’t a be surprise.
• Milan and Roma have said they will have teams in Serie A for the 2018-19 season. Milan have bought out Brescia’s league license – with the team forfeiting their Champions League spot as a result – while the new Roma side with be coached by Elisabetta Bavagnoli, the former Italy international and Canada assistant manager .
• The former Chelsea left-back Claire Rafferty has followed goalkeeper Becky Spencer to West Ham after 10 years with the Blues. She will undoubtedly bring a wealth of experience to Matt Beard’s side as they embark on their first season in the top flight.
• Yeovil have recruited the Millwall Lionesses manager, Lee Burch, to lead the team in their first fully professional season. Burch was named 2017-18 WSL 2 manager of the year at the LMA Awards and takes on the role following the departure of Jamie Sherwood.
• The 30-year-old Kayleigh Green has joined Brighton from Yeovil after her contract expired at the end of the season. Green scored two of Wales’s three goals in their win against Russia last week.
