Report: Australia’s Alanna Kennedy to join Tottenham women on loan from Orlando Pride

Tottenham Hotspur may add another new signing before the start of the FA WSL season, as The Equalizer’s Jeff Kassouf reports that Australian international Alanna Kennedy is set for a loan to Spurs from the Orlando Pride.

The 25 year old is mainly a center back for Australia but can also play in midfield, splitting her time between roles during the 2019 NWSL season with the Pride. She also has a reputation as a freekick specialist and is regarded as a fairly reliable player in both positions, particularly at center back. That said, the last few years at the club level have not been Kennedy’s best as part of a Pride team with the one of the NWSL’s worst defenses.

Kennedy will be looking for matches with less than a year before the rescheduled Olympics in Tokyo, and hasn’t played since March 21, when she played in the W-League final with Sydney FC. It’s a longer stretch of time without games than expected because the Pride had to withdraw from last month’s NWSL Challenge Cup after a number of players and staff tested positive for COVID-19.

She would join a large number of players currently leaving the NWSL, the most high profile player being Sam Mewis, looking for certain game time during the coronavirus pandemic. A number of those deals have been loans, and Kennedy’s is expected to be the same. The NWSL currently does not have matches on the schedule, and even if that changes, the league is not expected to play a full slate before the 2021 season, unlike many leagues in Europe. As things stand, the FA WSL is expected to play a full season’s worth of games and Kennedy may stay for the whole season to ensure match fitness by the Olympics.