Danish left-back Katrine Veje will leave Arsenal this summer, the player confirmed on her Instagram account. Veje joined the club from Montpellier in January 2019 and was part of last season’s WSL winning squad.
Veje picked up an injury to her left foot at the beginning of the season and played a Champions League game in October, before injuring her right foot playing for her country a week or so later.
Katrine returned to Copenhagen in the winter to aid her recovery. The player subsequently said in an interview that returning home was as much about her mental recovery as her physical recovery. “I hated meeting at the training ground,” she admitted.
“The others went to the field to play and I went to the gym. I felt like a total shadow of myself. I realised that I didn’t like to talk football with my teammates, I almost ended up saying nothing when we had lunch. My thoughts were somewhere else. Even though there were people around me, I felt alone.”
Veje has been linked with a move to Rosengård in Sweden. Veje’s contract had not expired, so Arsenal could receive a fee for any move. Veje joins Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, Silvana Flores and Louise Quinn in leaving the club with a couple more squad players also to leave this summer.
Only Flores represents a surprise departure and others will be announced before the end of June with contracts set to expire. It is a similar picture across the league at the moment, expect incomings to become more commonplace in July as contracts across women’s football turn over.
It’s like Tabea deja vu!
So much promise but irritating injuries prevented the girl playing much of a part during her time here.
I guess Viki is on the list too as I have not seen an announcement regarding her contract renewal.
Trying to stay optimistic but already so many departures with more to come to an already small squad
They will be replaced. Like I say, in July you’ll see signings (all across the league). This is just natural squad churn and totally normal in women’s football where contracts are short.
It’s amazing how attached you get to some players, even those who have only been with us for a couple of years.
I don’t want to assume anything but she did not seem to mention any help from conunsellors at the club or such. Do we take mental health seriously enough at the club?
There should be more clarity on how are mental health problems dealt with at the club and by whom. Are there enough counselors available? Can a player reach out to them without stigma? If the player doesn’t want to tell his/her teammates about seeking help, is their confidentiality maintained?
These are relevant questions, I think.
Yes, there are counsellors and psychologists. Ultimately this isn’t the first club where things have gone like this for Kat, the same happened at Montpellier. She made the call with the club to go back to Denmark and it’s worked for her cos she’s happier now.
Shame it didn’t work out, but Kat was signing to patch up injured squad. For now both 2019 january signings in Arnth and Kat are gone. I don’t mind losing a punch of squad players for now. For different reasons none of them played any major part in our team last season. If we replace them with players who are available and Joe rates enough to use, we are making our squad stronger. Our mistake was last year going into season knowing that DC and Kemme wouldn’t be able to play, but not having any replacements. I am glad… Read more »
I wonder why she wasn’t happy at Arsenal. One sensed from that recent interview with her that she wasn’t coming back. I was impressed by Veje when she played, which wasn’t enough. She is a pretty talented player and, for me, someone you can play fairly/somewhat regularly and be confident of getting a good performance. That’s your ideal squad player, IMO. It seems like most of the signings of the last two years have had serious injury problems that have made it hard/impossible for them to play much.
I think that in womens game non-footballing factors are more important than in mens game. I have impression that team chemistry, living arrangements, connection with other players, have quite the impact. We pay men enough money that they can arrange all the above to make themselves comfortable, but thats not the case in womens game. They come to the new environment, they can’t bring their family along, so if it doesn’t click or player has injuries, it can get difficult. I honestly haven’t seen enough of her playing to have opinion how good she could have been. For me… Read more »
First point, precisely what I was trying to say. Second point, I think Kat may have been a regular starter if she had arrived and remained fit but now we’ll never know!
Yes: she is talented; she’s got some size and pace. She had 5 assists in 14 starts–not a bad number. The point about multiple factors being involved with female players is well taken.
I think there is another reasoning here that we should remember. Not just with Kat but other players also including those from other WSL clubs. WSL is one of the first truly professional leagues in the world so players that are brought in, particularly from other countries with fully established “amateur” leagues, must find it quite a culture shock to be in an unfamiliar environment with heavy expectations. Consider a hobby that you enjoy doing for fun and relaxation and then moving to a different country and having to carry out that hobby as a full time job. This is… Read more »
Meh: I don’t agree with this. Arsenal or any major club are not in the habit of signing players for whom football is a “hobby.” Just because some clubs have less money than others doesn’t mean they’re not professional. Obviously, it depends on where you’ve played. In the case of Veje, she played a year with the Seattle Reign, two years with Montpellier–and has been a starter on the Denmark national team for years. I’m quite sure she’s quite accustomed to pressure and expectations. She started in the Euro17 final and two playoff games in which Denmark tried (and failed)… Read more »
Sorry, I think you missed my point completely. I wasn’t speaking of Kat specifically but more of a generalisation. As stated in Tim’s blog, Kat did not find happiness in Montpellier nor Arsenal and her mindset only improved when she returned to Denmark hence my comment about Sweden being similar which is where she is headed now. The ‘hobby’ analogy did not mean that all players outside the WSL are rank amateurs but was an attempt to enable fans to visualise moving away from familiar surroundings and suddenly having more media spotlight, perhaps more intense training and physical demands on… Read more »
Is our lack of champions League football next season responsible for the high turnover of the playrrs
Kat’s departure, although not a surprise after her earlier disclosure, is unfortunate . She made an immediate and valuable contribution to the title win and imo she would have become a regular down our left flank this term if not for the “Scadinavian Full-backs Foot Injury Curse ” ………..more a duplication of Jess Samuelson than Tabea Kemme’s situation perhaps?
Good luck to you Kat.
True, I forgot about Jess. All of these injuries are crippling us, and the players too who, after all, have relatively short playing careers and cannot afford to spend season after season in the treatment room. Let’s hope Dan bounces back now she has had a really lengthy rehabilitation period and can stay fit for a few seasons.
Now that Mitch has joined the exodus (again, not really a shock) I live in hope that Dan C will still be with us. Sometimes it is not just the game players that make a successful and happy club. Mitch and Louise were big characters. We may be able to replace them with better players but not necessarily better people. I put Dan C in the same category and have special regard for her as her wonder goal to beat Chelski in the 2016 WFA Cup final cemented my support for AWFC.
I fully expect us to lose DC also. I agree that Louise, DC, Mitch are wondeful characters, but same time we need players who will actually play. It was obvious that Joe didn’t see place in his squad for Mitch, she went on loan same time as we were lacking players. No matter how valueable player for dressingroom she is, we can’t have those players for a coach who wants to work with small group of players. If we continue with Joe, we have to give him the squad he wants to use, and in the end it is… Read more »
Eeleen, what was your opinion of Viki Schnaderbeck?
Honestly I am Ok if she also leaves. I think she is fine as 4th choice, but I wouldn’t want her starting against City or Chelsea. For me she is not compatible with neither Leah or Beats. With Viki and Leah we are not stong enough on air and with Viki and Beats we are way to slow to play the high line Joe prefers. Would like to have someone stronger, faster and younger. We have to replace Louise anyway this summer and I live in hope that we bring Anna and Lotte home in winter.
I thought Viki was quite quick considering she is in her 30’s. I suspect that the back line is not her best utilisation, however, as she doesn’t seem to have that sense of awareness needed as last line of defence. I saw her more as a stand in for mid field winning back the ball than a starter left back. I’d be surprised if she stays not because I want her to go but due to the deliberation over signing a new contract. If you have to spend time considering if Arsenal is the right home for you then… Read more »
Yes unfortunately it was obvious fairly early on that Joe considered Mitch and the Mighty Quinn well down the pecking order as they were not even used for rotation and only played when there was no other option. When Viki was being started at left back instead of Mitch you knew that her time at the club was up. Good point about the type of player rather just number of players. After all we won the domestic treble and the Champions League with the same number of players that we had last season. Nobody suggested we had too few… Read more »