What Happened: The celeb-owner era, United's return to Europe, and Arsenal's hangover
Flo Lloyd-Hughes takes a look at some of the big stories in women's football and highlights the latest pieces to read on The Cutback
Welcome to the latest edition of What Happened, The Cutback’s weekly newsletter that sums up some of the big stories from the weekend of women’s football.
This newsletter will always be free to read and usually lands in your inboxes every Monday, but due to the bumper penultimate weekend in the WSL and the Bank Holiday in the UK, this is a rare Tuesday edition.
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In today’s issue: London City promoted and Kang up front, United hit European target, Arsenal’s hangover continues
Kang front and centre of London City’s promotion
Like many readers, I was watching the Championship title decider between Birmingham City and London City Lionesses on Sunday.
It was a straight shootout for promotion with Birmingham needing a win to go up and London City just needing a draw. It was a cagey, tense game with the league leaders going 2-0 up before Birmingham City tried to keep the dream alive with two second-half goals. In the end, the 2-2 draw was enough to see London City promoted.
The match was a head to head between two clubs owned by American investors with Michele Kang, the billionaire who owns three women’s football clubs in Europe, up against the Knighthead Capital-owned Midlands side. NFL legend Tom Brady has a 3.3% stake in Birmingham but is regularly used as the celebrity face of the ownership group.
Most of the build-up to the season finale had been about Kang vs. Brady and to be honest most of the last 18 months has been about Kang.
I’ve never seen anything like the PR this billionaire has received, it really is something. Her multi-club ownership model, which has been questioned in the men’s game, has been broadly celebrated in Europe.
Unlike most football clubs, where a star player or manager is the face of the team, Kang is the lead figure across all of her teams. A flick down the social media feeds of LCL, Lyon and Washington Spirit and you’ll see endless snaps of Kang. She carried the trophy to her players on Sunday and was very much the story, the one everyone wanted to interview. Her team has World Cup winners and big internationals in its ranks, but Kang was the draw.
The only comparison would be Wrexham’s celebrity ownership duo of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who are front and centre of most of the coverage of the now-Championship side, and the star-studded group of founders behind Angel City in the NWSL. The difference being with Wrexham and Angel City’s Hollywood owners and Brady at Birmingham, those individuals are bonafide celebrities, they exist within the world of pop culture and sporting celebrity. I guess there is a discussion for another day about billionaires becoming celebrities and vice versa.
Maybe it’s a British media thing, but it does feel odd to me to have a club owner so prominent in a team’s narrative.
Perhaps I’m so used to not trusting football club owners given how you don’t have to do too much on Google to find a depressing story about an ownership disaster in the English game.
There are lots of things I respect about Kang’s vision, most importantly the focus on women’s health and integrating coaching and performance structures across three clubs at once. I also admire the clear ethos of investing in the women’s game because she sees future value and not the same old charity case that we’ve seen from others who come into the game.
However, there is a toxic positivity that comes with this, too. Should we be asking more questions of the implications of multi-club ownership in the women’s game? The impact that it could have on player pathways, the transfer market and club finances.
Alongside ownership of NWSL side Washington Spirit, Kang has donated $55 million to US Soccer, the country’s football governing body, and also supported the USA women’s rugby sevens team.
I think we are often so grateful for investment in women’s football that we fail to ask crucial questions of those pouring money into the game. The men’s football pyramid has ended up in similar situations and has been burned when investors leave clubs high and dry.
There has been an exciting influx of American investment in the English game at a time when football desperately needs it. These investors have helped regenerate communities and lift up clubs and fanbases, something we all want to see. The same is happening in the women’s game but we should be ready to probe any investment in the future of the game.
United back in Europe
Manchester United fans breathed a sigh of relief over the weekend as their team sealed a spot in the Champions League next season.
Things had started to get nervy after United drew 0-0 with West Ham and went into a horrible final three games against Chelsea, City and Arsenal needing at least one point. After the narrow 1-0 defeat to Chelsea it was then a Manchester derby against a City team that had an opportunity to win and chase down United on the final day. City’s final game of the season is against Palace, while United will face Arsenal at the Emirates.
In the end, United bravely battled from 2-0 down to claim a huge point and guarantee themselves European football. Now it will be a winner-takes-all game at the Emirates next Saturday to determine who claims second place in the WSL.
It’s a huge achievement for Manchester United who spent large parts of the season quietly ticking over their points tally without necessarily lighting up the title race. While Chelsea steamed ahead, United have managed to go unbeaten against City in the league, drawing with Arsenal, and also only conceding an incredible 12 goals.
Where United have fallen down is in their chance creation. They have the lowest xG of any of the top four, managing 1.71 per 90 minutes compared to Chelsea (2.23), Arsenal (2.17) and Manchester City (1.97). This has been reflected in their goals scored, as the table below shows. Next season will be about consistent finishers and better chance creation. There was a huge over reliance on crosses into the box this season, albeit it’s been a successful strategy in many games. Next year they need to have more variety in their attacking play.
Go deeper on United with this piece from Conner Roberts on why this result is such an important step towards United’s target of winning the WSL by 2028.
Arsenal’s Champions League hangover continues
Last week, Arsenal suffered a shock 5-2 defeat to Aston Villa that ended up gifting Chelsea the title. That result and performance had been broadly scratched off as Champions League fatigue, but in a worrying follow-up, Arsenal had another heavy defeat, following up Wednesday’s game with a 4-2 loss to Brighton on Sunday.
For the Villa game, Renee Slegers made seven changes to the side that beat Lyon in sensational style in the semi finals. There was obvious fatigue and disconnection between the players on the pitch which led to tons of errors.
Against Brighton, Slegers opted for a starting line-up closer to what we had seen throughout the season, with Manuela Zinsberger keeping her place in goal while Daphne van Domselaar recovers ahead of the Champions League final.
Regardless of the chopping and changing and obvious mental fatigue from the highs of European football, a key consistent issue for Arsenal is their weakness in transition. In both defeats, Arsenal have struggled in turnovers and been left scrambling by simple balls over the top by the opposition.
We’ve also seen a defence that has been slow to react in set pieces and getting to the ball to stop chances for the opposition. Arsenal created plenty of chances in this game, but the way they’re conceding goals is a huge concern.
Slegers said in her post-match interview on Sky Sports that the Brighton performance “wasn’t acceptable” and conceded that the result was a “shock”.
Arsenal have to ensure that they finish the season strongly at home heading into that huge Champions League final against Barcelona. The last two games haven’t just been freak results, there are worrying patterns developing that they need to rectify.
That’s it from me. Same time next week.
Disappointed not to see any comment on the FA ban on Trans women in this weeks newsletter