We are back for 2024! Susanna Sealy and Graham Falk have plenty of transfer rumours to dig into as West Ham make a big double signing, while Chelsea were dealt a hammer blow with Sam Kerr's ACL injury. Plus - did Arsenal really leak Emily Fox's transfer in the most hilarious fashion?
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00:00 [music] Welcome back to the Women's Super League
00:05 Show with myself, Susanna Seeley, and Scottsman and National World Riders, Graham Faulk. Firstly,
00:11 Happy New Year. It's the first one of 2024, and we have got the January transfer window
00:17 to discuss. However, before we get onto that, the year has not started well for one person.
00:27 Unfortunately, we are going to have to discuss the Australian and Chelsea star. She is the
00:33 latest to be handed the ASL injury. Graham, what do you make of yet another player being
00:43 struck down by this injury? It felt like it's been a while, didn't it?
00:49 Since somebody had an ACL, and then lo and behold, it pops up and gets an ACL for the
00:54 best striker in the league. It feels like a curse at the moment. There's far too many
01:01 happening and I feel like we discuss it a lot, but that's because it happens so often.
01:07 I really hope they're getting close to finding out why it's happening so often. It's not
01:14 only robbing the fans of the players for the best part of a year every time, it's robbing
01:18 the players of a really prime part in their career. Sam's not exactly young, but she's
01:28 far from old. She's 30 years old. It's peak for her at the moment, I think. Or just beyond
01:35 the peak age, if we're saying 28, 29 is the peak for a player. She, for me, is far and
01:42 wide the best striker in the league. She won countless awards last year and I know there
01:47 was some debate on that, but there's no debate in Sam Kerr's quality. If there's any benefit,
01:56 I suppose there's two parts of it. It gives somebody else an opportunity, Chelsea, to
02:00 be the person, shall we say. Second of all, I think we'll see how good Emma Hayes is at
02:07 this point. I think she's amazing by that point. I'm not saying she struggles without
02:11 Sam Kerr. I'm kind of saying this will probably prove how good she is. There'll be other teams,
02:16 Arsenal, Man City, who are looking at the title race now and saying, well, the inevitable
02:21 Sam Kerr is not going to be part of it. That kind of gives them a chance. But I think from
02:26 a neutral perspective, I've got no horse in the race when it comes to WSL. I think everyone
02:30 knows what my team is. They're not an English team. So for me, it just robs us of a really,
02:35 really good player and it robs a really, really good player of a peak point in her career.
02:41 Sorry, bit of a tongue twister. Peak point at the peak time.
02:48 Yeah, definitely. I mean, it is devastating when any player gets it. And as you say, we've
02:54 discussed it quite a few times on the show before. So please head back to some of our
02:57 other episodes, which are on ShotCV, they're on YouTube, to see our thoughts. Just because,
03:04 as we'll say again, again, again, it's clear that more research needs to go into, you know,
03:12 there are several reasons why it happens, but research needs to go into like stop that
03:16 happening. But one thing that obviously is, you don't want to say this word because it's
03:23 not really a benefit, but as you've mentioned, it does sort of give those other teams an
03:27 opportunity to maybe claw that way back into the title. So just how key is she for Chelsea
03:34 potentially winning the league?
03:37 Massive, I think. I think there's replacements there, don't get me wrong. I think Maya Fischel
03:43 is really good. I think she hasn't starred too much because when you've got Sam Kerr,
03:49 you know, you don't necessarily get a look in all the time or get as many minutes as
03:53 you probably want. But obviously a very good striker. I think, you know, a slightly different
03:57 player but Agui Beaver-Jones has popped up with goals this season as well. And there's
04:02 a lot of players sort of that play behind that can contribute goals such as, you know,
04:07 Frank Kirby's there, of course, Lauren James is there, Aaron Cuthbert can bag goals as
04:11 well. But to say that it's not going to have an impact would be wrong because there's a
04:18 reason she's called the inevitable Sam Kerr because she can have the most quiet game.
04:23 You hear nothing from her, nothing happens. And then she has a goal. And that's why Sam
04:29 Kerr is so good. She's just a striker. She can score from anywhere. She can score from
04:34 outside the box as we've seen in the World Cup semi-final. She can score from, you know,
04:38 inside the box. She can score with a header. She can score with left. She can score with
04:42 right. In terms of pound for pound strikers, she's, I mean, you could argue she's the best
04:47 in the world to be honest with you. So I think it's a huge boost. But look, I think when
04:52 you look through Chelsea's squad and I think when you look through Chelsea's mentality
04:57 and those became a thing since I think Emma Hayes said it, but a mentality monster is
05:02 what Chelsea are. And I think you could probably chuck a lot of things at Chelsea. They got
05:06 injuries last year, which I don't think really people noticed anywhere near enough compared
05:13 to maybe other teams. And Emma Hayes, I'm sure will agree with me on that. I still think
05:17 Chelsea will win the league to be honest with you, but it gives them, I don't think anyone
05:23 would celebrate an injury. That's not what I mean. But I think, you know, if you're Arsenal,
05:27 or you're Man City, you've got to be like, well, let's take advantage of, you know, something
05:31 really unfortunate has happened in terms of they've lost their best goal scorer. Can we
05:35 capitalise on that? But if I was to put my money on who's going to win the league, I'd
05:39 still say Chelsea.
05:40 Well, the other thing that's quite notable about the timing of this injury is in her
05:47 personal life, obviously Sam Coan has just got engaged to Christy Muiris. She is now
05:56 come over to West Ham to play in the same league and they were going to meet each other
06:01 on the pitch quite soon, which is now not happening. I mean, how sad is that?
06:08 Yeah, you know, I think I never like delve too far into a player's personal life because
06:13 it is exactly as it is personal. But I think we've seen with Viviana Miedemaar and Beth
06:19 Mead and how close they are that that was beneficial for each of them with their injury
06:24 that they have. And I suppose it wouldn't have been the way that you'd want to move
06:28 over. They were probably looking forward to facing each other. Christy would be really
06:31 looking forward to getting stuck into the WSL and a new experience. But it'll be handy
06:37 for her to have someone I'm sure that she can rely on in terms of being close to someone
06:44 while she's going to be out for a long, long time. But I think Christy Muiris coming to
06:47 the WSL is exciting on its own anyway. You know, that's really great. And it was it was
06:52 weird how the timing coincided with her mentioning that she wanted to come over to London or
06:59 she wanted to be closer to Sam as it was, as she said in that documentary, which I thought
07:03 was a really good documentary, to be honest. And then lo and behold, like three days later,
07:07 she appears in the West Ham. I think the most interesting thing about Christy Muiris signing
07:12 for West Ham, her comment about how she came to a West Ham game and she just fell in love
07:20 with football there and then and it was a West Ham men's game she went to and she was
07:24 like so upset. Well, I thought she kind of far fetched it a bit. And then someone else
07:28 found like a similar quote from the same game from 2017. So she's like, what seems like
07:33 a bona fide West Ham fan. She's not just appearing at West Ham because that's the team that was
07:37 interested. I think she wanted to go there, which, no disrespect to West Ham, fantastically
07:42 passionate fans, both men and the women's team. But I thought she was just playing up
07:46 to the fans, but it turns out she's she's a mad hammer.
07:50 Well, they've now got a couple of signings and we'll come on to some of the transfers
07:55 as well. So how sorry, I was just checking where they are in the league and it's not
08:00 overly bright. But the signings that they've now got, so they have got Kirsty's we've just
08:06 mentioned and Katrina Gore is another one who's come in. What is that going to mean
08:11 for a side that is now currently sitting 11th in the league?
08:15 I think it's massive. I don't think we discussed it. The I think a couple of episodes ago before
08:22 Christmas how they'd kind of gone into like this. I can't even think of the word I used.
08:27 Malay. That was the word I was looking for. God, it just disappeared out my head there.
08:32 In the sense that like they weren't actually that bad, but they also weren't that good.
08:35 And it kind of bopped around seventh to ninth for like too long. And then all of a sudden
08:39 they were bottom for a little while. But I think Katrina Gore and Kristy Moose are really
08:44 good signings. And I think not only are they really good players. I think what you get
08:48 with both of them is experience. I mean, Katrina Gore is 31. She's got tons of experience with
08:54 Australia, the Matildas, of course. She's also played over in Australia for a lot of
08:58 the time. I think she spent a little bit of time at NWSL as well. I'm pretty certain she
09:02 was at Utah for a little bit. She's also had time over in Sweden. She's had time back over
09:09 in Australia recently with Melbourne, sorry, Brisbane. And I just think she brings absolutely
09:15 loads of experience, like 105 caps for Australia or something around that. I know it's over
09:22 a hundred. And then you look at Kristy Moose and you think, what does she bring? And yes,
09:27 she might not be as experienced on the international stage in terms of like, she's not a hundred
09:30 cap, but she's got 53 caps.
09:32 Yeah. I mean, she's been all over the shop. She's been with, you know, Washington, she's
09:37 been with Houston Dashmore, no one. She's been with Gotham most recently. She even spent
09:41 a little bit of time at Lorna Byron back in 2015, 16, give or take. She's 31, 32, I think.
09:49 So similar age to Katrina Gore. And I think when you're in a position of not potential
09:55 relegation, because I don't think West Ham will, but when you're looking for someone
10:00 to lift the club, I think they're both really good signings, they're big name signings.
10:05 They'll make an impact off the field in terms of the fans are going to be happy with those
10:08 signings or at least should be, I think. But they'll also lift the team on the pitch as
10:13 well because, well, experience brings that. Experience brings know-how of how to get around
10:19 difficult situations. And I think Skinner's made two really good signings there.
10:24 Well, West Ham and Bristol City are currently on the same number of points. So actually
10:29 when we head back, 20th of January is when the return is, it'll be really interesting
10:34 to see how they come. But at this point, we will head to a quick ad break. And when we
10:39 come back, we will continue discussing the January transfer window.
10:42 (whistle)
10:44 (upbeat music)