An episode from Women’s Football Weekly: NewCo, WPLL, and a WSL preview

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Hi, Football Weekly fans.

It is Max here.

We're going to drop the first episode of the season of the Women's Football Weekly into this feed.

It's here.

This is it right now.

Faker Others, Susie Rack, Salon Andy Hickman, and Tom Gary with a preview of the whole season.

So listen to it this second.

Thank you.

Goodbye.

Hello, I'm Faker Others, and welcome to the Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

Not much has happened recently, has it?

Oh, we've missed you so much.

We didn't miss Emma Hayes winning gold at the Olympics, or Alex Morgan retiring, the Lionesses qualifying for the Euros, or the shortlist for the ballon d'Or, whether we should care or not.

But we're focusing on the new season: season, big name transfers, deadline day signings, four new managers, and a new independent company that's taken over the WSL and championship.

We'll see how the teams are shaping up, make some no doubt terrible predictions, and decide if we can cope with the stress that is fantasy football.

All that, plus, we'll take your questions, and that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

What a panel we have for the opening pod of the season.

Susie Rack, happy new season to you.

Happy new season.

I already feel like I've done a season.

It's been a tiring pre-season of work.

So yeah, I'm ready for May already, which is not a good start.

Are you a player in disguise?

They hate pre-season.

Apparently so, I'll take it.

Tom Gary, a very warm welcome.

You've been busy breaking stories since joining The Guardian in the summer.

Oh, good morning.

It's so nice to be with you all.

Yeah, I'm really loving being with The Guardian and thank you for inviting me on to make my pod debut.

This is really lovely.

Oh listen, this is the first of many.

We've been very excited to have you on and also very excited to see Salon Andy Hickman.

I mean what a start to life in the FA Women's National League for Dulich Hamlet.

Oh thank you Faye.

It's good to be back.

I'm really really happy to see you all this morning.

Yeah it's been a wonderful start.

We have

yeah we've we've started strong, shown that we can we can compete in this league and it's really fun being in in the national league.

There is definitely a difference.

It feels

more professional, it feels more exciting, bigger attendances,

big teams.

Yeah, it's really exciting.

Lovely.

And producer Silas wearing his Dulwich Hamlet shirt as well.

In respect to you.

Right, listen, we are going to be focusing specifically on the football.

I mean, you know, the stuff that happens on the green grass.

And this might feel a little trivial to some of you who just want to talk about what happens on the pitch, but the magic that we see on a weekly basis only actually happens because of what goes on off the pitch and with the new Barclays WSL season kicking off this weekend there has been significant change in its management and organizational structure behind the scenes.

So just to, if you don't know, just to remind you, over the summer the Women's Professional Leagues Limited, as it's now called, formerly known as NUCO, you'll have heard us if you've listened to the pod before speak about that, it completed the takeover of the top two divisions of English football.

So the WPLL are dedicated to driving growth and maximising potential, placing players and fans at its core is what it says.

But Susie, can you try and give us a bit of an explainer on what this new independent company is?

What the latest is you've heard from them.

Give us a little bit more background if you can.

Yeah, the snappily titled Women's Professional Leagues Limited,

which apparently is just a temporary name.

Well, they decide what to do, but I find it quite slightly funny that they've not been able to come up with one that they really, really like before now, given that they've had quite a lot of time.

Slightly symbolic, I would say, given that we actually know sort of very, very little about what plans look like.

But I mean, they've got a

£20 million loan from the Premier League.

I think the first question that people have had is like where the money is coming from.

That apparently is a long-term loan on, quote, favourable terms.

I don't know what those terms look like, but it was

suggested to us that it's repaid over a long period of time and they have to hit various

sort of revenue milestones along the way.

But that it's very, very favourable.

Then that gives the Premier League a seat on the WPLL board and the FA have a seat on the WPLL board too.

So, you know, we have a little bit more detail than we had sort of at the start of the summer.

There's cons and pros to the league splitting away from the FA.

I mean, the pros is obviously the FA is responsible for so many areas of the game.

Like, it couldn't necessarily prioritise the women's game above, say, what, like, disability football, grassroots football, in a way that, like, at the stage the game has reached, it sort of needs to be.

It sort of needs to have, you know, people advocating it and putting it first.

We'd have reached a point at which it had sort of outgrown

the FA's ownership of it to a certain extent.

So now it's got a team of people sort of dedicated to

running it and advocating for it in important meetings, although it's not represented on the FA board or the professional games board yet.

Although I understand that discussions on that are still ongoing.

So yeah, like they're the sort of pros of it.

But there's also then a lot of question marks around like

whether they'll manage to negotiate a decent broadcast rights deal for next year.

Obviously the women's football calendar and the men's footwork, just the football calendar generally is really, really oversaturated.

So finding a slot for it has been really difficult.

They were completely rebuffed on the removal of the 3pm Saturday blackout for women's football to use it.

So, there's been a few frustrating things along the way as well.

And then, whether they can get the investors that they need to sort of invest in a sponsorship of leagues and cups and things, but also like investors that are wanting to invest in teams in the way that they'd like to see.

It's a little bit different from the States.

You know, you don't have a load of teams independent from Premier league clubs you've or big men's clubs so you know they're sort of semi-reliant on big benefactors like michelle can coming in and buying clubs but that's not really an option here in the same way that it is over there so there's like loads and loads of question marks still and very few answers but like i think the reality is is for now it's not going to look hugely different because they're not making any like sort of major changes to say promotion relegation or like you know

the size of the leagues or any kind of big things like that in a way that you know we may see further down the line.

But at the moment, I would say there's still more questions than answers, which is for me slightly frustrating when we've, you know, sort of waited this long for them to take over and take ownership of it.

I suppose that's a natural thing, isn't it, though?

You don't want to make too much change coming in and upset the balance already.

It's going to take a little bit of time.

By the way, PL could very quickly be replaced by Premier League, just saying Women's Professional Leagues Limited.

PL fits in there nicely.

nicely tom what do you make of the progress so far like susie did you expect it to be a little bit further along at this point well to be honest with you i i'm sort of on the fence with this because part of me did expect it to be further along and part of me also thought that the takeover to get to this point might take even further in the first place um i there is a strange sort of

difference I think across but what fans would want maybe and what the the the WPLL are going to be trying to deliver because I think there's a

there's a the subtle sense I'm getting from the new body that are taken over is that they're urging people to be quite patient.

They keep reiterating that it's a startup in Nikki Dousette's words.

She keeps using that term, almost trying to remind people that big success may be much further down the line, which is to a degree fair enough, but because you know how many big businesses make huge money in their first couple of years, very few.

But on the flip side, I think they do have to realize that the supporters and the clubs and the players are going to be very, very hungry for quick improvements.

And Susie alluded to that, the broadcast deal is going to be significant.

But there's been a few very subtle things that have been interesting in some of the messaging.

And I get the impression that they still see at this point, they still see the benefit of the reach of the sport on free-to-air as more valuable than the cash of a purely pay-per-view broadcaster.

So clearly that's not done or agreed, but I just get the sense from the some of the subtle conversations that that might be where they're leaning because they see the value in growing the sponsorship deals for sort of front of shirt sponsors, all the stuff all around the stadiums soaring if you're on free to air.

So I think where we might see a little bit more increase in revenue over the first 12 to sort of 18 months will be through some of those commercial dees.

I would expect over the next sort of season, I wouldn't be surprised if the league starts announcing

everything from a you know airline partner to a coffee mug partner to a window cleaning partner you know just every possible partner that you can imagine car all those different types I think we'll see that and I'm just curious to see where they're going to go with it I was having a conversation with somebody yesterday about whether they might are we're going to see some sort of equivalent of the drive to survive behind the scenes sort of doc about the the WSL that kind of what kind of access is there going to be because they keep talking about you know the product and the uniqueness of the WSL well then they're going to have to get that out there they're going to have to tell those stories so i can't help but wonder if there's going to be a few moves like that but as susie says right now we're still in a very early stage we don't know a lot of what their plans are i suspect they're doing a huge review the implication implication is i get that the first six months are going to be a lot of assessing everything and then they're going to come towards the end of 2024 and then be starting to make announcements about what they're going to do from next summer and that's when i think we'll start to see the big changes they're still hiring as well aren't they?

They're still hiring for a whole load of roles so I mean it's maybe a little bit unfair to judge them this early on when it's taken like a hell of a long time like Tom said to get the legal paperwork done for the the track the switch to actually happen

but yeah maybe maybe

maybe we should be kind.

Well, I definitely think we should be kind and wait and see what they're going to do.

What would you say, Salon, are the kind of key areas that

they need to focus on?

I think this conversation is really interesting because a lot of the assumption that we have about this takeover is grounded in

how quickly can they make a really big product that generates a lot of revenue that then is back into the game that makes a higher standard of football on a greater quality league.

And

I think we have to be careful in the conversation around growth for growth's sake.

And what's interesting here is there's almost like two tracks happening at the same time it's like we're looking at all the conversations and everything that

we seem to be grounding is about how we build this product and how we generate more revenue and that seems to be the conversation but at the same time is about the leadership and the people and the people making these decisions and I know they've got an all-women leadership team with lots of different experience and I know that they have a few appointments to the board and they appointed the previous Depop chief exec, I think, who sold to Etsy.

So you can kind of see that they're how they're building for like with the commercial lens.

Nikki Duset's appointment was about that explicitly, right?

The job description asked for a CEO with commercial experience and what better than investment banking and Nike if that's what you're looking for.

But I think those two things go hand in hand because the fan needs to feel and the media, everyone needs to feel trust in those people to make decisions

for the good of the game, not just for the good of the pockets of people who will benefit from this game, who may not know it very well.

And I'm not saying that they're doing that at the moment.

I'm saying that the two things are going hand in hand.

And because we don't know masses at this point and we haven't seen all the moves that they've made,

there is that question that remains.

And

I think as well, if you strip all of this back, like what actually matters to a fan, what matters to a fan is the ticket prices.

Are they still paying affordable ticket prices to go?

Is the quality of the game good?

Are their players safe?

Or are we making them go and play on freezing pitches and skate all over and that game goes ahead?

Like, what was it?

Was it Chelsea Brighton or Liverpool Brighton a few years ago?

Have you got are you surrounded by other fans?

Do the the crowdsizes feel safe for the stadiums that they're in?

Can you get food without having to queue for ages around, because you've outgrown that stadium?

Can you get the content and the updates that you want to see from your team and your club so that you feel informed?

They're the things that matter to a fan.

So I think what is interesting at this point, it will be

so tempting to say Nuco, isn't it?

R-W-P-L-L

making decisions that maximize that for the fan, the everyday fan, because the everyday fan isn't looking at who's appointed to your board necessarily, and they aren't thinking about who's in your leadership team, and they aren't thinking about how you're going to pay back the £20 million loan and what that means for the Premier League's power over the entity.

The fan just wants to have a good experience.

So, I think we won't see that until the league starts.

And if they get some of those early decisions right around, and people start to feel it, although Nikki Duset has come out and said fans won't feel too much difference, they'll just have more content, they'll be able to see stuff.

That's where the jury will be be out.

And I think it's up to us and others to keep an eye on and keep holding to account and being mindful of what the decisions are going on, kind of at board level, and the investment decisions that might come along the way, because that's where, yeah, you can kind of lose sight of what matters to a fan.

Yeah, I think that's really key, actually, because I think a lot of the time we get a bit bogged down by all the intricate and

detail because that is our job to then let you know, you know, what is going on behind the scenes and actually I think a lot of a lot of you maybe just aren't that bothered about the structure of it if that makes sense but it's important that we tell you how it's going to work because it could affect you further down the line sorry Susie go on so one of the things that I'm not totally sold on is this sort of like desire to build brands WSL like I don't know how much

how much is worth the effort of trying to grow the WSL as the brand itself Like people aren't going to go, oh, the WSL is so exciting.

I'm going to go and watch that.

But they will their clubs.

So I feel like that effort is where

things need to be is into club promotion because that is how you like the Premier League is the Premier League because of the clubs and the

support for the clubs.

in it.

Like that is why it's become the force that it has.

That is why it's become a brand in and of itself.

I think it'd be really hard to build brand Premier League before you built the clubs.

So I'm not totally convinced by that sort of like real like desire to grow brands WSL marketing strategy.

Yeah, it feels quite modelled on the NWSL, I think.

And on that point, I think the one bit of content that I've seen around the brand WSL and championship was the stakes have never been higher piece of content.

I don't know if anyone's seen it.

Just for those who haven't,

it is called The Stakes Have Never Been Higher, and it's about the leagues, the two top leagues this season start kicking back off again.

And the creative concept is 20 players going to the top of a building, like a high-rise, and kicking a ball around.

And I watched it and was like, what?

That doesn't make me excited as a fan.

It feels creatively flat

and

it feels slightly low budget.

It probably wasn't, but the concept of it, I was like, what's this telling me?

What's this making me feel?

How am I connecting to this as a fan watching Sam Kerr and Jordan Knobbs do keep upies on top of a high rise because the stakes have never been higher.

It felt, I was like, I don't know what this is trying to make me feel.

And I think if you're trying to build a brand of a

club,

of a league, sorry, there's so much more you can go.

I think of like traditional sky sports adverts when the Premier League returns in like the noughties.

Like there, that's the kind of feeling you want to invoke in a fan to get that real excitement.

And this feels a bit flat and not particularly nuanced or emotive in any way, really, in the storytelling.

And I thought that's what from

this appointment and this, everything they're talking about, product WSL.

I thought, well, that's where they're really going to blow it out of the water in the creative content.

So, yeah, jury's out on that one as well.

It's interesting, isn't it?

Because you mentioned the USA there and the modelling.

And Susie the other day put out a form getting you all to send in some questions specifically on Nuco.

And by the way,

we could easily have done an entire pod on, sorry, I said Nuco as well.

I've just done exactly the same salon, W-P-L-L.

It just doesn't roll off the target.

Do you know what, though?

What we can start saying instead, because we've got BlueCo now at Chelsea.

Have you heard about this?

Chelsea women have are now owned by BlueCo.

So just, we're just, if you, if you go to say Nuco, just remember we've all, we've always, we've now got Blue Co we can hang on to.

They have already achieved something impossible, that they have found a worse name than Nuco.

I didn't think they could do that, but they managed to pull it off in the first fortnight.

Well done.

Well, listen,

we've already spent ages talking about this, and we've got so much more to talk about because Susie sent out a form getting you to put in your questions on it.

And by the way, we are going to revisit this throughout the season so that it's not going to go away.

We'll keep talking about it.

We'll keep updating you on what's going on.

But some of you have sent some questions in.

And based based on what we just heard there about this kind of like modelling on the NWSL, this is one of the questions that we've had in.

And there's no names on a couple of these first ones.

So bear with me.

The talk of a more inclusive, almost US-style match day experience has worried some of us.

Do you have any thoughts on that?

One of the things I love about going to women's games generally is the lack of overt, aggressive, partisan behaviour.

Tom, do you want to take that one?

Yeah, I was at the opening game of the championship season between London, city linesses and newcastle and was really struck that there was quite a big deal made of the fact there was like a half-time dance show um by a local group um who were dancing a half-time i kind of got the impression that that sort of thing was going to become quite regular at london city and that perhaps maybe not necessarily dancing but certainly half-time entertainment might end up becoming a linchpin of the of the leagues going forward and some fans seem to really enjoy it but in answer to the that question i can understand why people quite like the lack of or perceived lack of aggression

in the crowd.

There's certainly no hooliganism from what I've seen in 10 years covering this league.

It's very, very rare.

And protecting that is important.

But then I think there'll also be a group of fans who don't want to be patronised into thinking that they're not partisan with their support for their club.

And they don't want to...

There's a lot of people who don't like the idea of being told they're a family-friendly crowd.

They quite like the rivalry and the the banter and and some of the um you know more

i can't think of the right word but you know some of some of some of that side of the game so

there's a balance to be struck there because you don't want to alienate different groups of people but at the same time you want to keep that element of everyone feeling safe and going to the game i suspect that we will see the league leaning much more towards an American model.

Some of the people involved at WPLL have spoken about trying to embrace Swifties and reaching out to the kind of that demographic who love Taylor Swift, which is a very broad demographic, goodness, because it's not, but

I get the impression they're going to be looking towards marketing the league to people who aren't necessarily your traditional die-hard, go every week football fan.

They have done a lot of insight research into who the fan is.

One of the first things they did was like,

let's understand who we could be marketing to here, which is what any good marketing approach should do, is ground it in the audiences you're trying to reach.

And they've come up with like three different types of fan.

It's like, I'm going to probably get the words wrong, but there's like a casual fan who's kind of into it because of the lion.

There's like a new market that's completely untapped that I think is like the Swifties that they want to go out for.

Then you've got like the fan who became a fan because of the lionesses.

And then you've got the hardcore fan who is probably more in our worlds, right?

Who would like the rivalry and partisan stuff.

So I think what they'll try and do is have a different approach for engaging those different audiences.

And obviously, the biggest market there that is untapped is the

whole audience that hasn't arrived at the WSL yet.

And how do you reach them is go to the things that they're interested in.

So you can see that kind of logic around

going for the swifties.

And I think where you will see the tension and the discourse will come out on social media is when the hardcores are being subjected to the things that are not actually marketed to to for them, they're for this big broad group that they want to get new feet through the door.

And that will be the tensions we'll see play out this season on Twitter and socials.

There'll be these fights over whether it's dancers half-time at London City Lionesses, or it's different endorsements we get from different people who might say, Well, they're not authentic in women's football.

That's where I think you'll feel that splitting a lot this season, which will make great social media content and everyone will get whipped up for about 24 hours, have a big fight over over what feels authentic to women's football and then another thing will happen and we'll all move on.

Yeah, I mean,

this is the issue, isn't it?

There may be trouble ahead, I think, is the best way to tee it up.

With change, there always is because everybody has their own opinion of what should happen and shouldn't happen.

Let's go through some of the other questions.

I'm going to focus on the National League in a second.

But this is an interesting one, Susie, from John Maclean.

Is it more important to make the WSL financially self-sufficient before expanding it no not necessarily I mean like what does financially self-sufficient mean because

I mean like obviously you know that's going to be a while off it's got this 20 million pound loan from the Premier League to pay off does that is that loan included in what you describe as financially self-sufficient a lot of men's clubs operate on the basis of huge losses.

Like, I think we spend a lot of time talking about self-sufficiency, but not much time talking about what that actually looks like or means.

I mean, I think it's important that it reaches a point where it's self-sufficient purely from the fact that, you know, clubs are so reliant and the league is so reliant on investment from the men's game at the moment that, you know, anything that impacts the men's game will knock on impacts the women's game.

I mean, I think that would happen regardless of whether they were self-sufficient or not to a certain extent.

in a pretty natural way.

But obviously there's a degree of protection there in being self-sufficient.

But, you know, I think expansion expansion shouldn't be held back by a need for self-sufficiency because, you know, expansion can help make something self-sufficient, right?

Like expansion can help bring in money.

Whether it's the right time to expand the Women's Super League now, I don't know.

I'd say potentially you could add a couple of teams.

There's, you know, some clubs in the championship who are doing some really good stuff.

But at the same time, like, we don't want to undermine the championship either.

So I think if you're looking at expansion of one, you've got to look at expansion of the other.

But yeah, I don't think that like expansion should be prohibited by

not yet being self-sufficient.

I think that's going to take an extremely long time to reach that point.

We've been asked about the time scale on that, and we just don't know what the time scale is on that.

Sorry, Tom, go for it.

I was just going to say something rather pessimistic, but it's not necessarily specific to the Women's Super League or Championships' ability to make money.

But I don't think it will ever be entirely financially self-sufficient in the same way that men's football is not.

And

an extraordinary amount of men's men's clubs lose money and my gut feeling for the future is that they will keep growing revenue and revenue will grow but so will wages and so will transfer fees and agents fees and that the extra revenue that the league starts to create will be spent on the top superstars in the same way and and then you can do a wonderful job of growing revenue in this league but if there is another club somewhere in the world who's willing to pay twice the amount to sign

a player from the top clubs.

They're going to up their game on the salaries.

And I suspect that's where we're heading and that that's just the cycle that football has been on.

And I'm sort of pessimistic that I don't think we're ever going to see clubs making a profit, but I don't mean that in that women's football will fail.

I just mean that people who want to win will always try and buy that success.

uh and therefore

the richer owners will always end up just paying the highest players the most money and winning it that way and And I don't think, yeah, this dream world where it's really, it's a financially sustainable league and lucrative league sadly doesn't exist because when does the next Saudi pro league come along and suddenly blow the landscape of salaries out of the water and suddenly everyone's paying more money for the players again?

So there is a bit of utopia about aiming for this financial sustainability and it might never be possible unless the entire culture of sports is rethought somehow a little bit.

Which is unlikely to happen.

Producer Sophie makes a really good point as well.

She says, Why do we always have to prove return on investment to be able to do things?

The men don't.

And that is very true.

They don't.

Listen, one last question because we have spent a long time on this.

It's from Ross Morton.

I think you're going to like this salon.

Is the sense from NuCo that they're looking to grow the game for the benefit of those who want to play and watch from grassroots up?

Or does neoliberal late stage capitalism mean that we're set to endure girl bossification dressed up as investment?

Side-eyes Kang's private jet?

Oh, it's good.

It's a great question.

I mean we are all at the mercy of the forces of late-stage capitalism in everything that we do and girl bosses they are a product of capitalism.

They are propelling capitalism and we are all just part of that big machine.

Just mere pawns.

And so is the WSO and so is the Women's National League and so is the championship.

And let's end it there, shall we?

Listen,

let's keep going with this conversation.

Keep sending in your questions on this.

If you want to know anything else, if you want a bit of background, Susie, anything to add to round this all up?

Nope.

Right, excellent.

That's it for part one.

In part two, we're going to look at how the teams are shaping up for the new season.

And we're going to wow you with our brilliant, always accurate predictions.

Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly.

Let's focus on the football, shall we?

And after what feels like the longest ever summer, the 2024-25 season gets underway this weekend with a pretty eye-catching schedule to kick us off as well.

Champions Chelsea start everything on Friday night against Aston Villa.

Manchester United host West Ham at Old Trafford.

While Brighton entertain Everton on Saturday, Arsenal play Man City in the early Sunday kickoff before Tottenham Crystal Palace and Liverpool-Leicester round off the weekend.

So let's take a look at how each club is shaping up ahead of what promises to be another fantastic campaign.

Let's start with the champions, shall we, and Chelsea, who are looking to make it six titles in a row after their final day victory at Old Trafford last season.

The departure of Emma Hayes has meant new beginnings for the club under former Leon manager Sonia Bambastor.

And with that, of course,

come quite a few unknowns.

unknowns.

Susie, question for you from It's Camille F.

They ask, what style of play slash tactical changes might we see from Chelsea based on Bon Bastor's tendencies as a coach?

And what team will be a surprise performer this season?

How do you reckon they're shaping up under their new boss?

That's a good question.

I mean, on the basis of preseason, incredibly well, right?

I mean, they had a really successful tour of the States, won both their games there against Arsenal and Gotham,

including Gotham, who are, you know, mid-season in the NWSL, and then have come back and have absolutely smashed Fenoid 9-0, I think it was.

And I mean, like, there's signs there that despite quite a high turnover in playing staff, as well as obviously the staffing changes, they

like have gelled really, really rapidly.

I mean, I think that speaks to the sort of quality of the players at their disposal quite a lot.

What kind of football can we expect expect to see?

I mean, I think that 9-0 defeat sort of or victory shows like you speak to Sonia Bon Pastor, and she's very much about dominating,

is the word she uses a lot.

They want to dominate possession.

They want to dominate time.

They want to

have a like real sort of attacking threat throughout the 90 minutes.

Like there's a desire there to sweep teams away.

Whether they can do that with the number of changes they've had, I think remains to be seen.

I think there's an incredible playing squad there that they've added to really, really effectively, despite losing some pretty big players that are sort of, you know, be influential.

You think of the likes of obviously Frank Kirby, but Mielda, Melanie Lupoles, Jess Carter, Anker Chimberger.

I mean, you think if you had said a season ago or two seasons ago that those players would be leaving, what state would Chelsea be in?

Would you be worried?

Most people would have said yes.

But like, I don't think anyone is

because the groundwork was sort of done almost before this summer in prepping the squad with a number of young players and blooding them in to sort of make those losses a bit less noticeable.

So I'm really struggling to look past Chelsea's threat this season as being as strong as it has been in previous seasons.

But yeah.

looking very very good and the fact that they've not had champions league qualifiers as well i think has really given them a bit of time to um to gel everything and sort of get everyone understanding what Sonia wants to do tactically and has injected some freshness into a team, I think, that was starting to look quite tired.

Yeah, and you know, you mentioned the outgoings there, but they have strengthened Tom as well over the summer.

Even more quality added to an already substantial playing squad: Lucy Bronze, Sandy Baltimore, Julia Bartel, just a few of the newcomers.

But, I mean, what do they specifically bring to Chelsea?

And most importantly, actually, with this kind of bloated, I don't want to use the word bloated but you know what I mean like bigger squad Sam Kerr and me official are on their way back from from injury how does Sonia Bombasto keep everybody happy because that's going to be really important that is one of the big challenges but

she's got good experience of of having to deal with that with with big kind of big name players in in Lyon I think so far

the kind of signs that are coming out from within the camp people you talk to is very positive in how they've taken to her methods.

In answer to your question about what the new signings will bring, I think it's very clear that Lucy Bronze, particularly, is going to just add to that winning mentality on like another level.

They've already been these kind of mentality monsters, haven't they, Chelsea?

But they brought in this sort of serial winning machine,

particularly when it comes to the Champions League.

And I think that that will be Lucy Bronze's kind of

experience in that dressing room for those European games will be absolutely huge.

And just if you're Arsenal and man city and you're sitting there and you didn't manage to beat chelsea last year when chelsea were the only team juggling european football and now all three of them will hope to be juggling european football i i think the more and more they're going to think that that was an enormous missed opportunity that if they couldn't beat chelsea in the league when they were the only ones who had the midweek extra games then then they've got a lot of catching up to do um it was very fine margins wasn't it with man city only on goal difference i think man city should have won the league last year uh if they'd kind of played their game a bit smarter against arsenal in that really decisive game parliament game of the season but there's still a big gap in the fact that chelsea are the team to beat and they've not exactly downgraded by getting sonia van pastor she comes across very well in her interviews in the press conferences and i think that they'll still be the team to beat the interesting thing is whether they can take the next step and win the Champions League because that's been the elusive thing for them.

But when you mentioned there about Sam Kerr Kerr going back into the side, maybe around

midway through the season, and I'm so excited about Mara Ramirez this season.

Maybe it's reading too much into the performance at Old Trafford, where she just sort of battery-rammed her way past the Manchester United defence.

But she was awesome.

And I know people have been very impressed with her in the preseason.

And I think she'll have a great campaign.

Yeah, let's speak Manchester City in a second.

But first of all, I just want to send Sophie Ingle all our best because she suffered an ACL injury in Chelsea's preseason game against Fire Nord.

By the way, interesting times at Chelsea behind the scenes, Kel Sapreeze, the co-owners wanting to buy each other out.

That could factor in some trouble at the top potentially this season, just to make you aware of it.

But let's see how they do against Aston Villa at Kings Meadow at the weekend.

Let's focus on Manchester City.

Gav Taylor's side pushed Chelsea all the way last season, as Tom just said.

But obviously, that injury to Bunny Shaw in the final weeks kind of caused them to stall at the final hurdle.

They'll have not been particularly happy to see that they've drawn Arsenal as their first game of the season either, bearing in mind what happened last season.

But they have had a pretty active summer window, which is very different to last season.

Seven new signings, a handful of departures, and Viv Miedemar's move from Arsenal was the one that caught the eye, I would say.

Jill Rawd's been pictured back in training as well after rupturing her ACL, but new signing Reese Shimazu suffered an ACL injury at the Olympics, so of course she's also in rehab and we wish her all the best as well.

Salon, this is a message from Hans Solow asking whether Manchester City have a depth problem.

Do you reckon they've got enough cover now to stop any injuries derailing their challenge?

Great to know that Hans Solo's tuning in,

first and foremost.

A depth problem?

No, I think the seven new signings really sets out their intent for this season.

I think, yeah, they

perhaps overperformed last season with the injury to Jill Rawd.

Jill Ward was their biggest signing, and she obviously ruptured ACL.

They still did really, really well in that season.

And now it's like, right, let's go for it.

We know what we can achieve.

I've actually got City down to win the WSL this season.

I think if they're going to do it, this is the time to do it because of the transitional, potential transition that Chelsea will face, although I think we could overstate how much that will actually affect them.

Not only have you got Meedermar in that squad now, I think for me

it's brilliant having creative players and goal scorers, but you have a backbone of like Hasegawa and Meedermar combining in a midfield to set off Bonnie Shaw, Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly as your kind of lethal front three.

Players like that really rely on the kind of creativity and service of people playing slightly behind them.

And if Midamar plays in that 10 role or just behind, I just think it could be completely deadly.

And if you can keep all of those players fit, I think that's one of the most exciting lineups in world football at the moment.

I also think they've been quite smart.

They had a brilliant breakthrough keeper last season in Kiara Keating, who was absolutely phenomenal.

But but you don't want her to drop off and they've signed Yamashita haven't they who is

another brilliant keeper so you keep that competition at the at the back for that spot and it's going to be really really important that they hit they are really solid at the back as well so yeah I think I've got to sit you down to win this year because if they can keep everyone fit I do think you've got some of the most exciting football being played there yeah definitely well let's see what happens in the opening game because they uh they're away at Arsenal a game that perhaps frustratingly is sandwiched in between two important Champions League fixtures.

That's the way this always seems to happen, isn't it?

But I suppose, Susie, it's good that it's exactly the same situation for both sides.

Yeah, I mean, it's quite an intense start, isn't it, to the season for any team.

And, you know, obviously, City have slipped up at this stage previously, like, not reaching the group stage because of being knocked out in qualifying.

It's tricky.

I think Arsenal may have a slight advantage in that sense, in that, like, obviously, they've played a couple of Champions League qualifying games already.

So, they've had competitive football before the season kicks off, which could maybe give them an edge.

But then again, like, you know, you look at the squad that City have, and they're training at a level that is probably pretty close to replicating that kind of environment against the kind of teams that they're coming up against in this these early stages of Champions League anyway.

So, it maybe it's an exaggeration to say that it will have a significant impact.

But yeah, I mean, that opening fixture is going to be really, really exciting and really like an opportunity to make a statement, particularly, I'd say, for Viv

returning to Arsenal on the opening day.

I'm going to call it the Midamar Derby from now on.

That's what it's called.

It's just going to be a bumper crowd as well.

It's going to be fantastic at the Emirates.

Just call it Suzanne's Tears.

Yeah, hopefully not for you.

I think she'll celebrate if she scores.

She doesn't celebrate when she scores anyway.

Definitely not.

They've had a quite quiet summer window, actually, Arsenal, Tom.

Three new faces, Mariona Caldente, Daphne von Domssela, and Rosa Cafahe.

We know that Yona Sidova likes a smaller squad, but have they actually done enough to compete on multiple fronts, do you think?

Yeah, I do think they've recruited.

very very well i i love everything that i've seen on a football pitch from rosa kafahe I think that's a really clever signing for the future as well, not just for now.

And Mariana Cadente brings this sort of stardust, this wonderful quality on the ball that I think will really help Arsenal.

And we've been seeing them building, but I do think now this is the time when Arsenal really, really have to deliver.

You've got this marvellous, large support base who are going to be packing out the Emirates for 11 games in all competitions at least.

You've got this potential in the team, so many huge name stars and I think the pressure is now going to be on them to to to really deliver and I don't know belittle the leak up but it needs to be more than just a leak up I think they they they will know that in themselves and I think Jonas Edovar will know that that the expectation is right up there that doesn't mean that you kind of have to you know have to win the league because all three of them are trying to win the league and all three of them it will I think it'll be very very very close So you know, but they need to be right in the mix right until the very, very end.

You know, if you miss out on goal difference, like Man City did last season, then I think you're absolutely gutted, but no one's sort of throwing shade at you for dropping off the title race.

But I think this season, Arsenal really, really need to deliver.

But they're in a great place to do it.

I'm so pleased with some of the business they've done.

I've been quite impressed with a few of the other players who've now had a bit more time to settle in.

Like Kadina's playing really well, for example.

And I think that we might see players like that really come

through.

And I would like to see,

don't know how much game time she's going to get, but I would love to see a bit more from Kathleen Kuhl as well in that kind of attack in midfield role

so let's yeah exciting times for Arsenal but and I think the other thing sorry one more thing on Arsenal that I think it would be really good to see this season for them and from England's point of view is Alesia Russo actually really in contention for the for the golden boot I think she started really well for Arsenal you know has done had a good good strong season last season But I think for Arsenal, if they want to be right, right up there, they'll need her to have that kind of 19-20 goal season.

And so, from an English point of view, I guess the fans will stay, fingers crossed.

Yeah, just a really quick one, Susie, on Kira Walsh and the reports of that world record bid.

What happened?

Fill us in.

Well, I mean, like for me,

it's a really clever move, right?

Like, similar to the Russo move last season, in that, like, you put in this massive bid for a player, you let them know they're really wanted, and then you can potentially pick them up on a free when they're looking around around at the end of the season.

But it really tested Barcelona, like a club that's like known for its financial struggles, resolve.

It shows how highly regarded Walsh is there, in that they, you know, clearly see her as pretty critical to their Champions League hopes if they're willing to lose her for a free rather than kind of taking

Spain reporting 1.1 million euros.

And it's an interesting move because Arsenal don't necessarily need her now, in that they've got Walty and Kim Little, who albeit have both had like injury troubles and you know Kim is on the older side as much as I never ever want to see her retire and you know we need to work on that cloning machine she would add a huge amount of depth in that area but they're not like desperate for it yet so like personally I think it was a really clever tactical move um in that it builds it up nicely for either January or the summer.

You know, best mate Lee Williamson is Arsenal as well, which helps the cause.

But I feel like it feels like quite a tactical move.

But like, yeah, put a bit of pressure on Barcelona, who don't necessarily get a lot of pressure.

So what we need is Barca to drop out of the Champions League before January.

That'd be great.

She'll come to Arsenal.

Perfect.

I'm sure that will happen.

Looking forward to that game between Manchester City and Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday.

Now then, Liverpool, major disruptors last season.

Matt Beard guiding his side to an impressive fourth-place finish, which I don't think any of us tipped, surprise, surprise, at the start of the season.

He's gone for stability in his playing squad, but they did break their own transfer record buying young Canadian star Olivia Smiths.

Let's not get too carried away, Salon, I would say.

But how do you think your Liverpool side are going to fare this season?

I think Matt Beard proves that he knows this league really, really well, right?

He knows what needs to be done and he clearly can build a brilliant culture and

get his younger players really fighting and put and back that team right and I think Liverpool will be disappointed I think if they're not up there disrupting as much as possible and I think I think that they finished on points closer to winning the league than they did being in the bottom half of the table last season and for me like that's a sign of intent and it also is a bar that is set really high for them this season.

Can they meet it?

They have lost one of their,

I guess, scout stars in Missy Bocairns going across to Villa, which is a really interesting move.

And I'm excited to see more of her playing at Villa.

But I think under a Matte Beard team, you should never write off in this in the WSL.

And I think they'll probably, yeah, they could finish anywhere between fourth and kind of seventh, right, in that gap.

And they'll probably be disappointed with anything less than kind of fourth, fifth.

Yeah, they've got a new home as well, which is exciting.

They've moved from Prenton Park to St Helens Stadium over the summer, improved the players facilities the match day experience as well which is good news and they open up there against Leicester on Sunday let's move on to Manchester United a disappointing league campaign in the end for Mark Skinner's side last time out although you know a first ever FA Cup win kind of softens the blow I would say but it has been a little bit of a mixed summer The club's largest minority owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, made waves, various comments that he's made about the women's side the team had to spend a chunk of pre-season at st george's park while you tom reported that back in june they'd actually been moved into portable buildings to accommodate uh the men what what is going on at manchester united at the minute It's such a mixed bag, isn't it, at Manchester United?

There's kind of so many good things and so many really, really bad things that you're sort of all at the same time thinking like, what is going on?

A complexity.

Let's just start with the week that maybe set the tone for the summer when they won the FA Cup brilliantly, and then six days later, they lost 6-0 against Chelsea.

And it sort of feels like the summer has been a little bit like that.

They've had, like, they've done some really good things in the trans window, like holding on to Grace Clinton, huge big tick, great success.

That's a future superstar for England who they said is our player.

We're not losing her.

But they also lost.

Mary Earps, Wow, Katie Zellum, and Nikita Paris, three of the biggest names and kind of most loved players in the squad, and particularly Earps, as an organisation, to let EARS go for a free was a real colossal failure.

So, goodness, we could be here for hours talking about them, but it's just been a really mixed bag.

But I think they have recruited quite well.

But do I think they'll be in the mix for the title?

The answer is no.

I think there's something really interesting about losing those players.

Garcia is also in that pot of players that they've lost.

For me, that's probably your highest wage bill.

They're the players who are either going to be demanding the most money or they're unable to pay them that.

So

that would follow suit with the rest of what is happening at Manchester United, which all we're seeing, if you're an athletic subscriber, all you get is an inside leaks basically from Manchester United, right?

And how everything is being deprioritised.

You're getting club emails that are saying, you know, you might not have your job in a couple of weeks.

That is the path that it's following.

The women, from everything that we've seen, are at the bottom of the priorities pile for the ownership.

And they're therefore losing their big names because they can't probably or don't want to pay them as much.

That upsets your fan base.

Will people still come and watch?

Will you generate any income?

I think they're going to be, they're already making a loss on that team and that's what the ownership hates.

So I think it's going to be an absolute shambles for Man United this season and maybe I get a little bit of joy in that because of being a Liverpool fan since birth.

But I think other teams will smell blood.

You're losing those players.

You haven't got that spine of of a team of senior players anymore.

You know that they've been bouncing around different training grounds over the summer.

I think Mark Skinner probably isn't a good enough manager for a club of Man United's prestige, if you want to be challenging.

But I also don't think he will, I think he will remain in a job because I'm not sure there's enough scrutiny or kind of accountability over the women's team.

I don't think

there's a genuine care from a performance side of things.

So I've probably got, I think I actually, when I did my predictions, I've got them finishing ninth and I will go on record.

I think it's going to be a really difficult season for Man United.

Wow.

I mean, I'm also kind of just going for vibes, shouts on here because when I was doing all my prep yesterday, I'm reading all the brilliant, detailed expert previews in The Guardian by the three people who were sitting on this Zoom call who are clearly...

What else can I add other than vibes?

I'm just going to go for controversial shouts.

because Susie, Tom, and producer Soph have got actually all the information that you need.

Go and read all their previews.

And I'll just say things like, Man United could get relegated or finished next.

And you are about to get bombarded on social media.

Bring it.

It's interesting, though, because

Sejin Ratcliffe has essentially openly admitted that the women's team aren't a priority for him.

There's sort of a weird...

irritating but refreshingness about how honest he is about that.

He's been

saying it out loud that they're not his priority, which is sad sad to hear, but it kind of at least he's not like pretending that he cares and sort of paying it lip service.

But the good news is that from the conversations I've been having, Omar Barada, the new CEO, and Dan Ashworth, the new sporting director, do care about women's football.

I'm sort of, I've got a growing optimism maybe for the longer-term future that things might get sorted out.

But they really have to sort out the structure of who runs and how the women's club is run.

They're so disorganised in the transfer market.

And the goalkeeper situation is such a good example.

obviously the big story in summer was married's departure everyone was expecting it for months and months and months everyone apart from it would seem the recruitment team at manchester united who were still scrambling around to try and find a goalkeeper on deadline day and didn't get one now the good news is they have one who's excellent i think uh valentalis joyce will be a really good number one for them this season and that was sort of the succession plan that some people had but if that was your plan to make her the number one then you need to sign a new number two of a high caliber and they didn't do that so they did to lose the inland goalkeeper and not sign any goalkeeper and still be trying to sign one on Deadland Day and failing is just a great sort of symbolic image of the chaos of the recruitment over the last maybe four years.

And there's been so many recruitment things that haven't worked out.

If you think about Irene Guerro, great, exciting signing, it didn't work out.

Jemma Evans, they signed last summer only one year, didn't work out.

She'd gone to Liverpool.

Fielder Boerisa.

And I think we could point to a lot of recruitment failure.

And that's the thing they've really got to sort out because the recruitment at Chelsea and City and Arsenal is light years ahead in terms of their organisation.

Sure, money helps with that, of course, but they just need to get ahead of the game a little bit more in their succession planning and be thinking, okay, that player's contract's coming up next summer.

We need a plan the year before.

And that those conversations need to start happening because there's a lot of potential there.

So many great, exciting players.

I'm so excited by the progress that Meila Tissier is making.

She's still so young.

You know, Grace Clinton's, I think, Jay-Z.

I think she'll, now she's settled in England.

I think Jay-Z could have a fantastic year.

There's great potential, but it just needs

not that every club in the WSL can't have Paul Green, all of them sitting as like head of football, but you kind of, I wish there was somebody of that ilk for the fans at Manchester United who deserve so much better, you know, to see someone running it in a bit more organised way.

Yeah, absolutely.

I agree with that.

Hopefully that's answered Sue Klesnik's question.

She wanted to know whether United had replaced Zellem Garcia in Paris adequately.

It's the organisation, though, isn't it, and the long-term planning that's important.

Elizabeth Turland in there and Dominic Janssen as well, a defender and a goal scorer.

So, actually, maybe ninth is a little bit harsh, Salon, when you look on paper at the players that United still do have.

But anyway, they face West Ham in their opener.

Susie, I'm going to make you talk about Tottenham.

I'm very sorry.

They were another team that caught the eye last season under the stewardship of Robert Villihan.

They reached the FA Cup final for the first time.

The Spurs manager then rewarded with a new long-term contract.

And they have added to their squad over the summer.

England youngster Ella Morris has arrived from Southampton.

Maite Oros from Real Madrid is with them.

And Australia Internationals Claire Hunt and Haley Rasso are also incoming.

But as you heard there, they have had to say goodbye to loan signing Grace Clinton, who'd had a brilliant impact on loan last year.

They did want to keep her, but ultimately United wanted her back, and you can see why.

They're also going to be without Kit Graham as well, who is another casualty of this growing pre-season ACL injury list, which is just bonkers always.

Susie, do you reckon they've got sufficient cover for those players?

How are Spurs looking this season?

I don't know what you're talking about, Faye.

I love Tottenham.

I think Robert Williams is great and the players are lovely.

Someone's going to clip that up, aren't they, and just have this on repeat.

Susie going, I love Tottenham.

I love Tottenham and it's going to like drive me insane for the rest of my life.

But no, I actually think they've recruited pretty well.

Like they've not done a huge amount of business in terms of incomings, lots, lots of outgoings.

But I think they have strengthened to a certain extent.

I mean, I think the biggest loss is Grace Clinton, without a doubt.

Like, keeping her was, you know, the dream, but I don't think United were ever really, realistically going to let her go.

It was inevitable, really, that she was going to leave.

But in terms of the others, I think they have actually done a fairly decent job at

sort of replacing them.

Metu Oroz is like deadline day signing, I think, is a really, really good, good coup.

Haley Rasso brings a ton of experience.

Claire Hunt, brilliant.

Ella Morris, like you ask some of the other players in the Spurs squad about her, and they're just like flawed by her.

I was going to say her pace, but it's not quite her pace.

It's her like her engine.

She's like, she just keeps going and going and going.

She's got like stamina.

That's the word I was looking for.

Like, no, tomorrow.

So there's like some actually really, really good players that they've brought in.

When you speak to Robert Villihan about it, it, he talks a lot about consciously not wanting a high turnover this season because they had quite a high turnover last season and needing to keep some level of stability

amongst the squad.

That said, they've had so many players leave that there is inevitably going to be a fair bit there.

But yeah, he was trying to limit that, which I don't think is a bad strategy because, generally speaking, when you've got a team that finishes, like has a great season, finishes a

decent level in the table,

as we saw, you know, Everton do a few seasons back back when they finished fourth as we saw united do a few seasons back when they finished fourth obviously spurs didn't finish fourth but you know had that great fa cup run to the final um you sort of get this like desperation to bridge that gap with the top three immediately and try and bring in a whole load of players that are going to put you up there with them and then like a high turnover when you've got a squad that is actually you know, developing something quite special can lead to quite a big rupture in the dynamics of the group and the playing style.

And you're sort of back at square one and it it doesn't necessarily work out.

So the sort of long-term strategy of slowly building up the squad,

it's not the perfect squad.

It's not going to necessarily do amazing things, but it will like kind of gradually build up if they're given if he's given the time to do that.

Yeah, they open up at home to newcomers Crystal Palace, which I'm sure they'll be eyeing up as a good opportunity.

We'll talk about Palace shortly, but it is the start of the Robert DePow era at Aston Villa.

I just keep thinking about Topow every single time I see his name written down.

I know that's ridiculous,

but

maybe you're all too young to remember Tapow.

China in your hand?

No?

Maybe?

The Dutch manager arrived in June after Carla Ward departed at the end of last season.

I mean, the good news for Villa fans is they have managed to keep the core of the squad together, I suppose.

Salon enjoyed a decent pre-season as well.

But what do you make of their chances on improving on last year, which was pretty difficult i would say well they've got something to prove definitely they were a little bit of a victim of their own success from the the previous season where they had this yeah brilliant season of overperformance took lots of points off the big three and really competed up there then completely plummeted things just didn't seem to go right for them and you'll get within that you'll get a lot of them those more senior players, more experienced players and the hungry, ambitious ones who are really disappointed with that and will have a jip on their shoulder to have to prove something this season.

So, yeah, I think it's exciting.

You've got Katie Robinson and Missy Bocairns in there now.

So, I think that is, you know, they're showing intent with those signings, and they feel like the right kind of level of signing that Villa want to make to set that intention for this season.

So, I know I keep referring back to this, but I've got them finishing seventh this season.

You're jumping ahead to the predictions.

I'm going to ask you in full at the end, seventh.

Okay.

That's when I'm going to get cancelled.

So,

I'm just drip feeding them slowly.

A quick one, Tom, because

Sacha Grahi, I'm so sorry if I've pronounced that wrong, sent us a message on X asking whether or not, you know, selling two top keepers in Hannah Hampton and Daphne van Dompsela in two successive seasons mean are they just kind of a selling club or do they have ambitions of their own?

They've certainly got ambitions of their own, but I think they have been slightly naive over the last few years with the kind of release clauses they put in the contracts.

I think particularly with Van Donsala, it just seemed a little bit too easy.

And it was very similar with Laura Blinkilda Brown when she was snapped up by Man City.

I think there was a lot of frustration at Villa.

They allowed both those players

or release costs to be a bit too low.

And they just got a bit stung.

However, to answer that listener's question, I think Sabrina D'Angelo is a...

perfectly strong and really good replacement for Van Donsala.

So I would urge Villa fans maybe not to panic around the goalkeeper department.

Where I am surprised with the recruitment, especially being good like this summer, from an attacking point of view, is that I'm surprised there's not been more defensive recruits in the summer.

Like, the problem for me last season watching Villa was that they were really struggling at times to defend.

I thought some of the defending was really poor sometimes, and that doesn't seem to have been an area they've hugely prioritised to address, you know, in terms of the back four or strengthen much this summer, whereas they've signed lots of quite exciting players players going forward.

So I kind of, I'm a mixed bag with Villa as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing them going forward.

I'm looking forward.

I think that Bocairns could thrive in this team.

I think we could see Katie Robinson doing really well, but I'm just a little bit of a question, Mark, about their defending.

Yeah, I can see that.

Good news is for Villa fans, every Bartlins WSL game is going to be played at Villa Park this season, which is great news.

Everton's financial situation continues to cast a shadow over them.

Brian Sorensen's side, actually impressed last year, despite the lack of money and a severe injury crisis as well.

The loss of striker Martina Piamont and Swedish international Hannah Bennison have been balanced out with a number of arrivals.

Nigeria's Tony Payne has joined, Spanish youngster Inmar Gabaro and Viatriki Sari as well.

How much optimism do you think Everton fans can have this season, Susie?

Or is this just a case of surviving because of what is going on behind the scenes?

I think the latter to a large extent.

I mean, they're so hamstrung financially by the situation above them and off the pitch that like it's it's really difficult.

They were operating on a really, really small budget.

The squad is thin, right?

It was thin last season and they got through to the end of the campaign sort of intact to a certain extent.

But like, I mean,

surely, surely they can't have the injury crisis that they had last season.

Surely lightning won't strike twice in that sense.

If they have any kind of like number of injuries in like even like half the scale of what they got last season, then they're going to be in real, real, real trouble.

And I like I am quite worried about them.

They're losing their best players year on year and just don't have the financial clout to be able to kind of replace them.

at the same level immediately, obviously getting in some, you know, fairly decent WSL experience and some good youngsters, but that's sort of not enough, really, when you're looking at, you know, kind of how other people are operating around them.

I went to watch Everton play on Sunday against Liverpool in a pre-season friendly, and two things were really striking.

One was, as Susie says, the depth in the squad, because what happened, Everton were the better side I felt for the first hour.

And then they did that thing in friendlies where they all make loads of subs.

And Everton brought on a load of young kids, and Liverpool brought on some very strong, experienced, and good quality players.

And they, you know, their depth was clear and they their subs made them by far the better side in the final 25 minutes and so that's that was really evident but on the flip side early on in the game that i was seeing real improvement from everton and the key thing they've done in the summer is that they didn't have any pace last season really when the way they try to play football they really rely on being having acceleration and pace to get in behind teams when they when they get the ball and they didn't have any last year but in signing tony payne particularly and Mel Lawley but certainly in Tony Payne that's really changed and that was really evident in the first half at St Helens on Sunday they they had a real threat with her pace and that made them look very different as an attacking attacking unit so I think they've there's caused a positivity for Everton in in that what they've they found a couple of bargains there in McGabaro looks like a very talented player I haven't got them in the relegation battle, but I certainly don't have them in the top half.

Okay.

Well, that's reasons to be cheerful, I would say.

They faced Brighton on the opening day.

There's been a revolving door down on the south coast this summer.

Ten new faces have come in with just as many departures.

But some of them, Salon, have really caught the eye, named in inverted commas,

if you like.

Frank Kirby, Nikita Paris,

Yelena Chankanovich.

The Seagulls have also welcomed in a new manager, Indario Vidisic.

He's made the move over from Melbourne City.

Question for you.

Tim Joshua says, Brighton have made some interesting signings but what are your predictions for them?

Top half of the table?

Good cup runs?

All of the above?

What say you, Salon Andy Hickman?

Top half of the table.

I've got them finishing sixth.

I really, really want Brighton to do well this season.

I think they're a very well-run football club.

They are building.

They are aspirational.

They want to be challenging at the top.

And their signings reflect that.

Signing Fran Kirby, Nikita Parris is

I don't know if you'd have sat here and asked us five years ago where would Fran Kirby and Nikita Parris end up playing at one point in their year, you wouldn't have probably had Brighton in that list.

So that shows a real sign of intent.

Also signing Michelle Aguman from Arsenal will be, she's on loan, right?

But to watch her play and get some minutes in women's football, we saw a little bit of her last season.

That is a wonderful signing as well, I think.

So even though they've lost Herland and Katie Robinson, I think this could be a really good season for them.

And a new manager wants to build in their image.

And this is them doing that and saying that still.

So I think they're going to do quite well.

Ah, excellent.

Reasons to be cheerful for Brighton fans, too.

Leicester City are another club welcoming in a new managerial face.

Orandine Mikkel has made the move to the Foxes after impressing during her time in charge of Stad de Reem.

There was a recent media day, wasn't there?

And Mikel said we can expect fun from her new side, which is probably much needed after the disruption of last season, I would suggest.

What did you make of the appointment, Susie, and the recruitment that she's done?

She seems a pretty exciting person in that, you know, every single player you speak to talks about how hilariously funny she is and you know that they're really enjoying working under her.

They've made some decent signings in the transfer window.

You know, the likes of Asmita Ale coming in from Spurs, who I think confidence was a little bit knocked by, you know, sort of not getting enough minutes at Tottenham like now looking a little bit rejuvenated uh at Leicester Ruby Mace like really really shrewd signing you know one of the sort of ones to watch a couple of seasons ago sort of slightly stagnated at

City but comes in with the experience of having been in that environment and played with those players week in week out

you know she's bought in players from France from Fleury from Staderim like by all accounts her recruitment in France was very, very strong.

So, like,

there's some really, really good signs there.

And they've got the facilities around them to kind of build a really, really

special environment.

So, I think people could sleep on Leicester a little bit.

Yeah, I think they could be quite exciting this season.

There's a fair few players that have gone out, but I think their recruitment could be

really, really smart.

They were one of a handful of teams that went on high-profile pre-season tours.

They travelled to Western Australia, taking part in the Perth International Cup.

They lost on penalties to Manchester City, beat West Ham.

I think we'll have a discussion about preseason tours another day in terms of their benefit or not.

Rhiannon Skinner's West Ham also spent part of their preseason in Perth as well.

They're another side that have seen significant turnover.

Seven players have left.

And Skinner's put that down to the prevalence of short-term contracts in the WSL.

Some interesting comments from her.

It's a conversation I had with the club, she said, something we needed to iron out and put in place.

Short-term contracts have been an issue for sustainability.

What did you make of her comments, Tom, and what do you make of their recruitment?

I think she was making quite an important point, but I almost, it felt to me as though it was more pointed towards the West Ham board and West Ham as a club rather than more broadly at the women's game.

I'm a little bit worried about West Ham.

12 months ago, I predicted they would be, you know, right down there in 11th, and that was one of the only things I got right.

And I think they'll be right down there again, to be honest with you.

I know we can't read too much into preseason friendlies because everyone's at different stages with the fitness, but I watched Leicester against West Ham, not in Perth, unfortunately, but on television.

For those who didn't see the game, it was 5-2 to Leicester, but the two goals West Ham scored from Vivian Assay came quite late on in the game as sort of consolations in stoppage time.

And when it was 5-0, Leicester were really good value for that 5-0 lead.

It could have been 7 or 8.

And it was partly because Leicester were playing really exciting, attractive football and Mamiki was on Great Four and Ruby Mace was dictating everything.

And there was some lovely, intricate football from Mikel's side.

But then also it was because West Ham were just all over the place at the back.

There's a perception from when you talk to agents and maybe recruitment staff at other clubs, they don't think West Ham are shopping in the same supermarket as the other teams in the WSL.

And I think there's a slight lack of desire from the club, which is evident in how few games they played at London Stadium, for example, in the last five years.

I I sense there's a slight lack of willingness to throw investment into it.

They may well find themselves right in the mix of the relegation battle with Palace.

It's very hard to make a case for Brighton or Villa or Liverpool or

any of the other kind of mid-table top.

I mean, you can't make a case for them getting relegated.

So if there's anybody who might get sucked in by Palace, I'm looking at West Ham.

Okay.

Well, let's look at Palace because last but not least, we're not putting you in the bottom for that reason, Crystal Palace.

I promise.

We've just gone in order from last season as to how the table finished.

And, you know, we kind of anticipated a busy summer with the club making the step up from the championship.

Katie Stengel and Josie Green were brought in alongside my Kato and Lexi Potter.

But just how difficult, Susie, is the step up from the championship to the WSL and how do you think their recruitment's been?

It's a huge, huge gap.

And it's going to be really, really difficult to make that leap up.

That said, I think their recruitment has been really, really smart.

Not just in the you know, the players that you mentioned that they've signed, but also the loan signings of like Georgia Fox, Brooke Aspin, Lexi Potter, Poppy Pritchard, like bringing in players who have been in and around top environments that are hungry to prove themselves to their parent clubs.

That's proved really fruitful in the past.

When you think of like Aggie Beaver Jones' loan at Everton and things like that, you

teams who pick up some of these young players, you have a really good shot at making something happen with them.

That said, obviously, that's not a long-term strategy, so you sort of need those

more permanent deals alongside that.

And I think they've done that to a decent extent with, you know, like Katie Stengle and stuff.

But

yeah, it's going to be really interesting.

And I like if I completely agree with Tom, if I'm West Ham, I'm really, really worried looking at the business that Crystal Palace are doing relatively.

Yeah.

Okay.

So that brings us to our quickfire predictions, which is going to go one of two ways.

And I would suggest probably

a bad way.

Tom, just to let you know, you need to try and improve the predictions on this pod because we are terrible.

We have a very, very bad track record.

So you need to be the outlier here.

This is really quick.

I need you to be super, super quick for me.

Salon, who's going to win the league?

Manchester City.

Susie?

Chelsea.

Tom?

Chelsea.

Who's going down, Salon?

Everton.

Susie?

West Ham.

Crystal Palace.

Just.

Just.

Who's going to be the best signing?

Nikki de Paris at Brighton.

Through my tears with Miedema.

Mouchon by Leicester.

Ooh.

Who's going to be top scorer?

Bunny Shaw.

Ramirez.

Bunny Shaw.

Okay, notice how I did not give my predictions.

I'm always wrong, so it's totally pointless.

I will give them.

I will give them next week, but we're running out of time.

Just some any other business before we go.

Two weeks into the Barclays Championship season, Charlton are the early front-runners.

They had a great season last season, didn't they?

Under Karen Hills.

Backed up an opening day victory with a 1-0 win over Sheffield United at the weekend.

Elsewhere, London City beat Blackburn 2-1 while Southampton earned a 3-0 win away to Sunderland.

Durham beat Newby's Portsmouth 3-0 while Bristol City played out a goalless draw with Birmingham at Ashton Gate.

We've touched on the FA Women's National League with Salon.

It's also in full flow.

Started back in August.

Newly professional outfit, Nottingham Forest, leading the northern premiere.

Well, there's a four-way tie currently at the top of the southern premiere.

Middlesbrough lead the division one north, Loughborough Lightning, the Midlands Division, Norwich, the South East Division, and Swindon Town, the South West Division.

And Salon has said how much she's loving it already.

Quick one from Hatters in England.

A question for you, Salon, very quickly.

Where did you you begin your football career?

The Mighty Luten town.

Oh, yeah.

Excellent.

Thank you.

We've had FaZe question.

Oh, yeah.

That's FaZe's burner account.

Yeah, it's my burner account.

Absolutely.

Elsewhere, the UEFA Women's Champions League round two gets underway this week.

Arsenal are away to BK Hacken.

Manchester City face Paris FC.

And we also say goodbye to Rebecca Welsh, who hung up her refereeing boots after a trailblazing career.

The first woman to ever referee a Premier League match, has moved into an off-pitch role at PGMOL.

She's going to be manager of the select group Women's Professional Game.

No doubt we will hear from her very, very soon.

By the way, just join us, please, in taking part in our fantasy league this season.

Susie Rack set this up.

You need to go to fantasywsl.net.

Our code is GuardianWomen's Football Weekly, as in Guardian WFW.

Robin Moorman has sent us a message saying, I'm in need of some Play Fantasy WSL help.

Any hidden gems expected to shine this season?

Susie, bearing in mind you've put us through all this torture we're going to experience for the next nine months.

You can give us your tips.

I don't think anyone wants my tips ever.

Like, I think that's a terrible idea for anyone.

I mean, I've gone with a very safe front-free of Ramirez-Meaden, sure.

So, you know, let's see if anyone takes my lead.

But yeah,

I expect to finish bottom of the league.

How have you got the money to do that?

Good planning.

You've just got no one in defence.

I'm much, much better at managing my money than Everton and West Anne.

I need to do mine today.

It's on my list of things to do.

Listen, it has been a pleasure, all of you.

Salon, good luck at the weekend.

Thank you so much.

Back to Cambridge.

Cambridge United away.

Come down.

Woohoo.

See you soon.

Tom, solid, awesome, wonderful debut.

We shall see you soon.

Lovely to to see you all.

Take care.

Susie, I've missed you so much.

It's good to have you back.

I know, right?

We've haven't seen each other for ages.

It's too long.

It's too long.

We shall get our heads together soon, no doubt.

Keep having your say as well by sending in your questions via X or emailing us at women's football weekly at theguardian.com.

And as ever, a reminder to sign up for our bi-weekly women's football newsletter.

All you need to do is search Moving the Goalpost, sign up.

And in this week's edition, Anita Asante looks at what it takes for a club to win a league title.

The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Silas Gray.

Music composition was by Laura Iredale.

Our executive producer is Sal Ahmat.

This is The Guardian.