Notts Ladies abolished - out of WSL

[sbahnhof]

The Notts County women's team had been in a precarious situation for several months, but this is all so sad:

Just heard the sad news on the radio that Notts County have withdrawn from the league, having been put into liquidation

Really gutted for the County players, staff and fans

I wonder if the FA will allow their players to find new clubs for the Spring Series, given that the transfer window has actually closed

would need to check rules, but once a team/club folds it is usually the case that players become free agents; I would imagine the FA will be keen for the England players to get a club - based on what I have heard

Arsenal fans will have to wait a little longer to see their stars in action after today's shock announcement....

Notts take on Chelsea in the 2015 cup final
(@cfcunofficial, cc-by-sa)

Seems like it's often the way that a club would save its men's team, and give the women a low priority.

Even basic politeness and decency didn't occur to the club's owners, bunch of cowards:

Notts County have provoked anger by announcing that their ladies team will fold just two days before the start of the Women’s Super League season.

While there has been some uncertainty about the club’s finances, the timing of the announcement was unexpected, with County due to start their campaign on Sunday against Arsenal.

The club do not appear to have told their players about the decision before it was announced. Midfielder Danielle Buet tweeted ‘Thanks @Official_NCFC left jobless and homeless.’ She also said the players had only found out through the media, and that the club haven’t ‘even got the balls to tell us to our faces.’

(The Guardian
www.theguardian.com/football/2017/apr/21/notts-county-ladies-fold-two-days-before-season )

More info on:

http://www.nottinghampost.com/sad-day-for-women-s-football-as-notts-county-ladies-fold/story-30285072-detail/story.html

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39667392

Interview with player Louise Quinn: http://www.the42.ie/louis-quinn-interview-notts-county-folding-3352030-Apr2017/


The FA have reacted as quickly as ever, although they forgot to start their message with... "Er..."

http://www.thefa.com/news/2017/apr/21/fa-statement-notts-county-ladies-fa-wsl-210417

[sbahnhof]

More reactions from the past hour, including Carly Telford and owner Alan Hardy:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39672173

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A few more reactions and tweets, including Chelsea Weston.


Here's Doncaster Belles' reaction... is this cool or is it not?

OFFER: £1 entry for Notts fans

With the sad news that Notts County Ladies will be unable to fulfil their Spring Series fixtures, Doncaster Rovers Belles would like to offer all NCLFC Spring Series pass holders the opportunity to attend our home fixture with Everton Ladies for just £1!

(Doncaster Rovers Belles
www.doncasterroversbelles.co.uk/news/offer_1_entry_for_notts_fans.html)

[sbahnhof]

Sunday's Arsenal v Notts match is now listed as postponed, um, yes you'd think so. (The FA have quietly removed it.)

FA have swiftly deleted Notts from the team list on the WSL site. Like they never existed...

(pic: fourthandfifteen, cc-by)

BBC's Jacqui Oatley has been on the case with the club's liquidation, and Notts' players' future.

She's cutting through some of the lies and half-truths of the owners, like the claim that Notts Ladies were losing £470,000 a year...

Statement failed to mention £92.5k + marketing officer that the FA pay clubs per year. Plus [the FA] paying centrally contracted Eng players £25k+

https://twitter.com/JacquiOatley/status/855459938709254144

[I'm] Told that the PFA will support the 10 Notts players currently in club accommodation. Will work with FA to secure release from contracts

https://twitter.com/JacquiOatley/status/855456397387067397

They're not free agents yet until the liquidator and FA agree that's the case. Should be early next week.

https://twitter.com/JacquiOatley/status/855473152448753664

Futures of Notts staff up in the air. Fans have no WSL club to support. Dreadful for women’s game. Its [women's football's] future? Probably AFC/MCFC/CFC model.

https://twitter.com/JacquiOatley/status/855462695142928384

And a slightly cryptic statement from owner Alan Hardy at the end of his BBC local TV interview:

"No player will be evicted from their house, and already 4 players have got new clubs." (Video)

[croc]

Anyone know how much they were losing?   

[croc]

BBC's Jacqui Oatley has been on the case with the club's liquidation, and Notts' players' future.

She's cutting through some of the lies and half-truths of the owners, like the claim that Notts Ladies were losing £470,000 a year...

Statement failed to mention £92.5k + marketing officer that the FA pay clubs per year. Plus [the FA] paying centrally contracted Eng players £25k+

https://twitter.com/JacquiOatley/status/855459938709254144

Futures of Notts staff up in the air. Fans have no WSL club to support. Dreadful for women’s game. Its [women's football's] future? Probably AFC/MCFC/CFC model.

https://twitter.com/JacquiOatley/status/855462695142928384

And a slightly cryptic statement from owner Alan Hardy at the end of his BBC local TV interview:

"No player will be evicted from their house, and already 4 players have got new clubs." (Video)

The Notts owner seems to be getting a reasonably sympathetic hearing amongst Notts County fans.   The majority opinion seems to be that the losses the ladies are incurring (including inherited debt of >300k) are too big a drain on a small club like Notts County.  That's even amongst those who do support the ladies side, many still object to the franchise model and the move from Lincoln.

It does look like the MCFC model is the way things are going.

[sbahnhof]

I reread the article that Sylvain wrote back in January. It was extremely prescient – http:/dailycannon.com/2017/01/survival-fittest-new-fa-wsl-motto – "Is survival of the fittest the new FA WSL motto?"  (The player he mentioned in the heading was Diego Costa, and it was £300,000 a week!)

Sylvain's new bulletin, about Notts, is equally good:

- http://dailycannon.com/2017/04/how-notts-county-ladies-folded-and-how-it-can-be-avoided-in-the-future/

[Welsh May]

Anyone know what the fate is of the players, from first team to reserves? Seems like there are 30 odd players out in the ether right now ..... some homeless, some jobless, some in Univs now not connected to a club, with no specific club facing challenges given most clubs have signed their players? etc etc

[sbahnhof]

Anyone know what the fate is of the players, from first team to reserves? Seems like there are 30 odd players out in the ether right now ..... some homeless, some jobless, some in Univs now not connected to a club, with no specific club facing challenges given most clubs have signed their players? etc etc

Yeah, it's still a mess.

There has been an update - the FA announced last night the players are free agents now. They can sign elsewhere, but will they?

The FA said... "Players are now in a position to sign for new clubs in England. They may also move to leagues in other countries where the transfer window is open."

What remains unclear is how many WSL clubs will have contingency within their budgets for the Spring Series to sign additional players.

(BBC Sport
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39739713)

[wsldreamteam]

Couple of months ago I was told that Notts still owed some money to a player that had left them, so I thought 
Really sad for all their players, I really hope they can find a club for the 2017-18 season.
I mean a couple of months hiatus for those who can financially afford it won't do them too much harm I think as pre-season for the winter season starts in July in general. 

[sbahnhof]

A couple of signings of ex-Notts players:

Leanne Crichton to Glasgow City - https://twitter.com/crichton7/status/858043983100088320

Louise Quinn to Arsenal - https://twitter.com/louise_quinn4/status/858776702276825088

http://www.the42.ie/good-news-for-irish-star-as-notts-county-players-3362723-Apr2017/

^ Quinn's signing was mentioned yesterday on the Sunderland-Arsenal commentary iirc.

[sbahnhof]

A couple of signings of ex-Notts players:

Leanne Crichton to Glasgow City - https://twitter.com/crichton7/status/858043983100088320

Louise Quinn to Arsenal - https://twitter.com/louise_quinn4/status/858776702276825088

Three more signings, and it's a statement of intent by Reading. And the statement is, "we want to be like Notts County"...

http://4theloveofsport.co.uk/2017/05/01/statement-of-intent-from-reading-as-they-make-triple-signing/

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39772458

Any idea how this would work with salaries and budgets? Potter and Moore have their salaries paid by the FA (at least in part) due to their central contracts, but presumably Kirsty Linnett doesn't?

England's Jo Potter and Jade Moore have joined Reading
(Markbriggs, cc-by-sa / James Boyes, cc-by)

[buzzbee]

It feels wrong to benefit from another team’s (and their fans) demise, but I am chuffed to bits with our three signings! We beat Bristol 3-1 and played well in defeat at Liverpool and can look forward to adding these three AND Mandy Van Den Berg, who hasn’t yet played. I now see us being a top half team.

Reading had quite a small squad. I suspect some money was being held back for the transfer window that follows the Spring series, but they decided they couldn’t miss this opportunity.

I wonder though, if they have signed for the upcoming league season or just the Spring series?

Could Telford be Yeovil-bound?

[buzzbee]

Telford to Chelsea for the Spring series

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Could Telford be Yeovil-bound?

Telford to Chelsea for the Spring series

And understudy goalkeeper Megan Walsh to Yeovil.

Most of the ex-Notts signings made appearances this week - Walsh started for Yeovil v Bristol City, Telford was in goal for Chelsea at Reading, and Reading used Potter, Moore and Linnett as subs.

http://www.womensfootball.eu/forum/index.php/topic,8327.msg84325.html#msg84325

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[sbahnhof]

More signs of things to come, perhaps - from Pat in the Women's Premier League thread:

yes, I forgot it was Nuneaton United who had to give up their battle to stay afloat as a FAWPL team, having been essentially a very successful family run club for many years as Coventry Copsewood,=. Speaking today to a league official, it seems that Notts demise has thrown all sorts of possibilities open with the ripple effect being felt all the way down the pyramid.

And that doesn't take into account any other clubs who fold before the next big kick off. But I won't start on funding outside the franchises....I'll just get all bitter and angry ....

[sbahnhof]

We now have the inside story, from ex-Notts goalkeeper Carly Telford.

Telford has written in her column for The Offside Rule about the last day of Notts Ladies. Some stuff we knew, and quite a bit that we didn't.

Like, for example, you'd probably heard that the players were given the shocking news only a few minutes before the media. Not true!

Myself, Leanne, Dani [Buet], Fern and Aileen [Whelan] all went to Costa just to sit with each other and have half an hour to ourselves. People were on their phones to parents and partners explaining what had happened, the media knew and there were already reporters outside the ground when we left. The BBC had known since 10:30am – they knew before we did. It was totally mishandled, I couldn’t really be bothered with Alan’s reasons when I heard them.

(The Offside Rule,
offsiderulepodcast.com/2017/05/05/carly-telford-column-i-hope-a-few-lessons-are-learned)

Criticism of owner Alan Hardy too, apparently he never met the players, despite his positive public statements about the women's team. Telford also talks about life after Notts, how she signed with Chelsea despite the acrimony when she left the club last time. It's an informative read.

[sbahnhof]

Some other former Notts players have managed to sign elsewhere:

Amy Turner, England defender, goes to Liverpool - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39936621

Angharad James, midfielder, to Yeovil Town - http://www.ciderspace.co.uk/ASP/news/news.asp?NewsItemId=27058

Rachel Williams, England forward, to Birmingham - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39939054


INTERVIEW | Rachel Williams re-joins Blues Ladies
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_4_pDVNrSs

[sbahnhof]

Laura Bassett made the unusual decision not to join a club, in order to be "physically and mentally ready" for Euro 2017 in July:

- http://www.nuneaton-news.co.uk/bassett-taking-time-out-before-deciding-future/story-30322152-detail/story.html

Despite her own stance on her future, Bassett admitted she was delighted to see her former teammates find clubs elsewhere.

She said: "I was so pleased to see them sign elsewhere. [...] Who knows maybe I will join them in signing for a new team in England once the Championships are over this summer, maybe I will look to go abroad."

(Nuneaton News,
nuneaton-news.co.uk/bassett-taking-time-out-before-deciding-future/story-30322152-detail/story.html)

2017/18 is to be decided, but it's the Euros that will be most intriguing – how much will it affect her game without club match practice?

She's played in most England games this year, and will have discussed this with Sampson for sure. She'd be likely to play in the two warm-up games (of which more later). England gather for that in a couple of weeks anyway.

Several ex-Notts players still have no new club announced.

Bassett at the Kelly Smith tribute, 2017
(pic: Katie Chan, cc-by-sa)

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