Winners and losers of the 2025-26 WSL season: Khadija Shaw and Man City proved unstoppable as Chelsea go back to the drawing board and Man Utd face a big call on Marc Skinner's future

When Jeglertz arrived in Manchester last summer, his stock was rather low. Despite having accolades like a Champions League triumph and two Manager of the Year awards in Sweden on his resumé, the 54-year-old came into the Man City job fresh off the back of serious disappointment at the 2025 European Championship. Leading a Denmark side that featured Bayern Munich star Pernille Harder, he failed to guide the team to any points as they crashed out in the group stages.

However, the manner in which Jeglertz has responded to that underwhelming summer has been outstanding. Taking charge of a City team that had not won the WSL title for 10 years, and had severe scar tissue from the way their 2023-24 charge collapsed, he has been able to guide this group through any of the negative side effects of those disappointments via great player-management and excellent coaching.

Jeglertz's tactical tweaks were extremely effective. They have allowed Vivianne Miedema to flourish, forming a wonderful partnership with the incredibly prolific Khadija Shaw which has been the centrepiece of a relentless attack, but not the only factor in it. His ability to provide a foundation to his players and then let themselves be expressive on top of that has worked a treat.

What this team looks like going forward is the big question. With Shaw seemingly on her way out, adaptation and recruitment will have to be spot on. But City fans can take confidence from how emphatically Jeglertz has proven his worth as a coach this season after the disappointments of last summer.

When Leicester City dismissed head coach Amandine Miquel just 10 days before the start of this WSL season, it didn't feel like a good omen for the year ahead. Fast-forward nine months and that hunch has been proven correct, in a campaign that will end with the Foxes facing Charlton Athletic in the relegation play-off next week.

Despite the debilitating number of injuries endured last term, Miquel showed why she is one of the best up-and-coming coaches in the women's game by steering Leicester to safety with impressive comfort, relatively speaking. To part ways with her made little sense in general, never mind as pre-season came to a close and the new campaign was just about to start.

In came Rick Passmoor, a man with tons of experience across a lengthy career, but taking his first lead job at the elite level since 2017. There were some good early results, with a win over Liverpool and a draw against Everton seeing Passmoor earn the role on a permanent basis after initially coming in as an interim. But Leicester have not won a game in 2026, losing all 11 that they have played to be condemned to last place in the WSL and that relegation play-off.

Everything rides on next week, then, when they travel to London to take on Charlton. Relegation would be devastating for a side that has been at the top table since promotion in 2021, while the additional impact that demotion to the third tier for the men's team may have could also be concerning.

Last time Man City were firmly locked in a WSL title race, Shaw had to watch the climax of it all from the sidelines. After being a key player throughout the 2023-24 season, scoring 21 goals in just 18 games, a foot injury would prevent her from being involved at the very end as City threw away their lead at the top and Chelsea nipped in to win a fifth successive WSL title.

Last year, injury struck again, with Shaw one of the many players who couldn't be involved a large portion of the season, preventing City from competing for that trophy again. They looked primed to do so as the halfway point of the campaign neared, until their list of absentees grew to such a length that it was going to be impossible.

This time around, it was different. Shaw was ever-present to help City exorcise all of those demons and win the WSL for the first time in 10 years. She picks up a third successive Golden Boot for her efforts, after netting 21 goals in 22 games, as well as that title-winning medal she and her team-mates have craved for so long.

It looks like playing a key role in delivering that trophy will be her parting gift, too. Shaw's contract in Manchester expires this summer and all signs point to her not only leaving on a free, but joining WSL rivals Chelsea, too. It's a huge blow for a club that has just enjoyed a remarkable high, and one has to wonder what stumbling blocks in negotiations could be so big to prevent City from giving perhaps the best striker on the planet the renewal she desires, especially when all reports suggest she wants to stay.

Looking at Manchester United's season across all competitions, there are reasons for encouragement. A run to the Champions League quarter-finals, on their debut in the competition proper, was impressive, as was the fact the Red Devils made another major cup final. The summer signings of Jess Park and Julia Zigiotti Olme have been particular success stories, too.

However, in the WSL, it's been a massively disappointing year for United. Marc Skinner's side started the campaign well, going unbeaten through the first seven games, before a lack of depth showed in November, when the squad was struggling to cope with the double gameweeks playing in the Champions League presents.

That limited summer investment has to be factored into United's performances this season, no doubt, but the club did somewhat make up for it in January and the signings made, though appearing good on paper, haven't made the desired impact. Ellen Wangerheim's regular use out wide, when she is a natural centre-forward, has raised questions of Skinner, while the inability to get more out of Lea Schuller, a serial goal-scorer throughout her career, is a concern.

It was expected that United's trip to Chelsea on the final day would have a lot riding on it, in a potential one-game shootout for the final Champions League spot. However, the Red Devils were only able to win one of their five WSL matches going into that season-closer, ruling them out of contention for European football prematurely.

Without a league victory over any of the division's top five, combined with disappointing results against West Ham and Brighton during that poor run-in, has led to a rise in discontent among the fanbase and placed further pressure on Skinner as the club assesses a mixed year.

United have backed the manager throughout and he is under contract until 2027, with the option for another year. But despite the highs that have come this season, it's hard not to ask questions of the manager given how disappointing the WSL campaign has been.

Vivianne Miedema is back. The last few years have been difficult for the WSL's all-time top goal-scorer, since her devastating ACL injury in late 2022. Further knee surgeries have followed, with other smaller injuries here and there limiting her ability to rediscover her best, which is at a world-class level. This season, though, the Dutchwoman has hit double figures for goals and double figures for starts for the first time in the WSL since the 2021-22 campaign to play a key role in Man City's title triumph.

Only Shaw and Alessia Russo have been directly involved in more goals this season than Miedema, who also has five assists to her name. Her partnership with the former has been a joy to watch, with that two-pronged attack from central areas causing serious problems for so many of City's opponents.

The bittersweet nature of it all is that it looks like this will be the only full season of that Miedema-Shaw duo, with the latter seemingly set to move on. How Jeglertz adapts if indeed that proves to be the case will be interesting. Does Miedema become the No.9? Or does the club recruit another centre-forward to allow Miedema to continue to thrive as the No.10?

Either way, the good news is that the Dutchwoman is fully fit again and back playing at an elite level. That's a huge positive that the new WSL champions can build on.

Twelve months ago, Chelsea looked unstoppable. The Blues didn't lose a single game in a domestic fixture in Sonia Bompastor's first year in charge, winning the League Cup, FA Cup and WSL, enjoying the first unbeaten campaign in the latter's history in a 22-game season. To follow that up, then, with a season like this one has been really disappointing.

After a run of six successive WSL triumphs, there is an appreciation that such a streak had to come to an end at some point, and that to enjoy such a sustained period of success has been incredible. But, in the words of vice-captain Erin Cuthbert earlier this season: "That doesn't make it any better or it doesn't give me any softer emotions towards [losing the title]."

Chelsea have had to deal with a lot of injuries this term and that has certainly played a part, while the lack of January investment was a real surprise given that and the fact several players were coming to the end of their respective contracts, with Catarina Macario and Guro Reiten departing for the NWSL before the season's end to further deplete the already-stretched depth in the squad.

It's a big summer for Chelsea now, after what has felt like a transitional season. Millie Bright has retired, Macario and Reiten have left and there are a whole host of names who are out of contract, including Sam Kerr and Lucy Bronze. As such, it's a transfer window in which Bompastor is likely to really make her mark on this team, to further shape them in her image.

Getting those moves right will be vital in order for Chelsea to re-establish themselves at the top of the WSL. To have won the League Cup despite everything is a positive, but the way the Blues collapsed in their FA Cup semi-final defeat to Man City, conceding twice in the final five minutes, was an encapsulation of the work that Bompastor has to do to return this team to where it has been.

It looks like Tottenham are back on track. In Martin Ho's first season in charge of the club, the former Manchester United assistant has made a wonderful impact, guiding Spurs to their best-ever season in the WSL, one that has matched their previous best finish of fifth while setting a new record points tally.

Admittedly, we've been here before. Just two seasons ago, Robert Vilahamn came in and guided the club to a sixth-placed finish and a first major final, in the FA Cup. A year later, his impact waned as Spurs slipped to 11th in the 12-team standings, leading to his departure.

What makes it different under Ho? Next season will tell us more, but Tottenham have felt more consistent in games against the teams below them and more of a threat in clashes with those above them, even if the results might not suggest the latter. It's also worth noting that Spurs were one of the most significantly impacted teams during the Asian Cup, losing both of their starting centre-backs for the tournament and then Clare Hunt for the rest of the season after an injury during it.

Throw in the positive impact of all four January signings - and all six of the season's new arrivals overall, none of whom are older than 24 - and there are a lot of reasons to feel like Spurs can kick on from here, rather than endure a slide down the standings similar to last year.

Transfer fees in women's football went crazy last summer. After Naomi Girma became the first player to be slapped with a million-dollar price tag in January 2025, Olivia Smith became the first million-pound player a few months later, and the ball was then well and truly rolling, as seven-figure fees for Lizbeth Ovalle and Alyssa Thompson followed. Grace Geyoro's move to London City Lionesses on WSL deadline day, though, surpassed them all, as she left Paris Saint-Germain in a world-record transfer.

Geyoro had been linked with a move to Chelsea in previous windows and arrived in another corner of London as a genuinely world-class player. In 11 seasons in Paris, plus eight years in the France national team, she had proven her quality time and time again, even ascending to become the captain of PSG before her departure.

That the 28-year-old has struggled to really make her mark on the WSL, then, has been a real surprise. London City have not been competing at the top of the table, sure, but the newly-promoted side have not had a bad season, sitting comfortably in mid-table throughout. But stand-out moments from Geyoro, who ended the year with one goal and no assists from 19 games, have been hard to come by.

Perhaps next season will be different. This is Geyoro's first spell out of her home country and the impact that settling into a new environment with a new language, a new culture and a new playing style can be overlooked. But it's hard to ignore how quiet a first season in the WSL that the most expensive player in women's football history has endured.

After showing glimpses of their potential last season, Brighton have gone up another level this time around in the second year of Dario Vidosic's tenure. Since the turn of the year especially, it feels like things have really clicked for the Seagulls, giving fans plenty of optimism that next season could see their upward trajectory continue.

Brighton's last six games of the campaign read as much: Victory over Arsenal in the FA Cup quarter-finals; a 3-2 win over champions-elect Man City, to delay their title celebrations; a point at Manchester United, after the Red Devils scored in the 94th minute; another draw against the Gunners, to end their title charge; victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final, from 2-0 down; with a dramatically late defeat to Spurs on the final day the only disappointment.

"We have had some really good performances the whole season but maybe haven’t just been getting the results we deserve,” Fran Kirby, the former England international whose role in Brighton's project cannot be understated, told the Argus during that run. “It is all coming together in terms of the style we want to play, the way we play and the culture in the group.”

There are still areas for this team to improve, of course, and the summer transfer window will be interesting, especially given how well this club tends to operate in the market. But there is so much reason to be optimistic, and intrigued, about how Brighton's 2026-27 season could go, all while FA Cup glory remains on the table.

When Manchester United and Man City engaged in a truly stunning deadline-day deal back in September, eyebrows were raised more in the direction of United than City. The Red Devils received more cash for Grace Clinton than they paid for Jess Park, as the two England internationals swapped clubs, but it felt counter intuitive to what United needed. This was a side crying out for greater depth ahead of their first season in the Champions League proper. A one-in, one-out deal, then, wasn't the answer, even if Park was a good player.

However, almost a year on, while that point still stands and a lack of depth was a key factor in United's shortcomings this term, it's clear that it was indeed Park and the Red Devils who came out of this deal better. That's because Clinton, after being such a revelation in the two years prior that she broke into the England team and became a relatively regular starter in Sarina Wiegman's side, has had a season to forget.

A big part of that has been bad luck. Clinton arrived at City with a niggle and has dealt with a few more since, thus limiting her ability to break into Jeglertz's XI. The performances of the team have also made that more difficult, especially given City haven't had European competition to make the need for rotation greater. But to have ended the WSL season having started just twice will be of immense disappointment for Clinton.

How will next season look for the Lionesses midfielder? One would imagine it should be quite different, given Jeglertz and the club clearly wanted her, plus the fact there should be more games on the schedule due to Champions League participation. But it will also depend on the 23-year-old, whose talented is undisputed, staying fit. This move can still be a success for player and club, but the first season has been tough.