Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw told the crowd at the Coop Arena parade she was "still here, still hungry" — and most of her own teammates found out in that exact moment. That's how close this came to going the other way.
Shaw has signed a four-year deal with Manchester City that, according to sources, makes her the highest-paid women's footballer in the world. It was agreed over a bank holiday weekend in May — Friday offer, Sunday terms, Monday signature — capping off a saga that had spent weeks pointing firmly toward Chelsea.
Chelsea's four-year, £1 million-per-year offer had been on the table since April. City's board, aware of it, initially refused to match it. Concerns about reshaping the wage structure around one player, and the precedent that sets under the WSL's incoming Financial Sustainability Regulations, held them back. The FSR caps total player wage bills at 80 per cent of a club's standalone revenue — the financial logic of not breaking the bank for one player, even one this good, isn't entirely without merit.
The pressure that changed the outcome
What shifted it wasn't a sudden change of heart at board level. It was sustained pressure — from director of women's football Therese Sjogran and managing director Charlotte O'Neill, who never stopped pushing internally, from coaching and playing staff who made their feelings known, and from the media backlash that, according to sources, genuinely caught the board off guard.
Steph Houghton and Ian Wright both spoke publicly against losing Shaw to a direct title rival. Shaw herself told Sky Sports after City's final-day 4-1 win over West Ham that Manchester was "her home." Eventually, Sjogran and O'Neill got the board's backing to formally reopen negotiations.
Once they did, Chelsea were informed — and walked. The eight-time WSL champions refused to enter a bidding war and held firm at their original offer. That's a calculated decision on their part, but it leaves them this summer without Sam Kerr, without Catarina Macario, with Mayra Ramirez just returning from a season-long injury, and with Aggie Beever-Jones yet to sign a new deal. They're reportedly tracking 19-year-old BK Hacken striker Felicia Schroder. That tells you where Chelsea think they're rebuilding from.
What Shaw's deal actually means for the women's game
Shaw scored 21 WSL goals last season with four assists. She's won three consecutive Golden Boots. She joined City in 2021 from Bordeaux and has broken practically every goalscoring record the club had. Keeping her was the difference between defending a first WSL title in a decade and rebuilding around a gaping hole up front.
The wider consequences are harder to calculate. Shaw's deal is the new benchmark — the first domino, as several sources describe it, in a summer window that was already pushing into new financial territory. The global women's market has been setting transfer and salary records on a near-monthly basis. The question now is which clubs can actually keep pace and which ones slowly fall out of the conversation. Several decision-makers are already worried about a tiered system emerging between the financially backed elite and everyone else.
Shaw also financially supports her family back in Spanish Town, Jamaica. Any contract negotiation was always going to factor that in. City eventually understood what the number had to be. It just took them longer than it should have.
