Deadline day in the Women’s Super League may have appeared a mad dash for most but, for Chloe Kelly, it approached with a sense of calm.
“I was at the driving range with my husband,” she says in a round-table interview ahead of the weekend’s north London derby. “I thought: ‘I’m going to switch off for the day.’ He was sat on FIFA and I was, like, let’s just get out the house.”
Almost by coincidence, that is when her last-minute loan move to Arsenal was set in motion.
Kelly, who had started just one WSL game this season at Manchester City, was still at the range when she found out about Arsenal’s interest but could not hold it in for long. “I remember calling my family straight away to tell them,” she adds. “My brother went upstairs and put his Arsenal shirt on. Straight away my family were really excited for the move as well, which put a smile on my face.”
The 27-year-old England international had endured contrasting emotions over the previous 24 hours.
The WSL transfer deadline was at 11pm on January 30 and Kelly took to Instagram the night before to release a statement accepting that, while her future was not at Manchester City, she would not be leaving in January. It was a bold move, reflecting frustration that potential moves to Brighton & Hove Albion and Manchester United were not progressing.
But it was a strategy that worked out in the end as Arsenal moved late to secure her return to the club on loan.
“I felt relief after I shared my statement,” she says. “It had been a long time coming. But for me, I really felt good in that moment. I felt powerful — as women, we should. But I think the support that I received from that was incredible. It was still a dark time for me because I didn’t know how my future looked.
Arsenal fans welcome Kelly back to the club (Justin Setterfield – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
“It was a relief that I had spoken how I needed to speak and, whether my move got over the line or not, I was grateful to be able to share my words. There’s always a time and a place, but I think it’s important we have a voice no matter the situation. There can be a lot of background noise sometimes but, for me, it was a statement where I felt like I expressed my emotions in the right way.
“I’m ready to move forward with it all now. I’m ready to learn here and to be happy again.”
The scorer of England’s winning goal in the 2022 European Championship final, Kelly was not selected in Sarina Wiegman’s latest squad for the upcoming international break.
She has been capped 48 times since her debut in 2018, but not featured since an 18-minute cameo off the bench against Sweden last July. Even so, there is a desire to work her way back into the fold with another European Championship taking place in Switzerland this summer — and the possibility of featuring has not been closed off by Wiegman.
Wigman thanks Kelly as she is withdrawn from a Nations League game against Belgium in October 2023 (Naomi Baker – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
“Sarina’s an amazing manager,” Kelly says. “I respect so much (about) what she’s done for English football. I understand her decision completely and I’m ready to fight for my shirt back, get good minutes under my belt and be in the best possible (shape) come the summer.
“It’s not really about explaining (to her) too much because you can see my situation isn’t ideal in a lead up to a Euros. But she’s been incredible throughout the process and I’m excited to hopefully be at my best here, and to be able to put the (England) shirt on that I enjoy doing so much. It’s everyone’s dream to play for England but it’s not a given, so I need to work and I need to get back on the pitch and show what I’m capable of before that.”
As news of Kelly’s likely loan move to Arsenal was breaking, the club’s fans were not the only ones left excited.
The forward’s England team-mates Leah Williamson and Lotte Wubben-Moy started messaging, asking if they’d be seeing her the following morning. The Arsenal pair had been club-mates with Kelly during her first spell in north London, which ended in 2018. As she was playing the waiting game like everyone else, all Kelly could reply with was: “I don’t know.”
Once the deal had been announced, a video with another of her Arsenal team-mates went viral. A recreation of a touchline clash with Katie McCabe — McCabe had been frustrated as Kelly, then of City, blocked her from taking a throw in a game back in 2023 and pushed the ball into her opponent’s face, earning a booking — has been viewed over one million times and liked 126,000 times on TikTok.
“We’ve always gotten on so well,” says Kelly of McCabe with the pair now reunited. “When Katie first came over to the club (in 2015), we had a really good relationship because I have some Irish background in my family so we got on really well, speaking about my family and where she grew up.
“I play with my heart on my sleeve and so does she. I did say to her ‘I’ll be wearing me shinnies’, but she’s an amazing girl; one I can learn so much from as well. In training, to go up against her has been incredible.”
McCabe and Kelly are reunited and reconciled (Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Back at Arsenal after seven years, Kelly recalls that she scored in the one and only north London derby against Tottenham in which she has featured to date. There is a chance she makes her comeback against those opponents this weekend. If so, she would have the second-longest gap between appearances for the same club (2,815 days) after Toni Duggan’s 2,897 day-gap between leaving Everton in 2013 and re-signing in 2021.
Head coach Renee Slegers was coy about whether Kelly would be involved from the start or begin on the bench. Whatever happens this weekend, she will be looking to make an impact in the coming months back in north London.
“I spent a couple of weeks not training with a little problem in my foot so I think it was good to get some good training into my legs,” she adds. “If I’d just been thrown into a game then I might have picked up a little niggle or something, so I think it’s really important to get training into my legs but also settle down, find happiness and somewhere to live.
“They’re the things you probably don’t see, but it’s been great to get those two weeks. Now I’m looking forward and ready to go.”
GO DEEPER
How Chloe Kelly’s deadline day loan from City to Arsenal happened
(Top photo: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
