Arsenal Women have confirmed the signing of Australia left-back Steph Catley. The 26-year old played for Melbourne City and Reign FC last season but has joined the increasing number of Australia internationals joining the WSL. Steph will wear the number 12 shirt.
Catley previously worked under Head Coach Joe Montemurro at Melbourne. Steph announced her departure from Reign FC earlier this summer and Melbourne City earlier this year. She has 82 caps for her country and is considered one of the finest left-backs in the world. My information is that Lyon came in for Steph with a strong offer which she turned down to be re-united with Joe Montemurro.
Enough talk ?
We mean business. pic.twitter.com/C9dVuBqWU3
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) July 2, 2020
“This is something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time,” Catley told Arsenal.com “Arsenal is a place where I’ve imagined myself playing for a long time too. I’m so excited that it’s finally done. This will be my first taste of European football and obviously there’s so much to look forward to and so many big occasions to come. I can’t wait to get started.
“For a long time I’ve watched the team and their success, but for me, the specific way that they play and keep the ball, it’s an attacking brand of football and when you watch their games they’re always exciting. They’re a fun team to watch and that drew me in initially, and obviously I’ve worked with Joe before, so I know how he likes to play football and that was a big thing for me too.
“For me, Joe’s just very good at player managing, so he really understands an individual for what they bring to a team, but also what their life is off the field and he really likes to harness that and get the most out of the person, as well as the player.”
“We’re privileged to have Steph at the club,” said head coach Joe Montemurro. “She suits our fluidity and she’s very good in a positional sense, but more importantly she’s very effective going forwards, so we’re excited to have her as part of the squad and we’re looking forward to some exciting times together!”
Steph is the first of a clutch of signings expected at the club this summer following the departures of Louise Quinn, Pauline Peyraud-Magnin, Katrine Veje and Danielle Carter. Emma Mitchell’s departure is expected to be confirmed once her new club can be announced. Emma’s contract hasn’t expired so that move will be a transfer.
Thanks for passing on the news, Tim.
Welcome to the greatest club in the world, Steph Catley! I’m sure you’ll be very happy and successful here.
So exciting. I love the “thou shalt not pass” pose in the top photo.
@Tim
How many more coming and how many more out, excluding Emma Mitchell?
To my knowledge, Emma is the only other one to go and it’s just a case of her signing for a new club. I know of 4 signings definitely (Steph is one of them) and 1 as almost certain now. So I’m expecting 5 in total.
Ooh! Yay! That is fantastic. Thanks for letting me know.
Yey!!! She was the rumour I was always most invested in. For me absolutely perfect signing, probably the best LB in the world and also in the position we didn’t have natural player. She should fit to our team and to our playing style perfectly. Katie was really good LB for us, but it will be good to have her as an option higher up the pitch. As a lefty she can add something different, and we missed her goals last year compared to the season before.
Agree, good to have variety on that left hand side where DvD and Beth had the role on lockdown. Katie more of an option there now and Caitlin in too. There’s some really good competition up there.
Great news – I’m excited about next season already!
Do you know if she will be eligible to play in the Champions League match(es)?
Alas, no she won’t.
Hahaha, as one of the small squad “gripers” well played, Arsenal.
Quality signing, welcome to Arsenal, Steph!
Fact is Lyon were sniffing around as a replacement for Alex Greenwood so that’s one up for the Gunners that Steph chose to come to North London and it shows the quality of the players that we can attract.
Without most probably champions league football as well
I feel that what is interesting is what has happened behind the scenes that will probably never become common knowledge. Under Vic Akers we were the team to beat followed by a mass exodus under Shelley Kerr and a partial rebuild with Pedro Losa at the helm. I wonder if there has been a conscious effort under all of the high level board reshuffling to make the women’s team ‘great’ again or maybe it was just a case of making the correct appointment in Joe. I particularly appreciate his dogged determination and belief in his methods when all were calling… Read more »
This reminds me a bit of Arsene Wenger’s early days when he had valuable knowledge of French players before the rest of the Premier league. Joe clearly has a sound, in depth knowledge and experience of the Australian scene and is using it to the teams advantage. Great stuff!
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