Beth Mead and Katie McCabe are leaving the club when their contract expire after being loyal servants for respectively nine and eleven years.
The pair’s impact goes much farther than the statistics show us. What is the most striking thing is how much they are loved by the Arsenal fanbase.
I would even say that some fans love them more than they love the Arsenal. And it is nothing new, we know that some fans actually switched to Manchester City when Vivianne Miedema left at the end of her contract.
Beth Mead and Katie McCabe have embraced the proximity with the fans, they always had time for them. They were there at the beginning of their Arsenal career when the crowds were not as huge, as they are now post the 2022 Lionesses boom.
Both are associated with the website Swysh that delivers personalised messaging to fans due to their phenomenal popularity, fans can even have a recurrent subscription to get exclusive news delivered to them.
At every game, you can hear the fans singing those two players’ songs and the outpouring of disappointment, sadness and tears among the fans when their departure have been announced on all social media platform has been immense.
There has also been some anger directed towards the club, but at the end of the day, succession planning had to happen as the Arsenal had one of the oldest average squads in the League. New blood has been needed for a couple of season now.
Beth Mead and Katie McCabe were so much more than just football players for the clubs, they were icons and leave Arsenal as legends for pastures new.