Manchester United manager Marc Skinner believes Chelsea’s spending in the January transfer window “skews the market” in the WSL but said he is happy to see extra investment in the women’s game.
League leaders Chelsea, aiming for a sixth straight WSL title, dominated this window with a world-record deal to sign USA defender Naomi Girma for around £900,000, then agreeing a deadline-day move to bring in England midfielder Keira Walsh from Barcelona – reportedly for up to £800,000.
United, seven points behind Chelsea, were strongly linked with a deal for Chloe Kelly but the Manchester City forward instead joined Arsenal, and United’s only business was a move for Kayla Rendell, while Emma Watson joined Everton on loan.
Skinner admitted United were not in the same space as Chelsea when it came to transfers.
“Does it widen the gap? It definitely skews the market maybe a little bit,” Skinner said. “I don’t think Chelsea will be moaning about that because they’re in a situation where they can clearly hit those levels of investment right now.
“For us, I think it’s fantastic for the women’s game, the growth, the development in such a short period of time but I think we’ll potentially see fallouts and how it affects everybody else.”
Skinner added: “We’re not that team. We can’t go and spend those types of fees. But what we can do is we can try and recruit smartly, not panic that teams are investing in that kind of way, and really push into our own way of doing it.
“We’ve bought young. We’ve got to have the right talent…Understand who you are and put all your energy into that rather than chasing something you can’t be.”
While Chelsea splashed the cash, Kelly’s future was one of the biggest talking points of deadline day as the 27-year-old sought a way out of Manchester City, strongly linked with a cross-city move before instead heading to Arsenal until the end of the season.
While speculation persisted right until the move was concluded late on Thursday, Skinner insisted he had a “pretty quiet” deadline day as he focused on Sunday’s trip to Tottenham.
“I’ve said…if we found the right person and we could make a right deal, then we’d try and do it,” he said. “If not, I’m really happy with the forward options we have.
“Chloe Kelly is an Arsenal player on loan from Manchester City. So it really doesn’t affect us now. We’re solely focused on what we can achieve and the qualities we have. So I think it’s heads down for us.”
