Sky Sports News have reported that London City Lionesses have made a formal bid for Beth Mead, adding that Beth is part of Renee Slegers plans for the 2025/26 season.
London City Lionesses have been promoted to the WSL and are not interested in fighting to avoid relegation.
They have changed about half of the squad that has won promotion with eight new signings and three players who were on loan last season now signed permanently, including Arsenal’s Teyah Goldie and Freya Godfrey.
It is not surprising to see them show some interest in a senior England international double Euros and Champions League winner that would bring plenty of experience and skills to accelerate their teams’ development.
Yet on the Arsenal side, I don’t see a reason to sell a valuable player who contributes a lot and will be needed as part of the winger rotation.
For the first time, Arsenal have four senior wingers, and we saw in previous seasons how injury and tiredness with the lack of options in this position led to problems due to the lack of possible rotation. Caitlin Foord being overloaded comes to mind.
Unless the player asks to leave and Arsenal have someone lined up to come in this summer transfer window or in the January transfer window, I cannot see the benefits for Arsenal to sell.
Arsenal could ask the London City Lionesses owner Michelle Kang to do a straight swap for Trinity Rodman, as the American winger plays for the Washington Spirit, who are also owned by Michelle Kang. Or for the French winger Vicky Becho of OL Lyonnes, the other club owned by the Korean-American entrepreneur.
In term of squad rotation and load management, the second part of the season is much more busier than the first part. We are talking about 17 games before the Christmas break and up to 26 in the second half of the season.
If a winger is guaranteed to arrive in January with an agreement in place, it is possible to play with three wingers and use Vicky Pelova and Mariona Caldentey as fifth and sixth wingers. Pelova can play on both wings and has done it for the Netherlands youth and seniors while Caldentey has been used as left-winger many times last season.
The transfer window is far from being closed and anything can happen, but right now it does not make sense to sell Beth Mead to London City Lionesses.