Where are the ethics in football?
Really shocked to see that Birmingham City WFC have "released" a huge chunk of their team after they secured promotion to WSL1 - and none of them were even given the opportunity to say a proper goodbye to the fans. That includes the club captain, Christie Harrison-Murray, who led her team to victory; Lucy Quinn, who's been at the club for years and has been instrumental to their success; and Lily Agg, whose mum posted underneath the announcement to say that her daughter was currently in a wheelchair (after suffering through an ACL injury, cancer and an achillies rupture) and had been left without any support/care from the club. Needless to say, her comment was swiftly removed.
So they're now in a position where injured players have been left to fend for themselves and a lot of the team who fought so hard to gain promotion will never actually get to experience playing in WSL1 - and while I know they're going to need to reshuffle/add depth to the squad to stand a fighting chance, it begs the question, why fight for promotion at all when you're effectively going to be made redundant for your efforts?
Yes, football is a business, and I know you can't base decisions on loyalty or sentimentality, but we're living in a world where clubs are willingly losing some of their top players: Katie McCabe, Sam Kerr, Beth Mead, Bethany England - even potentially Bunny Shaw, who's widely considered to be the best in the league. Yes, you could argue that Arsenal did eventually offer McCabe and Mead a last-minute contract, but that was after months of making them feel like they weren't wanted or valued enough to be asked to stay.
It must be so tough for the players when there's no job security, everyone's replaceable (even if you're a top-tier player/club legend), and you know that getting any form of injury is going to make you disposable, regardless of your previous performance/loyalty to the club. To have to sit on the bench when you know you have so much more to give; to never be given the chance/minutes you need to show that you're capable of getting back to your best; to know that the club you built your life around could one day drop you like a lead balloon - and then the fans will roast you for going somewhere else! Damn, football is brutal. 😢