Amplify Football

Beth made her first appearance for Manchester City in a preseason friendly against her former club Arsenal, the team she spent nine years with before making the move to Manchester this summer.

Her first minutes in City colours came against plenty of familiar faces, as Arsenal went on to win the friendly 2-1.

Lauren H**p scored for City while Stina Blackstenius and Lisa Baum found the net for Arsenal.

It is still very bittersweet seeing Beth wearing blue after everything she achieved and all the memories she created during nine years at Arsenal, but it is great to see her getting her first minutes for her new club ahead of the season.

Definitely going to take some getting used to seeing this shirt though 🥲💙

WSL FANTASY IS FINALLY HERE 😍

I’ve made a league for everyone to join too. It definitely needs a better name though, so please help lol.

League code: FE3LN791

Apologies for the long caption, but there is A LOT to know. I’ll make a proper video explaining it all when I have some time, but here are the main bits.

This game is interesting as all 26 clubs across both leagues available in the same game.

You get £100m to build a squad of 15:

2 goalkeepers
5 defenders
5 midfielders
3 forwards

You can pick a maximum of three players from one club, choose your starting XI and captain each matchweek, and your captain gets double points.

The scoring is probably my favourite part. It’s not just goals, assists and clean sheets. Using official Opta data, players can also earn points for tackles, interceptions, recoveries, key passes, successful crosses and successful dribbles. So players doing loads of important work outside of scoring could be really valuable picks.

The season is also split into six Legs, each with its own leaderboard and prize alongside the overall competition. So if your first few weeks are a disaster, you still have another chance lol.

You get two free transfers each matchweek and can save up to five. There are Wildcard and Free Hit chips too, and you can even make certain changes to your XI and captain between match days if those players haven’t played yet.

It’s completely free to play through the WSL Football app or online.

I’m really excited for this. Having WSL and WSL2 players together, plus a scoring system that rewards so much more than goals and assists, should make it really interesting.

Join my league: FE3LN791

And PLEASE give me a better league name lol.

Who is the first player going in your team? It took me about 2 hours to figure my team out

Source: WSL Football Fantasy 2026/27 Game Guide.

Even with all the growth we’ve seen over the past few years, Leah says only a handful of players from her generation will actually be able to retire when they finish playing.

The gap between the men’s and women’s game is still huge, and it’s something people don’t always realise.

It’s one of the reasons we’re seeing so many players already building careers away from the pitch. Whether it’s punditry, presenting, content creation, coaching, investing, consulting or launching businesses, more players are thinking about life after football long before they retire.

Leah also paid tribute to the generations before her, many of whom balanced football alongside full time jobs. She believes her generation has helped move the game forward so that the next generation might finally have the option to retire from football alone.

“You give so much of your body, your time.”

The game has come a long way, but this is a reminder that there’s still a long way to go before women’s football offers the same financial security as the men’s game.

📰 Source: Evening Standard

📖 Read the full interview via the link in my bio.

Safia Middleton Patel is heading back to Watford for the season. 🧤💛

Manchester United have confirmed that the 21 year old goalkeeper will spend the 2026/27 campaign on loan with Watford Women.

It is a return to a familiar club for Saf, who also spent the second half of the 2023/24 season there and made six appearances.

She has come through the United academy, signed her first professional deal in 2023 and has already gained senior experience through several loan spells.

A really good move for Saf to get more minutes and continue developing this season!

Source: Manchester United press release

Really lovely to see Kyra Cooney Cross back in London and back with her Arsenal teammates 🥹

Kyra stepped away from football earlier this year to go home to Australia and be with her mum, Jess, who sadly passed away in July after a brave battle against cancer.

I can’t imagine what the last few months have been like for Kyra and her family, but seeing her back with the team and surrounded by people she knows and loves is really special.

And just a reminder that being back at training doesn’t mean everything suddenly goes back to normal. Grief doesn’t work like that. Give her time, give her patience and most importantly, give her kindness.

Football is important, but the person will always be more important than the player.

Sending Kyra and her family so much love. So, so good to see her back ❤️🥺

🇮🇪 There really is something special about Irish women in sport.

Time after time, our women show up proudly on the biggest stages and continue to prove just how much talent can come from a small island.

This week alone, Rhasidat Adeleke claimed European silver in the 200m with a brilliant 22.28 in Birmingham, after what had been a really difficult season disrupted by injury.

From Rhasidat Adeleke and Katie Taylor to Katie McCabe, Leona Maguire, Mona McSharry, Aoife Wafer and so many more, we are so lucky to have Irish women competing and succeeding at the very top of their sports.

And it is about more than medals. Rhasidat’s coach spoke about the number of young athletes now coming into Tallaght Athletics Club wanting to become sprinters because of the role model she has become.

That is the impact of seeing women from your country on the biggest stage.

Very, very proud to be Irish. 🇮🇪☘️