Tottenham Hotspur Women MD: ‘We want to be challenging for the WSL’
You could be forgiven for thinking that it’s all doom and gloom at Tottenham Hotspur, but there is a good news story unfolding in N17.
While the men’s team toil to stay in the Premier League as their mortal enemies from down the road close in on the title, Spurs Women are on a gloriously different trajectory.
Just goal difference outside the top four in the Women’s Super League and in the quarter-finals of the Women’s FA Cup, this could yet be a historic season for a team buoyed by in-form pair Olivia Holdt and Cathinka Tandberg.
Women’s managing director Andy Rogers credits the summer arrival of head coach Martin Ho, allied to a rapid professionalisation behind the scenes and the support of club CEO Vinai Venkatesham, with pushing Spurs Women to new heights.
“Martin’s made a massive impact, but there’s been huge amounts of work that have landed us in this place,” he tells CityAM.
“Now the challenge is, how do we sustain it and how do we elevate it? There isn’t an egg timer in that we have to be in the Champions League at this point. However, our ambition is to be that.
“We want to be challenging within that top three and consistently. We want to be in there. We want to be winning trophies. We want to be challenging for the WSL.”
Spurs eye ‘La Masia of women’s football’
Part of the masterplan for elevating Spurs is major investment in a new training ground and academy to be built at Whitewebbs Park in Enfield.
Rogers wants it to become women’s football’s answer to La Masia, Barcelona’s legendary youth set-up, and says Ho is integral to the project.
“Our vision for the women’s team is to develop players but equally when we do buy, they have to be in an environment that is better than anywhere else,” he adds, citing the capture of starlets Toko Koga and Signe Gaupset.
“We believe Martin is exactly the person we need. I won’t swap him for anyone – you can throw any name at me – and I’ll live and die by that because he’s so instrumental to the project.”
Spurs Women’s evolution is also evident in their growing presence at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, including this Sunday’s Mother’s Day match with Everton.
“It’s not just about mum and daughter – you can bring the full family,” he says. “We’re also aware the players are so close to their mums. It’s a good moment to bring their families to a game as well.”
The ambition is to move the majority of home games from Brisbane Road, which they borrow from Leyton Orient, to the club’s 63,000-seater ground “within the next couple of seasons”.
“We can’t just rely on the Arsenal games, the Chelsea games,” he says. “We have to get to a place where the habits of supporters are to come regardless of the opposition.”
Spurs Women insulated from men’s team woes
Rogers repeats the mantra that Tottenham operate with a “one club, two teams” mentality, emphasising that the women’s set-up is run independently and autonomously.
That will not mean going as far as some of their WSL rivals, such as Everton, Chelsea and Aston Villa, and carving the women’s team out into a separate legal entity, however.
“I can understand it, but I would also know being amongst it, you can see the challenges of it quite clearly in terms of what that separation actually looks like. It’s not anything we’re looking at doing now or have any desire to do,” he says.
“Removing the grey and being really clear with what we’re trying to achieve and how we’re going to do it has been a massive help. And I think, broadly, the biggest challenge going any other route is the gray that exists within it.”
Rogers is already deep into planning Spurs’ summer transfer business as the club look to challenge the grip of Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United on the top four.
He is confident that his budget will not be affected if the unthinkable should happen to the men’s team and they lost their top-flight status for the first time in almost half a century.
“What I’ve had loud and clear in conversations with Vinai is that while we’ve got this mantra of being one club and two teams, the two teams piece is really evident in that we can’t run the women’s team based off what the men do,” he says.
“We can’t be derailing things, because we’re making such significant progress.”
For tickets to Tottenham Hotspur Women v Everton on Sunday 15 March, click here.