Katie McCabe's departure leaves Arsenal facing huge summer

This summer will bring about plenty of change at Arsenal. With the Gunners' final WSL fixture of the season taking place at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime, the club have announced that numerous key figures will be departing when their contracts expire. These beloved figures got to wave goodbye to Emirates Stadium following Wednesday's night's last-gasp 1-0 win over Everton.

Arsenal players leaving as free agents this summer

The last three players on that list in particular will be major loses to Renée Slegers' squad. First, Katie McCabe has been with the club for over a decade, the established first-choice left-back for many years now, racking up over 300 Arsenal appearances. Only Rachel Yankey, Ciara Grant, Emma Byrne, Jayne Ludlow and Kim Little have also achieve this in the club's long history.

McCabe won seven major honours during her time in North London, also awarded the club's goal of the season in both 2021/22 and the following year. The first a thunderous volley against Liverpool in Birkenhead, before an outrageous strike to snatch victory against Manchester City in Borehamwood.

Elsewhere, Beth Mead has also been an Arsenal stalwart for some time, scoring 86 goals in 264 appearances for the club. Her peak was the 2021/22 season, bagging 11 WSL goals that season, before being the top-scorer as England won the Euros on home soil, thereby finishing second in the Ballon d'Or Féminin ranking, just a few votes behind Alexia Putellas.

Now in their 30s, neither McCabe nor Mead are at the peak of their powers anymore, but both have been regular starters throughout this campaign, so will be a loss. Also, a word on Manuela Zinsberger, who was a reliable goalkeeper, but has very much been overtaken by Daphne van Domselaar and Anneke Borbe in the pecking order. Meantime, Laia Codina has been a solid contributor at centre-back, while Victoria Pelova has regularly shown her quality as a midfielder.

Thus, Slegers and her recruitment team will need to be busy in the transfer market this summer to replace such key figures across every area of the pitch. It seems as though Barça Femení defender Ona Batlle is on her way to North London while, in a major coup, Lionesses star Georgia Stanway appears set to return to England after four seasons with Bayern Munich. This would be a major coup.

Nevertheless, Arsenal fans are hoping this is just the start. The Gunners have not been WSL champions since 2019, but next season could be a golden opportunity to break that. Manchester City have managed to break Chelsea's six-in-a-row monopoly, but benefited from not having any European football to contend with. Next year, the big three will all operate on a level playing field.

Thus, if Arsenal are able to get their recruitment right, they could seize this opportunity to reclaim the title, given that they're only four points behind the champions this time round, despite playing nine more games. While the likely arrival of Stanway is certainly one to get excited about, Gooners will hope many more big names will follow, as their departing club legends will leave a rather large void.

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