Burning through those Deadline Day updates, refreshing the feeds every couple of minutes, it truly is a unique form of entertainment. Basking in the panic buying tendencies of these very rich football clubs. Pretty much celebrating their confusing tendency to throw logic out the window to appease this unhinged ritual.

Sometimes leaving a deal to the last minute is necessary – like say you’re trying to grind a team’s asking price down to something more reasonable, adding in an extra factor like a ticking clock can be the impetus for that team to finally accept a ‘take it or leave it’ demand at face value. But often you get the feeling that teams are merely cycling through desperate backup plans. The whole thing is mad... a couple months ago Real Madrid were advocating a drastic and offensive reshuffling of European club football in order to stave off financial ruin and then there they were on Deadline Day offering €200m for Kylian Mbappe even though he’ll be available for free in a year’s time. And PSG rejected it! Money means literally nothing to a club that rich so a year of Mbappe/Messi/Neymar/Di Maria is more valuable than any fee that Real Madrid could muster.

It’s craziness in a bottle. But here was a rare year in which it seemed like not just one but several kiwi footballers might get swept up in it all. That didn’t quite happen. End of yarn is that Joe Bell is still a Viking player until at least January, while several others who may have been on the move ultimately remained where they currently are. We did get a trio of Scandinavian loan deals on DD, all of which make nice sense for the players involved - more on those in a sec.

Thing is though, Flying Kiwis Transfer Season was about more than a few frantic hours of deals. It was about an entire month’s worth of moves. In between the Olympics and now it’s just been one transfer after another, top tier kiwi footballers on the up and up and up.

You want the list? Here’s the lengthy list in all its shimmering glory...

• Claudia Bunge re-signs with Melbourne Victory (August 5)

• Emma Rolston signs with Arna-Bjørnar (August 5)

• Liz Anton re-signs with Perth Glory (August 6)

• Anna Leat signs with West Ham United (August 7)

• Gianni Stensness signs with Viking FK (August 10)

• Logan Rogerson loaned to FC Haka (August 13)

• Paige Satchell signs with Sydney FC (August 13)

• Olivia Chance signs with Celtic (August 14)

• Joey Champness signs with Giresunspor (Aug 18)

• Rebekah Stott re-signs with Melbourne City (Aug 19)

• Hannah Wilkinson signs with Melbourne City (Aug 25)

• Katie Rood signs with Southampton (Aug 26)

• Matthew Garbett signs with Torino (Aug 27)

• Dalton Wilkins loaned to Kolding IF (Sep 1)

• Nando Pijnaker loaned to FC Helsingor (Sep 1)

• Marko Stamenic loaned to HB Koge (Sep 1)

And all of this is without the most marketable players that the All Whites have right now (transfer fees between women’s clubs are pretty rare atm so no Footy Ferns on that list sadly) going anywhere at all. Chris Wood was never gonna move, though slightly surprised there hasn’t been a new contract for him yet considering he‘s into the last two years of his current one and surely earned himself a payrise with his efforts late last season.

But Ryan Thomas was linked with a loan move out to get more minutes with injuries having stuttered his time at PSV so far. Libby Cacace is at a club who make it their business to bring players into European football and sell them onwards (mostly Japanese players but Cacace fits the same mould). Winston Reid obviously isn’t getting his ins at West Ham, especially not after they splashed cash on Kurt Zouma. And Joe Bell, mate, he was deeeep in the rumours only to stay put. Not to mention Sarpreet Singh who got his loan deal done before the Olympics. Those are the most valuable players in kiwi footy right now and we got through a massive transfer season without them. Those cards are still in the hand, waiting to be played.

The W-League Gals

We’ll start here where to date there have been five kiwi women sign up for the next W-League. Claudia Bunge has re-upped at Melbourne Victory after winning the championship last season, while Liz Anton’s Perth Glory came dead last but Anton was one of the stars for a young team and she’s been re-signed too (having won the club’s Most Glorious Player award). Still awaiting news of their various NZ teammates there (Annalie Longo played for MVC while Malia Steinmetz and Lily Alfeld played for Perth last time) but remember that there’s still more than two months before the season starts so there’ll be more signings to come for sure. Especially with confirmation now from the folks in charge that the Wellington Phoenix are one of the three clubs being planned for W-League expansion either this season or the next.

The two month deadline is leaving it late for the SheNix to get up and running but there’s optimism there. The main sticking point a year ago, when the rug was pulled out from under the Phoenix at late notice (though tbf they were cutting it fine with time then as well – the excuse felt more like a convenient means to an end as they kicked the can down the road tbh) was that they weren’t gonna let them register kiwis as local players as the men’s team does. That’ll be sorted now, surely. Not necessarily expecting a squad entirely full of kiwis – seems like it’d be best for all involved to bring in a few sturdy overseas players to keep the team as competitive as possible – but we can definitely expect a big contingent if this goes through.

Even still there’s a chance of matching the seven players from the 2020-21 term at non-WPX teams. Paige Satchell is back only she’s swapped the green of Canberra United for the sky blue of Sydney FC. Playing for the defending premiers and grand final runners-up now, that’s a pretty positive step up for Satch. Speaking of positivity, can’t have anything but that about the news that Rebekah Stott, Aotearoa’s W-League GOAT, has rejoined Melbourne Victory after her bout with cancer and she’s even got some company with Hannah Wilkinson also signed up for what’ll be her first W-League campaign.

Those are the five on the books as we speak. Three more from last season’s contingent are still available with most teams still only in the early-mid stages of putting their squads together. And maybe this’ll be the season that Newcastle Jets youth teamer Te Reremoana Walker makes her senior debut, who knows? Of the Fernies squad that went to the Olympics, those without a current pro contract are: Erin Nayler, Anna Green, Annalie Longo, Daisy Cleverley (USA uni), Gabi Rennie (USA uni), Marisa van der Meer, and Michaela Robertson. Very confident there’ll be more where these five came from.

Emma Rolston - Arna-Bjørnar (Norwegian Toppserien)

Now into the rest of them and Rollo’s move to Arna-Bjørnar had been teased since before the Olympics. After a missing a fair bit of time for injury/health reasons since her stint in Germany a couple years ago, Emma Rolston is back firing away now and has deservedly found her way onto a top flight club in Norway where oh what’s this she’s already scoring goals? Sweet as...

Arna-Bjørnar aren’t one of the top few teams competing for the title but they’ve also had a couple good results lately that have given them some room in the relegation slugout. Plus they’ve advanced into the fourth round of the Norwegian Cup. Smooth little run of form since Rollo arrived, with ER already having scored twice in three league appearances – one on debut and then the winner against Stabæk. That win puts them up to fifth on the ladder exactly two thirds of the way through the season. Nine points behind CJ Bott’s Vålerenga but a couple clear of Vic Esson’s Avaldsnes. By the way, if you want deeper yarns on any of these situations, have a geeze through the last few Flying Kiwis write-ups.

Anna Leat – West Ham United (English Super League)

When Olli Harder got the job at West Ham last year, successfully keeping them in the top flight, the hope was that he’d do a solid for Aotearoa footy by bringing in a compatriot or two. Can’t let Ria Percival carry that WSL weight all by herself. And he hasn’t. Ahead of his first full season in charge (starts this weekend) ol’ mate Olli has only gone and signed one of the top prospects New Zealand has got.

Anna Leat probably won’t be getting the starts early on. Australia’s Mackenzie Arnold is the starting keeper and that’s unlikely to change in the short term but fingers crossed that as backup she’ll get a few cup games and the odd league rotation nod. You’d hope Olli Harder is a little more generous in that area than Reading FC were with Erin Nayler last season. Leat is still only 20 years old. Time is on her side. Excellent move for her.

Gianni Stensness – Viking FK (Norwegian Eliteserien)

He had a fantastic Olympic campaign and, people, it was noticed. Next thing Gianni Stensness was joining Joe Bell at Viking FK in Norway. Bell’s performance at the U20 World Cup, when New Zealand beat Norway 2-0, was cited as a major factor in the club’s pursuit of him and it just so happens that Stensness scored an almighty screamer in that game so they will have had an eye on him ever since. Now the midfield duo from that win against Norway’s U20s has been reunited at club level. Note that that game was three days before the Norwegians beat Honduras 12-0 and some bloke named Erling Braut Haaland, held scoreless by Aotearoa, announced himself to the world with nine of those goals. He hasn’t stopped scoring since.

Stensness was reportedly signed to feature more as a defender such as he played at the Olympics, though his debut came last weekend in a 2-1 win over Rosenborg playing off the bench in midfield. Alongside his bud Joe Bell in what at the time felt like it may have been Bell’s last game for the club – Stensness potentially coming in to pick up where Bell left off. But then Barnsley never did come back with a bigger offer for JB and despite reported scouts in attendance from Denmark, Germany, and England none of them delivered a substantial offer and thus to the delight of the city of Stavanger... Bellinho will finish the season with VFK.

To be honest, Barnsley’s bid (reportedly half a million pounds) felt a little like a lowball offer – that’s only a nudge more than the Wellington Phoenix got for Sarpreet Singh – and while Viking know that they signed Bell hoping to be a stepping stone in his career they also weren’t gonna let him go cheap with 16 months left on his contract and both team and player in really good form. With 13 games remaining they’re up to sixth, only six points off leaders Bodø/Glimt. After the last game Bell was talking only about staying and about competing for a title.

Should get a solid four months of Bell + Stensness then. However once the January window opens, with the Norwegian season over and the English/German ones only halfway through and Bell into the final year of his current deal... there may be a little more impetus for Viking to hit the negotiation table. There may also be an extra zero on the asking price too.

Logan Rogerson - FC Haka (Finnish Veikkausliiga)

Logan Rogerson left Auckland City to sign with the strongest club in Finland: HJK Helsinki. Defending champs of the Veikkausliiga and soon to be group stage competitors in the inaugural Europa Conference League. They started in Champions League qualifying but after getting past Budućnost Podgorica (Montenegro) 7-1 on aggregate they fell 4-3 to Malmö (Sweden) over two legs. That knocked them down into the Europa League qualifiers where again they were successful in dropping Neftçi Baku (Azerbaijan) 5-2 thanks to a 3-0 win in the return leg at home... but then lost 1-0 away and 5-2 at home to Fenerbahçe (Turkey) to miss out there. Hence Conference League it is.

Rogerson won’t be a part of that though. In trying to follow in the footsteps of David Browne, a teammate at HJK and also a former Auckland City star (and one of the few Oceania players holding it down as a pro who’s not from New Zealand) he’s still gotta work his way into the mix. A shoulder injury early in his time there did not help and meant he could only get a few spare games for the reserves, granted he did score in one of those games. Playing alongside Chris James, no less.

HJK Klubi play down a division so the while he could’ve stayed there and still been available for the top side, the better option was to loan him to a Veikkausliiga club. Along came FC Haka. Fitting club name for a bloke from Aotearoa. They were one of the teams that tried to sign him when he initially moved to Finland so even better that there was already interest. Plus there’s a precedent here: goalkeeper Jakob Tånnander was loaned from HJK to Haka last year and he’s since returned to win the number one jersey for HJK.

Rogerson has gone straight in for FC Haka, debuting off the bench in the days after signing and playing ninety for the first time this past weekend... against Nikko Boxall and SJK. Boxall got the Flying Kiwis Derby biscuits there with a 4-0 win yet Rogerson showed some nice flashes. Haka probably won’t make the cut for the championship rounds when the league splits into top and bottom for the second stage but they are still a chance. Playing relegation rounds might mean a few more goals for Rogerson, at least. SJK look like they probably will get top six. And HJK are looking like winning the whole thing again.

Olivia Chance - Celtic FC (Scottish Premier League)

Liv Chance has emerged as a first eleven player for the national team in recent times and having already plied her trade with English clubs like Everton, Bristol City, and Sheffield United she was always likely to head back to Great Britain following an excellent W-League term with Brisbane Roar. That she did... but it wasn’t to a WSL club. Instead she’s playing SWPL in Scotland for Celtic.

Early last year Celtic’s women’s team became the first in Scotland to go fully professional, although the actual competition there has been dominated by Glasgow City for ages. Dominated to the tune of 14 league titles in a row. However Celtic were second last time and they’ve got ambitions of knocking GC off their perch. Chance has already played a few times off the bench in League Cup and Champions League qualifying action – the former going perfectly as Celtic cruised into the knockouts while the latter didn’t go so flash. A pair of defeats in the club’s first ever tilt at continental competition. Hopefully they’re back there again next time and go a little further. They begin their league season away to Aberdeen on Monday morning.

Joey Champness - GZT Giresunspor (Turkish Süper Lig)

Joey Champness has had an odd career so far. Switched allegiances from Aussie to the nation of his birth before the Olympics, just as he once switched allegiances from footballer to hip hop prospect for a year a wee while back. That led to some kerfuffle when JOWIC returned to football and wanted to sign with Brisbane Roar but Newcastle Jets claimed they still had his contract. So he was loaned to Brisbane as a compromise. Except then he wanted to stay at Brizzy this season too and the Jets weren’t having that. They said if: you’re playing A-League then you’re playing for us... but we will sell you overseas if it happens. So they did and now everybody’s happy.

Giresunspor have just been promoted back to the top flight for the first time since 1977 but they’re not expected to stay there. Heaps of player turnover means they’ve almost got a new squad in effect from the one that finished second in the second tier last time. They’ve lost all three games so far without scoring a goal. But Champness did make his debut off the bench in the most recent of those – joining Aussie international Aziz Behich who also debuted in that match (a 1-0 loss to Trabzonspor). Champness has signed a two year contract with an option for a third.

Katie Rood - Southampton (English National League Southern Premier)

Back in English footy after leaving Lewes FC at the end of last season, down a division this time but for a Southampton team that has been surging up the league. Or, had been surging up the divisions until back to back seasons were cancelled due to coronavirus. Southampton had been unbeaten in each of those years so it was a relief when the FA decided to take applications for promotion instead and Southampton were thus boosted up to the third tier of the country where they’ve picked up where they left off with four straight wins with a goal difference of +16. They last lost a league game in the 2017-18 season. Katie Rood has played a couple times off the bench already - missed the first few of the season before the signing was completed but is now working her way on in there.

Matthew Garbett – Torino (Italian Serie A)

Matty Garbett has a very active agent. While playing sparingly for Falkenbergs as they worked their way towards relegation from the top flight in Sweden he was getting linked to Manchester City and Everton. After the relegation he was playing a little more but still not heaps and yet was being linked with the likes of Crystal Palace, Watford, and Brentford. As to what to believe from all that... dunno. But with Falkenbergs struggling in the second tier now and Garbett impressing at the Olympics it seemed like a good time for a move and all that advertising has its benefits. Ciao Torino!

Garbett’s gone into the under-19s, the Primavera squad. Hardly gonna go straight into Serie A like that so fair enough – he made his debut as a sub in a 4-0 defeat to Roma U19 last week. Even still, this is one of the more exciting moves from this entire group for what it could lead to: no NZer has ever played in the top division in Italy before.

Now, Torino haven’t started the new season too flash. They’ve lost two in a row and needed penalties to advance against a lower league team in the cup... so here’s hoping The Bull can come good and Garbs’ development isn’t affected by another relegation. Ivan Jurić is in as manager after keeping Hellas Verona in the top division despite minimal money to spend so he should go alright.

Dalton Wilkins - Kolding IF (Danish Division 2)

The first of three Danish loan deals that got done on Deadline Day. Dalton Wilkins first joined FCH at the same time as Elijah Just after winning the NZ Premiership together for Eastern Suburbs and each would get decent game time. But just as Callum McCowatt joined the crew, Wilkins suffered a major injury in the first game of last season. It wouldn’t be until the last game of the campaign that he returned – missing all but the bookending matches.

He’s played off the bench in a few times this season but coming back from a long term injury it was decided that more games = better. Thus he’s dropped down a division for the next four months – not the whole season but just until the end of December – to feature for Kolding IF. In fact he played for them on the same day as he signed, getting 53 minutes off the bench in an extra time cup win over Esbjerg. 23-year-old goalkeeper Christoffer Petersen also went with him to FCH. Package deal.

Nando Pijnaker - FC Helsingør (Danish Division 1)

As one went out, another came in. Nando Pijnaker was also a part of that Eastern Suburbs title winning team, all four of these lads part of a generational wave of Ole Academy dudes so they’ve been playing together since they were literal kids. Pijnaker signed with GC Zurich when he first went to Europe. Former club of Wynton Rufer, plus he was joined by Max Mata in the ressies at the time. That was a rough spell for Grasshoppers though as they found themselves relegated – Pijnaker did play briefly for the first team but then it was off to Rio Ave in Portugal. Who... also got relegated.

Pijnaker has yet to play first team football for Rio Ave although he has been a regular in their academy team. Rio Ave have adjusted well to second tier footy and there’s an expectation they can go straight back up but Pijnaker can’t go on waiting forever. Games are scarce. Hence a four month stint with his bros at Helsingør makes a lot of sense.

McCowatt and Just have been absolutely slaying it for FCH lately, at least one of them has scored in every game they’ve played since the Olympics (there was one cup game where neither played tbf). The team in general has been incredible. Top of the table after seven games and into the third round of the cup. They’re dreaming of promotion despite only getting promoted back up to this level the season before last. Now chuck a little Nando Pijnaker into the squad and see what happens.

Oh and there was this too...

Marko Stamenic - HB Køge (Danish Division 1)

And finally, sneaking in with a post-deadline announcement it was Marko Stamenic sent down a division from FC Kobenhavn to get a bit of first team footy. FCK have been going gangbusters lately. The last undefeated team seven rounds into the Danish Superliga as well as rolling on into the Europa Conference League group stage scoring a lot of goals in the process. Marko Stamenic did play once for them last season when a few unavailabilities all collided at once but despite playing a pretty prominent role in preseason, which was why he was the last of the NZ Olympic team to arrive in Japan, and despite making the bench for last week’s game, there just wasn’t much scope for him getting more than a spare appearance now and then at best.

Hence for the next four months he’s gonna be playing in the same tier as the Helsingør fellas for HB Køge. Not a club that has been on a winning streak like FCH – actually they’ve lost twice to Helsingør in the last month, once in the cup and once in the league – but hey a solid defensive midfielder will help with that problem. Random fact: the manager of HBK is Daniel Agger, once of Liverpool fame. Another Liverpool oldboy, Jon Flanagan, is playing there these days too. How about that?

Support the efforts on Patreon if you appreciate what we’re up to

Also whack an ad, sign up to our Substack mailer & tell a mate about TNC

Keep cool but car