The Women's Super League's summer transfer window shut ahead of the 2026-27 season, and while the overall spending remains a fraction of the sums seen in men's football, a closer look at the data reveals some notable trends across the division.
According to figures from Soccerdonna, Transfermarkt's platform dedicated to women's football, Arsenal have made the most significant improvement to their squad this summer. The Gunners' new arrivals carry a combined estimated market value of €3.9m, narrowly ahead of London City Lionesses, who added €3.5m worth of talent. To put those figures in context, eight of the 14 WSL clubs for 2026-27 have entire squads valued below those transfer hauls. London City's marquee signing, two-time Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas, is alone valued at €1.15m — a figure higher than Charlton's whole squad and close to Crystal Palace's total roster value.
West Ham present an interesting case, as the value of their incoming players (€1.02m) actually exceeds that of the players retained from last season (€0.96m), suggesting a squad in the midst of substantial rebuilding. That overhaul appears necessary given the Hammers finished 10th last term, winning just three of their 19 league matches.
Departing players tell an equally important story. West Ham lost contributors who accounted for 6,322 minutes last season — 29% of their total minutes — including goalkeeper Kinga Szemik, who started 19 of their 22 matches. Elsewhere, only Martina Fernández, who left Everton after playing 1,950 minutes, and Charlton's Keira Flannery, who played 1,891 minutes, departed clubs still in the WSL having logged more game time than Szemik.
There are signs some clubs have learned lessons from previous windows. Brighton, who lost 9,584 minutes of playing time from their squad in the summer of 2025, subsequently dropped two places in the table. Liverpool, who lost the highest share of minutes of any club this summer (6,406), endured a sluggish start to their campaign as a result.
Goal output losses could prove just as costly as minutes played. Manchester City and Aston Villa both saw key contributors depart — Kerolin left City, while Kirsty Hanson moved on from Villa — with each player responsible for at least 13 goal contributions last season. However, the reigning champions City are far better equipped to absorb such a loss than Villa, for whom the departures represent 36.2% of their total goal contributions from last season, the highest proportion of any club that competed in the WSL in 2025-26.
Beyond individual club business, the transfer window's overall structure has drawn favourable comparisons with the chaos seen in the men's game. The Premier League's deadline day saw roughly one in six signings completed on the final day, with more than a third of the summer's total transfer spending occurring after the new season had already kicked off.
By contrast, the WSL's business was largely wrapped up well in advance. Whereas the Premier League had completed only 83% of its eventual total signings by the start of deadline day, the WSL reached that same proportion a full month earlier — despite closing its window before the season began and without the disruption of a World Cup this year.
The smaller financial scale of women's football deals may partly explain the smoother process, but the numbers suggest something more structural is at play. FIFA has reported that global spending on transfer fees in women's football rose by 83.6% year-on-year, while WSL clubs' spending on agents' fees increased by 75% in the year to 3 February 2026. Despite that growth, the league's transfer dealings have remained notably well-organised — a model that men's football, for all its financial might, might do well to study.
Based on reporting from Guardian Football.