Arsenal and Chloe Kelly: a holiday romance that quickly became a marriage

When Arsenal signed their academy product Chloe Kelly on loan from Manchester City in January, there was a fair portion of opportunism involved. The Gunners had made a string of winger signings in recent seasons that just had not worked out for different reasons and question marks remained over the fitness of Lina Hurtig.

Kelly, who had fallen out with Manchester City boss Gareth Taylor, had been frozen out of the City line-up having spent four seasons as one of their most indispensable players. But with very few minutes at club level and a looming international tournament with England, Kelly needed to play to get into the England squad for Euro 2025 and to play she needed to move.

Initially, a move to Manchester United in January looked like it might be on the cards. Kelly was very settled in Manchester, despite being a West London girl, and United had wide issues of their own with Brazilian winger Geyse- who was eventually loaned to Gotham FC. But City really, really did not want to lose such a good player to their city rivals, not least because they were in direct competition for a Champions League qualification spot.

Arsenal stole in as the lesser of two evils and while Laura Wienroither joining City on loan on deadline day was a separate transaction, it can’t have hurt in greasing the wheels of this transaction. The urgency of Kelly’s situation with England was elucidated when she was initially left out of Sarina Wiegman’s February squad. (She was later called up as injury cover).

Kelly’s start at Arsenal had been slow since the Gunners were embroiled in a number of cup fixtures that she could not participate in, either because she was cup tied (FA Cup) or because Arsenal were facing her parent club (Subway Cup). There was also a WSL game against City in that period which she was also ineligible for.

For background on Kelly’s departure in 2018 after her first spell at the club, check out this week’s Arsenal Women Newsletter.

Impact on the pitch and the training ground
Kelly’s impact on the pitch, once she was able to put some games together, was swift. She scored in her first WSL start against West Ham, reducing a 2-0 deficit to 2-1 in a game Arsenal would eventually go on to win 4-3. At City, Gareth Taylor asked for her and Lauren Hemp to stay very high and very wide and not to track back. That instruction was slightly evident in that West Ham game, with Shekiera Martinez tearing up Arsenal’s right side in the first half.

But Kelly quickly got up to speed with the defensive demands of an Arsenal winger. The Gunners, who for so long had overburdened Mead and Foord due to shortages in the wide position, were grateful for another WSL ready, prime wide option. Arsenal boss Renee Slegers has a model where she strongly encourages player input into tactics and ideas. I am told that Kelly instantly impressed, not just because of her competitiveness in training, but because of her willingness to contribute tactical ideas.

For instance, Kelly had often been a touchline winger at City. Her main job had been to hold the width of the pitch and send crosses in for Ellen White and then, once White retired, Bunny Shaw. Kelly, as evidenced through her goal against West Ham, was also encouraged to attack the back post when her opposite winger Lauren Hemp had the ball.

Arsenal were happy to use Kelly’s skills as a touchline winger with a pinpoint cross, as Real Madrid found to their cost in the Gunners’ UWCL quarter-final win. Kelly assisted goals for Russo and Mariona in the space of a couple of minutes with some wicked deliveries from the right.

However, Kelly demonstrated more strings to her bow at Arsenal and she was willing to contribute heavily to tactical discussions. At Crystal Palace in March, she played on the left wing and, even if she did bag two assists with crosses, she actually spent the majority of that game playing centrally as a creative 10. (Full analysis piece here). She is a more flexible player than certainly I had realised.

Slegers puts a lot of emphasis on tactical and emotional maturity and wants a constant high performance culture in training and Kelly was a model professional in that respect. After the victory over Madrid, Slegers said, ‘ I knew the quality she had as a player, but to see her day in and day out think she really contributes to our training environment. She’s very feisty, she’s a winner, very competitive.’

Her England ambitions

One of the potential drawbacks of coming to Arsenal would have been competing with England teammate Beth Mead for position. There was, and still is, a risk that falling behind Mead at club level would damage her international ambitions. Strangely enough, Kelly won the right-wing slot at Arsenal while Sarina Wiegman still prefers Mead.

What is clear is that Arsenal need that kind of depth to deliver in all competitions. In the end, an upshot of Kelly’s move has also been developing a stronger relationship with England striker Alessia Russo. In fact, in England’s recent friendly win over Portugal, Mead assisted another back post strike for Chloe Kelly with a cross from the left wing, which further illustrates the possibilities for Arsenal.

Her happiness

After Arsenal’s Champions League Final win in May, Chloe told Sky Sports that the situation at Manchester City had felt her feeling so bereft that she was ready to take a break from football altogether. Her relationship with Slegers in particular, was pinpointed as a crucial factor in Kelly ‘getting her smile back’ as she put it. ‘A proper manager’ Kelly wrote on one of her Instagram stories in May featuring a selfie with her and Slegers.

The player stopped just short of publicly saying she would stay, largely for negotiation reasons. Arsenal’s position, that they wanted to keep her, was established early in the loan spell. Kelly is 27, hadn’t signed a club contract since February 2022 and is about to enter her prime years.

Clearly her representatives wanted to drive a hard bargain on terms, which you would absolutely expect (and endorse). So stopping short of publicly stating her desire to stay was clearly a(n understandable) negotiation standpoint, but it was clear what her heart was telling her.

After the Champions League trophy parade at the Emirates, Kelly climbed out of her car and danced into the Tollington pub with Arsenal fans, where she joined in with chants of ‘Chloe Kelly we want you to stay.’ When it came to negotiating a permanent transfer, I am not aware that any other club seriously figured. The player’s choice was made and it was just left to the club and her representatives to negotiate terms.

I don’t know the player’s mind. My own feeling is that when Kelly signed in January that it was likely to be a mutually beneficial holiday romance. At that point, I still felt she would likely join United in the summer. My opinion on that changed rapidly. I knew she was a really good player but she was even better and more flexible than I thought.

But mutual attraction is simultaneously invisible and highly visible and when two poles start to meet, very little can stop them. This is a holiday romance that quickly became a love affair.

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