Breaking down the Izzy Goodwin transfer

Looking at every angle of United's decision to sell star striker Isobel Goodwin to London City for a Championship record fee

Welcome to this week’s WOMEN OF STEEL and hoy, is there a lot to talk about. United’s season got underway, they signed two new players, youngster Eva Butler scored her first senior Blades goal, and… we sold our best player to a team in the same division, albeit for a league-record fee. Crikey. 

In fact, there’s so much to go over that I’m going to hit you with a TWO-PARTER. In this one, I’m writing solely about Isobel Goodwin’s transfer to London City Lionesses, for a reported six-figure fee. In the next newsletter – later in the week – I’ll talk about United’s 2-1 defeat to Durham in MD1, and the arrival of new signings Ellen Molloy and Annie Wilding.

But first, Izzy Goodwin to London City.

I wanted to get this out of the way first, because it was a heck of a gut punch – albeit one I had been tensed for throughout the summer. Still, to lose your best player – possibly the best player in the entire league last season – the day before the new campaign kicks off is a sickener. To lose her to a team in the same division, doubly so.

There are two sides to this – footballing and financial – which I have opposing feelings about. On the one hand, clearly the ceiling on United’s season just got lowered significantly. I was pretty confident that 20 games of Izzy Goodwin would see her score enough goals for the Blades to keep us clear of the single relegation spot. Without her, and with little time to replace (if that’s even possible), a potentially-difficult season just got that little bit tougher.

A more rose-tinted outlook is that the club have found talented forward players in the past, either from within the academy or via a transfer. Since I’ve started following United Women they’ve had Lucy Watson (now at Chelsea), Mia Enderby (Liverpool) Courtney Sweetman-Kirk (retired) and now of course Goodwin herself make a serious goalscoring impact on the first team. So it would be naïve of me to declare that United’s attack has been irrevocably hamstrung. If we’re talking naïve, then I barely even mentioned Goodwin as a potential starter in my preseason posts last summer.

On the financial side of things, it’s worth looking at the reported details around this transfer. Naturally neither United nor London City have published much in the way of figures, but United did state that this is a “record fee” for a team in the Women’s Championship, and “includes potential future add-ons, as well as a sell-on fee”. The BBC’s senior women’s football reporter Emma Sanders tweeted that the transfer is “a six-figure sum up front before add-ons”, with United also receiving a five-figure sum if London City are promoted.

It’s here where I feel a little better (not the ideal word; maybe “less-bad” is more appropriate) about no longer having Izzy Goodwin in red and white. Let’s say that London City have forked over £100,000 up front – the lowest possible of the reported six-figure fees. That would still be huge money for a player in the women’s second tier. 

For context, Barcelona paid about £350,000 for Keira Walsh in what was then a world-record fee in 2022. Walsh had just won the Women’s Euros with England and was (is) widely-regarded as one of the best footballers on the planet. For United to extract this much of a return for a player who they picked up for nothing one year ago is pretty commendable.

I do just want to reiterate at this point that I really do think that Goodwin is that good. I’m a little surprised that she’s not moved to a WSL club, but that’s surely just a matter of time. The added attention might also see her crack the England U23 squad too. If United do indeed have a financial stake in her future as reported, then I’d say there’s a good chance that several of those clauses will end up paying off. 

Why London City and not a WSL club? I’m connecting dots here but with this move (and the fee) it seems likely that United have been fielding offers for last season’s top-scorer for several months, but have dug their heels in over one of their very few contracted players. That would be consistent with how the men’s team have (largely) operated when it comes to selling players in the last few years: every player has their price, and if you meet it we’ll do business, but we generally won’t budge from that price. This is a club that turned down £5m for Auston Trusty, for crying out loud.

And finally, on the literal eve of the new season, newly-monied London City have basically laid down an offer that the Blades probably felt they couldn’t refuse. 

And I can get that. £100,000+ is likely to be a massive amount of capital for a team probably operating on a lower-end budget even for the Women’s Championship. We’re not seeing United hand out multi-year deals to players in the way that lots of other teams at this level have. Adding six figures of pure profit to the presumed budget of the women’s team could go a long, long way to strengthening the team or tying down key members of the current squad to longer deals. I’ve been pretty critical of how the women’s team has been handled over the summer: this is not another example of that, IMO.

The timing does lay out an intriguing stick-or-twist dilemma for United. The transfer window for the women’s game closes in three days. The club probably already needed to get more bodies through the door this week even before the Goodwin sale (only three outfield subs were named in our opening game). Do they use some of those funds now to try and bring in a new, starting-calibre number 9? Is that even possible?

This late in the window, with the season now underway, the vast majority of free agents will have found new clubs. A loan from the WSL could be an option, but it might well be better for United to sit on this chunk of cash, hope to ride out the season safely, and then use it to really strengthen next summer when a whole new wave of player contracts expire at other clubs.

I wrote last week that one of my hopes for 2024/25 was that United would end it in a position where they could build for the following season rather than having to rip it all up and start again as they did this summer. As much as losing your star player hurts right now, the club have at least held out for a fee that could enable them to be in a better place in twelve months’ time.

My final word on this (for now) is to wish Izzy Goodwin all the best for the future. It was an absolute pleasure watching her in red and white last season and I’ll certainly be following her career with interest, as she could well be destined for big things in the women’s game.

That’s all for now, back in a few days with a review of United’s season opener and a preview of our first home game this Saturday evening. Thanks for reading.