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Arsenal are expected to finalise the signing of the France defender Élisa De Almeida before the 11pm BST Women’s Super League transfer deadline. The club are understood to have agreed a fee of just over £500,000 with Paris Saint-Germain for the 28-year-old.
PSG, for whom De Almeida has played since 2021, are less willing to let their Nigeria midfielder Jennifer Echegini go. The 25-year-old is understood to be the subject of interest from Manchester City but PSG were fighting hard to keep her on Thursday morning.
The WSL champions’ desire to add to their squad is understood to have been fuelled partly by the knee injury sustained by Vivianne Miedema, which will keep her out for an unspecified time.
De Almeida is an experienced centre-back who was part of France’s Euro 2025 and 2023 World Cup squads. Arsenal are understood to need centre-back cover partly because their defender Katie Reid’s recovery from the anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained last November is being managed carefully, meaning the 19-year-old is not expected to be available before November.
The summer window has been another record-breaking one for the women’s game globally. The latest mid-year snapshot report released by Fifa on Thursday showed global spending on international women’s transfer fees this summer had surpassed $28m (£20.7m), more than double last summer’s $12.3m. In 2022 it was $1.23m. English clubs led the spending this summer with $8m, followed by Spain ($6.6m) and Germany ($4.9m).
The promoted side Crystal Palace made a deadline-day signing with the return of Shanade Hopcroft. The 28-year-old former Chelsea academy player, who helped Palace win promotion in 2023-24, has signed a two-year deal.
The WSL season gets under way on Friday when London City Lionesses host Manchester United. The new United head coach, Eva Olid, said on Thursday her team would not add more signings. United secured the Mexico midfielder Rebeca Bernal, who can also play at centre-back, on Wednesday, and Olid said at her first press conference since replacing Marc Skinner that Bernal would be available for Friday’s match.
Olid, the former Hearts manager, is promising to bring “attacking football” to United. She used the word “attacking” eight times during her 17-minute press conference and spoke of her enthusiasm for developing young players. She said of her attacking style: “They appointed me for that reason. I have to go with that. We will be brave in attack, trying to play that attractive football. Our main focus [is] that attacking mentality. We want to play with the ball, a nice football, create a lot of chances.”
On waiting until January before adding more players, Olid said: “The players I need are different from the players the previous manager needed. [It has been a] short period to react. We have some plans in January about signing players that I really need for my style of play. It was not about signing players quick. It is about signing the right players.”
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Olid was also asked about United’s investment in the women’s game, with Chelsea spending nearly three times as much as them on their women’s team wage bill in the most recent set of published accounts. Olid spoke positively about her club’s backing, saying: “The message has always been about: ‘We want to invest in everything.’ As I said, not just on players. Because I think it is important we have the right staff, the right coaches … The message is that they want to win. They want to win. I think I am here to make that happen, but with a solid identity.”
Arturo Ruiz, who was appointed as Brighton’s head coach on 28 August, acknowledged at his first press conference that he had not had much time with his players but said: “We need to be patient and put the focus on high-performance, and results will come. If that [happens] soon, it’s better, but if not, we need to be very clear in our gameplans.”
The 29-year-old former Real Sociedad head coach added: “Our style of play will be very adaptable without the ball, very aggressive when we need to [be], very compact when we need to be as well, and defending the box really well. With the ball, we are going to be a very dynamic team with a clear identity.” Brighton host Arsenal on Sunday.
