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The England winger Chloe Kelly has accused Manchester City of attempting to “assassinate her character”, as she leaves to join Arsenal on loan for the remainder of the season.
Kelly, whose move was announced by the two WSL clubs at 11pm GMT on Thursday as the transfer window closed, used social media late on Thursday to allege that City had been “planting negative stories” about her in the media. City have been contacted by the Guardian for a response.
It was the second time in just over 24 hours that Kelly had aired her disappointment at City, having posted a longer statement on social media on Wednesday night, accusing the club of dictating who she could and could not join.
On Thursday, the 27-year-old wrote: “So disappointed to find out tonight that people at the club are briefing journalists against me if I am to sign at a club before the window shuts. They’ve called reporters to assassinate my character and tried to plant negative stories about me in the football media.”
She added that any such allegations against her were false, before concluding: “To those responsible, I am disappointed in this. As I said in my previous statement, I just want to find happiness again.”
City’s head coach, Gareth Taylor, was asked about the comments before Sunday’s home WSL game against Arsenal, for which Kelly will be ineligible. “I’d rather not go into specifics,” he said. “What I would say is, it’s been really disappointing [for it] to come to this, and the ending it transpired to.
“I’ve always tried to represent the club in the right way, really dignified in the good moments, the difficult moments, and I certainly work for a club that has real integrity. It’s really disappointing. It’s been a challenging couple of days, for many people, not just for myself, but obviously a lot of people here at the club as well.
“And we never like to hear that a player has not had a good experience of being at the club. And I’m sure that’s not the case for the whole period she’s been at the club. Maybe this more recent period, of not playing, but we certainly try to support every single player that we work with. But we’re in a selection-based business, where difficult decisions have to be made for the betterment of the team, and sometimes people and players can fall on the sharp end of that. [But] Arsenal is a rival and they made the best offer, so we’ve certainly not stood in the way of a player being able to go and make the move they want to make.”
At one stage in his press conference, Taylor asked for no further questions about Kelly’s exit. The Guardian understands that City accepted bids for Kelly from Arsenal and Brighton but that a bid from Manchester United was rejected because City did not feel it was sufficient and were unwilling to help strengthen their local rivals. According to Sky Sports, Kelly turned down the chance to join Brighton earlier in the window.
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Taylor, asked whether he had concerns about the loan strengthening a rival for Champions League places, replied: “No, not really. Look, once the player expresses a desire to want to leave and to try and go to a move that was the right one for her, then I think sometimes we have to look at what the best offer was and Arsenal made the best offer for the player. We run this tight ship as a real business – we have to do that. Arsenal made the best offer so it was a simple one for us.”
Kelly had been seeking a move after being frozen out, making only one start in the WSL this season amid reports linking her with a transfer. She said in her statement on Wednesday that she accepted she had no future at City beyond the end of her contract in June.
Kelly broke her silence in an apparent last-resort plea to be permitted to leave. “The situation has dragged on far too long, it’s disappointing and not right,” she posted. “Ultimately I just want to be happy again.”
