Inside Olivia Smith’s £1m Arsenal transfer: A fee meant to be secret and a ‘lone wolf’s’ bidding war

Olivia Smith was always going to become women’s football’s first £1million player this summer — but nobody was meant to know.

Confidentiality was the modus operandi before Smith’s record-breaking £1million ($1.34m) transfer from Liverpool to Arsenal became official on Thursday.

The circle of trust was small: Liverpool’s new managing director of women’s football, Andy O’Boyle, drove negotiations from Merseyside, with his Arsenal counterpart, Clare Wheatley, making decisions at the London end, before bringing in the player’s camp for the final negotiations. Not even Smith’s former Liverpool team-mate and captain, Taylor Hinds, whose contract expired in June and has joined Arsenal, was told about her decision.

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When Arsenal confirmed her arrival on a four-year contract this morning, the club’s press release stated only that Smith moved for an “undisclosed fee”.

The intimacy of the talks reflects how the Canada international has operated almost since her father, Sean Smith, placed a ball at his three-year-old daughter’s feet in Whitby, a town on the outskirts of Toronto.

In the Smith family, loyalty is not a currency; it is a way of life. Privacy is part of the equation.

So when Smith’s face was plastered across the internet on July 10, with stories reporting that Liverpool had agreed to sell the 20-year-old to Arsenal for a world-record transfer fee, a sense of chaos descended.

According to sources, who, like all named in this article, wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, privacy was important due to Smith’s youth and the inflated pressure that can come with a large price tag. Equally, even if Liverpool had accepted a bid from Arsenal, the player had not signed anything yet.

The next six days were spent taking the necessary steps to hammer out a deal.

The latest addition to the Arsenal family ❤️ Olivia Smith is a Gunner ✍️ pic.twitter.com/9tDKSMcfxf — Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) July 17, 2025

Smith’s ability to adapt and conquer challenges, however, is part of the reason Arsenal felt comfortable committing £1million, plus the cost of her wages, on a forward who only scored seven goals in her one and only Women’s Super League campaign. The past three years have seen Smith climb from the semi-professional League 1 Ontario to Sporting CP in Portugal’s top flight (where she scored 13 goals and assisted nine in 18 league appearances) to Liverpool as their record signing at €250,000 (£216,000/$289,000 at current rates) last summer.

The WSL’s platform meant Smith’s scintillating performances with Liverpool, as well as her instinct and prowess in front of goal, caught the eye across Europe and back home in North America. But it was her raw ambition and mental maturity that led to the record move.

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In Smith, Arsenal believe they have signed a young player who possesses an unrivalled mentality and a massive ceiling for development. To be proven in the highest division in two European leagues at 20 is rare, and while other clubs — such as Chelsea, France’s Lyon and Manchester City — were interested, Arsenal felt their plans for Smith set them apart.

Rather than just telling the forward how good she is, there were active discussions with the north London club on where they felt she could still improve. Head of player development James Honeyman supported Wheatley with these discussions, while former England international Jodie Taylor, Arsenal’s football services executive, provided a fellow player’s perspective.

Olivia Smith signed with Liverpool for a club-record fee in July 2024 (Jess Hornby/Getty Images)

Initially, Liverpool had no intention to sell.

This was their message in January, as interest in Smith began to strengthen after her first five months in the WSL, and once again after they finished seventh in the 12-team league in early May.

Internally, club officials knew that, at some point, Smith would leave, but they felt that since her contract would not expire until 2027, they had time. When then-head coach Matt Beard pushed to sign Smith for a club-record fee — committing nearly all of Liverpool’s summer 2024 budget for the women’s operation to one player — one of the major selling points to Liverpool’s owners at Fenway Sports Group (FSG) was the prospect of a profitable departure at some point.

FSG’s operational model is based on spending only what a team brings in. Liverpool’s commitment to this template has significantly reduced the transfer expenditure of their women’s team compared to clubs further up the WSL table, a point of frustration for supporters and staff, including Beard, who cited this lack of investment throughout a four-year tenure that ended with his firing in February.

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Last summer, Liverpool ranked in the bottom four among WSL clubs for squad investment, ahead of only Everton, West Ham United and promoted Crystal Palace.

So while the club did not want to sell Smith, a consensus grew that any offer deemed “silly to pass on”, as one source at Liverpool put it, would need to be considered for the future of the women’s team. The world-record transfer of U.S. women’s national team defender Naomi Girma from San Diego Wave of the American NWSL to Chelsea in January for $1.1million (£909,000 at the time) served as a benchmark.

The man tasked with leading any transfer of Smith was O’Boyle, who had replaced Russ Fraser as Liverpool's managing director of women's football in April.

O’Boyle is described by multiple people close to the deal as operating as the “lone wolf” who ensured all contact from interested parties worked exclusively through him and drove a “steep bidding war”.

As mentioned, interest in Smith from around Europe and within the WSL had begun as early as January. Manchester City made informal contact in February, but the lack of a full-time manager there after Gareth Taylor was sacked the following month ended their hopes. Two Michele Kang-owned teams, Lyon and the NWSL's Washington Spirit, were looking, too.

In June, Paris-Saint Germain had a bid rejected by Liverpool, who said it was less than half of what another club had put on the table. Club sources say the highest bid at that point was around £750,000.

Despite Chelsea being in the mix before Smith’s move to Sporting, they did not want to be drawn into a bidding war this summer and felt her lack of experience and their large pool of options did not countenance meeting Liverpool’s asking price. Their highest offer never went above £650,000.

Arsenal had been tracking Smith for years, but their interest was not formalised until the second half of last season. March ended up being an informative month, not only because they kick-started their journey to a Champions League final they would eventually win with a comeback victory over Real Madrid in a two-leg quarter-final, but also because of two games against Liverpool.

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The first came in the FA Cup quarter-finals, at home at Meadow Park. Liverpool won 1-0, and Smith caused constant issues for defender Katie McCabe. When Liverpool visited again two weeks later, this time at the Emirates Stadium in the league, Arsenal had devised a plan to nullify the Canadian specifically. They won 4-0.

Meanwhile, the studying that has eventually made Smith an Arsenal player continued.

Despite the money being demanded by the Merseyside club, Arsenal’s pursuit was “persistent”, as one source says, to the point Liverpool and Smith felt a move was inevitable. From an Arsenal perspective, that manifested in a confidence that they would always be the ones to seal a deal with the player.

A world-record bid for promising young forwards is not new territory for Arsenal.

In January 2023, they made such an offer for Alessia Russo before signing the England striker, then 24, as a free agent when her Manchester United contract expired that summer.

Arsenal signed Alessia Russo in 2023 after a record bid was rejected in the previous window (Florencia Tan Jun/UEFA via Getty Images)

Arsenal’s recent success, on and off the pitch, allowed them to bid so highly for Smith. Their savvy recruitment elsewhere also played a part. While Russo, Spain international Mariona Caldentey and Hinds are likely to be on considerable wages, signing them as free agents from United, Barcelona and Liverpool allows Arsenal some financial freedom.

Winning the Women's Champions League in May was not as influential as some might think in monetary terms. Their prize money brought an initial windfall of €1million, rising to €1.5m in October following performance-based bonuses. But most of that will go towards operational costs, rather than being directly used in recruitment. As with most teams, the transfer budget at Arsenal Women comes from the parent club plus their own resources.

While Smith’s brief senior career has been a dizzying series of ladder-climbs, leaving Liverpool was not on her cards this summer, according to multiple sources close to the player.

Her calibre of play and star power led some within the club, and many outside it, to believe Smith had the potential to become the face of Liverpool women's team, even drawing comparisons with the men's side's Mohamed Salah, who joined from Roma of Italy for a then-club-record £36.9million in 2017 and has gone on to become the club’s record goalscorer in the Premier League.

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Smith, who scored Liverpool Women’s first-ever goal at Anfield in her debut at the club's main stadium in October, got two more there in March in a 3-1 win against Manchester United — the team’s first WSL victory at one of the sport's most iconic grounds. Dad Sean, with whom she maintains a close bond, is a lifelong Liverpool fan. She also liked the club’s staff, got along well with her team-mates and believed another season on Merseyside could be beneficial for her development.

However, the February sacking of Beard, who had been pivotal in securing her signature, and the protracted, still-ongoing process of finding his permanent replacement (Liverpool are in talks with former City boss Taylor) left Smith’s camp with a sense of uncertainty. The departure of Hinds to Arsenal, as well as vocal interest from clubs who could promise better infrastructure and proven development tracks, became difficult to ignore.

Matt Beard, Liverpool's former head coach, was instrumental in signing Smith last July (Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Selecting an environment where Smith could maximise her personal and professional development was paramount.

With Arsenal’s pedigree in developing and nurturing talent — Russo's progress since her arrival two years ago is one recent example — the club looked like a compelling landing spot for a player hoping to raise her stock. Winning the Champions League final, and head coach Renee Slegers’ history of working in their academy reinforced Arsenal’s reputation as a place for growth. The commitment to play all women's home matches next season at the 60,000-capacity Emirates was also a factor for Smith.

Off the pitch, Arsenal have also excelled. In their 2023-24 accounts (up to May 2024, but released in March this year), their gate and other matchday revenues rose from £2.6million in 2022-23 to £4.3m, while their overall turnover grew from £10.9m to £15.2m. These figures would not have played a direct role in recruiting Smith, but show the direction Arsenal are heading in. Even with this deal's record outlay, the club do not expect this to be the end of their summer transfer business.

Ultimately, decision-makers at Liverpool acknowledged they were not in the position to offer Smith the resources and opportunities that Champions League-competing clubs can. They also believe selling for a fee nearly five times greater than what was paid for her just a year ago could push them closer to that status, if it's invested smartly.

The blueprint is there on the men’s side at Liverpool. In January 2018, they sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for £142million. The money received helped pay for defender (and now team captain) Virgil van Dijk in that window and goalkeeper Alisson in the next one, both of whom were crucial to the club’s 2019 Champions League triumph and 2019-20 and 2024-25 Premier League title wins.

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The sense of excitement and pride for those who have aided Smith on her journey is overwhelming — but that milestone fee is not the source. Instead, it's the sense of validation and acknowledged worth for the player’s countless sacrifices.

Smith will need to adapt to what will be the greatest step up in her career to date, but former colleagues at Liverpool and her new ones at Arsenal harbour few worries that she will have any problems doing just that.

(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)

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