Arsenal are expected to finalise the signing of the France defender Élisa De Almeida before the 11pm BST Women’s Super League transfer deadline. The club are understood to have agreed a fee of just over £500,000 with Paris Saint-Germain for the 28-year-old. PSG, for whom De Almeida has played since 2021, are less willing to let their Nigeria midfielder Jennifer Echegini go.
The 25-year-old is understood to be the subject of interest from Manchester City but PSG were fighting hard to keep her on Thursday morning. The WSL champions’ desire to add to their squad is understood to have been fuelled partly by the knee injury sustained by Vivianne Miedema, which will keep her out for an unspecified time. De Almeida is an experienced centre-back who was part of France’s Euro 2025 and 2023 World Cup squads.
Arsenal are understood to need centre-back cover partly because their defender Katie Reid’s recovery from the anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained last November is being managed carefully, meaning the 19-year-old is not expected to be available before November. The WSL season gets under way on Friday when London City Lionesses host Manchester United. The new United head coach, Eva Olid, said on Thursday her team would not add more signings.
United secured the Mexico midfielder Rebeca Bernal, who can also play at centre-back, on Wednesday, and Olid said at her first press conference since replacing Marc Skinner that Bernal would be available for Friday’s match. Olid, the former Hearts manager, is promising to bring “attacking football” to United. She used the word “attacking” eight times during her 17-minute press conference and spoke of her enthusiasm for trying to develop young players.
She said of her attacking style: “They appointed me for that reason. We will be brave in attack, trying to play that attractive football. Our main focus [is] that attacking mentality.
We want to play with the ball, a nice football, create a lot of chances.” On waiting until January before adding more players, Olid said: “The players I need are different from the players the previous manager needed. [It has been a] short period to react. We have some plans in January about signing players that I really need for my style of play. It was not about signing players quick.
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