By Ahmad Ali, Sports Editor
When London City Lionesses walked out against Manchester United to open the 2025-26 Women’s Super League season, they did so without a single English player in their starting XI — the first time a WSL side had begun a campaign that way. Two days later, Tottenham beat West Ham with Scotland winger Kirsty Hanson as the only British player in their line-up. The Guardian’s Tom Garry called London City’s team sheet “alarming”. A year on, with the league expanded to 14 clubs and England facing a World Cup play-off campaign, the word has not gone away.
The WSL has never been richer, never been watched by more people, and never attracted better players. Alexia Putellas, a two-time Ballon d’Or winner, now plays her football in south-east London rather than Barcelona. But the same recruitment boom that has raised the league’s ceiling has squeezed the players it was supposed to develop — and the data suggests the squeeze is tightening.
The numbers behind the alarm
The proportion of homegrown players — English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish — starting 11 or more WSL matches has fallen steadily across the past three seasons to under a third. No comparable decline exists elsewhere in Europe. In 2025-26, of those starting half or more of their league’s matches, 61% in France’s Première Ligue were French, 63% in the Frauen-Bundesliga were German and 69% in Liga F were Spanish.
At the younger end, the gap is starker still:
- Homegrown players born in 2005 or later took under 3% of available WSL minutes in 2025-26 — the lowest of Europe’s top five leagues and the NWSL.
- The Frauen-Bundesliga figure for its own young nationals was 12%, and every other top-five league at least doubled the WSL’s share.
- Of the minutes the WSL did give to players of that age group, 64% went to non-English talent.
- The WSL fielded 42 homegrown players aged 23 or under last season. Spain’s top flight had 125, Germany 104, France 91, the NWSL 83 and Italy 53.
The opening three weeks of 2026-27 have offered a modest improvement, but the caveat matters: the league grew from 12 clubs to 14, and the promoted trio of Birmingham City, Crystal Palace and Charlton Athletic carry a higher share of British players than the established elite. Expansion has diluted the symptom without treating the cause.
Why the pathway has narrowed
Nobody in the league disputes the trend; the argument is over blame. Birmingham City’s Amy Merricks framed it as the price of success: “Our league has grown significantly. Unfortunately that blocks some pathways for youngsters coming through.” Manchester City’s Andree Jeglertz was blunter about the incentives facing any head coach: “I always need to pick the team that gives us the best chance of winning.”
That is the structural trap. Ten years ago a promising 18-year-old competed with a semi-professional squad; now she competes with a full international signed for six figures. Chelsea’s Sonia Bompastor has described the compression at the top — “the level is almost the same, so you can’t always rotate” — while Tottenham’s Martin Ho put it simply: “The league has kicked on in the last three years. The demand is so much higher now.”
Manchester City managing director Charlotte O’Neill has made the case for proper academy contracts on exactly those grounds: “Because you can’t go from training on evenings and weekends to then competing against Lauren Hemp.” Unlike the men’s game, the WSL has no B-team structure, no reserve league with real jeopardy and, until recently, no obvious place for a 17-year-old to play meaningful senior football. The existing safeguard — squads of 25 with a minimum of eight homegrown players, in place since 2021-22 — guarantees registration, not minutes.
What it means for England
The national team is where the accounting becomes uncomfortable. Seven of the starters in England’s 4-0 defeat by Spain in Mallorca on 5 June — Sarina Wiegman’s heaviest loss as Lionesses manager, and England’s worst since the 2009 European Championship final — had also started the Euro 2022 final. England failed to muster a shot on target and lost control of automatic qualification for the 2027 World Cup, leaving a play-off route.
Wiegman has handed debuts to 21 players since September 2021, yet only Lauren James, Hannah Hampton and Lucia Kendall have converted those caps into established starting roles. That is not a failure of selection so much as a failure of supply: a coach can only promote players who are playing. A golden generation that won a European title and reached a World Cup final is now ageing together, and the cohort meant to replace it has spent its formative years on benches.
Does the fix arrive in time?
There is a plan. The FA and WSL Football have approved the entry of WSL academy sides into the National League from 2027-28, with Chelsea and Manchester City among those confirming they will take it up — competitive senior minutes for teenagers who currently get none. It is the right intervention, borrowed from a German model that produces four times the WSL’s youth minutes.
The problem is arithmetic. A 17-year-old entering that system in 2027 is not a Lionesses regular before 2030. England’s 2027 World Cup campaign, and probably Euro 2029 too, will be contested by players developed under the conditions that created this shortfall. The WSL will be a stronger league for the Putellas signings of the world. Whether England are a stronger team for them is a question the next three years will answer — and the trend line, for now, points the wrong way.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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