Striker Sam Kerr is expected to depart Chelsea when her contract expires at the tip of the season, whereas captain Millie Bright additionally desires to leave.
Both are out of contract at the tip of this season. Chelsea supplied Bright a brand new deal however the 32-year-old, who’s the membership’s longest continuously-serving participant, prefers an exit, in accordance to a number of sources briefed on the matter — who, like all referenced on this article, spoke anonymously to defend relationships. Bright’s one-year extension, signed in March 2025, does include the choice of an additional 12 months.
Kerr, 32, can also be expected to depart at the tip of her contract, with sturdy curiosity within the Australian from a number of golf equipment within the NWSL. She scored 4 objectives for Australia, who she is captain of, en route to the Asia Cup closing, which they misplaced 1-0 towards Japan on Saturday. She is at present Chelsea’s high goalscorer in all competitions, with 10 objectives.
The pair have been key figures in Chelsea’s home dominance. Bright has made greater than 300 appearances for the membership since becoming a member of in 2014, and Kerr greater than 150 since arriving halfway via the 2019-20 season.
Bright’s time at Chelsea features a run of six consecutive Women’s Super League titles between 2019 and 2025, as nicely as 10 home cup trophies, whereas Kerr’s tenure consists of six of these cups and 5 league titles (not counting honours within the 2024-25 marketing campaign, which she missed via damage).
Chelsea have quite a lot of gamers reaching the tip of their offers in the summertime, together with goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, ahead Aggie Beever-Jones, backup goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer and defender Lucy Bronze. There is an expectation that Hampton will signal a brand new contract within the close to future.
Forwards Catarina Macario and Guro Reiten have been additionally out of contract at the identical time and have accomplished strikes to NWSL sides San Diego Wave and Gotham, respectively, in the previous couple of weeks.
The 2026 summer season window was at all times going to be a busy one for Chelsea, given these expiring contracts. It can also be their first because the departure of head of girls’s soccer Paul Green, whose shock exit in February after 13 years at the membership has been important. Green was a key determine within the facet’s progress right into a dynasty, gaining a repute for shrewd succession planning and squad evolution. His departure has influenced some gamers’ excited about their futures at the membership, sources added.
As The Athletic reported in February, Green had much less autonomy over recruitment and squad planning since Emma Hayes’ departure as supervisor in June 2024, with people who had sometimes centered on the boys’s facet turning into extra concerned, together with sporting director Paul Winstanley. Chelsea believed the management construction on the ladies’s facet wanted to be tailored to mirror the differing fashions underneath Hayes, who had a wider management remit, and Bompastor, who focuses on the technical and efficiency facet.
Chelsea have been contemplating choices for a sporting director on the ladies’s facet as early as final autumn. In February, the membership introduced the appointment of Phil Radley for that position, with a short of “a central role in shaping the long-term direction of the women’s team”. The accompanying assertion added that Radley’s position will embrace overseeing recruitment and dealing with contracts and negotiations with gamers’ brokers and representatives.
Green’s departure has influenced the pondering of some gamers (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images )
Bright’s expertise and management are precious for a dressing room that has skilled circumstances they’re unused to on and off the pitch this season. But the previous England worldwide, who’s at present unavailable for Chelsea due to an ankle knock suffered within the 2-0 win towards Tottenham Hotspur in February, does have important competitors for a beginning spot within the crew.
Chelsea’s different centre-backs embrace former world document signing Naomi Girma, as nicely as just lately fit-again Kadeisha Buchanan. Nathalie Bjorn is expected to miss the rest of the season after struggling one other damage in final weekend’s League Cup closing, however is an everyday starter when match. Veerle Buurman, 19, who deputised for the injured Bright within the League Cup closing, has impressed in her first season at the membership after becoming a member of from PSV.
While Chelsea understood Kerr’s exit was an eventuality, it will not appear superb for her departure to coincide with that of Macario and a summer season that additionally sees academy graduate Beever-Jones out of contract. Were Kerr to leave, Chelsea’s senior striker ranks would come with simply Beever-Jones, depending on her contract renewal or activation of the one-year choice in her current phrases, and Mayra Ramirez, who has not featured for Chelsea since a hamstring damage sustained throughout pre-season. The 26-year-old has suffered repeated setbacks throughout her rehabilitation, and Bompastor mentioned final week that she could miss the rest of the season.
These issues across the entrance line means Chelsea may look uncharacteristically toothless within the No 9 place come subsequent season if reinforcements will not be recruited.
The uncertainty round contracts is only one aspect of the uncertainty that also envelopes Chelsea. As The Athletic detailed last month, Winstanley has expressed a need to enhance the variety of participant gross sales from the ladies’s crew, one thing the membership has not traditionally been recognized for.
On the pitch, whereas Chelsea retained their League Cup title with a 2-0 victory over Manchester United on March 15, the as soon as reliably indomitable winners are additionally set to fail to win the WSL title for the primary time in seven years, sitting 9 factors behind Manchester City with 4 video games remaining after their draw with London City Lionesses on Saturday.
This season, Chelsea misplaced consecutive WSL matches for the primary time since July 2015, following a 2-0 defeat by Arsenal with a 5-1 loss towards Manchester City. It marked the primary time in Sonia Bompastor’s 181-game managerial profession that she misplaced consecutive matches.
However, they’ve received 4 and drawn one among their six matches since that defeat to City — together with the League Cup closing and FA Cup fifth-round double-header towards Manchester United. They are actually third, with fourth-placed Arsenal two factors behind with two video games in hand.
Chelsea face home rivals Arsenal over a two-legged Champions League quarter-final on March 24 and April 1, earlier than enjoying Tottenham Hotspur within the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on April 6.
A high-stakes finish to the season lies forward — however Chelsea have simply as a lot to do off the pitch over the summer season.
