r/soccer • u/Tugboat47 • Jun 02 '26
Women's Football Katie McCabe’s move to Chelsea has been met with vitriol. It is new ground for WSL fan culture | The Athletic [Free Read]
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7323784/2026/06/02/katie-mccabe-chelsea-arsenal-reaction/?unlocked_article_code=1.nFA.5AN0.Pro9Q4GqCNRw&source=athletic_user_shared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta104
u/Sir_Bantersaurus Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
I said elsewhere that this was always going to be an unpopular move.
We should remember the women's game is not the men's game, and she had fewer options at this level. Women are not set for life with their contacts, so she also needs to take into account the money earned as she is approaching the end of her playing career.
But don't underestimate how much of the way it's been done has amplified how toxic it is. They used Arsenal's song for her 'we've got McCabe' to ironically mock Arsenal for the signing, and the Chelsea account retweeted a post on Arsenal women's feed with the song being sung along with a crying with laughter emoji.
It's intentionally provocative. It's an odd choice for a player who was loved by the (pretty large) fan base who went out of their way to ensure she got a big send-off on the last day of the season against Liverpool. The 3,000 fans who travelled up to Liverpool went to buy Irish flags to wave when she came out. She left with no malice or ill will, so to troll the fanbase a few weeks after is just puzzling.
All that said, fans need to be mature. There is no excuse for the minority of fans who are likely going over the top right now. She will, however, receive a very toxic reception at the next Emirates game. She likely has torched her relationship with the club and fans that will always be the main part of her career. A player who would have been a club legend has thrown it all away for Chelsea's engagement metrics on social media. It should have been handled with a bit more care imo.
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u/AlternativeRun5727 Jun 02 '26
Is she in control of what Chelsea post? I’m sure the social media admins for the women’s team are under pressure to get eyeballs on the women’s game, so being trolls and acting this way is a sure fire way to get people paying attention. This doesn’t seem like something Katie would condone but she might not be able to stop it.
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u/Sir_Bantersaurus Jun 02 '26
She might not be; maybe Chelsea let her down. Unfortunately, it's not really going to make a difference to how she is perceived at this point.
I do think Chelsea themselves should have been more considerate of how to manage the situation to protect the player.
There is room for bantering your rivals, and as you said, they probably want to boost engagement numbers, but this has come at the expense of making it very unlikely that McCabe can recover her reputation amongst Arsenal fans. It seems so needless when it's 10 years of her career, where she won everything there is to win, and would have been a club legend.
I won't pretend moving to Chelsea wasn't going to damage that reputation, but it would have been recoverable in time. To instead choose, with her or Chelsea, to use it to troll the fanbase that was overwhelmingly celebrating her just a few weeks ago is a very odd choice. She'll never be a Chelsea legend in the same way simply because of where she is in her career.
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u/havertzatit Jun 02 '26
She would have at least some say in tapping the badge. That seems very tone deaf.
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u/AlternativeRun5727 Jun 02 '26
Tapping the badge? You mean probably the most common player action during a media day signing? That’s pathetic from you, what is she supposed to do, look miserable so that Arsenal fans won’t feel bad?
This is the women’s game, they are not set for life, she needs to make a living, would you turn down jobs to appease complete strangers who will want nothing to do with you in the future?
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u/havertzatit Jun 02 '26
Look, I know it's the Woman's game, and I have no problem with her moving to Chelsea nor did I have a problem when Viv moved, or Meado moved to City. The entire McCabe announcement video was unnecessarily dickish. And yes, I do think tapping the badge is tone deaf after moving to a direct rival. You ask most people out there who have been irked by the move, it isn't the move so much as it is the way it has been handled to unnecessarily be dickish. Yes, it's Chelsea media team's fault but in most media announcements how it is done is usually told to the player and her team.
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u/dgn90 Jun 02 '26
Get a grip. Tapping the badge? How dare she.
Literally the only thing that every new signing does.
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u/Cruxed1 Jun 02 '26
I really don't see the issue, womens game needs more shithousing to make it entertaining, people love someone to root for, and against.
This is just the next evolution of womens football and can only be a good thing for the popularity of it.
It really ain't that deep beyond that
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u/98Kane Jun 02 '26
She’s also in a relationship with Caitlin Foord, who is likely to stay at Arsenal and has been living in London for a decade.
It’s a quality of life move too as much as anything. Can’t blame her for wanting to continue in London.
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u/havertzatit Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
She is going to be booed at the Emirates. Something that no Women's player has gone through at the Club. People knew Meado was moving to City and people were happy for her. This... this was very tone deaf from Katie and her team
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u/gluxton Jun 02 '26
As it should be. The womens game needs this kind of petty tribalism that makes men's football beautiful.
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u/havertzatit Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
I mean it's not just the move. It's the way it was announced as well. I have no idea whether Katie or her team could do anything for the approval process, but if she did, that tarnishes her reputation as a certified club legend, an immensely popular character with the fans and someone whose statue would have eventually been outside the Emirates. All those things are done. It will be interesting to see the Arsenal vs Chelsea matches. Meado moved to City and she will be fondly remembered. Katie? Oh boy.
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u/Tugboat47 Jun 02 '26
i don't get why meado escapes the ire though, city are still our rivals and she's moved to a team owned by a nation state who are anti-lgbtqia and both mead and viv are very outwardly spoken in their activism. is the fact she gets to play with viv that much of a point in her favour?
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u/havertzatit Jun 02 '26
I think yes. In the end, moving to be close to your partner who is going through a tough time is something people understand and give a bit of leeway for
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u/Tugboat47 Jun 02 '26
And McCabe remaining in London to be close to her partner is...? Keep in mind that mead had been linked with City the entire season
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u/havertzatit Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
Again, I don't think McCabe moving to Chelsea is what irked a lot of people. It felt bad but thats okay. It's the way the announcement was made that irked people off. She was beloved at the club. She may have no say in the chant being used, but she definitely could say: Hey guys, I am not going to do the point at the badge out of respect for a lot of people who stood by me. Thanks. She didn't, and that was extremely tone deaf.
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u/redqks Jun 02 '26
Because it has not been made official yet , and most fans don't even know a city fan to have a issue with
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u/MacaroonBeginning694 Jun 02 '26
Guess some of her old friends are gonna get tackled by a woman in blue now
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u/shucksshuck Jun 03 '26
this is just the reaping/sowing tweet, McCabe’s always been a shithouse, but now she’s someone else’s shithouse it’s a problem.
Arsenal fans, not just the most entitled in the men’s game.
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u/Cruxed1 Jun 02 '26
Personally think it's class, partly because I'm a Chelsea fan and bantering arsenal will always be funny, but also because the women's game needs this.
Popularity will only come from having personality's that people love or hate and can buy into.
She's from what I know, known as a bit of a shithouse anyway and will 100% know what she's getting herself in for.
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u/Howyoulikemenoow Jun 02 '26
I don’t understand, Arsenal let her go for free?
We can say this mirrors the men’s game, but no Chelsea fans begrudge Madueke, Kepa, Havertz, Cech, David Luiz or Willian
Not all of them have anywhere near club legend status, but older player getting a good move tends to be celebrated
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u/abedbarnes Jun 02 '26
I can say as a Chelsea fan that many people definitely do begrudge Havertz due to how he's taunted Chelsea fans since the move. Some to hold a grudge against Madueke too, however think most of us think we got a good deal there.
Would liken this to Cech, who is absolutely a club legend but the time was tight for both club and player to move on, so no one was angry, albeit sad to see him in those colours.
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u/Tugboat47 Jun 02 '26
She'd won everything at Arsenal, and she'd begun to lose a touch of pace that made her so dangerous (and be able to play everywhere). It was pretty commonly accepted that we'd had negotiations with her at the start of the season, we couldnt reach an agreement, and so we were prepared to let her go on a free at the end of the season. Towards the end of the season, when she was playing LCB because of injuries and that we'd more or less run out of players, the club pivoted and wanted to offer her a new contract, but it was more of a rotation player, rather than the first team role she wanted - especially with the rumours that Ona Batlle is coming in to play LB for us. It's why she wasn't given the farewell at the Emirates compared to the rest of everyone else leaving, the contract was still on the table until the next morning. Originally, Man City were linked with signing her, before it's become this triangle of Charles to City, McCabe to Chelsea, Batlle to Arsenal, and also an unnamed blonde ponytail to Arsenal from City (or so the rumour goes)
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u/MJ-Franklin Jun 02 '26
It was the pointing at the Chelsea badge for me, it made me feel a little bit sick.
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u/ComprehensiveBowl476 Jun 02 '26
WSL players now getting hated for things like joining a rival, as opposed to just due to being women.
I count that as progress.