ENI ALUKO believes the £1million barrier will soon be broken in the women’s transfer market.
The WSL Hall of Fame heroine, 35, was sharing her thoughts last month prior to a dramatic January transfer deadline day.
A day on which Manchester United reportedly rejected a £500,000 Arsenal bid for Alessia Russo
Today Aluko’s old club Chelsea head to Brisbane Road for a 12:30pm clash with Tottenham.
The game is likely to see former Blues star Bethany England, 28, appear in her first London derby league match in a Spurs shirt.
A moment that would also see the striker make her first top tier appearance against her old side following her switch for a reported fee of £250,000.
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A figure that has reportedly made her the Women’s Super League’s most expensive British player.
Aluko, who won two WSL titles and two FA Cups during her six-year second spell with Chelsea from 2012 to 2018, said: “In terms of how the transfer window has changed, it’s really the transfer fees.
“You never used to hear of transfer fees before in the women’s game because there was just not the economy for it.
“Clubs didn’t have the money, they didn’t have the budget, so players would just run their contracts down or mutually agree to leave.
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“Now you’ve got the transfer fees, which are not the astronomical amounts you see in the men’s game, but we see with Keira Walsh’s move to Barcelona (from Man City) which was for £400,000.”
In her past roles as director of recruitment for US side Angel City FC and as Aston Villa Women’s first sporting director, Aluko has overseen player transfers.
Talents she recruited for Villa during tenure, from January 2020 to May 2021, include Japan ace Mana Iwabuchi who joined on a short-term deal in December 2020.
Last month a Fifa report revealed that four of the five biggest women’s football transfers of 2022 involved moves to and from WSL sides
These include Keira Walsh’s world-record breaking switch to Barca last September.
Aluko, who is supporting the We See You network, a Chelsea-backed campaign, celebrating the achievements of women working in football. added: “Eventually, it will get to the million pound mark at some point.
“Then we’ll start seeing bigger transfer fees. That’s something that is going to really help the game.
“Clubs naturally are quite competitive, so the minute Tottenham buy a player in for £1million, then Chelsea might want to outdo them and buy a player for a higher figure.
“It creates a sort of competitive economy that I think would be really healthy for the women’s game because it is value.
“It’s all value exchange and it’s making sure the money in the game gets circulated and distributed and players get higher salaries, etc.”
Tottenham’s swoop for England was followed by the club signing Iwabuchi on loan from Arsenal on January 18 and Spurs starlet Jessica Naz penning a new two-year deal on Friday.
Today Tottenham boss Rehanne Skinner will aim to get a positive result against Chelsea.
Her side, who are currently eighth and finished fifth in the top tier last term, hope to pick up for their first win in the league this year.
But they face a tough task with Emma Hayes’ team having won their past six WSL encounters.
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Skinner said: “We’re in a space where we want to try and improve results, not just performances.
“Going into this, we want to give it everything we possibly can.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
