WSL transfer talking points: three things we learned from the data

The Women’s Super League’s summer transfer window has closed before the start of the 2026-27 season. The finances involved are microscopic compared with the £3.4bn that Premier League clubs spent on new players but the data provides three key points of interest: which club has made the biggest improvement to their squad, who is banking on stability, and how the women’s game has outsmarted its male equivalent.

Arsenal have the most improved squad

Many transfers in women’s football occur without the fee being disclosed, which deprives us of the conventional shorthand for assessing player quality. Thankfully there is Soccerdonna, the arm of Transfermarkt that covers women’s football. It carries estimated market values of players in euros. Using these, we can see by how much clubs have improved their squads.

Arsenal’s new additions have a combined value of €3.9m, slightly more than the €3.5m of talent that London City Lionesses have gained this summer. The entire squads of eight of the 14 teams in the 2026-27 WSL are worth less than these figures, which highlights the impact the new players should have. Indeed, London City’s new two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas is valued at €1.15m, which is more than the entire Charlton squad and not far behind the roster at Crystal Palace.

West Ham could argue they have added the most to their squad as the combined market value of their new players (€1.02m) is more than the corresponding amount for the players who remain from last season (€0.96m). Having finished 10th after winning only three of their opening 19 matches, improvements were clearly required.

Clubs have kept more settled squads

While supporters are most excited by new signings, departees are just as relevant to the health of a squad. Or at least they are if they made significant contributions in the previous season.

West Ham had to make additions as they lost players that contributed 6,322 minutes in the 2025-26 WSL, 29% of their total. Chief among those leaving was the goalkeeper Kinga Szemik, who started 19 of 22 games. Only Martina Fernández (1,950 minutes for Everton) and Keira Flannery (1,891 at Charlton) left current WSL clubs and played more minutes last season.

Teams may have learned from 12 months ago. Brighton lost 9,584 minutes of playing time from their 2024-25 squad in the summer 2025 window and went on to finish two places lower last season. Liverpool also said goodbye to a higher share of their playing time than anyone has in this transfer window (6,406 minutes), and started the campaign very slowly.

Output could be a greater issue than time played. Manchester City and Aston Villa have both lost players who contributed at least 13 combined goals and assists last season in Kerolin and Kirsty Hanson respectively. The difference between these clubs is that the champions can absorb the cost of that exit far more easily. The 17 goal contributions Villa have lost from last season through players leaving constitute 36.2% of their total, the highest proportion of the teams who were in the WSL in 2025-26.

The WSL is far better prepared for transfer windows than the Premier League

The Premier League endured a ridiculous deadline day on Tuesday. Around a sixth of players signed by clubs in the latest transfer window completed their deals on 1 September. Just over a third of the money that went on transfer fees this summer was spent after the 2026-27 season had already begun.

Things have been rather more organised in the WSL. Granted, its window closed before the new campaign gets under way and they didn’t have a World Cup clogging up the summer this year. But where the Premier League had completed only 83% of eventual total signings when deadline day began, the WSL made that proportion four weeks ago.

The obvious explanation would be that lower-finance deals are easier to complete. Yet Fifa recently revealed global spending on transfer fees in women’s football had increased by 83.6% year-on-year. Spending on agents fees by WSL clubs grew by 75% in the year up to 3 February 2026 too. The transfer business remains efficient even while the sums involved are rapidly increasing.

Men’s football will always have much more money but it could benefit from the transfer expertise and planning in the women’s game.