2022/23 End of Season Bumper Special

Now that the Premier League and Women's Super League campaigns are firmly in the rearview, it's the perfect time to look back and reflect on the highs, the lows, and the downright baffling moments that make up a Tottenham season. Both teams put us through a lot of stress this season, but there were still a few silver linings to be found.

This issue truly is a bumper special, so grab your favorite beverage, kick back, and keep reading for a chronological recap of each team's season, notable fun facts, and the Spurs Across the Pond awards!

8th place — 60 points

18-6-14 record

+7 GD (70 for, 63 against)

Honors:  

Tottenham Hotspur all-time top scorer (Harry Kane)
Player of the Season nominee (Harry Kane)
Game Changer of the Season nominees (Son Heung-min and Rodrigo Bentancur)

Season synopsis:

There's been a lot of revisionist history going on amongst our fanbase, but I think it's fair to say that most of us were cautiously optimistic heading into the season—I definitely was.

Our transfer business wasn't marquee-worthy, but it seemed solid. There was a reliable backup keeper (Fraser Forster, who ended up seeing significant game time at the end of the season), two top talents from other teams in the league (Richarlison and Yves Bissouma), a solid rotation option for the backline (Clément Lenglet on loan from Barcelona), two promising young wingbacks (Destiny Udogie and Djed Spence, who spent the whole season and half a season away on loan, respectively), and a distinguished veteran of both club and international football (Ivan Perišić).  

Combined with the strong end to the previous season, in which we made a surprisingly strong run to clinch Champions League football, there was plenty of reason for hope that this could be a season to remember. Instead, it ended up being a season we'd sooner forget.  

The Premier League campaign got off to an early start due to the winter World Cup in Qatar interrupting the season. Spurs went unbeaten through the month of August—including a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge—but there were signs that the style of play was not sustainable.

We won both Premier League games in September as well as the first Champions League group stage game against Marseille but then lost 2-0 at Sporting CP. The highlight of the month was Son Heung-min's second-half hat trick as a substitute in the 6-2 win over Leicester City.

October was a mixed bag. We started with a crushing 3-1 away loss to Arsenal, dropped two more points in the CL group stage against Eintracht Frankfurt, then went on a run of three straight wins across both competitions. Then, we lost back-to-back against eventual top-4 rivals Manchester United and Newcastle United. A draw in the reverse leg against Sporting left us in a tenuous position ahead of the final group stage game. And in the last match of the month, it took a stoppage-time goal from Rodrigo Bentancur to pull off a win against newly-promoted Bournemouth.

The club also suffered a loss off the pitch that month, as fitness coach Gian Piero Ventrone passed away at the age of 62. It was a difficult period for Antonio Conte, since Ventrone had been his mentor turned colleague, but the playing staff struggled with their own grief as well.  

November's schedule necessitated playing four games in two weeks to complete the CL group stage and squeeze in a League Cup fixture before the World Cup break. The group table changed six different times on the final matchday, and there was even a time when Spurs were set to be knocked out, but we ended up finishing top of the group after beating Marseille thanks to a Pierre-Emile Højbjerg stoppage-time winner. Unfortunately, Conte chose not to rotate much for the League Cup match against Nottingham Forest, and the players were clearly fatigued—not to mention distracted by the looming World Cup. So it was an early exit from that competition. The final PL match before the break was a wild one, with Bentancur once again playing the hero with a late brace to secure a 4-3 win against Leeds.

Then the World Cup happened, I guess.

Moving swiftly on! There was only one fixture in December, a PL match on Boxing Day against Brentford that resulted in a draw.

January was mostly PL games, alongside a couple of fairly routine FA Cup wins against lower-league opposition. The 0-4 away win at Crystal Palace was a high point, but it was followed up in the league by two back-to-back losses against Arsenal and Manchester City. The City loss was especially painful since we had gone 0-2 up before halftime, only to concede four goals in the second half.

The end of January brought two new players to the club, Arnaut Danjuma (on loan) and Pedro Porro. While Danjuma rarely made it off the bench, Porro started in the second match he was available for and was close to ever-present the rest of the season, starting all but two of the matches he appeared in.

February was a strange month, in which we lost the two games I would have most expected us to win (Leicester City in the PL and AC Milan in the CL), yet won three high-pressure fixtures against Manchester City, West Ham United, and Chelsea. Notably, the two losses were both away games and the wins were all at home. Away form was a major issue all season long.

March was one of the lowest points of the season from my personal perspective. Not only did we crash out of the FA Cup away at Sheffield United in desultory fashion, we then followed that fixture up with a loss at Wolves and a scoreless draw in the second leg against AC Milan, knocking us out of the CL. A win against Nottingham Forest was shortlived happiness, and a fall-from-ahead draw at Southampton was Conte's final chance. He was sacked just over a week later and his assistant, Christian Stellini, was placed in charge with Ryan Mason by his side.

Stellini oversaw most of the April fixtures (a motley assortment of results) but couldn't survive the 6-1 drubbing at Newcastle United. Ryan Mason took over the interim job and was able to rally the team to a 2-2 draw against Manchester United, but suffered an agonizing last-second defeat at Liverpool. Nevertheless, there was a sense that the players were at least playing for Mason, unlike his predecessors. It should also be noted that club captain and longtime first goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris, was injured in the Newcastle game and the team had to play the rest of the season without him. Sporting Director Fabio Paratici also had his ban from working in football upheld, which had been extended worldwide by FIFA and therefore made his position untenable at Spurs.

The final stretch of games in May was a situation of too much ground to make up with too little momentum. After a hard-fought win against Crystal Palace, we dropped six points to European qualification rivals Aston Villa and Brentford. The 4-1 win at Leeds on the final matchday was good for morale, but not enough to earn a European competition berth for next season.

Takeaways:

In a season of slow first-half starts and dreadful defense, the table finish could easily have been much worse if Harry Kane hadn't produced his usual world-class level output. He kept racking up record after record as the rest of the team largely languished. But in fairness to the team as a whole, it was a strange season. Besides the unprecedented interruption of the mid-season World Cup, there were also personal obstacles like Ventrone's death and Conte's gallbladder removal surgery, as well as long-term injuries to key players like Bentancur, Ryan Sessegnon, and Emerson Royal—not to mention a laundry list of short-term injuries.

I think it's important that the club is making a concerted effort to transition away from the conservative, reactionary tactics of previous managers like Conte and José Mourinho and back toward Tottenham's traditional, front-foot playing style. The squad is in need of a huge overhaul, and there's always going to be a question mark around a new manager (Ange Postecoglou) who hasn't yet managed in the Premier League in his career, but there's plenty of reason to hope that next season will be a better one for Spurs.

It can't get too much worse, let's be honest. A club of Tottenham's resources should not realistically have to worry about relegation, but rather, should be pushing on to regain its status as a perennial contender for the European competition spots and a challenger for the domestic trophies. The reboot may not happen overnight (or in just one season, as it were), but as long as we are continually making progress I can see it being a much more positive season from the fan perspective. Best of luck to Ange as he gets us started on the journey.

Fun Facts!

Well, not all of these are fun, per se, but they are notable. I focused solely on the Premier League for this selection of stats, unless otherwise noted.

• We only gave up one own goal the entire season, scored (I guess?) by Hugo Lloris

• Harry Kane scored the same number of penalties as last season (4), but had one saved

• Although we never had a negative goal difference at any point in the season, the GD was in single digits for over half of the campaign

• We scored one more goal than last season, but our goal difference was 22 goals fewer

• We never went on a three-game losing streak, but did have four two-game losing streaks

• Only Kane appeared in every PL match; he also started every match

• Kane appeared in every single game in all competitions except for Preston North End away in the FA Cup; of the games he appeared in, he started all but Sheffield United away in the FA Cup

• Six players appeared in every single clean sheet match: Højbjerg, Son, Kane, Dier, Romero, and Davies

• Across the whole PL season, we had 16 different goal-scorers and 15 different assisters; top 3 for goals were Kane, Son, and Bentancur; top 3 for assists were Perišić & Kulusevski (tie) and Son

• Romero led the team in cumulative yellow cards with 9, Bentancur close behind with eight

• Brandon Austin was the only senior player without a PL appearance; Lucas Moura and Djed Spence were the only two capped players without a start

• Only seven players appeared in 30 or more games (Højbjerg, Son, Kane, Perišić, Dier, Kulusevski, and Davies)

In Focus

These are just a few topics that I thought deserved special mention or a fresh perspective.

• Lack of clean sheets. Spurs registered just 10 clean sheets in the PL (26% of matches) vs last season's 16 cleans sheets (42% of matches). We also only managed one clean sheet in the entire CL group stage. Part of this drop in defensive quality can be attributed to Lloris' drop in form, but I think the loss of Bentancur in the midfield was even more impactful. We earned just three of those ten clean sheets after his season-ending ACL injury. Until he makes his return to play midway into the new season, the team will have to find some solutions to shore up the midfield and alleviate the pressure on the defense and keeper.

• Ivan Perišić. I know, I'm guilty of underrating his season as much as anyone—but only because I had such high expectations for him. I think the numerous examples of poor defense from the Croatian overshadowed his production in the attack. Quite a few of his assists led to game-winning goals, and he really improved our set-piece threat. I wish he had scored a few more goals himself (and suspect he may have done so if he'd played at winger occasionally), but there's something to be said for his willingness to serve a lot of different roles from game to game. He was also one of our most durable players from a fitness standpoint, only missing four PL games. Not bad for a 34-year-old with a lot of mileage in his legs, both for club and country.

• The mid-season World Cup. It didn't just put a strain on the squad players actually involved in the tournament, but the footballing world as a whole. Schedules were condensed and elongated to accommodate the first-ever "winter World Cup," leading to a lot of overuse injuries and mental load. It can't be understated how much pressure there was on players like Son Heung-min, Harry Kane, Hugo Lloris, and Richarlison, who all played key roles for their national teams.

First Goal Inductees 🎉

Players who scored their first goal for Spurs, in any competition:

• Richarlison

• Pedro Porro

• Arnaut Danjuma

• Ivan Perišić

• Oliver Skipp

• Clément Lenglet

• Rodrigo Bentancur

Best Moments

• Richarlison's brace on his CL debut

• Sonny's second-half substitute hat trick against Leicester

• Dedicating the win against Brighton to Gian Piero Ventrone

• Another clean sheet at home vs Manchester City

• Skipp's first Spurs goal in the home win vs Chelsea

Worst Moments

• Both Arsenal losses

• The 4-2 loss away at Manchester City after being up 0-2

• CL tie with AC Milan (both legs)

• The embarrassing FA Cup exit to Sheffield United

• Conte's post-match rant after the Southampton draw

• Paratici's worldwide ban from football

• The 6-1 loss away at Newcastle, with five goals conceded in 21 minutes

• Lucas' disastrous back pass in the 4-3 loss at Liverpool

Player Superlatives

Biggest surprise: Rodrigo Bentancur

Best new signing: Ivan Perišić

Best young player: Dejan Kulusevski

Most valuable player: Harry Kane

Most improved player: Emerson Royal

Mr. Tottenham: Ben Davies

Player of the Season

Drumroll please...

The nominees are:

✴︎ Harry Kane

✴︎ Rodrigo Bentancur

✴︎ Son Heung-min

And the winner is:

Harry Kane!

Honorable mentions go to Ivan Perišić and Dejan Kulusevski.

Season rating out of 10:  5

Relative to expectations, this season was a massive underperformance. To not qualify for any European competition is a huge blow to our transfer prospects for next season, not to mention a missed opportunity for youth development. The manner in which we were knocked out of both domestic cups was also a source of embarrassment and terrible for both fan and squad morale. And I have rarely felt as disgruntled with a manager as I did after Conte's bridge-burning rant that forced his sacking. But above all, the football just was not enjoyable to watch in far too many games this season. Things gradually started to improve under the interim managers, but it'll take a lot of work (and time) for Postecoglou to fully transform the team back into an attacking side. The one major source of joy this year was Kane's world-class campaign and the numerous records he broke along the way.

Questions and concerns:

Here are a few musings on the past season and looking forward to next season.

• How can we improve the defense? I still think a large part of the issue was the sheer amount of pressure we put ourselves under by ceding so much possession, and that should naturally be alleviated under Ange's system. But there was also an issue with the chemistry between some of the different wingback and center-back pairings, such as Porro and Sánchez. With some personnel changes, we can hopefully assemble a squad that has a balance of strengths and weaknesses and not have to play so many players out of their best positions.

• Will Son regain his form? It was disappointing to see Sonny follow up his Golden Boot-winning campaign from 2021/22 with just 10 goals and 6 assists (still a better output than many of his league rivals at winger, to be fair). But he was dealing with several challenges he didn't have last season, particularly on the injury front—including the recent news that he had been playing with a hernia for most of the season. It also didn't help that Conte's system often worked against Son's skillset. But I personally am backing him to get back to his old self next season.

• What are the realistic goals for 2023/24? Well, certainly not a league title, no matter how useful it is to have so many one-game weeks without European competition in which to train and prepare. There's too much squad overhaul required over the next two windows (and beyond) to expect the team to immediately gel into title-winning form. However, I do think a domestic cup would be a fair target and a welcome end to the trophy drought. Otherwise, we should be aiming to regain Champions League qualification as soon as possible, even if that takes a couple of seasons. The main focus must be solidifying a team identity and restoring the culture of the club as a foundation for future success.

Let's bid the Men's team farewell for the summer—at least until the pre-season friendlies—with this gallery of some of my favorite photos from the past season (best viewed in browser).

Here's to a restful off-season, a productive pre-season, and a resurgent regular season in 2023/24.

9th place — 18 points

5-3-14 record

-16 GD (31 for, 47 against)

Honors:  

Goal of the Season nominee (Ashleigh Neville)

Season synopsis:

There was reason for optimism after the strong 5th-place finish the previous season, but the summer transfer business had tempered it somewhat. We were counting on several players who hadn't been getting consistent minutes with their previous clubs not taking too long to get up to speed—a gamble which mostly didn't pay off. I was pleased to see more attacking firepower added to the squad, but worried about the lack of depth in defense.  

Injuries would end up being a major topic of the season, with two long-term absences that carried over from the previous season (Kit Graham and Ria Percival) and two new season-ending injuries (Ellie Brazil and Kyah Simon). A few other players missed significant game time with shorter-term injuries (Kerys Harrop, Rosella Ayane, and Jessica Naz), a mystery injury (Ramona Petzelberger), and illness (Shelina Zadorsky). There were large portions of the season where we couldn't even fill out the bench, let alone maintain a consistent starting lineup. The constant fluctuation in personnel certainly didn't help the team develop any momentum.

We got off to an up-and-down start in the Women's Super League, alternating between wins and losses until late November when the infamous losing streak began. The opening day game, away at Leicester City, featured two of our best goals of the season from Ash Neville and new signing Drew Spence. On the downside, it also included the first of many injuries; Rosella Ayane broke her leg and was out for four weeks. The only other game in September was a crushing 4-0 away loss to Arsenal which indicated that we wouldn't be challenging the top 4 teams for points the way we did the previous season.

October was arguably our most successful month. It kicked off with a win in the League Cup group stage against Reading and also involved WSL wins against Liverpool and Brighton—the latter being a club record for a winning goal margin at 0-8, as well as one of just three clean sheets in the whole season. We did lose to Manchester City in between those fixtures, however.

There was no chance to capitalize on the momentum of the win over Brighton due to a match postponement and an international break. We would only play two matches in November, a loss to Chelsea and a pretty routine win over Coventry United in the League Cup group stage.

December was a bleak month. We lost three WSL games in a row with increasingly dire scorelines, culminating in a 0-3 loss to Everton in front of the worst fan attendance of the season. On that note, the move from the Hive to Brisbane Road has not exactly been a success, either from a fan perspective or regarding the quality of the pitch—we would have another match postponed in late January. As for the team performance in this stretch of games, the players looked disconnected and out of ideas. This was when we got the first suspicion that manager Rehanne Skinner's job could be at risk. We closed out the month with a win in the last group stage game for the League Cup, but the damage had already been done to the squad's morale. The winter break was much needed to reflect and regroup.

With the possibility of being sucked into the relegation fight looming, the club acted decisively to bring in Rehanne's long-preferred transfer target, Bethany England. It was rumored to be a record transfer fee for a player moving between WSL clubs. While she had been struggling to get many minutes at Chelsea (understandable with Sam Kerr being her competition), she was eager to make the switch and hopefully make a case for her selection in the England squad for the upcoming World Cup. It's safe to say she did just that, not just because she got the England call-up she was playing towards, but because she almost singlehandedly saved our season from ruin.

We also signed Mana Iwabuchi on loan from Arsenal, but fitness issues meant that she wasn't able to make the impact we'd hoped for.

Although England immediately found her way onto the scoresheet, we wouldn't get our first win with her in the side until the 5-0 over London City Lionesses in the FA Cup. The prior games in January included a narrow loss to Aston Villa and a League Cup exit to Chelsea, with only Drew Spence managing to score against her former club.

We faced Chelsea again to start off February, this time in the league, but it was yet another loss to our London neighbors. Then, in perhaps the most controversial game of the season, Manchester United beat us 1-2 despite Ella Toone being sent off. The fallout was even more frustrating; Eveliina Summanen was given a retroactive two-match ban for "successful deception of an official" while Toone had her red card overturned. I don't think I've ever seen the WSL discourse get so intense, before or since. As a result, Summanen missed the FA Cup match against Reading, which we lost on penalties after a scoreless draw.

Two more losses in early March, to Manchester City and Liverpool, led to Skinner's sacking. It was understandable in light of the nine-game losing streak we'd been on in WSL play, but also frustrating since most of those games had come against difficult opposition. Perhaps Skinner should have been given a chance to manage the decisive game against Leicester City that had crucial implications for the relegation scrap, but instead, her assistant Vicky Jepson was made interim manager. And we did win that game, but not very convincingly. It took a wonder goal from England to claim all three points. Unfortunately, we then closed out the month with our worst result of the season, a 1-5 loss to Arsenal.

The relegation threat didn't ease up in April. A stoppage-time goal concession cost us all three points against Everton, then we played out two draws to Aston Villa and Brighton. We had come from behind to lead in the Villa game before conceding another late goal. The Brighton game was a more frustrating case of having to play catchup twice to salvage a point.

This brought us to the final month of the season in May, with three games that were all tricky in different ways. Fixtures with Manchester United have come to take on something of a rivalry feel, but we completely failed to show up to this one—from the team selection to the performance—and lost 3-0. We knew that we'd be all but guaranteed safety if we beat Reading in the final home match. Thankfully, we did, and decisively with a 4-1 scoreline! That made the last match away at West Ham lower stakes, but it was still disappointing to draw to our London rivals.

Takeaways:

While the results mostly didn't reflect it, I do think we played better overall in the second half of the season, even if the management was still questionable after the transition from Skinner to Jepson. It helped that we started to get more players back from injury and could consistently field a full bench. Particularly when Kit Graham and Ria Percival returned to play, you could see glimpses of what this team could be next season with just a few more key players brought in to improve the squad. It also helps that we now have a talisman to build around in Beth England.

But the simple truth is that the defense wasn't good enough this season, and the attack wasn't too much better until we got an experienced striker. The club is going to have to make some tough choices in the transfer window—some of which have already been made, with Kerys Harrop and Tinni Korpela both departing.

At the end of the day, the club simply has to be more ambitious. We missed a golden opportunity to build on last season's success and keep putting pressure on the top 4 teams. Instead, we nearly got relegated and will likely have a more difficult time attracting new talent in the transfer market with our "project" looking less promising now. A lot will depend upon who is appointed manager—and it's unlikely to be Jepson made permanent. It's frustrating to have so many more questions going into the off-season than last year, but hopefully, the club will get things back on track. And let's face it, the only way this season could have been worse is if we had actually been relegated.

Fun Facts!

Again, a little lacking on the fun front this year, but it is what it is. These stats are WSL focused.

• This was our lowest-ever table finish in the WSL since first gaining promotion to the league in the 2019/20 season

• We had just three clean sheets, with two in the first five games and then not again until matchday 15

• Although we scored seven more goals than last season, we conceded twice as many

• We only scored one penalty all season long

• There were assists for all but six of our goals

• There were 10 different goal-scorers in league play

• Beth England was our only scorer in double digits, with 12 goals in 12 appearances

•Beth had three braces in her last four games

• Rossella Ayane led the team in assists with four, followed by a three-way tie between Ash Neville, Eveliina Summanen, and Molly Batrip with three each

• Beth England started every game she appeared in, missing just one WSL game due to an injury

• Four players appeared in every WSL game (Molly Bartrip, Amy Turner, Celin Bizet, and Drew Spence); Bartrip and Turner started every game as well

• Kerys Harrop claimed the all-time record for most WSL appearances, finishing one game ahead of Kate Longhurst

• Both clean sheets came under Tinni Korpela's goalkeeping

• Leicester City were the only team we did the double on in the league

In Focus

These are just a few topics that I thought deserved special mention or a fresh perspective.

• Risky recruitment. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but we definitely didn't bring in enough "ready now" players this season. Beyond her injury struggles, Nikola Karczewska wasn't quite prepared to be the starting striker we needed her to be until Beth England's arrival in January. Even Celin Bizet, who ended up being a key contributor, needed some time to develop. And although Amy Turner and Drew Spence were both ever-present in the starting XI, it was clear that they were carrying some rust into the season after rarely featuring for their previous clubs—rust that they didn't entirely shake off . This summer and again in January, it will be important to sign players who are at or nearing their peak and can improve the core of the team. We need players who have been regular contributors at their current clubs and don’t need any ramp-up time.

• Rehanne sacked too soon? Emphasis on the question mark, because I genuinely don't know. I think you can make the argument that she was, considering the early-season injury crisis, the match postponements that made it difficult for the team to build up any momentum and caused some tough runs of fixtures, and even the injustice of Eveliina's two-game suspension. There were a lot of factors conspiring against her. At the same time, she didn't always make the most of the factors that were in her control, like formation decisions, substitutions (when they were even feasible), and youth development (or lack thereof). I still wonder if the timing of her dismissal was quite fair—perhaps she should have been given the chance to win that crucial six-pointer against Leicester. But the club obviously felt she'd had enough chances. It's just a shame to see a manager who had previously transformed the side into a team capable of taking on the best teams in the league have such a disastrous follow-up season. I'm always going to wonder what could have been without the spate of injuries, or if we'd secured Beth England's signature in the summer rather than the January window.  

• At a goalkeeping crossroads. Although Becky Spencer and Tinni Korpela both split the game load evenly again this season, I don't think we can say it was as successful a strategy as last year. Spencer did not keep a single clean sheet, but Korpela didn't do too much better (despite pulling off some world-class saves). Korpela has now left the club at the end of her contract—it's unclear if that was a club decision or a personal decision—so we will definitely need to recruit in this position over the summer transfer window. I would expect the club to be searching for a new #1, not a backup to Spencer.

First Goal Inductees 🎉

Players who scored their first goal for Spurs, in any competition:

• Nikola Karczewska

• Lenna Gunning-Williams

• Amy Turner

• Drew Spence

• Molly Bartrip

• Celin Bizet

• Beth England

• Mana Iwabuchi

• Eveliina Summanen

Best Moments

• Ash & Drew's long range goals on opening day

• The Brighton blowout

• Beth England signing in January

• Kit's first goal after returning from her ACL injury

• Escaping relegation

Worst Moments

• both Arsenal games

• every injury (and there were many)

• Molly's own goal in the Manchester United game—because it was Molly, and because it happened right after Beth's equalizer

• Eveliina's retroactive two-match ban

• Rehanne's sacking

Player Superlatives

Biggest surprise: Eveliina Summanen

Best new signing: Beth England

Best young player: Celin Bizet

Most valuable player: Beth England

Most improved player: Eveliina Summanen

Ms. Tottenham: Ashleigh Neville

Player of the Season

Drumroll please...

The nominees are:

✴︎ Ashleigh Neville

✴︎ Beth England

✴︎ Eveliina Summanen

And the winner is:

Beth England

Honorable mentions go to Celin Bizet and Molly Bartrip.

Season rating out of 10:  4

There's no sugarcoating this season—it was dreadful. In far too many games, the players looked like they had never played with each other. Part of it came down to the inability to build momentum due to various obstacles (injuries, fixture postponements, scheduling quirks), for which I added on one more point than my gut told me to, but a lot of it was just plain underperformance. The baseline quality level did improve after the mid-season signing of Beth England, thankfully, though the results did not corroborate the boost for a long time. We were fortunate that there were three teams worse than us. But for a club of Tottenham's resources, there's no excuse for how close we came to relegation.

Questions and concerns:

• What should our transfer window priorities be? Whereas last summer's recruitment was heavily focused on the attack, this summer's will have to prioritize bolstering the defensive end—including a new #1 goalkeeper. We're quite light on fullbacks after the departures already announced, and depending on what happens with Shelina Zadorsky's contract, there's only one center-back that I feel truly confident in (Molly Bartrip). Our lack of a true defensive midfielder was exposed time and time again as various players tried to fill in the gap with varying levels of success (or rather, failure). The only forward position we could use more depth in is at winger.  

• Are we still an attractive club for youth prospects? Celin's relatively strong first season at the club would suggest yes, but with Esther Morgan leaving and Asmita Ale's status up in the air, I think questions have to be asked. It's strange that Rehanne Skinner didn't prioritize this more before her sacking, not only because her previous management had involved the England youth setup, but also because there were times when the squad was very thin due to injuries and young prospects like Gracie Pearse and Lenna Gunning-Williams arguably deserved a chance to prove themselves—even if only in substitute roles. And barring an injury we never heard about, Asmita's underutilization was inexcusable. As the Men's team seems to be recalibrating its Academy approach and has appointed a manager well-known for developing young players, I wonder if the Women's side will take a similar tack with its next manager.

• What are the realistic goals for next season? We definitely need to temper expectations this season. Whereas this time last year we were optimistic of breaking into the top 4 if everything went right—only for just about everything to go wrong—the next campaign will be more about setting a solid foundation to build upon. We have a decent core of players to build around now (Beth England, Kit Graham, Ash Neville, Celin Bizet, and Molly Bartrip) but still need a few more players who are truly at their peak. This will require the club to act with far more ambition in the transfer window than they have in the past (with the obvious exception of Beth's signing) and far more investment. So for me, a table finish anywhere from 5th through 7th would feel like a much-needed return to stability. There's always the chance of a cheeky cup run, but the league should be the priority—at least for next season.

And now to send off the Women's team with a celebratory photo gallery!

Here's to a return to form in 2023/24, with a stronger squad, a new manager, and hopefully a bit less bad luck.

Spurs Across the Off Season

As I noted last issue, the newsletter will be hitting your inboxes more sporadically over the summer, but I'll do my best to recap the most major news as soon as possible. Cough any day now with the manager announcement, Spurs Women!

The next issue will have some thoughts on the recently released Premier League fixture schedule and Deki's new deal, so keep an eye out for that soon.

And once again, thank you for reading my newsletter! I appreciate everyone who's subscribed and everyone who's helped me keep it running with a tip on Ko-fi—especially in funding my trip to the Women's Cup last pre-season, which was a true highlight of my year and the best experience of my life as a Spurs fan.

Special thanks to Friends of the Newsletter, Hometown Glory and A Bit Spursy for having me on their wonderful podcasts this season, as well as Paxton Road TV for having me on their live show. Big love to my own podcast family at The Tottenham Depot and N17 Women! I look forward to doing it all over again with y'all next season.

COYS

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