2024 - 25 Season: Loan Wrap-Up

With the 2024-25 season having come to an end, it’s time to look back at how our youngsters did on their full loans, partial loans and dual sign agreements, as well as saying goodbye to those few who have announced their departures from the club. I’ll look towards next season and my thoughts on our players who may be sticking with us or (with no announcement in place) taking their chances elsewhere.

Full Loans:

The first goodbye of the season of course, goes to childhood Gooner Teyah Goldie. Teyah went on loan to London City Lionesses at the start of the season, scoring one goal in 20 appearances for the now-promoted Lionesses. Teyah was permitted to feature against our senior side in Arsenal’s 2 - 0 win against LCL in the Adobe FA Cup, a standout player for many of the Arsenal fans at Meadow Park that day.

Arsenal youngster Freya Godfrey also ended up at London City Lionesses on loan for the second half of the 2024-25 season, where she picked up 3 assists in 8 appearances across all competitions.

Freya has had bids put in for a move away (as reported by Kathryn Batte of The Telegraph on X) by London City Lionesses and Aston Villa, both of which have been accepted by Arsenal.

Scoring 5 goals in 22 appearances across all competitions whilst on loan at Brighton, Michelle Agyemang earnt her flowers and her first senior call-up for the England Women’s team, replacing injured Arsenal teammate Alessia Russo.

Michelle scored on her debut, just 41 seconds after coming off the bench, with England Captain and Arsenal teammate Leah Williamson notching the assist. Michelle has been rewarded for her hard work this season with an England Euros 2025 call-up.

Laila Harbert put pen to paper with Arsenal in January 2025, signing her first professional contract with the club. Mere days later, she put pen to paper with Championship club Southampton F.C., where she made 9 appearances in all competitions, slotting straight into their starting XI.

Laila most recently made an impact for the England Under 19’s team in their Euros 2025 tournament, starting and playing full 90s in all 3 games for the young English side.

Viv Lia also put pen to paper with both Arsenal and Southampton F.C. this season, signing her first professional contract and then going out on loan where she also made 9 appearances for Saints across all competitions, mostly as a substitute off the bench in later matches in the second half of the season.

Viv started all 3 games in the Under-19’s Euros, and she thought she had managed to net England a goal back against the Portuguese Under-19 side in the Euros finals tournament, it unfortunately went down as an own goal.

Maddy Earl had a rocky season from start to finish. She spent the first half of the season on dual-sign agreement at Bristol City, where she made just 7 appearances - all but one off the bench, starting in her final game for the Robins.

Maddy signed her first professional contract with Arsenal in January, alongside Laila Harbert and Viv Lia. She then went out on full loan to Sheffield United, making just 5 appearances in all competitions for the Blades - Sheffield shared information in March, acknowledging that Maddy had picked up an injury but was back in training.

Laura Wienroither spent the second half of this season on loan at Manchester City, picking up 8 appearances in all competitions. AWFC journalist Tim Stillman has stated that Wienroither is “very likely” to be making a permanent move away from Arsenal this summer, just over a year since signing an extension to keep her at the club.

Dual-Sign agreements:

Mads Millington-Stanbury spent the first half of this season on dual-registration at Southampton Women’s FC, making 8 appearances for the National League Division 1 South West side. She then made the move to Watford, where she made no appearances for the National League side but became PGA U21 League South and Division 1 winner with the Arsenal U21 side.

Maddison has announced her departure from Arsenal after 3 seasons with the Gunners. Wishing her all the best in the future!

Jessie Gale spent the whole of the 2024-25 season on dual-sign agreement with Watford FC, scoring 8 goals in 17 appearances across all competitions for the Hornets (if my maths is correct). Per reports from Freddie Cardy of the Gooner Fanzine, Gale will be putting pen to paper this summer and signing her first professional contract with Arsenal.

Isabella Fisher spent the large majority of this season on dual-sign agreement at Ipswich Town, where she scored 1 goal in 15 appearances for the Tractor Girls before being recalled to go on dual-sign agreement at Watford. Fisher scored once in 6 appearances for the Hornets.

Fisher also scored the winning goal in the 2024-25 Capital Cup Senior Women’s final, which saw Arsenal Women’s Under 21’s pick up their third trophy for the 2024-25 season.

Cecily Wellesley-Smith, who has just signed her first professional contract for Arsenal, spent the 2024-25 season on dual-sign agreement with Oxford United. After joining Arsenal from Oxford in August 2024, Cecily made 16 appearances for her home club, and also helped Arsenal’s Under 21’s win the 2024/25 PGA League Under-21 Division One title.

Lucy Lyon scored 1 goal in just 3 appearances for Watford after signing on dual-registration terms with the Hornets in March 2025. I believe Lucy has been offered a new contract with the Arsenal Under-21 team but I’m unsure if she has taken them up on this.

Courtney Clarke, who was on dual-sign with Real Bedford but unfortunately spent the large majority of this season out with an ACL injury, will be leaving Arsenal this summer after joining at the age of 15.

Next season…

I’m looking forward to next season! I might try and write loans up like this on Substack as well as across Reddit and I’m going to attempt to keep loan watch up on X too - I’ve offered my services to AWFCdirect as well as having my own academy update account that I will start using…