Women’s Super League needs more competition as it takes exciting next step

On billboards across England, the celebratory faces of Fran Kirby and Edinson Cavani have loomed over passing traffic. Side by side, they have been advertising a subscription to Sky Sports for this season, with the channel showing the Women’s Super League, which begins on Friday, for the first time ever.

The broadcast deal is thought to be the most expensive domestic agreement for a women’s league ever. Clubs, meanwhile, are scrambling to host their women’s teams in their main stadiums. Newly promoted Leicester City will play the majority of their home games at the King Power Stadium, while Arsenal, Tottenham and Everton will all start their league campaigns in Premier League grounds.

The appearance of relentless growth tends to be pushed on the WSL every season, but this year there will credibly be more eyes on it than ever before.

For anyone looking to watch the WSL for the first time, the league can be summarised like so: a dozen teams play each other twice a year, and at the end of the season Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal are the top three. No other club has broken into those positions since 2014; Manchester City were not even in the league then.

Until last season, the three clubs would jostle for the title and two Champions League spots. With three places now available, they just fight for the WSL in their own mini-league.

The problem being that this minimises large swathes of games. While Chelsea and Arsenal did both lose once to a team outside the top three last season, Manchester City have not lost to a team that wasn’t either Chelsea or Arsenal in more than three years. If a new team could upset that settled top three, the WSL could become arguably one of the most exciting leagues in the world.

Manchester United almost achieved this last season. First at Christmas, they picked up five points in their games against the top three, but frustrating results against lower-placed teams allowed them to be reeled in. Faced with a “winner takes all” match against Arsenal, they proved unable to end the triopoly and secure Champions League football.

The impact of off-field issues on United’s season cannot be discounted with manager Casey Stoney dramatically leaving the club amid reports of her complaining on multiple occasions about unsatisfactory conditions. The appointment of Marc Skinner in her place is one which certainly has question marks over it. Skinner managed a win percentage of just 21 per cent at the Orlando Pride, despite having players like Marta, Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger at his disposal.

If United are to try and better last season’s performance, they will have to do without Christen Press, Tobin Heath, and Lauren James. They still have excellent players – Ella Toone, Leah Galton, and Alessia Russo is a front line many teams will fear – but it seems implausible that the upheaval of last season can be so quickly smoothed over by Skinner and the team. United will need to resettle as a side before they can make another attempt at the top three.

There is another club who could cause an upset though. Everton will likely have been disappointed by the way last year’s season played out. After a bright start which saw them win their first four games, as well as knocking Chelsea out of the FA Cup, Everton slumped. They did not lose to a single team who finished below them, but lost to every team who finished above them.

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This transfer window has seen them bring in eight new players, with a focus on scouring the European leagues for deals. Nathalie Bjorn and Anna Anvegard have arrived from FC Rosengard in Sweden, while Aurora Galli has come from Juventus. They will be joined by a couple of players who know the WSL very well: Kenza Dali (from West Ham) and a homecoming for Toni Duggan. Most impressively of all, Everton beat numerous clubs to the signing of 18-year-old Hanna Bennison, widely thought to be one of the best young players in the world. It is a sign of how much has changed at Everton, who finished second bottom of the league just three seasons ago, that they can now attract that level of talent.

Manager Willie Kirk will now have to ensure that the players are integrated well enough into the team in order to cause the top three some problems. Their chances of challenging should become clear pretty early on, with opening fixtures against Manchester City and Chelsea providing a less than ideal start for the Toffees. On paper, there is enough talent in this side to make a genuine attempt, but it would undeniably be a big jump up for them.

If either Everton or Manchester United were able to finish in the top three this season, it would send a shockwave through the elite of women’s football. It has almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy that Chelsea, Manchester City, and Arsenal are top of the pile, with their position making it easier for them to sign better players and consequently maintain their status. If any of them were to slip up, it would demonstrate how competitive the WSL has become. It would also make the league even more exciting, by adding to the number of games where there is a genuine sense of jeopardy for the biggest teams.

The chances of it happening this year do feel slim. Despite Everton’s summer additions, Manchester City and Arsenal have also strengthened, with Chelsea the only one of the three to have a relatively quiet summer. Their cast was already so star-studded, it is unlikely to matter. With Manchester United in flux, the onus will be on Everton to upset the party. Success could see the whole landscape of English women’s football shift, once and for all.