LCFC Women 2025/26 Season

[davieG]

Why Everton broke record fee for Macepublished at 13:21 British Summer Time

13:21 BST

Matthew Hobbs
BBC Sport

Image source,Getty Images

Image caption,

Ruby Mace has joined Everton from Leicester for a club record fee

On Wednesday Everton signed England international Ruby Mace in a club-record deal – the latest example of the ambition of owners the Friedkin Group.

The versatile 21-year-old, who can play in defence or midfield, called the move from Leicester City to Goodison Park “a dream come true” and Everton have signed one of the most promising prospects in the WSL.

An aggressive ball-winner, Mace provides an all-action game of tackles and interceptions, while an impressive engine allows her to cover the whole pitch as this touch map from Opta demonstrates.

Image source,Opta

Ruby Mace is capable of winning the ball back all over the pitch

She is at her most effective breaking up play, ranking among the top eight WSL players for both tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes.

Mace, who made her England debut in the win against Switzerland in December, also boasts good experience for her age, having started 52 WSL matches and played 3,455 minutes.

Her style of play, however, does come with some risk. Only West Ham forward Viviane Asseyi conceded more fouls than Mace’s 34 in last season’s WSL campaign.

She is now set to make her debut in the Merseyside derby at Anfield in Sunday's season opener.

Image source,BBC Sport

Ruby Mace is one the most effective ball-winners in the WSL

 

 

[SK3Blue]

8 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

 

She’s had more clubs than Tiger Woods

[lcfcrinaldi]

22 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

 

In normal circumstances, this would probably be a decent transfer, experienced head that may help the squad generally. But we need something a bit more inspiring.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

5 minutes ago, lcfcrinaldi said:

In normal circumstances, this would probably be a decent transfer, experienced head that may help the squad generally. But we need something a bit more inspiring.

A very Cayman-esque type player. That's ok. But like you say we're going to need something extra.

[davieG]

38 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

A very Cayman-esque type player. That's ok. But like you say we're going to need something extra.

Need to be quick window closes at 11pm today.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

London City Lionesses now signing Barcelona players. They're throwing a heck of a lot of money at this.

 

Part of me hopes they upset the Big 4 cartel. But part of me also hopes they fall flat on their face.

[OatcakeFox]

Pressman and Passmore. That’s the tactics sorted then.0

[lcfcrinaldi]

54 minutes ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

London City Lionesses now signing Barcelona players. They're throwing a heck of a lot of money at this.

 

Part of me hopes they upset the Big 4 cartel. But part of me also hopes they fall flat on their face.

We see it a lot with Men's teams, come up from the championship, spend huge money, but can't get their team to gel and end up either going straight back down or at least very close. QPR and Forest come to mind

[SK3Blue]

49 minutes ago, lcfcrinaldi said:

We see it a lot with Men's teams, come up from the championship, spend huge money, but can't get their team to gel and end up either going straight back down or at least very close. QPR and Forest come to mind

I do think Kang FC will upset a few, comfortably mid table, god only knows what they’ll throw at it in season 2, could well be a big couple of seasons. 

[Ryy]

 

[lcfcrinaldi]

Cecily Wellesley-Smith has joined on loan.

Plays will Las in the England set up, be interesting to see how much game time she gets.

Edited 4 September 2025 by lcfcrinaldi

[SouthStandUpperTier]

https://www.lcfc.com/pages/en/media-article/lcfc-leicester-city-manchester-united-women-super-league-rick-passmoor-jutta-rantala

 

Rantala is training, but undergoing a 'phased return'. So probably on the bench at best on Sunday. 

 

Goodwin definitely out.

[Jimmy]

Mouchon, Chossenotte, Eriksdottir, Draper, Cain & O'Brien all available though so we have attacking options, possibly the most in a long time

[The Doctor]

1 hour ago, lcfcrinaldi said:

We see it a lot with Men's teams, come up from the championship, spend huge money, but can't get their team to gel and end up either going straight back down or at least very close. QPR and Forest come to mind

I'd say the financial gap in the men's is far larger to try and bridge though. That huge money is often just the same as mid table sides but without the existing foundation. Also not a huge issue for LCL if they don't gel this season. Finishing bottom is unlikely while we're around, and even if you do finish bottom, you'll just need to beat someone like Durham or Charlton to stay up anyway 

[The Doctor]

that latter part is why doing a serious rebuild this season makes sense if you need one. We just seem to have done the "smash the foundations apart" bit and forgot to do the actual rebuilding part

[Jimmy]

 

[Pita]

7 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

 

Bring in a couple of players but I think the team is weaker than last seasons. Going to be a very long hard season with us most probably finishing bottom of the table 

[lcfcrinaldi]

Credit where credit is due, at least they are getting people in. Not the quality we are hoping to see, but we aren't going to sign world beaters either.

 

Makes me feel slightly better, but I would agree that we are much weaker overall than last season.

 

Hopefully there's maybe a couple more signings in the barrell.

[davieG]

18 minutes ago, lcfcrinaldi said:

Credit where credit is due, at least they are getting people in. Not the quality we are hoping to see, but we aren't going to sign world beaters either.

 

Makes me feel slightly better, but I would agree that we are much weaker overall than last season.

 

Hopefully there's maybe a couple more signings in the barrell.

Is that the barrel of laughs?

[lcfcrinaldi]

12 minutes ago, davieG said:

Is that the barrel of laughs?

If you dont laugh, you'll cry.

[SK3Blue]

Rangers and Birmingham must be laughing if we’ve paid for these two, fill the gaps signings that don’t improve the squad and both in lower level sides. The young girl from Arsenal looks promising but how much she will feature who knows. It’s all on Shannon and Rantala up top. Don’t rate the rest at all. 

[SK3Blue]

38 minutes ago, lcfcrinaldi said:

Credit where credit is due, at least they are getting people in. Not the quality we are hoping to see, but we aren't going to sign world beaters either.

 

Makes me feel slightly better, but I would agree that we are much weaker overall than last season.

 

Hopefully there's maybe a couple more signings in the barrell.

This is it though bud, you sign one world beater and the rest will come, LCL have chucked money at it, if King Power were serious they would too. Aileen Whelan left us and now we’ve just brought in another 32 year old to sit in the place of Ruby. It’s gone full circle. 
 

 

[The Doctor]

42 minutes ago, SK3Blue said:

This is it though bud, you sign one world beater and the rest will come, LCL have chucked money at it, if King Power were serious they would too. Aileen Whelan left us and now we’ve just brought in another 32 year old to sit in the place of Ruby. It’s gone full circle. 
 

 

when half a million is in the top 10 largest fees in the world, it wouldn't even have taken significant amounts of money, literally a fraction of the amount they've set on fire with the mens team. Like, if that rumoured wage for Ryan Bertrand is real, we spent 12.48m on wages for him to play 4 times. that could assemble a champions league level team with money to spare in the women's game

[SK3Blue]

Rosella Ayana signed from Spurs. Described as a forward. 76 games 3 goals?

[lcfcrinaldi]

35 minutes ago, SK3Blue said:

Rosella Ayana signed from Spurs. Described as a forward. 76 games 3 goals?

Looks a little bit like Bonmati, lets hope thats not where the similarities end.

 

Seems like Tottenham used her as a 10 and/or a winger

 

Come on, one more... 

Edited 4 September 2025 by lcfcrinaldi