Newcastle Target Liverpool Striker Leanne Kiernan in Major Move
Newcastle United are closing on a deal for Republic of Ireland forward Leanne Kiernan in what would be one of the most eye-catching moves of the women’s summer window.
Talks are at an advanced stage with Liverpool for the 27-year-old, who still has more than a year left on her contract at Anfield. With that agreement running on and an extension signed in 2025, Newcastle – still in the second tier – will have to put money on the table to get this done. They look ready to do exactly that.
A proven scorer on the move
Kiernan arrives on the market with a record that commands respect. Since joining Liverpool five years ago, she has scored 23 goals in 76 appearances and was central to their surge back to the top flight. In the 2021-22 campaign, she finished as the club’s top scorer with 14 goals as Liverpool claimed the WSL 2 title.
That season underlined what she offers at her best: direct running, relentless pressing and a penalty-box instinct that drags teams over the line in tight promotion races. Newcastle know that landscape well. They also know how hard it is to find a forward who has already carried a side through it.
Before Liverpool, Kiernan cut her teeth at West Ham, making more than 40 WSL appearances after emerging from Shelbourne. She has been around top-level dressing rooms, dealt with expectation, and lived through the grind of long seasons at the sharp end of English football.
On the international stage, she has 38 caps for the Republic of Ireland since her debut in 2017. That kind of experience does not often drop into the second tier.
Squeezed at Liverpool, wanted on Tyneside
For all her pedigree, Kiernan’s Liverpool story has stalled. Under Gareth Taylor she has struggled for minutes, starting just once in the WSL last season before heading out on loan to Nottingham Forest in January.
That loan did its job: it put her back on the pitch and back in the shop window. At the same time, Liverpool were reshaping their attack. The arrival of Germany forward Vivien Endemann from Wolfsburg has only tightened competition for places in the front line.
The message is clear. If Kiernan wants to play regularly, it is likely to be away from Merseyside.
Newcastle are ready to offer that platform. Their project is ambitious, their recruitment aggressive. Six signings are already through the door this window as they gear up for a serious tilt at the WSL 2 title.
A statement of intent
Kiernan would not just be another addition. She would be a marker.
Newcastle are not simply building a squad to survive in the Championship; they are assembling one to escape it and stay out. A forward who has already fired a team to the WSL, who understands the pressure of a promotion chase and the physical demands of the division, fits that plan perfectly.
Attacking depth has been a clear target. The Championship is unforgiving, games pile up, and promotion bids often collapse when the goals dry. Kiernan offers a solution: a player with a track record of delivering when the stakes rise.
If Newcastle complete this deal, they will take a proven international from a WSL club and drop her into a promotion fight on Tyneside.
For a club with clear ambitions to join the elite, it feels less like a gamble and more like the next logical step.
