The 2025-26 Women’s Super League season was all about change.
The beginning of a new broadcast deal, the promise of expansion and the fall of a domestic dynasty were all key factors in this campaign. Not to mention, the ongoing transfer saga of one of the league’s biggest stars.
With the boost of another England national team win at the 2025 Women’s European Championship and a broadcast deal with Sky Sports and the BBC worth £65million ($84.3m) over five years, the WSL showed what its next phase of growth looks like. There were surprising giant slayers in Brighton & Hove Albion, record transfers settling in at their new clubs from Olivia Smith to Alyssa Thompson and upsets at the top of the table with Manchester City taking their first league title in a decade and ending Chelsea’s run of six.
With the expansion to 14 teams next season, the WSL will look to continue that momentum into a new era. But before we get there, The Athletic’s Cerys Jones and Charlotte Harpur share their key takeaways from this season …
Manchester City lifted their first WSL trophy in a decade. (Shaun Botterill / Getty Images)
Three words on the season
Cerys Jones: Status quo disrupted.
Charlotte Harpur: Bridesmaid turned bride.
Biggest surprise of the season: Brighton
Harpur: Who had Brighton down to be such a tease come the business end of the season?
With three games left to play, they threw the cat among the pigeons, defeating City 3-2. Nerves jangled among the league leaders as the result opened the door for Arsenal whom Brighton had just knocked out of the FA Cup.
A week later they punctured Manchester United’s chances of qualifying for Europe by holding them to a 1-1 draw. And just as quickly as they had given Arsenal hope they snatched it away, denying them the three points the north London side needed and handing City the title.
Leicester City won one of their last 20 WSL games. (Lewis Storey / Getty Images)
Disappointment of the season: Leicester and the top four
Harpur: Leicester City headed into the 2025-26 season coming off the back of their best points tally in the WSL and an unbeaten pre-season. But manager Amandine Miquel was sacked before the campaign even got started.
Her successor, Rick Passmoor, ranks fourth-worst in win percentage (20.5 per cent) and points per game (0.87) among managers who have taken charge of 40-plus games in the competition. Leicester won just one of their last 20 WSL games and lost their last 11. Only Doncaster Rovers Belles and Yeovil Town have ever had a longer losing streak in the competition’s history.
Jones: Last season’s top three teams would all have hoped for more this season.
The title race was interesting in the sense that a team other than Chelsea was leading it, but in truth the fact Manchester City only won by four points in the end feels surprising. Their victory seemed like a safe bet early on, simply because no rival could match their consistency.
For Chelsea, the disappointment of this season is obvious: the aim was to supplement their domestic dominance with a European crown, and they finish with neither.
On the other side of that coin, Arsenal were supposed to build on their Champions League victory by pushing on to reclaim their place at the top of the English game and instead end the season trophy-less, having failed to capitalise on the Chelsea slip-up they have been hoping for. As for Manchester United, a run to the quarter-finals of the Champions League on their debut in the competition proper is impressive, but failing to qualify for the next edition feels like stalled progress. All three sides will have regrets.
Khadji ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s future will dictate a busy summer transfer window in the WSL. (Steve Bardens / Getty Images)
The issue that will dominate this summer is: Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw’s future
Jones: Whether the striker, fresh from claiming her third consecutive WSL Golden Boot, stays at champions Manchester City is already the burning question of the window. Shaw’s preference is to stay with City, and they surely want to keep her — who wouldn’t?
Shaw, 29, is the most formidable goalscorer in the WSL, was crucial to City’s title drive, and losing her would undoubtedly be a blow to their ability to defend the league title next year. Shaw departing for a WSL rival would only add insult to injury.
The fact that Shaw has voiced her desire to stay perhaps buys City more time to see if they can find a solution, but it is clearly not a simple answer — meaning we can expect this to rumble on for a while.
Her future is emblematic of wider questions over the WSL’s financial landscape.
As The Athletic have reported, Chelsea have made the striker a contract offer worth at least £1m per year — if those sort of figures become common, it will signify a gear shift in the women’s game. Shaw’s extraordinary ability demands extraordinary recognition, but it is unlikely that would deter other agents from using her salary as a benchmark or target. The risk is that only a handful of clubs will be able to cough up those sums, unbalancing the market.
Birmingham City Women is one of up to three new teams joining the WSL next season via promotion. (Leila Coker / Getty Images)
The thing I’m most looking forward to about next season is…
Jones: More football! The WSL has been crying out for expansion for so long; having the same teams competing against each other season after season with a rarely rotating cast can mean the competition stagnates.
The season is also simply too short. Expansion needs to be handled carefully to ensure the promoted teams can compete properly, and that the players who feature internationally, in the Champions League, and in the WSL and domestic cups are not overloaded — but if done well, adding more teams should revitalise the league.
This time next year we’ll all be saying…
Jones: “Will Lucy Bronze really be able to play through *insert injury here* at the World Cup?” (Spoiler alert: she will).
Harpur: “I don’t want to see Kim Little leave Arsenal.”
