Girma signing 'a lesson for all other clubs' - Houghton

Former Manchester City captain Steph Houghton said Chelsea's signing of Naomi Girma for a women's world record fee is "a lesson for all the other clubs".

The United States defender joined from San Diego Wave this week for about £900,000 and Houghton fears the spending gap between the league's top teams and the rest could make the WSL less competitive.

"I'm undecided," Houghton told BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club when asked if it is a good signing for the Women's Super League.

"It is massive for women's football, especially in England and this league. It is a big statement for Chelsea.

"My worry is that it is going to be two or three teams that are buying the best players, so what happens to the rest of the league? This is a lesson for all the other clubs that they need to start investing, they need to put their money to make this as competitive as possible.

"We want to make the WSL the best and the only way you can do that is by having games every week that are competitive and not so predictable. We want owners and footballers to go 'we're going to take this seriously. This is not about putting in as little as possible'.

"You have to go and invest in players and the professionalism of the game and the standard and the likes of Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal have done that for a long time. It is now about other clubs really biting the bullet and saying 'this is where we want to be and this is what we need to do for the game in general'."