Arsenal Women have confirmed the signing of Australian midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross from Hammarby, as exclusively reported by Arseblog News earlier on Thursday (alongside Rich Laverty).
Myself and @RichJLaverty understand Arsenal have made a move for Hammarby’s Australian midfielder Krya Cooney Cross and a deal could be done before the midnight deadline if no complications. #AWFC
— Tim Stillman (@Stillmanator) September 14, 2023
The player was also on the radar of Chelsea and Manchester United but with Cooney-Cross’ contract set to expire in December, many clubs baulked at the fee- believed to be £140,000 rising to £250,000 dependent on bonuses- and planned to re-assess in January when she would be a free agent.
Arsenal stole in and decided to put the money down, with Cooney-Cross flying into London on Thursday morning to complete her medical with Arsenal and Hammarby agreeing a deal on Wednesday evening. Cooney-Cross attended Arsenal’s game against Linkoping in Sweden last week.
Cooney-Cross told Arsenal.com, “I’m so excited to join this club,” said Kyra. “Arsenal just felt right as soon as I heard about the interest. I’m really looking forward to experiencing the atmosphere at Emirates Stadium in front of a big crowd for our first game there this season. I can’t wait to get started and help us achieve something big together.”
Head Coach Jonas Eidevall said: “Kyra is one of the best young players in world football and we are delighted to have brought her to Arsenal. Her passing ability and explosiveness allow her to affect games in a way you rarely see from such a young player, so we firmly believe she will be an excellent addition to our midfield, now and in the future.”
Head of Women’s Football Clare Wheatley said: “We are so pleased to have brought Kyra to our club. At the age of 21, she already has impressive experience at domestic and international level and we believe she has huge potential for future development. Together with our supporters, we welcome Kyra to the Arsenal family and look forward to seeing her play in the red and white.”
Welcome to Arsenal.
Eidevall has been given everything he’s wanted–and more–for the last two years. The club has provided him with far more player talent and depth than Montemurro ever had, and yet he’s won less. It’s time to put up and win trophies or…..
This is patently untrue and quite a ridiculous comment to make. Every window but this one he’s been left short (and even this one he could be, given that we’re not yet sure we’ve signed a RB). He’s taken the squad and made it more competitive in the bigger games, capable of playing and winning against the best, and done so with a squad that hasn’t been entirely his until now and had players who he didn’t trust to do the work he wanted them to, so essentially had a smaller squad. He took a depleted and exhausted squad to… Read more »
All very true and l believe we WILL do well this season despite that devastating result last week
Absolute cobblers. Yet more excuses for him, appalling.
Think it might benefit one to learn the difference between excuses and explanations. I provided the latter. Making generalised statements without putting it into proper context is useless at best and dangerously moronic at worst.
For many people like you and kazoo, I’d suspect there would be nothing he could do to win you over; even if he won the quadruple you’d say he did it in the wrong way and didn’t do it well enough. I frankly don’t have time for that sort of attitude.
Brilliant post, Lea.
Ever the optimist, eh Kazoo?
If Jonas wins another trophy this season that will put him level with Joe and in front of everyone else but Vicso will you then shut up about giving our coach the sack?
He has not signed any premium players in their prime yet in my view till this season. I dont think Blackstenius,Hurtig were his first choice we just had to bring them in to fill in holes in the Team. On the other hand, Russo,Pellova,Kuhl,Cross and Codina are first choice signings ,So I am sure when these players get integrated fully in the first team we would go to a higher level.
I think you could argue that Rafaelle was a premium signing in her prime. Was an outstanding player for us and is one of the best CBs in the world.
Also Blackstenius I do think was one of his first choices, given that he’d seen her play a lot. We forget how coveted she was.
🙄🥱
Couldn’t agree more.
A poor coach who has had a really easy ride in terms of analysis or criticism with regard to some dreadful performances. Has been supported more than any other Arsenal Women’s coach in our history and has delivered nothing in my view.
Only for the unserious Jonas to stick her on the bench and play our regular midfielders into the ground. We bought Sabrina because Manu Zinsberger was costing us games but has she been given a chance? No, the 🤡 Jonas won’t, and we start season with Zinsberger as number 1 still.
Surely you have to assume Jonas wanted these latest recruits so there is no reason why they should not be given equal game time to the longer serving players in a fair and sensible rotation system.
I do understand your comment about Manu though! To me Sabrina is the safer bet between the sticks.
Peter, do you think if we sign Mary in January that we’ll let Manu move on or will we keep her till her deal runs out next summer? Thus having 3 top keepers for that last push of the season. I’m not Manu’s biggest fan so wouldn’t be sad either way
I guess it’s all about timing. I’m not sure that United would let Mary leave in January if there was a chance of some silverware or a CL place. Just look at the Lessi fiasco. They could have snatched our half a million but chose to cling on to her in the vain hope of winning the league and she would sign a new deal. They have just let their No.2 keeper go too! My belief is that there is going to be a mad scramble for Mary’s signature come the end of the season and we were the first… Read more »
I do think we need a keeper of the class of Earps, but I don’t have a big problem with either D’Angelo or Zinsberger. If Earps had been available on a free transfer, absolutely we should have gone for her because she’s better than what we have. However, I think that ship has sailed now for us and for her and I will be a little disappointed if we are not looking for a long-term solution in that position, by which I mean a 26-28-yr old who has proved herself but could be with us for 8-10 years even if… Read more »
I’m not sure the Earps ship has sailed yet! Ok not this season possibly but for next season being available for free she would get a decent paycheck. I’m not sure she’s a short term solution either, provided she stays fit she could easily play 5 or 6 seasons if not more. Karen Bardsley only stopped at 37 because of injury issues. Our own Emma Byrne retired at 38 only to come out of retirement and play in Spain two years later! Keepers appear to be able to play longer than outfield players.
Well there was rumours late yesterday evening(who knows how legit they were) that we were possible looking at £250k + sending a keeper in the other direction to help ease it over the line but obviously that never came to fruition if it was even true. If the Mary ship has sailed now then who would you like us to get in for Manu next summer? I’m jealous of Villa getting Van Domselaar, I think she’s a fantastic keeper & will be a great addition to that side under Carla, the only other ones I can think of are Frohms… Read more »
I would have loved van Domselaar, too! Or even take a punt on that 22-year-old Paris FC keeper Nnandozie… Frohms is superb but out of our reach. Mainly I want to see us do a bit of scouting (which I recognise is a challenge in the women’s game) rather than *only* pick obvious names, or look at the benches of stronger teams. That’s why I loved the Lacasse signing and Peolva before that. They weren’t players everyone was talking about but they seem perfect *for us*. Whether money changed hands or not is irrelevant to me.
Wish we’d snatched Carla Ward instead of allowing her to transform Villa from the most boring an inept team in WSL to serious challengers for a CL place and she has been strengthening her squad again under the radar with considerably less budget and kudos that the likes of City, Chelsea and the Gunners! Still we have Jonas now and he is assembling a good squad. Now we just need UEFA and FIFA to play their bit with realistic scheduling and sorting out the shambles that is women refereeing!
Tell me about it. Could not agree more.
Although we have got Renee Slegers.
Is it just me Fun or does it feel like we’ve brought Renee in so if we do decide to part with Jonas at seasons end(not that I’d want us too) then his replacement is already in the building? Because she replaced him at Rosengard when he left to join us
Hmm. Possible. Although I think, from the arsenal.com article I read, that Jonas reached out to her, rather than the club approaching her in the first instance. It may transpire that she takes over in due course, but way too early to say. And she and he are very much on the same page style-wise, so if his contract was not renewed, or if he was sacked, it would be odd to appoint his like-minded deputy in his place, except as a temporary arrangement. You’d have thought in that situation they would look for someone with a different approach. But… Read more »
Having been at the 2-0 defeat to Villa back in May(mine & my sisters first time at a Ladies game), Carla has massively transformed that club, even moving on all their injury prone players like Ruesha & Gielnik & bringing in proven quality. I think they’ll surprise a few of the big boys this season, especially at Villa Park & could even be dark horses for 3rd behind us & Chelsea
Why not 2,4 or 8 ?
This is such a great signing – as exciting as Rafa. Everybody wants to sign young-but-experienced players – Kyra Cooney-Cross is just that. At 21, she is an outstanding central midfielder already and her best years are well into the future. This is the kind of signing it’s worth shelling out for, so well done to Arsenal for going for it. She is a player for the long term and also fulfils a short- to medium-term need. Far better to have her now, integrate her into the team with all the other new recruits, than wait till January and possibly… Read more »
I saw people yesterday asking why we needed midfielders when we’re stacked in that department 🤦🏻♂️. It’s because Wally gets through a fantastic workload already so at least with KCC we can rotate her & Wally & shouldn’t notice a drop in class or tempo
Yes, so true! And actually we’re *not* stacked in midfield. KCC makes six. That’s the right number! It’s the forward line which is stacked, I would say. I’m certainly not complaining about that, either.
They were like they’ve got Kim, Wally, Vicky, Frida, Kuhl, Beth can play there, so can Viv in that 10 role & drop deeper, I even saw someone say Hurtig is a midfielder 🤦🏻♂️. If these people think we’ve got a stacked midfield then I’d love to know what they think of Chelsea’s goalkeeping department cause that’s only gonna end in tears
We have to pay 350,000 euros in total for Cooney-Cross, according to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/a/Mo876r/kyra-cooney-cross-lamnar-hammarby-for-arsenal
It’s a lot of money f’sure. But from what I understand she’s very highly regarded and widely predicted to become a world-class player in the next few years. And there are a huge shortage of high calibre holding midfielders in women’s football at the moment, so I don’t think we’re paying over the odds.
I think it’s worth it. One of the reasons we got her above the other myriad of clubs who wanted her was because we were willing to pay the money (not sure it’s as high as this, seen some reports of it rising to €250k but only with bonuses). People have been questioning the recruitment team for a while now, telling them they had to invest the money properly, and now they have. Not sure if you’ve seen her play for Hammarby or Australia but she’s a phenomenal player well worth splashing the cash for. To me, this is a… Read more »
Agree entirely. We’ve just had a superb shop window in the World Cup. Kyra is a good player now and at her age her best years are in front of her. We have a saying in England that you have to “speculate to accumulate”. This signing is exactly that. We have spent what’s necessary to get potentially the best player in her position and she will be wearing home colours of red and white not blue!
Yes! Excellent signing! Welcome Kyra!