“Honestly, I would love to hear a male football player speaking publicly about the situation”, Italian defender Elena Linari defiantly tells The Cutback. “Men have a bigger platform than we do. Just one player can make the difference.”

The London City Lionesses player is speaking just as the 2026 World Cup kicks off across North America and and as endless headlines fill the news about extreme temperatures and hydration breaks.

Linari, who has become one of the most prominent player advocates on environmental issues in football, believes male players have the influence to force meaningful change. The 2026 World Cup will be played across 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Several host venues are expected to experience very high temperatures, while the expanded format requires teams to travel thousands of miles between matches. Across most of the host cities, temperatures have already hit mid-30 degrees celsius and they will be expected to stay that high throughout the tournament.

Linari worries that the hot conditions could pose significant risks to players: “They will be playing in extreme temperatures, and the three countries are so big that it’s like travelling all around the world. They are having to readapt themselves to different temperatures, altitudes and time zones every couple of days. After very long, hard seasons already, how can your circadian rhythm understand where it is?”

Beyond player comfort, research has linked extreme heat to increased risks of dehydration, heat illness, fatigue and soft-tissue injuries. Linari argues the quality of football itself could suffer: “I believe football can bring happiness to people, but at the moment, I don’t think the player is coming first before the money. These are human beings who need to be healthy and be safe. How can the game be good if players have no energy, if it’s too hot or if they’re getting injured?”

Her fear is not new. Linari was one of 106 players who signed an open letter during the 2023 Women’s World Cup urging Fifa to reconsider its sponsorship deal with Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil company. The fossil fuel entity is currently a sponsor for the 2026 and 2027 tournaments.

Addressed to Fifa president Gianni Infantino, the 2023 letter read, “as the largest state-owned oil and gas company in the world, Saudi Aramco is one of the corporations which is most responsible for burning football’s future”.

She adds, “we even have a group chat called the ‘Aramco girls’ and we are not happy about the situation.

“When we wrote the Fifa letter in 2023, it was all women and I thought that maybe no men would follow us. Instead, some did. Unfortunately, these players are not the most popular male players in the world- they’re not a Ronaldo or Messi- but they are using their voice. I hope more male players will join us”.

Three weeks ago, Linari signed a new petition along with several men’s footballer to bring attention to this issue once again.

Last month, 20 international scientists joined the call for action another warning that Fifa’s current heat safety guidelines for the 2026 World Cup are '“inadequate” and exposure players to dangerous heat stress. They have called for Fifa to improve cooling facilities, lengthen cooling breaks and make the rules clearer for delaying or postponing matches due to extreme weather.

Concerns are not limited to researchers. During the 2025 Club World Cup in the US, Chelsea’s Enzo Fernández described the conditions as “very dangerous” after suffering dizziness while playing in extreme heat. The risks identified by players and researchers are already being felt on the pitch.

Linari says time is running out to intervene, “when the World Cup happens, we will likely hear people complaining about the extreme weather, but complaining after or during is too late. You need to do it before.”

The 32-year-old is also an ambassador for Football for Future, the non-profit using football as a vehicle to tackle sustainability issues. Through interactive workshops, they deliver climate education to players and clubs across all levels of the game. They released the Pitches in Peril report, which included over 100 pages of research and findings into the climate issues of this World Cup, including the detailed risks facing the tournament’s host venues. Their conclusions show that “14 of 16 World Cup stadiums already exceed safe-play thresholds for at least 3 major climate hazards- including extreme heat, unplayable rainfall and flooding.”

For Linari, the conversation extends beyond a single tournament. She believes football is only beginning to confront the long-term consequences of climate change and argues that governing bodies, clubs, players and fans all have a role to play in responding to the challenge. At her own WSL club, she has encouraged small but significant sustainability initiatives, from reducing unnecessary laundry loads to holding conversations with nutrition and catering staff about food waste.

Looking ahead, football is under threat. According to Football for Future, around 120,000 grassroots matches are cancelled in England each year because of adverse weather conditions, raising questions about how climate change could affect participation in the sport and player development over the coming years.

Linari emphasises the future in her advocacy: “I’m not working for myself, I’m doing it for the younger generation. We need to educate people.”

She pauses before returning to the responsibility she feels as a player. “I want to help. If I have to be one of the firsts, I will be there for my teammates, future football players whether that’s men or women. As an athlete, honestly, I think this is my role.”

When you think of goals and Manchester United, there’s only one player that comes to mind.

Elisabeth Terland has topped the team’s scoring charts for the last two seasons, since her arrival from Brighton in the summer of 2024, and quickly become an integral part of United’s attacking line.

Now, having just completed an international window with Norway, Terland is facing a summer of potential change, as reports indicate the 24-year-old could be leaving United in the coming months.

Terland’s contract was initially due to expire at the end of this season, but in January United triggered an option and extended it to the summer of 2027.

It’s not surprising that clubs would have their eye on the striker, as she’s been one of the most consistent No 9s in the WSL in recent years.

Terland made the move to England from Norwegian side Brann in 2022 at the age of 20. She knew it was the right time to move, with Brighton being the first destination. “I felt ready when I moved and I think that showed in my performance and my ability to adapt to the league, I was ready”, she tells The Cutback, speaking from Norway’s most recent international camp.

In her two seasons on the south coast, Terland scored 20 goals in 39 WSL games. Also picking up the Brighton player of the season award for the 2023-24 season.

Those performances caught the eye of United, who secured her signature in June 2024. Making the move from Brighton was the “perfect” choice, with United needing a centre forward with league experience.

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England signed off their 2025-26 campaign with a 3-0 win against Ukraine at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Tuesday night. The result wasn’t enough to see the Lionesses automatically qualify for the 2027 Women’s World Cup as Friday’s heavy defeat to Spain in Mallorca means that two rounds of two-legged playoffs must be navigated in order for Sarina Wiegman’s side to book their ticket to Brazil next summer.

This is the first time in nearly 25 years that England have failed to finish top of their World Cup qualifying group. Europe’s qualification system has proved much more competitive than previous cycles as only the top four teams in League A of Uefa’s Nations League have automatically qualified for the tournament.

In the end, 15 points from six matches, and the third best record of any team in League A qualifying, was not enough to secure a spot at next summer’s World Cup. With the margin of error so thin, last Friday’s 4-0 defeat in Spain - the heaviest of the Wiegman era - was enough to resign England to the playoffs. For what it’s worth, England did their job against Ukraine with relative ease thanks to goals from Jess Carter, Georgia Stanway and Beth Mead. The routine nature of the win, as well as the 6-1 win in the reverse fixture and victories against Iceland (2-0 at home, 1-0 away), on top of a Wembley win over Spain, should provide sufficient encouragement that the the Lionesses can navigate whatever is thrown at them in the playoffs.

With a two-legged tie against one of these League C minnows: Lithuania, Kosovo, Hungary, Greece, Romania, Belarus, Croatia or Kazakhstan, lined up in the first round of the playoffs, the real challenge will come in the following round, where possible meetings with one of Belgium (ranked 18^th in the world), Portugal (22^nd), and Switzerland (26^th) are among the trickier options from a pool of 16 possible opponents that also includes the likes of Scotland and Wales.

Wiegman was calm and confident when discussing the prospect of facing the playoffs, saying after the Ukraine game: “We have a team that is very good, and we know what we have to do, so I’m very positive that we’re going to qualify anyway”.

England are far from the only big name trying to qualify through the playoffs, with the likes of the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy and Norway among others also looking to qualify via this route, though it is worth noting that none of these teams can draw each other in the playoffs. Beyond having to wait to secure their place in Brazil, another implication of being in the playoffs is that the four matches England are involved in will take up two international windows, and while it could be argued on the one hand that more competitive matches are a good thing, it means that England will not be able to arrange friendlies against top-class opposition until 2027.

The first round of playoffs, in particular, could allow Wiegman to experiment with less experienced players. Up until this point, her squad has not had a huge amount of turnover since the 2023 Women’s World Cup. This first phases of qualifying has seen opportunities handed to the likes of Laura Blindkilde Brown and Lucia Kendall in midfield, while in defence Maya Le Tissier and Lotte Wubben-Moy, both experienced players at club level who have sometimes found game time hard to come by at international level, have been given significant minutes. As Wiegman tries to find a balance between continuity and change, the playoffs will give a further opportunity to refine her squad for what everyone of an England persuasion hopes will be a tournament summer next year.

Before then, England must ensure they avoid the ignominy of failing to qualify for a major tournament. The last time they suffered this fate came 24 years ago, when they lost to France in a playoff ahead of the 2003 Women’s World Cup in the US. A repeat of that sort of outcome, almost a quarter of a century on, would be unthinkable.

England suffered their heaviest defeat of the Sarina Wiegman era on Friday night, losing 4-0 to Spain in Mallorca.

The result leaves the Lionesses staring at the prospect of finishing second in their qualifying group and navigating their way through the playoffs in order to qualify for next summer’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil.

This was the fifth time since February 2025 that England and Spain had met each other and the eighth time overall in the Wiegman era. Not counting penalty shootouts, the previous seven meetings had seen three England wins, two Spain wins, and two draws.

That Spain won on the night, evening up that record in the process, shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but it is the manner in which they demolished their opponents that offers cause for concern from an English perspective.

In England’s 1-0 win at Wembley in the reverse fixture, last April, the Lionesses drew plenty of praise for their defensive resilience. Spain dominated possession that night, seeing 64% of the ball, but struggled to create clear-cut chances against a well-drilled England team.

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The NWSL season just entered its CBA-mandated summer break, which means it’s a good time to take stock of the table. Each team has played between 11 and 13 matches, enough to really start to show their quality, or lack thereof. Even though the expanded league and early break mean the season isn’t yet halfway done – each team will have played 30 games by the season’s end – it’s not entirely too early to predict which might be the eight teams that make the playoffs.

In answering that question, I sought historical context. I looked at the standings after approximately (more on that soon) 12 games for the last four years in search of how much the standings tend to change after this point in the season.

Turns out, not a lot. The teams above the playoff line after around 12 games from 2022-2025 were exactly the ones that ultimately did make the postseason, with just two exceptions: Angel City, which was in 10th place after 12 games in 2023, replaced the Washington Spirit above the line come playoffs that year. In 2024, it was also the Week 12 10th-place squad, Bay FC, that rose above the line by season’s end, while Racing Louisville sank below it. The other combined 26 teams above the playoff line after around 12 games from 2022 to 2025 all qualified for the playoffs. 12 games, it seems, can indicate a lot about how the rest of the season goes.

Before we run with this trend, there are caveats to discuss.

Because of the men’s World Cup, continental tournaments, and expansion teams, this year’s schedule is less balanced than in some previous years, and teams have played different numbers of matches. Two teams have played 13 games, six have played 12, and eight have played 11. That’s an average of 11.625 games played (GP) per team, which rounds to 12, our magic number.

In 2023 and 2025, every team played their 12th game in the same week, but both 2022 and 2024 also had uneven GP numbers. For those seasons, I found the table that had the best approximation of 12 games per team. In 2022, it was the 17 July table, when teams had played an average of 11.67 games. In 2024, teams played an average of 11.71 matches on 9 June.

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The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has experienced rapid growth in recent years. As many as seven new teams have been introduced to the competition in the last six years, with even more to come. When the Atlanta and Columbus franchises join the field, the league’s size will have doubled from nine teams in 2020 to 18 in 2028.

Simultaneously, the competition has seen significant changes in its regulations. The NWSL has always been a unique league among global frontrunners thanks to its intricate squad-building and financial mechanisms, but many of them have been altered or even entirely abolished in recent years. The new high-impact player rule has been making headlines this year, but the biggest game-changer came with the 2024 collective bargaining agreement, which marked the end of player drafts, among other things.

This move was widely welcomed as it addressed long-standing concerns about players’ agency over their careers. At the same time, it also created an entirely new set of challenges for the fresh entrants in an ever-growing league.

The 2024 expansion sides Bay FC and the Utah Royals benefited greatly from their ability to select proven NWSL players through the expansion draft, as well as the cream of the collegiate crop with the first draft picks. When the next two teams joined the competition just two years later, those avenues were entirely gone.

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WSL Football has signed a three-year deal with Airbnb, the global travel platform, The Cutback can reveal.

The partnership, which will be announced this week, will see the creation of a new £1-million Airbnb Player Accommodation fund to support players when relocating during the transfer window.

WSL and WSL2 players will be eligible to apply for $2,000 (£1,500) of Airbnb credit to be used towards a stay when signing for a new club, moving on loan or as a free agent. They can receive the credit once per season and must apply to WSL Football to receive the grant.

Speaking exclusively to The Cutback, Zarah Al-Kudcy, WSL Football’s chief revenue officer, said the idea for the partnership was formed after it became clear there was a lack of support for players when relocating between clubs, and Airbnb often being used as a temporary solution.

“We all agreed relocation, because the contracts are shorter in the women’s game than the men’s game, that can mean that a lot of players move quite a lot. Moving house can sometimes be the most stressful thing and that shouldn’t deter from having to establish yourself at a new club, get to know a new city, and that’s why it worked out”.

While clubs do support players with temporary accommodation, this deal will help ease the pressure on player support budgets.

Airbnb has a similar partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC), which sees the platform distribute grants to athletes to support training and travel around the world. Airbnb has pledged to commit over $40 million in travel grants until 2028.

WSL Football hopes that the fund will also eventually be extended to coaching staff across the WSL and WSL2.

Alongside the accommodation fund, Airbnb will work with clubs and supporters’ groups to create experiences and accommodation options for fans as WSL Football continues to build away-travel culture across its two leagues.

Airbnb has built an experience offering in football through its multi-tournament partnership with Fifa. The catalogue of events that customers can book include a watch party with former UWSNT players Abby Wambach and Julie Foudy, training with former Argentina captain Javier Mascherano and a tour of the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

Airbnb, who join as official accommodation and unique experiences partner, become the latest premium brand to join WSL Football’s roster of sponsors, alongside Apple and Mercedes-Benz.

Al-Kudcy believes the recent movement of these brands is a result of wider sponsorship trends across sport: “I think it’s a reflection of women’s sport, not just women’s football, because we look at the partnerships in the WNBA, the NWSL, they have similar premium brands coming in. I think that is a reflection of how those brands see women’s sport as servicing their target customers.

“Most of them also want younger, more female demographics, and that’s why we’re really good fit. I think we’re in a really good moment in time, Mercedes also invested heavily in WTA [Women’s Tennis Association], where these big premium brands understand that sport is where they can have a stickier customer base, and women’s sport serves them better than men’s sport does.”

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Chaos, laughter, goals, and iconic walk outs, four things guaranteed at World Sevens and this year’s edition in London was no different.

Manchester United entered this year’s tournament as “OG’s”, as manager Marc Skinner referred to them, after they finished as runners up in the first edition of the tournament in Estoril last year. United earned $1million (£743,000) for losing the 2025 World Sevens final, but this year’s prize money was cut to $250,000 for the runners up.

On the pitch, United cruised through to the final, scoring 22 goals in the opening four games on route to the final. A 5-2 win over Everton set up a final with Chelsea, the fifth meeting between the sides in the 2025-26 season. A new format but the same final outcome, as Chelsea won the game 6-5, coming from 4-1 down to claim the tournament win and $500,000 prize.

Despite coming second gain, there’s something about the World Sevens that brings the best out of Manchester United. The vibe of the tournament suits this team on and off the pitch. Even Skinner got involved in the walk-ons last week, recreating Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance with his squad ahead of the final.

While sections of the fanbase are undoubtedly still skeptical about Skinner being the right manager for United, relaxed and funny moments like we saw at World Sevens help bridge the gap, showing the squad’s human side.

Speaking to the media on Friday, Skinner was asked if he’d like United to feature in World Sevens every year, “yeah for sure”, he said. “It keeps evolving, I love the music, I love to feel the vibe, so that’s why we definitely will come back.”

Striker Elisabeth Terland also shared how much the squad were enjoying the experience: “We’re just having a great time together, it’s lots of fun. The more goals we can score the more fun it is, mainly for the celebrations”.

Staff, players and fans have all embraced World Sevens, but why does this tournament appeal so much to United and also bring the best out of the team?

Players thriving

An issue United had throughout the 2025-26 season was decision making in-front of goal, with many opportunities in the final third ultimately coming to nothing. This was not the case during World Sevens.

Three of United’s forwards made it into the tournament’s top five players for goal involvements. Jess Park with 9, Terland 7 and Malard 6. United’s attacking play was electric, with finishes seemingly effortless. The confidence was flowing through all the players, with United scoring the most goals out of any team in the tournament.

Eleven-a-side football and seven a side are very different, so its no surprises that United enjoyed the freedom and confidence that came with this tournament. There wasn’t the usual pressure, players had the freedom to make runs and movements off the ball that we hadn’t seen throughout the latter part of the season. The quick transitional nature of how the games played out suited United’s attackers, with less time to think on the ball and more instinctive finishes.

Terland reflected on this during the tournament, telling reporters, “the preparation is different, it’s more fun and we’re just vibing. As little serious as possible which is helping us”.

Can it translate to 11 a side?

Despite the format of the games being different to a traditional 11v11 game, there are tactics and qualities on the ball that can be transferred back to help the team next season. The smaller pitches allowed players with better close control to flourish, while improving these qualities for players who aren’t as strong on the ball.

Due to the fast pace of the games, with each half only being 15 minutes, players have to think quickly on the ball, and passing combinations need to happen in tight areas. United look suited to this format, with multiple players looking comfortable on the ball in these situations. This can be a foundation to take back to the 11-a-side game and start forming the partnerships on the pitch - allowing the players to take ownership and have the freedom in attack to roam and cause opposition defenders problems with quicker and smarter movement.

Assistant coach Carl Green shared his insights with the media on Saturday, saying: “It transfers when breaking teams down, we faced that quite a bit this year. It’s at times when we’re having to beat teams a little bit deeper. So I think that kind of combination play, moving off the ball and linking play, something that we’ve definitely highlighted we want to really work on and go through preseason. So it’s a nice transition for us into that”

The togetherness of this United squad has never been in doubt. It’s a trait which certainly has pushed the team above expectations over the last couple of years. After a poor end to the season, winning just one of their last 10 games, a fun tournament like World Sevens was perfect for players and fans to reset. It was three days where the noise was put to one side, with personality, attacking flair and vibes taking over. A much needed reset for all involved and it’s no surprise that staff and players would like to return to this tournament in future editions.

The North Carolina Courage defeated Angel City 2-1 on Sunday to secure their third straight win, taking momentum into the league break for the men’s World Cup, while the Los Angeles side fell apart late once again in a contest that displayed signs of the types of teams these sides have been.

The Courage were “forward-leaning”, as coach Mak Lind frequently calls for, sometimes to a fault, while Angel City failed to be clinical in the most important moments.

Ashley Sanchez was the catalyst for the Courage’s opening goal in the 48th minute, making a run before playing a centering ball to Manaka Matsukubo, who played it in to Evelyn Ijeh for the tap-in.

Angel City responded in the 51st minute when Jun Endo drew in a crowd of defenders towards the flank and laid the ball back to Evelyn Shores, who whipped a ball into Maiara Niehues for a headed finish into the goal.

But the Courage won the game after scoring in the 79th minute, when Matsukubo slotted home a low finish past Angelina Anderson.

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My mum loves Watford Football Club. They don’t love her back. She goes anyway.

We always meet at the same place and time before home games: Charlie’s Cafe, 90 minutes before kick-off. She wants to be in her seat by the time they play Your Song by Elton John over the PA. Her eyes light up every time she hears it.

Our ritual, built around men’s football, brings her joy like little else. And until recently, there was no hope of changing it.

Watford FC Women have spent the last 12 years touring local seventh-tier grounds in Berkhamsted, Kings Langley and Uxbridge, mostly in front of low three-digit crowds. But in March this year, the club took their first baby steps to modernisation, finally allowing their women’s team a run of fixtures at Vicarage Road to honour their WSL2 promotion charge.

They played those games in front of small but enthusiastic crowds – and it’s no wonder they were small. One solitary email reached my inbox regarding the change. It landed at 3pm on Friday afternoon, two days before their final home game.

To single Watford out for treating their women’s team as a secondary concern would be tremendously unfair. This is just one small example of an endemic problem blighting the club game in every major women’s football market.

It is one of many issues tackled directly by The Cutback’s inaugural report on the state of women’s football in 2026: From visibility to viability: A blueprint for the next phase of women’s football.

The Cutback From Visibility To Viability (1)

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The report is built on broadcast, sponsorship and attendance data going back to the 2018-19 season, as well as interviews and surveys with 47 executives and experts working in and around women’s football.

The vast majority of those 47 respondents told us that improving matchday attendances is the key to kickstarting a new phase of growth for women’s football over the next 10 years, but that urgent work is required across all areas of the ecosystem to make that a reality.

There is no doubt that women’s football has become extremely good at selling big occasions. Millions tune into major tournaments across the UK, the US, Europe and Australia. Tens of thousands pile into stadiums for Champions League knockout rounds and marquee domestic fixtures.

Yet, with only a few exceptions, only a small fraction of those people have embraced the weekly grind of women’s club football, both in-stadium and on TV.

One interviewee provided the clearest summary: “We don’t have a problem with people coming once. We have a problem with people coming twice.”

Visibility and awareness was seen as a problem largely solved across major women’s football markets, with growing participation among girls often cited as the strongest evidence of that fact. However, far too many of those girls attend one club match per season – often a marquee game at a large stadium – and don’t return for less glamorous fixtures, which are often held at lower-tier stadiums on the edges of a team’s catchment area.

Respondents said that women’s football is played in very few “right-sized” stadiums, with clubs often given a stark choice between a 50,000-seat stadium and a lower-tier ground with barely 2,000 seats. Broadcast executives said this is having a huge impact on how women’s club football is perceived. If 25,000 attend a match in a 50,000-capacity stadium, it looks and sounds half-empty. If 4,000 people fill a fifth-tier ground, it looks and sounds like a fifth-tier match.

The sport desperately needs a middle ground: stadiums that give elite athletes an elite stage, while also giving supporters and viewers a chance to create an atmosphere. Brighton’s proposed women’s stadium came up again and again in our research, less as a template for every club than as a sign of the kind of thinking now required.

Sooner or later, women’s club football is going to need its own facilities to thrive, not least because of the scheduling problems it faces. Women’s football is always fighting to fit into gaps in the men’s football calendar, often at the expense of matchgoing fans.

Sunday lunchtime and 2pm kick-offs in the WSL may look good to a broadcast executive, but to the hundreds of thousands of girls playing football on Sunday mornings, it makes attending a match that much harder.

Midweek European nights in the Women’s Champions League are a direct inheritance from men’s football, but several respondents questioned why these are necessary, with short domestic league seasons theoretically making weekend UWCL games much easier to schedule.

Not every match can be scheduled perfectly for the current primary audience of women’s club football: families with children. However, respondents told us that reducing the target audience of women’s football in this way is a limiting approach. Families have given women’s football much of its warmth and early momentum, and the LGBTQ+ community has helped build atmospheres that feel more open than many spaces in men’s football.

However, respondents believe that women’s football – especially women’s football clubs – are missing a trick by not heavily marketing to teenagers, millennial professionals and existing men’s football fans that have been priced out of watching their team every week. Currently, many of those men are drifting away to local non-league football clubs without much protest from their old clubs, whose women’s sides would kill to have them attend.

That ambivalence is also cited as a major issue for women’s club football, with many male club CEOs across England, Europe and further afield still unconvinced that women’s football is worth paying any attention to. Many reported that efforts to improve the women’s side of the club comes from the bottom up, rather than the top down. None of the respondents said this as a good thing.

When the impetus does come from the top down, success stories have been made. Arsenal, Lyon and Barcelona dominate the European arena thanks to well-funded and well-cared-for women’s football teams. Other well-funded clubs, like Real Madrid, receive little more than subsidy.

The NWSL was cited consistently as a useful reference point for European club football, albeit with the caveat that the closed US system provided advantages for those wanting to invest heavily in a club over the longer term.

Europe shouldn’t import the American model, but the work done to build fanbases, brands and marketing lists from scratch now stand NWSL clubs in good stead for the future – they have grafted and learned how to sell women’s football to a brand-new audience, something that most European clubs still have little interest in doing.

However, there is good news. Women’s football is still growing. Brands still want to attach themselves to the game and are learning, slowly, that they can get return for their investment if they stay the course over a long period of time.

The millions of girls watching women’s football around the world will one day grow up to make their own choices with their money and time, and provided that matches continue to be made widely available, a tidal wave of new fans willing to pay to watch will sweep through over the next 10 to 20 years.

In the meantime, there are people in every football club’s orbit that could be convinced to make women’s football part of their ritual.

Some will be young enough to build that habit from scratch. Others, like my mum, need more of a nudge than a Friday afternoon email.

This was Spurs’ best WSL season yet. It did not have the highs of the 2024 FA Cup run, but Martin Ho’s side were consistent and ended the campaign with flair, leaving fans excited about the future.

Spurs racked up the team’s best WSL points return (36), four higher than the previous best (32 in 2021-22 under Rehanne Skinner). In doing so they equalled their previous best WSL finish (5^th). To cap it off, the side finished the season strongly with wins against the two sides lying immediately below them in the table (London City Lionesses and Brighton and Hove Albion).

Off the pitch Spurs remain an incomplete project. Attendances at Brisbane Road have stagnated, while they have fallen at the main stadium. The season also ended with the exit of Andy Rogers, managing director of the women’s team. After an aborted attempt to appoint a director of women’s football earlier this year, strategic business decisions about the women’s team now seem to lie within the remit of the incoming club-wide director of football operations, Rafi Moersen.

In this context, recruitment of both coaching staff and players appears to be reliant on the manager’s network and (evident) pull. This has borne fruit: Signe Gaupset’s recruitment is a case in point, as is the rumoured summer signing of Kirsty Hanson (who worked with Ho at Manchester United), but is hardly a sustainable long-term strategy and risks sacrificing diversity.

Did the season go to plan?

The short answer has to be yes. Ho arrived in pre-season and has clearly (over)achieved the targets set him by the club.

It’s worth remembering that in their last 10 games of the 2024-25 season Spurs picked up just three points, and in the summer transfer window signed only two players. Therefore, even though Spurs have previously fluctuated between good and bad seasons (with the ‘second-season dip’ the undoing of the previous two managers), the scale of the task facing Ho was significant, and the resources provided at season kick-off relatively minimal.

Clearly the plan was always that Ho would arrive, assess the squad and then do a bit of a clearout, going big in the January window when he could maximise his knowledge of the Nordic leagues. Consequently, we saw a January window that was much busier for Spurs, with four players coming in on permanent contracts, most notably rising star Gaupset, and the loan of Maika Hamano from Chelsea.

Perhaps the best evidence of Spurs achieving their targets is their effectiveness in gaining points against teams ‘worse’ than them. Across the season they lost just three times in 14 games against teams outside of the top four and dropped only three points in the eight games against teams that finished in the bottom four.

The flipside of this is that Spurs have not yet found a way to win against the top four teams. In fact, they only got a single point against the top three, their two other points coming from draws against United, both in games they arguably should have won (United’s poor season contributing here). Winning these games was probably never considered essential to the plan for this season, and one reason that there were not wins is that Spurs tried to play open football even in these fixtures rather than parking the bus and looking for goals in transition. But it will be an interesting metric to track as the team evolves.

Best moments

It is undoubtedly recency bias, but the 2-1 win at Brighton in the final game of the season was a lot of fun. Brighton have been the form mid-table team in recent months, having come off a run of league and cup wins against top teams. This win also meant Spurs finished just four points off United and with a nine-point gap to sixth.

If this was a statement, what made it special was that the two goalscorers, Olivia Holdt and Tōko Koga, have been Spurs’ standout players across the season (Gaupset has arguably been as, or more, impactful but has only been at the club since January). Holdt’s quick footwork and scorching strike into the top corner cemented her place as our top scorer this season (with eight goals; 11 goal contributions) but Koga’s 84^th-minute winner, a perfectly weighted shot from distance that went over the out-of-position keeper, had the Spurs supporters who had made it to the south coast chuckling in delight. The classy 20-year-old centre-back has, in her first season, already won various votes for supporters’ player of the year and her stock is sky-high. Scoring a late winner in this manner only reinforces her status.

Looking back further there are lots of other highs: the rollercoaster goal-fest at Aston Villa; the FA Cup quarter-final against London City, which contained a last-gasp equaliser, Lize Kop’s heroics and a seemingly never-ending penalty shootout played out in front of Spurs’ loud visiting support; Cathinka Tandberg’s delightful first goal, away at Goodison; her equally delightful and infectious Spurs-love.

More prosaically, it’s been novel to witness Spurs’ reduced fragility and ability to produce comeback wins like the one at West Ham away. And although a 0-0 draw is not the most exciting, what Spurs supporter doesn’t enjoy taking points off Arsenal when that helps frustrate their rivals’ chase for silverware?

Beyond any specific moment, for supporters who have endured so many games and seasons it has been a genuine joy to watch a team now stacked with players who are good on the ball, who enjoy taking opponents on and playing one-touch football.

Worst moments

Liverpool away was probably Spurs’ worst performance. It was not the worst scoreline (2-0 to the home side) but it was the game in which Ho appeared to have no answers. And despite fielding a pretty attacking line-up and having the majority of possession, Spurs managed just five shots (to Liverpool’s 18). All game, players seemed to get in one another’s way in the centre of the park while leaving the wings exposed.

The home loss to Everton also hurt, in part because it was ostensibly the most ‘winnable’ of the three games scheduled for the main stadium, but also because of just how chaotic Spurs’ defence was in the absence of Koga and Clare Hunt (both away at the Asian Cup). I won’t dwell on the bigger losses to Manchester City or Arsenal as I’ve previously argued that although they were bad, they were maybe not as bad as they seemed.

Finally, if we’re talking worst moments, we probably also have to note a couple of sad departures. Most recently Spurs’ talismanic captain, Bethany England, played her last game, while in January club legend Ashleigh Neville departed for Leicester. Exits are essential for club rebuilds but some seem more heart-rending than others.

Priorities for next season

In terms of the league, fourth place is clearly in striking distance and should be next season’s initial target. Remaining in the race for a Champions League place into the spring would mean more to play for, and for longer. A good cup run would serve a similar purpose. That said, given the club’s yo-yo history, a season in which Spurs do not succumb to a second-season dip would be progress. Essential here is ensuring none of the key players have release clauses which mean the club loses them over the summer.

There are also areas in which we need to see the team strengthen. Spurs’ lack of options at centre-back was highlighted by the variety of not-wholly-successful backlines deployed during the Asian Cup and the transitioning of Amanda Nildén from left-back following Hunt’s knee injury. Assuming Hamano’s contract cannot be extended, and with Jess Naz out and Matilda Nildén not yet trusted for many minutes, we also need at least one winger. And there has been a longstanding need to provide cover in defensive midfield.

Finally, for all Spurs’ creativity the team is not yet converting a lot of chances. Only against Villa away in a memorable 7-3 victory did the goals come easily, and in only one other game did Spurs score more than two, the 3-3 away draw at United.

More positively, this season is the first in Spurs’ WSL history that more than two players have scored more than five goals apiece, with Holdt (8), England (7) and Tandberg (6) all above that mark. But with England on her way out the club will need to replace her with a proven goalscorer. Last week’s signing of Shekiera Martinez, who scored 16 league goals in a-season-and-a-half at an underperforming West Ham, is a good start here.

If we look beyond player recruitment, a big issue for the club is finding a way to win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. This season Brisbane Road was a fortress – Spurs lost just once there and that was to league champions City back in September. Conversely, Spurs did not score a goal at the club’s main home, with just one point accrued across three games. Part of that down to the quality of the sides faced there, but Spurs lost to Everton at the main stadium, whereas their only other losses to teams outside the top four (LCL and Liverpool) came in away fixtures.

Unless the club is going to follow teams like Villa and Leicester and switch to playing all (or most) games at the main stadium, it seems that chopping and changing may damage on-pitch performances. It is also arguable that trying to build support across different stadiums, including prioritising the marketing of a few main-stadium games late in the season, is not the way to grow a stable fanbase.

And speaking of fanbases, given how highlight-reel ready Spurs players like Holdt and Gaupset are, a big priority is spreading the word about the club’s brand of fun football.

As Manchester City’s squad linked arms and rushed towards their fans at the final whistle of Sunday’s Women’s FA Cup victory, their status as the best team in England was well and truly cemented.

City’s 4-0 win over Brighton at Wembley crowned what has been a dominant campaign, as the Citizens claimed a first-ever league and Women’s FA Cup double.

In Andrée Jeglertz’s first season in charge, City have claimed the two most prestigious titles in England, and one of them was one they had waited 10 years to hold aloft again.

There is plenty to praise when it comes to the attacking strides that City have made this season. Jeglertz has elevated what was a strong, possession-oriented side into an aggressive attacking unit.

Alongside their two domestic trophies, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw won the WSL Golden Boot with 21 goals in 22 games, and Vivianne Miedema looked back to her best playing in a deeper midfield role while also scoring 10 league goals.

But the Swedish manager also deserves credit for the strength of chemistry and cohesion within this City squad.

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Manchester City secured their first-ever league and Women’s FA Cup double after beating Brighton & Hove Albion 4-0 at Wembley.

Goals from Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw, Alex Greenwood, Aoba Fujino and Vivianne Miedema transformed what was, at points, a very tight final into a City victory parade.

City headed into the final as WSL champions after claiming their first league title in a decade just a few weeks ago. They are now just the third side to claim the league and Women’s FA Cup double after Arsenal in 2011 and Chelsea on six occasions between 2015 and 2025.

Andrée Jeglertz’s side suffered a 3-2 defeat to Brighton in the final weeks of the WSL season, and there was an expectation that Brighton would not make things easy for the champions, even though they headed into the final as overwhelming underdogs.

City were under immense pressure in the opening 35 minutes thanks to an aggressive Brighton press that smothered City any time they tried to progress the ball. Brighton were quick on the break and successfully transformed turnovers into meaningful counterattacking opportunities. Fran Kirby, Kiko Seike and Maisie Symonds all had good chances to put Brighton in front within the first half an hour, with Kirby’s the most gilt-edged: a one-on-one with Ayaka Yamashita that she failed to make the most of.

As the game ticked on towards half-time, City grew into it and Lauren Hemp started to find space down the left-hand side. The deadlock was eventually broken in the 38th minute when Alex Greenwood sent a cross into Brighton’s box and Chiamaka Nnadozie failed to claim the ball, allowing a flying Shaw to head home.

City grabbed their second just before half-time, Greenwood scoring her first goal of the season with a whipped free-kick that went over the Brighton wall and into the bottom corner of Nnadozie’s goal.

That scoreline felt like a mountain to climb for Brighton in the second half and, for all their hard work in the first 45 minutes, they just could not create the same level of opportunities in the second period.

City substitutes Fujino and Miedema capped off the celebratory day when they bagged City’s third and fourth in the second half.

This trophy cements City’s status as the best team in England this season. Having waited 10 years to claim a second league title, marking this year with a domestic double elevates what has already been an impressive campaign. In the last few weeks, City have certainly not been at their best, with a dramatic 3-2 win in the Women’s FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea, partly thanks to Chelsea’s collapse, and several nervous performances in the WSL creating a shaky end to the season. However, City’s relentless and aggressive approach to games this season has set the pace for what has been an unbelievable campaign.

With Shaw’s future now secured at the club until 2030, Jeglertz can plan for an exciting year ahead, as City return to the Women’s Champions League and look to defend their WSL title next season.

Chelsea claimed the third edition of World Sevens Football in front of a rowdy crowd at the Brentford Community Stadium in west London on Saturday.

Sonia Bompastor’s side beat Manchester United 6-5 in the final thanks to a late Aggie Beever-Jones goal.

This year’s tournament was the busiest and loudest yet, despite being a regional edition featuring only WSL sides. Squeezed into the days leading up to Sunday’s Women’s FA Cup final, the event tapped into the celebratory atmosphere that always arrives before the showpiece game at Wembley.

The first edition in Estoril, Portugal, last May had just two WSL sides taking part alongside Ajax, Benfica, PSG, Rosengård, Roma and Bayern Munich.

Much of the narrative around the inaugural edition centred on the prize pot and what it offered players, some of whom do not earn the sort of eye-watering salaries seen at top WSL clubs.

As winners in Portugal, Bayern Munich took home £1.8m ($2.5m) and runners-up Manchester United claimed £740,000 ($1m). This year, the prize pot has been cut on the basis that it is a regional edition, with the winners earning £372,000 ($500,000) and the runners-up £186,000 ($250,000).

The team walkouts, which have become must-see in the stadium and on social media, were once again the biggest draw of the competition’s three days. Fans, media and club staff were desperate to catch a glimpse of what weird and wacky things each team had planned.

The highlights were loanee Hannah Blundell’s WWE-inspired coffin moment before Everton’s semi-final against her parent club, Manchester United, and Chelsea’s final walkout, which nodded to some of the club’s most viral moments and featured head coach Sonia Bompastor holding a TV camera.

Backed by Justin Fishkin and Jennifer Mackesy, a minority owner of Gotham and Chelsea, W7F is following the trend of the aforementioned “sportainment” small-sided football concepts that have appeared around the world.

Unlike Baller League, which is tailored towards Gen Alpha with a focus on YouTubers and influencers, W7F is made up of eight established football clubs. On the pitch, there is a focus on existing fanbases, stars and rivalries, while the social content is very much focused on meeting the demands of the next-generation fan.

There is no denying that those on the pitch and in the stands are having the time of their lives during this festival of football. The game rarely breaks free from the intensity and tradition of the endless grind of the calendar, but with that calendar come constraints.

Fifa’s creation of the Women’s Club World Cup and Fifa Champions Cup, which has been thrown into a January-February slot, has wreaked havoc on the already congested schedules of many of women’s football’s global leagues.

The Arnold Clark Cup, created by sports rights agency Pitch International and the FA, managed only two editions before Uefa’s creation of the Women’s Nations League took over the slot that the invitational international tournament was trying to occupy.

At present, there is no official governing body for sevens and neither Uefa nor Fifa has shown interest in formalising this iteration of the sport.

While that remains the case, World Sevens can continue to take its event on the road, but it is unclear what counts as success for an event that may struggle to sustain long-term relevance and interest. World Sevens is an end-of-season celebration that requires individual club buy-in, which is likely to become harder as the calendar becomes busier and with a 2027 Women’s World Cup on the horizon.

Where does the event go from here? London has easily been its most successful edition, but what will be required to ensure there is longevity beyond these short, sharp bursts? Does the event need to lean more into the Baller League model, with regular tournaments in an arena-style setting? Are new franchises the way forward? Is it truly global when there are just eight WSL sides taking part?

Of the head coaches involved, Manchester United’s Marc Skinner has been one of the event’s biggest advocates, acknowledging the positive impact it can have on squad chemistry and insisting that United would like to be involved in all future editions.

The event is still in its test-and-learn phase. It is not perfect, and that is part of the charm. But it is hard to see what the future holds for something that feels like a joyful school trip or sports tour. It is welcome, but there is a sense that it may struggle to stick around.

The Cutback has today launched a definitive, free-to-read report on the present and future of how women’s football is commercialised.

With women’s football entering a new era, The Cutback has evaluated the key challenges facing the women’s game as it seeks financial sustainability.

Read the full report.

The Cutback From Visibility To Viability

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Cutting through the noise across the sector, From visibility to viability: A blueprint for the next phase of women’s football features exclusive figures for sponsorship and media rights, as well as curated datasets on attendances from across the women’s club game. Alongside third-party data, The Cutback surveyed and interviewed around 50 executives and experts in women’s football from broadcast, leagues, clubs, agencies, sponsorship, governance and media.

The study asks whether women’s football is currently on the right path to achieve its goal of independence from the men’s game and the response from those interviewed and surveyed was clear:

• Women’s football should stop looking to media rights income as a meaningful barometer of commercial success. There is more potential in growing sponsorship and matchday revenues.

• Girls and women are playing football in greater numbers, but increased participation is not resulting in anything close to a like-for-like increase in loyal women’s club fandom. The pipeline of participation to club loyalty is a long way from being built.

• Match scheduling is a significant barrier to attendance growth. Too many women’s club fixtures are scheduled to avoid clashes with men’s football, to ensure men’s stadium availability, or in alignment with existing men’s football conventions.

• There is an awareness-to-attendance gap: “We don’t have a problem with people coming once. We have a problem with people coming twice.”

Commenting on the report and it findings, Flo Lloyd-Hughes, Founder of The Cutback, said: “The combination of data and industry insight means this is the most accurate and expansive analysis, and diagnosis of the current commercial landscape in women’s football. There is no hidden agenda and no hyperbole. This is an honest and detailed look at the growth of the game, driven by those working in and around it.

“Women’s football is more visible than ever. However, as our research shows, viability is a long way off. Whether women’s club football can mature into a sustainable, independent ecosystem will depend on if clubs, leagues, federations, broadcasters and sponsors can work together to create a larger pool of core women’s football fans willing to prioritise match attendance over other areas of their life – the kind of culture that built the popularity of the men’s game”.

Read the executive summary and the full report.

The Cutback Exec Summary

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The Cutback From Visibility To Viability

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As Arsenal’s men’s team lifted a first Premier League title in 22 years last Sunday, fans of the women’s team were marking one year to the day since they hoisted the Women’s Champions League trophy in Lisbon.

That historic triumph was always going to be a tough act to follow, but this has ultimately been an underwhelming season for the Gunners, who have failed to win a season-long competition for the first time in four years – though they did win the inaugural Fifa Women’s Champions Cup thanks to a pair of victories against AS FAR and Corinthians in late January/early February.

The north Londoner’s reign as European champions officially came to an end on Saturday when Barcelona beat Lyon to claim a fourth title, and it is hard to escape the feeling that Arsenal have missed an opportunity to use this season to build upon such a historic triumph.

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“Our number nine, arguably the finest centre-forward in world football, has now committed her future to the Joie Stadium until 2030”.

Those were the words in the Manchester City press release revealing Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s new contract on Monday night.

The announcement put to bed months of rumours that the 29-year-old was about to head to Chelsea on a free transfer when her contract expired next month. Instead, much to many’s surprise, Shaw was able to come to an agreement with the club and sign a new four-year deal.

The Jamaican revealed the news on stage at Manchester City’s joint-trophy parade with the men’s team, with huge cheers from the crowd and her teammates.

City signed Shaw from French side Bordeaux in the summer of 2021 as the successor to Ellen White. She initially struggled to adapt to City’s more disciplined system in her first season and was second choice to White, though she still scored nine goals in 794 WSL minutes which is a little over a goal a game, such are her high standards.

If there were any questions after her first season, they were all answered in her second as she firmly established herself as one of the best goalscorers in the league. She scored 20 goals, finishing second to Rachel Daly in the golden boot race.

The 2023-24 season was the most prolific of her City career. Shaw scored a goal every 66 minutes - 21 in total en route to her first golden boot, with eight goals separating her from her nearest challenger. She also became the first player to claim the prize for City as a professional side in the WSL era.

City ran out of steam towards the end of that season and lost the title on goal difference, and it is not far-fetched to think it was partly due to Shaw’s absence with a foot injury she suffered in April. She also ended that season with the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year and the WSL Player of the Year awards.

Her injury issues persisted into the 2024-25 season but she still managed to win the golden boot with 12 goals in 10 games as City dropped to fourth in the league table.

Neither those injury problems nor City’s position was to be repeated the following campaign. Shaw bounced back to start all their WSL games, scoring 21 times to equal her best tally. The result was her first WSL winners’ medal and her third consecutive golden boot. A record, as were her second WSL Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards.

How good has Shaw been for City?

She arrived in England as one of the best young forwards in Europe having been prolific in the French top flight. She scored 32 goals and set up 11 in the southwest of France which was enough for City to sign her on a three-year deal. She has since evolved into a talismanic figure in Manchester.

City have often looked to Shaw for goals and the team has been built around getting the best out of her. They have often used wingers on the side of their dominant foot -left-footer Lauren Hemp on the left; Aoba Fujino, Kerolin and, in years gone by, Chloe Kelly on the right - to facilitate a lot of crosses into the box. Shaw has benefited from this, with a good chunk of her goals coming from headers. Forwards like Kerolin and Vivianne Miedema have profited from her presence drawing more attention from defenders to get scoring chances.

She averages over five shots per game. With City boasting some of the league’s star attackers, she is the one who takes them to the next level with her ability to get on the end of attacking moves, managing to release shots even in situations she has no right to. She has elite movement in and out of the box, she can run in behind, she can roll a defender and carry into the box.

Some of the records she has broken at City

1. City’s record goalscorer - 117 goals in 137 appearances

2. The first-ever player to reach 100 goals for Manchester City

3. The first player to win three consecutive WSL golden boot awards

4. The first player in WSL history to reach the 20-goal mark in three separate seasons

5. Scored against 10 of 11 WSL opponents in 25-26, the most in a season alongside Sam Kerr

6. The best minutes-per-goal ratio in WSL history for players who’ve scored at least 10 times

7. The most headed goals in WSL history

8. The fastest hat-trick in WSL history, against Tottenham in 25/26

Her evolution into arguably the best striker in the world has also been marked with improvements in her all-round game. Her four assists this season were not anything to shout about, but her 26 open-play chances created ranked her fifth in the division.

Her 5.62 open-play expected assists was only bettered by teammate Hemp. City have used her aerial ability to play over the press in build-up and defend set-pieces. Her hold-up play has been crucial for knitting attacks together as the focal point up front, but she is also capable of dropping deeper to provide a passing option to progress the ball.

Shaw’s legacy

Shaw’s decision to stay at City cements her as one of the most loved players in the club’s history.

Strikers of Shaw’s quality don’t come around often and it was critical that City kept her, by any means necessary. The fact that City were able to secure her future at the club, is also a testament to the work of director of football Therese Sjogran.

In Shaw’s contract announcement, Sjogran praised the wider impact she’s had in the last five years: “The stats and awards speak for themselves, but there’s so much more to Bunny than what she does on the pitch. She has become a real leader in the team and I’m sure she’ll be a driving force on our return to Uefa Champions League football next season and our push to retain the WSL title”.

The 29-year-old is the best forward to ever play for the club, but this season’s WSL title was only her second trophy in her five years at the Joie Stadium. The new contract provides an opportunity for Shaw and the squad to build an exciting dynasty with Andree Jeglertz over the coming seasons. The first challenge, is making this season a domestic double with a Women’s FA Cup final still to play against Brighton at Wembley on Sunday.

Two of Europe’s dominant forces arrived in the final on the back of outstanding domestic and continental campaigns. Barcelona had cruised through the knockout rounds with near-total control, while Lyon had once again demonstrated their resilience, overturning difficult situations to reach yet another final.

On paper, it promised a clash of similar styles and margins. And on the pitch, for long stretches, it delivered exactly that. But what followed the break turned a balanced contest into a one-sided scoreline.

A chaotic and finely balanced first half

Barcelona started the brighter of the two sides, particularly in the opening 10 to 12 minutes, when their transitions and the individual quality of their wingers allowed them to threaten Lyon’s back line early. Direct central runs from Salma Paralluelo and Ewa Pajor immediately tested the space behind Lyons’ high line, setting the tone for Barça’s attacking intent.

Yet the French side gradually grew into the game, mostly thanks to their high press, and their first major warning came from a familiar source: set-pieces. A deep free-kick exposed Barcelona’s high defensive line, allowing Wendie Renard to meet the ball completely unmarked, only for Cata Coll to produce an outstanding save, stretching to her right. The rebound was converted by Lindsey Heaps, but ruled out for offside, a narrow escape that underlined Lyon’s aerial threat. The half, however, never truly settled. Both teams struggled to impose sustained control, often rushing vertical solutions to test each other’s high defensive line and committing technical errors in promising situations. It was a first half played with tension, in which moments emerged but patterns rarely stabilised.

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The 2025-26 Uefa Women’s Champions League final on Saturday evening brings together two of Europe’s most dominant sides, both arriving in Oslo with domestic trophies already secured and a European title within reach.

Barcelona and Lyon are two elite teams, sure. But they also are, in many ways, reflections of each other. Two sides built on control, positional play and technical superiority, shaped by overlapping coaching ideas, yet expressed through different player profiles and tactical nuances.

Road to the final

The teams topped the league phase, finishing level on 16 points. Barcelona edged first place thanks to a superior goal difference (+17 to Lyon’s +13), a reflection of their relentless attacking output, their 37 goals the highest tally in the competition.

Their knockout journey has been just as dominant. Barcelona swept aside Real Madrid with a staggering 12–2 aggregate scoreline before overcoming Bayern Munich in the semi-finals, maintaining their unbeaten run throughout the campaign.

Lyon’s path has been less straightforward but equally impressive. After an unbeaten league phase, they were forced to come from behind in both knockout rounds, losing first legs to Wolfsburg and Arsenal before producing emphatic performances at home to turn the ties around.

Shared philosophy, different interpretations

There is a clear tactical thread connecting these two teams.

Lyon are now led by Jonatan Giráldez, the architect of Barcelona’s recent European dominance. His positional play principles are still evident: structured possession, high pressing, and an emphasis on central occupation.

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“Bittersweet.” That’s what manager Marc Skinner told The Cutback ahead of the final WSL game of the season when asked how he felt looking at the season as a whole.

History was made with progress to the Champions League quarter-finals, and there was a first-ever League Cup final appearance for the club. New signings like Jess Park, Fridolina Rolfo and Julia Zigiotti Olme all made a big impact in their respective positions.

However this season, I think, will be looked back upon as a missed opportunity to kick on from the successes of 2024-25 and become an established Champions League side who are competing late into domestic competitions.

Mental and physical fatigue no doubt set in over the last few months, with individual and team performances dropping off dramatically. Is it any surprise after playing 41 games in total across the season? It was hard to recognise the team that started the season in the one that ended it, their football a shadow of the electric attacking play brought to the first few months.

With Chelsea showing struggles on the pitch, the door was open for United to grab hold of the third place in the WSL. Four times the teams met this season with United failing to win any, getting knocked out of the FA Cup after extra-time and losing the League Cup final to Sonia Bompastor’s side. Another missed chance.

United started the season with big ambitions for the year ahead, and the team’s optimism and togetherness was apparent in their early performances. There was a new-found energy and passion among players and supporters.

It was noticeable as the season progressed, though, that these qualities seemed to fade. A season of such promise and hope turned into frustration and a feeling of disillusionment among supporters. No trophy successes, no Champions League qualification, a manager under pressure and the possible departures of fan-favourite players.

Did it go to plan?

In the Champions League, I would say yes, the season went to plan. Reaching the quarter-finals and being close to making the last four was above my expectations going into the season, a run with many highs and one the team can be proud of.

In the domestic cup competitions, United failed to reach Wembley for a fourth consecutive time after losing to Chelsea in the fourth round of the FA Cup. A 1-0 victory at Arsenal did, though, secure that historic League Cup final. I predicted United to reach one final again, so from that point of view their achievements were about as expected.

It’s in the league that United’s form has suffered the biggest drop-off. Despite a promising start to the season, they finished fourth on 40 points, nine points off third-placed Chelsea. A step backwards. United failed to win a WSL game against any of the other top-five teams, and seven draws in the league certainly cost them the spot in the top three which had to be this season’s target. By that measure, the campaign cannot be seen as a successful one.

Best moments

Most of the high points came in the first half of the season, with lots of history made in the Champions League.

Going back to the beginning, there was Elisabeth Terland’s hat-trick in the second leg vs SK Brann that overturned a 1-0 deficit to see United through to the league phase of the competition for the first time. A moment that felt a big step forward for a club which had only made it to the qualifying rounds once before and on that occasion were defeated by Paris Saint-Germain.

Which leads us on to the next big high, when United welcomed PSG to Old Trafford on matchday three in the league phase. It felt like this was United’s statement to the rest of Europe that they were not a team to be taken lightly in the competition. A 2-1 victory and a resilient performance put United top of the league table after three games, and in the conversations among Europe’s elite.

The final big high also came in the Champions League, later in the competition when United swept aside Atletico Madrid in the knockout stages to reach the quarter-finals, an achievement many fans would have snapped your hand off for at the start of the season. It turned out to be comfortable for United over the two legs.

With players thriving on the European stage, it was a competition that certainly saw some of the team’s best individual and team performances throughout the season.

Worst moments?

The Manchester derby fixtures featured heavily in the 2024-25 best moments - this season they feature in the worst. United lost both fixtures 3-0 and looked a mile off City in both games.

The first meeting in November came a few days after the PSG win and marked the start of a drop in performances: United went on to get beaten comfortably by Wolfsburg and Lyon in Europe while dropping points at home to Spurs in the WSL in the games following.

The reverse fixture at Old Trafford was a humiliation for the red side of Manchester. The two teams looked a world apart and City could easily have won by a much bigger scoreline.

United’s season was in the midst of an underwhelming finish at that point as they won just one of their last 10 games, a really poor way for the side to end after showing such promise in the early stages.

In those 10 fixtures United scored just six goals, lost the League Cup final, were knocked out of the Champions League and dropped to fourth in the WSL. Disappointing doesn’t even cover it.

Losing to Bayern Munich in a European quater-final is not in itself a poor result, but United will look back at that as another wasted opportunity given the chances they created across both legs.

Priorities for next season

A top-three finish in the WSL has to be the main target. Some fans would argue a new manager is needed after failing to secure that this season, and maybe the time has come when a change might be considered with the team looking stagnant as the campaign wore on.

You could also argue that with a fully-fit squad the team looked good in the early parts of the season - is that enough encouragement to give the current regime one more year?

They need to be better next season against the teams near the top, tactically and mentally. United have only picked up nine points from a possible 54 against their top-four rivals over the last three seasons, a depressing return for the fans. On the pitch, the decision-making - particularly from the forwards - has to be improved, with so many big opportunities across the season coming to nothing owing to panicked decisions in the final third. Getting more out of winter signings Lea Schuller and Ellen Wangerheim after a full pre-season with the team will also benefit the squad from an attacking point of view.

The key to any successful team is having a solid foundation and building on that. The foundations are there, but if reports of United being open to selling top scorer Terland, who has 15 goals in all competitions this season, are accurate then that would not exactly be building on those foundations. In previous seasons United have let key players go - Ona Batlle, Alessia Russo and Lucia Garcia to name three, all of whom would still be capable of making a big impact on the team now.

It feels like United get close and then have to rebuild the squad in certain areas all over again, rather than adding to the quality they have. Keeping hold of players like Terland this summer and adding signings of similar ability in the transfer window is the only way of closing the gap to the top teams in England and getting back into Europe.

Adding more squad depth has to be the priority going into next season, putting the required amount of investment into the squad not only to close the gap to the teams above, but to make sure they stay ahead of the chasing pack below.

The market is shifting, with more teams investing more and more money. Skinner has spoken about United doing it differently in their own ‘sustainable’ way, but the fear is that they must either invest now or be left behind. The Manchester United badge will only take the team so far - the investment needs to back up the history of the badge, too.

‘Mission 1’ was created as a target for United to win the WSL by 2028. If that target remains, big investment and tactical improvements have to be made going into next season, otherwise I think United will be looking over their shoulder rather than at the potential glory ahead.