Departures of Kerr, Mead and Shaw mark end of an era in the Women’s Super League | Tom Garry

Saturday’s finale to the Women’s Super League season marks the end of an era, and not only because it is the final time the division will operate with 12 teams before the expansion to 14. A multitude of players synonymous with their clubs in recent years are all making end-of-contract departures and the forward lines, in particular, of many of the top sides will not look the same again.

Thursday’s confirmation of Sam Kerr’s exit from Chelsea, added to Monday’s announcement that Beth Mead will leave Arsenal and last week’s news that Khadija “Bunny” Shaw has decided to leave Manchester City, means the division’s top three clubs are saying farewell to forwards who have been modern icons of their clubs and the striker market will enter a fascinating summer. That trio have scored a combined 316 goals for their clubs and will leave with at least one WSL title under their belts; Kerr has five.

Something of a merry-go-round could begin, with Mead understood to be close to a move to Manchester City, but the earliest a player moving on a free between WSL sides can sign for their new club is 1 June, when they are inside the final month of their contract. Kerr has been heavily linked with a move back to the NWSL in the US but her destination is undecided. Chelsea are the favourites to secure Shaw, and their need to sign the Jamaican has only been put into even sharper focus by Kerr’s exit.

They are not the only strikers switching clubs, with the Tottenham captain, Bethany England, poised for an emotional farewell after playing a talismanic role at the club for three and a half years, during which she has scored 32 league goals. Her services will be highly sought after, too, and the striker market has an extra element of intrigue with several of this season’s top scorers in the WSL behind Shaw about to enter the final year of their deals.

The Aston Villa forward Kirsty Hanson, the WSL’s second-top scorer this season, and the Manchester City forward Vivianne Miedema, have contracts until 2027 and the same applies to two of Manchester United’s joint-top league goalscorers, Elisabeth Terland and Melvine Malard, and one of West Ham’s top assets in attack, Shekiera Martinez.

The one club that look stacked with a settled group of options in the No 9 position are Arsenal, who have Alessia Russo, Stina Blackstenius and Michelle Agyemang. Almost every club in the division is understood to be monitoring the 19-year-old Häcken striker Felicia Schröder, who scored a hat-trick this month in the second leg of the Europa Cup final.

England is not the only captain on the move. West Ham’s Katrina Gorry is also moving on when her contract expires in June. The 33-year-old Australia midfielder played in all 22 of West Ham’s WSL matches last season and is a fan favourite. She told the club’s media channels: “I’ve felt at home ever since I arrived. I came here with a two-year-old daughter and I’m leaving east London with an even bigger family – not just my son but the West Ham family too: the fans, the staff and everyone connected to the club. The support I’ve received from everyone will stay close to my heart for ever.”

Many of these departures symbolise the fact that out-of-contract moves remain the most common for top players in the women’s game, despite the 83.6% rise in women’s transfer fees paid globally in 2025 compared with 2024. Friday’s confirmation of the left-back Katie McCabe’s summer exit from Arsenal, after playing more than 300 times for the club, is another example.

The retirements of other WSL stalwarts, not least Chelsea’s Millie Bright, the Manchester City midfielder Laura Coombs and the Aston Villa midfielder Lucy Staniforth, add to the sense that Saturday marks the end of an era. This summer several clubs – Chelsea principal among them – will undergo rebuilds. It will be a transfer window not to take your eyes off.