BREAKING: 31-year-old English professional footballer Mary Earps leaves Manchester United women on transfer to a Ligue 1 club

Ineos, the new part-owners of Manchester United, have gotten off to a terrible start with the women’s team. The fact that Mary Earps left the club for free today is the best example of this.

Like they did with Alessia Russo a year before, United turned down big offers for one of the best football players in the world, but they failed to keep her and gained nothing from her leaving.

Many people think Earps is one of the best goalkeepers in the world and won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. He was unhappy at United for a while, but there was always hope that he would change his mind at the last minute.

But that wasn’t going to happen. It is said that United made her a better offer than PSG to stay, but she decided to stay with the French champions and will now be the highest paid goalkeeper in the world.

This only shows that Earps thinks Ineos isn’t serious about investing in the area, as they haven’t kept their word about doing so. For example, they kicked the women out of their changing rooms and put them in a portacabin while the Carrington training facility is being fixed up, giving the men their old home.

The skilled and determined team that made it to the Champions League for the first time in 2022–23 and won the FA Cup for the first time in 2023–24 has since been broken up.

After Russo, Ona Batlle, Kirsty Hanson, Vilde Boe Risa, and Maria Thorisdottir left last summer, among others, captain Katie Zelem and talented forward Lucia Garcia have now joined Earps in leaving. This takes the heart out of the great team that Casey Stoney and later Marc Skinner built and cared for.

In a website tribute to Earps today, United said, “Her notable individual honors include winning The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper for 2022 and 2023, the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Golden Glove, and the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year and the 2023 BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year.”

“Everyone at Manchester United wants to thank Mary for her hard work and wish her the best of luck in the next part of her career.”

Fans of United probably feel the worst about Earps’s departure more than any other bad news. Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s obvious lack of concern is, to say the least, upsetting.

Sir Jim said, “Well, they just won the FA Cup,” when asked what he planned for the women’s team.

When asked more about their plans for the future, he said, “We haven’t talked about that level of detail with the women’s football team yet.” And that’s pretty much all we’ve been thinking about for the first six months: how to solve the problems with the first team.

Many people thought it was disappointing that he called the guys “the first team.”

Then someone asked him if the plans for the women were going to go through, and he said “correct.”

The sad truth is that Sir Jim might not have much of a team left by the time he chooses to work on the women. More than just a great player, Earps is an inspiring person who sets a great example for younger players and drives her friends to do their best. We will miss her a lot.