Abbie Lafayette signs and other squad moves
Full-back joins from Watford as three players get new deals and Ash Hodson announces her retirement
Plenty to catch up on this week, as United’s preseason training belatedly got underway. There’s only one more departure, some new contracts, and another new signing – plus an exciting date for the diary. Here’s what’s in this week’s WOMEN OF STEEL:
Abbie Lafayette signs
Ella Kinzett, Molly Graham and Bethan Davies sign new deals
Ash Hodson retires
The Lionesses return to Bramall Lane
Let’s start with the latest new face to arrive at the Lane, as Abbie Lafayette signs from Watford. Lafayette is a left-back, so has some big shoes to fill in terms of replacing Jodie Hutton, but last year’s stats suggest she is a similar profile of player – that is to say, attacking.
She was part of the joint-worst defence in the league last season in terms of goals conceded, as Watford were relegated from the Championship. That’s not ideal but possibly doesn’t tell the full story, as Watford’s expected goals against (xGA) was actually pretty middling – a 1.58 per game mark that was just a tick worse than United’s 1.54. Lafayette committed just eight errors leading to a shot last season (via SofaScore), despite making 15 appearances in the league - for context, United’s departed trio of Tara Bourne, Charlotte Newsham and Rachel Brown all committed at least 2x more.
Going the other way is encouraging. Watford were the joint second-lowest scorers in the Championship last season, but that seems to have been in spite of Lafayette’s efforts. She created 0.7 chances per game last season, which doesn’t sound like a huge amount but only five defenders in the Championship created more (one of which was, of course, Hutton).
She also took set-pieces for Watford last season – including notching an assist in United’s win at Vicarage Road – which would also help to offset Hutton’s departure and the loss of her superb freekicks and corners.
Only 22 years old, Lafayette will nonetheless be one of the more “senior” players in the United squad as it stands, and that experience will be extremely useful for what looks likely to be an even younger group than last year.
The club also confirmed new one-year deals this week for Ella Kinzett, Molly Graham and Bethan Davies, who became the first players to have confirmed contract renewals following the report in the Mail a few weeks ago that only two players remained under contract.
Locking down Kinzett and Graham in particular is a big tick (with the arrival of goalkeeper Sian Rogers, Davies is likely to continue as back-up). Graham is a product of United’s youth system and the Blades’ defence improved significantly when she came into the back three last season.
Kinzett is someone I’m excited to see develop after a promising first year at the club – she has a lot of the tools to be a very good midfielder and the departure of Sophie Barker either opens up an opportunity for her to have a bigger role or for United to add a quality partner for her in the centre.
Still lots to do for United, but nice to be able to pencil in a few names to a theoretical starting XI (ignore the numbers and formation, I’m just fudging it together based on who has signed / is still here at time of writing):
One player who would certainly make that starting XI based on her performances last season was Ash Hodson, who – slightly surprisingly – announced her retirement from football at the start of this week. Hodson is only 29 but has pretty much done it all in her career: she won the WSL as a teenager and the Championship in 2021/22, both with her local club of Liverpool.
She joined United from the Reds last season and had a solid campaign (26 appearances, 3 goals – FWIW I gave her a 7/10 in my player ratings). She scored some really important goals in the early part of the season as United struggled for form and points. From a fan point of view it’s a real shame to see her hang up her boots. It does also mean an end to being able to half-heartedly claim that her partner, Lauren Hemp, is an honorary Blade. Gutted.
Finally, I was over the moon to see that the Lionesses are coming back to Bramall Lane later this year, with the announcement of a friendly against Switzerland here on Tuesday December 3rd.
It’s the first time England will have played at the Lane since the 4-0 win over Sweden in the semifinals of the last Euros. That was honestly one of my favourite football moments that I’ve seen at Bramall Lane, with England absolutely rampant, Keira Walsh looking like the greatest midfielder to ever kick a ball and Alessia Russo’s cheeky backheel nutmeg goal.
A sold-out Bramall Lane singing “football’s coming home” was a genuine goosebumps moment, and I can’t wait to see the team in-person once again.
