Alessia Russo to leave Manchester United & is set to join Arsenal on a free transfer

Let's get more now on the big breaking news story this morning though, England international Alessia Russo is leaving Manchester United to join Arsenal. Let's go live to our reporter Anton Tullui. Hi Anton. Hey Chris, yeah it's been a dramatic morning hasn't it, not just at Edgbaston but also in the WSL because Alessia Russo confirming that obviously she will be leaving Manchester United and it's our understanding that she's on the verge of joining rivals Arsenal. Now this is an interesting one, in the last few minutes Alessia Russo has put out a letter and a video on social media thanking the fans for her time at Old Trafford, saying she couldn't have ever dreamt of being a Manchester United player, scored at Old Trafford, one of the highlights of her career, thanking the fans and everybody at the club for letting her live her dream and I think it's interesting isn't it because Alessia Russo, you know, her first professional club was Manchester United, she came to Manchester United from college football in the States and she's gone on to become England's starting number nine. Manchester United wished her well in her future endeavours in their statement this morning but look let's be honest negotiations between Russo and Manchester United have been going on for 18 months, those negotiations have been lengthy and at times look of course there have been frustrations and it's interesting talking to both sides of the negotiations. Look Manchester United's point of view is look obviously what we put in a really competitive offer to Alessia Russo, we made an offer that would make her the highest paid player at the club but the problem was those negotiations went on for so long that obviously Russo by the end of it could speak to other clubs and by the time that late offer came in she'd already decided the future was going to be elsewhere and it was Arsenal's interest was persistent and it was encouraging throughout, remember deadline day in January, not one but two world record transfer bids for Russo even though she only had what less than six months left on her contract at the time. Arsenal have made a big push for Alessia Russo, they see her as crucial of bringing extra firepower to the club, obviously look Arsenal disappointed with a third place finish in WSL last season and we all know how their season got slightly derailed after huge injuries to the likes of Beth Mead and Viviana Miedema up front, so Arsenal's plan is simple, keep on stocking up on forwards firepower to try to end Chelsea's reign as WSL champions and to get over the hump in the Champions League as well, so it's interesting to see Alessia Russo move back down south and it's interesting because it sees a reunite potentially with Kelly Smith who was obviously not just an Arsenal legend but was also working as a coach with Arsenal strikers last year and if you go back on Kelly Smith's Twitter feed back to 2012 when Alessia Russo was a young kid trading with Gillingham, well they were there and Kelly Smith tipped Alessia Russo to be an absolute star, picture on her social media of Alessia Russo in a Gillingham kit, the two around each other saying look this kid is going to be a star, well the two may well be working together at Arsenal next season, Kelly Smith was right, Alessia Russo is a star, she's going to be England's number nine at the World Cup, Arsenal getting this deal done hopefully before the World Cup, it's going to be very dramatic if they don't get this deal done, there is interest from other clubs but yeah, very very close to signing for Arsenal Alessia Russo. Great stuff Anton, Anton Tolui in East London, Alessia Russo is going to Arsenal, she played 46 WSL games for Manchester United starting 41 of them scoring 22 goals with seven assists and overall she averages either a goal or assist every 118 minutes, she scored more WSL goals than any of the Arsenal forwards last season and only Steena Blackstenius and Katie McCabe played more games, her minutes per goal ratio was better than all of the Arsenal forwards with the exception of Viviana Miedema whose season was cut short by injury.