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Upfront - A Women's Football Podcast

Olivia Smith, Michelle Kang's big bucks, and the WSL2 pressure cooker

Upfront - A Women's Football Podcast

Stak Production

Girls Football, Womens World Cup, Chloe Kelly, Lionesses, Nwsl, Football, Womens Football, England Womens, Keira Walsh, Womens England Football, Sports, Leah Williamson, Soccer, Womens Sports, Womens Soccer, Female Sports

4.8 β€’ 1.8K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We're back! Chloe and Rachel catch up at Upfront's brand new HQ on everything that's happened since the Euros – which, somehow, was already a month ago.


We discuss Olivia Smith's record-breaking move to Arsenal and London City Lionesses' business so far: are they refreshing disruptors or bringing more imbalance to the league?


Plus, the WSL2 is pulling in stars from all over the place – we take a look at how this season's extra promotion spot is forcing clubs to go big or go home.


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Upfront is your definitive women's football podcast, covering the WSL, the Lionesses, and beyond. Subscribe for new podcasts every Tuesday throughout the season.


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome back to Up Front. I'm Clay Morgan. And I'm Rachel Sullivan. The off season is

0:08.0

almost over. How? The WSL and WSL2 are almost back. So today we're catching up on everything

0:15.0

with Miss since the Euros, which was almost a month ago. Can you believe it? Arsenal broke the

0:19.9

world record for the biggest transfer ever back in July.

0:22.6

We discuss all things Olivia Smith and London City lightnesses are making waves in the transfer market already.

0:30.2

Those deep, deep pockets of Michelle Kang.

0:31.7

We take a closer look at their business so far.

0:35.1

And finally, the stakes are higher than ever before this season. In the

0:38.2

WSL2, we look at how the extra automatic promotion spot is impacting players and clubs alike.

0:50.7

Rach, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, the elephant in the room.

0:54.7

We have moved spaces.

0:57.7

We are in different premises.

0:59.2

Thank you to producer Finn, who's been astronomical in the rise of getting this incredible premium space.

1:05.4

I feel like there's an orange glow, you've got a tan, we've got this beautiful backdrop.

1:09.0

That's because of Finn as well, yeah.

1:10.4

We've got these gorgeous lattes that we've had this morning. It's been, we've got this beautiful backtrump. We've got these gorgeous

1:11.5

lattes that we've had this morning. It's been, yeah, it's been quite the welcome back. It has, and we've given Finn all of the credit for this brand new building, this brand new studio, everything's good, the lighting's good, the desks, the mics, the headphones. Maybe we sound better, I don't know. Well, there's a reason for that, and it's because producer Finn is now in the studio with us, whereas before we were recording in a separate booth, and Finn was a little bit further away. So now we have him... Watching us. About 10 feet away. So, yeah, that's good for us. We can't have a cheeky underhanded comment anymore. No, we can't, but we can have a cheeky wink. Nice. um how's your holiday been you look well you look glowing you've showed me a watchtarn

1:28.0

like have proof. I always have to. When you look like me and you're Irish, you have to wear something that proves that you've gone slightly less pale. Well, we look like sisters now. It's nice. Yeah, that's it. People want to be able to tell us apart, don't we? Just the accent that

2:01.8

keeps us apart, really. Well, your Irish accent, has it come along at all or is it still shite? Not at all. No, okay. I had a lovely holiday thing, because I was in Tuscany. It was wonderful. I drank all the wine. No, I saw the really cute photos of you and so out on the town, like gorgeous settings, like loads of like culture and things.

1:59.8

Meanwhile, I was here broken, crawling on my ass to the end of the Euros, taking a small break and straight into the Women's Rugby World Cup. Tell you what, the Euros was full on, wasn't it? It was intense. And the good thing is we have the minimum amount of gap between the Euros and the season starting. It needs to be a minimum six weeks weeks it is absolutely bang on six weeks i agree i

2:35.7

think only because we've got this gorgeous women's summer of sport we're now into the rugby world

2:40.0

cup the red roses done really well against the the USA completely dominating performance but everyone's

...

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