Manchester United have so much to gain and potentially so much to lose in what remains of the 2022/23 WSL campaign, with Champions League qualification on the horizon and a firmer grip on it than ever before.
It is a vital next step for a club that aspires to be among the best in the world in the women’s game, one that they have narrowly missed out on in each of the last two years.
Aside from the results they hope will keep them in the all-important top three, the major topic of debate surrounding the club is contract renewals – predominantly Ona Batlle and Alessia Russo.
Both players are hugely important, yet each is out of contract at the end of the season. The option year that was previously a standard in United contracts, already triggered.
Of concern for fans as existing terms wind down and get ever closer to expiry is that each has turned down the offer of a new contract so far in the negotiations process.
Russo rejected a new deal back in June shortly before Euro 2022. From her perspective, there was a logic as her value had soared within just a few weeks thanks to a starring role at the tournament that highlighted her quality on the biggest of stages and made her suddenly a huge marketing draw.
The 24-year-old has continued to underline her importance to United on the pitch this season and two world record bids from Arsenal were turned down on transfer deadline day in January. Even if Arsenal’s willingness to pay up to £500,000 showed Russo how much they value her, the fact that United rebuffed that amount also said plenty about what they think she is worth.
Batlle was reported by The Athletic just this week to have turned down a new deal after first being offered terms in September. The suggestion is that United haven’t offered as much as a host of suitors – Barcelona, Chelsea, Arsenal, Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain – are willing to, nor as long.
Although the lure of returning to former club Barcelona is often mentioned in conjunction with her future, Batlle is long thought to have been happy at United. She is a firm fan favourite and is arguably as or more important to the club at present than any other player.
When confirming last month that ‘heavy’ negotiations have been ongoing with Batlle and Russo, Marc Skinner was adamant both are, “very happy with what we’re doing at Manchester United”, in terms of the ambition and progress of the club.
Skinner has also been honest about the difficulties about such contract talks. With the…
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