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Two summers ago, Chloe Kelly cemented her status as an England legend. Just 24 years old and winning only her 17th cap, her second ever goal for her country was the biggest in the Lionesses’ history, securing a first major tournament triumph, at Wembley, against Germany, in extra time of the 2022 European Championships final. But when Sarina Wiegman’s side head out to Switzerland next year to defend their title, there’s a genuine chance that Kelly might not even make the squad.
It’s been a difficult year for the winger, one encapsulated by her lack of involvement in Manchester City’s late win over Liverpool at the weekend. If City want to stick with Chelsea, winners of the last five Women’s Super League crowns, in this season’s title race, they cannot drop points. Yet, as the board went up for stoppage time at Anfield on Sunday, the score was 1-1, as it had been since Khadija Shaw equalised for the visitors just before the hour.
As City pushed and pushed for an important winning goal, Kelly sat among the substitutes. When that strike finally came in the 92nd minute, she was still there. Since making the move to Manchester in 2020, she has been a central figure, but that has changed for the worse in recent months. As the Euros loom, does Kelly need a January move?
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GettyA new and difficult situation
Sunday was not a one-off. Unfortunately for Kelly, it’s become a much more frequent scenario than she would have liked in recent times. It’s been a new situation for her to deal with, too. That’s because since breaking through at Everton, Kelly has essentially been an ever-present in the WSL. Even after being struck down by a brutal ACL injury at the end of the 2020-21 season, she returned with a bang, showing form that allowed her to make that late charge into Wiegman’s Euro 2022 squad.
When City welcomed Manchester United to the Etihad Stadium in March, Kelly had started 39 of her team’s last 41 WSL matches. So when she emerged from that match, a 3-1 win, as an unused sub for the first time in the league since May 2018 – almost six years – it raised a few eyebrows.
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Getty Images Sport‘We have good players’
Two weeks prior to that fixture, City head coach Gareth Taylor started Mary Fowler, rather than Kelly, in the FA Cup clash with Tottenham. It was a dramatic encounter which ended with City suffering a surprise elimination on penalties but Taylor was impressed with Fowler’s goal-scoring display and started her again the following week, in a 4-1 win at Brighton which saw the Australia star contribute a goal and an assist. When the Manchester derby rolled around, Fowler was in again, making it three games in a row on the bench for the usually ever-present Kelly.
“We have good players,” Taylor said after the derby, explaining Kelly’s absence. “We put Mary into the FA Cup game, she scores. She scores against Brighton last week. Mary’s a very good player. Of course, the demands are really high of what we ask for, in kind of goals and assists from those players, without it being all about that. But Mary has taken her opportunity and now what Chloe has to do is work hard every day in training to be ready.
“I think that’s the main thing, to be ready. The levels have to be good and that’s the same for all of the players. I think Jess [Park] is probably a case in point with that one. Her attitude and her enthusiasm and her level of training performance was very good whether she played or not. I think that’s a big plus for her.”
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Getty ImagesFowler takes her chance
Kelly wasn’t dramatically out of form when Taylor decided to make this tweak to his starting XI, still averaging more than two chances created per game. But the argument could be made that she was a step off her best level, given the calibre of player she is, and because there was another top-class forward battling for the same place, it led to Kelly losing her spot.
The England star entered 2024 in really good form. She had two goals and five assists in her last seven games as City travelled to London to face Tottenham in the league in January. However, that game started a run of seven that returned just one goal and no assists, and then in came Fowler when City faced Spurs in the cup.
It’s fair to say Fowler justified the change too, taking her chance with aplomb. The 21-year-old emerged as one of her team’s most outstanding players in the title run-in, scoring four goals and providing four assists in the seven games that followed her breakthrough into Taylor’s XI.
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Getty ImagesStaying focused
Unsurprisingly, though she did get back into the line-up at the very end due to an injury to Shaw, Kelly described the conclusion to last season as a “disappointment”, both for her as an individual and for the team, as City came up just short in the title race.
“I think I hold myself to a high level and last season, I felt like I was having a good season, in goals and assists, and I was on track. But football’s football. Sometimes you can’t write the script,” she said before the new campaign. “For me, it’s staying focused on myself and not letting anyone take you off your journey and I think it’s really important that there are bumps in the road. Football is not always straight and narrow but I think it’s really important for me that I stay focused and I know the job at hand.”
Asked if she was told by Taylor why she fell out of his preferred line-up, Kelly replied: “I think it’s important that you keep things in-house as well. For me, my job is to be the best version of myself for the team. Gaz selects the team, I don’t select the team, and he picks the team based on what he thinks in that moment. I think I’m ready to be the best version of myself at all times.”
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Getty ImagesPlenty of competition
Complicating Kelly’s bid to break back into Taylor’s team, though, is increased competition. Aoba Fujino, the Japan wonderkid, has joined her and Fowler in battling for that spot on the right of the front three, after arriving in the summer. Taylor has clearly liked what he has seen from her too, handing the 20-year-old three starts in City’s first seven games. Fowler, meanwhile, has also looked sharp, earning five starts to date. Kelly has made two and been an unused sub twice more. Having not had that unwanted role for almost six years in a WSL fixture, she’s now been left on the bench three times in the league in the last seven months.
Only adding another wrinkle to the situation was a report in the Daily Mail on Monday. The day after Kelly didn’t get on the pitch against Liverpool, it described a ‘breakdown in relationship’ between her and Taylor, which has also led to an ‘impasse over contract talks’. Kelly’s current deal in Manchester is set to expire next summer and the report says a renewal ‘will be difficult’ given ‘the current situation’.
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Getty Images SportOpportunities should come
So, what does Kelly do? Right now, the only option is to work hard and hope to get more opportunities. After qualifying for the Women’s Champions League group stages, City have a lot of games to play this season and they will need to utilise the whole squad if they are to be successful across the board.
Plus, things can change quickly in football. One only has to look at Park’s situation, which Taylor himself pointed to back in March, as an example for how drastically things can improve. The young England star had to wait until February to start a WSL game in the 2023-24 season, getting a look in after injury to Jill Roord. She’s since become undroppable because of how well she took her chance.
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GettyBut a January move could beckon
That said, Kelly’s situation does feel different. Park was a young talent looking to breakthrough, whereas Kelly is an established star who finds herself out of favour – and in a big year on the international stage, no less. England will fly to Switzerland for the 2025 European Championships next summer and she will want to be on that plane. To earn a spot in Wiegman’s squad, she will need to be getting game time at club level.
If nothing changes, she will be on the move when her contract expires. But if indeed nothing changes, for the sake of her England hopes, can she afford to wait that long? At this rate, Kelly could well need a January transfer if she wants to help the Lionesses defend the European title that her dramatic goal delivered.
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