A Wild and Windy Win

We should all know by now that the Women's derby with West Ham is always a turbulent affair, but it still somehow comes as a surprise every time this matchup descends into chaos. This edition had everything, from goals to WSL debuts to (lack of) VAR controversy. Oh, and the inclement weather was another complicating factor.

There's a spoiler for one of the big performers from the game (Kristie Mewis is good at soccer, who knew?), but there's a lot more to discuss from this whirlwind fixture. And yes, I will be fitting in as many weather-related puns as I can.

In this issue: West Ham recap | Previewing the cup games | Transfer Talk | Pub chat

I'll also wrap up a couple of small transfer tidbits and share some thoughts on a recent article about women's football finance.

WSL Matchday 11 recap | West Ham 3 - 4 Tottenham

Shimizu 35', Asseyi 62', Tysiak 70' | Clinton 6' • 48', Bizet 43', Naz 75'

Although this is a spirited rivalry, West Ham have been in the relegation battle this season, making this a must-win game in terms of picking up points in our most winnable fixtures this season. The whole reason we were in the relegation scrap last season is that we often dropped points in similar games.

Thankfully, Robert Vilahamn appeared to be taking the match seriously if his starting lineup was anything to go by.

Starting XI:

New signings would have to come off the bench for their debuts as Vilahamn put out a very strong team. Most notably, our Finnish double pivot of Eveliina Summanen and Olga Ahtinen were back in action for the first time in the WSL since their injury layoffs before the winter break. Beth England started just her third league game of the season, with Martha Thomas recovered from her minor hamstring injury to play behind her as the #10. The only real downside to the lineup was the exclusion of Luana Bühler, who is still out with a persistent thigh issue. Amy Turner replaced her at right centerback to partner with Molly Bartrip. Meanwhile, Angharad James got another shift at right fullback after the experimentation in the FA Cup game.

One small cause for concern was the absence of Becky Spencer in the matchday squad. The club hasn't shared any news of an injury, but either way, we had Eleanor Heeps as the backup to Barbora Votíková. The bench also included three out of the four January signings, with Shuang Wang the only player to miss out due to injury.

Spurs didn't waste any time getting on the scoresheet. Grace Clinton got her first goal contribution of the day with a 6th-minute goal, assisted by Eveliina Summanen. Clinton had a lot to do after Summanen's pass, however, and even nutmegged a West Ham player for her shot. The edge of the box is quickly becoming a key hunting ground for Clinton.

West Ham did respond before the end of the first half, though. Risa Shimizu got the last touch for their goal after Ash Neville nearly pulled off a clearance in the 35th minute. Kind of an unfortunate goal to concede, but of the type that has unfortunately been quite typical for Spurs with all of the turnover in the backline lately.

Our opponents picked a couple of yellow cards for important players, Hawa Cissoko and new signing Katrina Gorry, limiting their effectiveness for the rest of the game.

We made sure to go into halftime with the lead restored, as Clinton picked out Bizet running into the box with an inch-perfect through ball. Celin had a West Ham player hot on her heels but calmly let the ball travel ahead of her to create some distance then shot past Mackenzie Arnold with a clean technique.

Not satisfied with just a goal and an assist, Clinton made her third contribution of the night by capitalizing on a recycled corner kick. This is where the controversy comes in; Arnold believed her sightline was impeded by Turner, who had been pushed to the ground during the corner kick melee. We don't have the benefit of VAR in the WSL, but this photographic evidence leads me to believe that the only players impeding Arnold were from her own team:

At this point, 1-3 up away from home, the victory should have been secure. Alas, it was time for our dysfunctional defense to make a reappearance. With Turner unable to complete a full 90 after missing the last match with a knock, Summanen was shifted to centerback for the second game in a row. There was a knock-on effect in the midfield too, as Ramona Petzelberger replaced Summanen in the pivot with far less prowess. In the 62nd minute, Riko Ueki put a dangerous cross into the box which Votíková and Summanen both approached to clear. Neither player got a firm touch as a result, and it bobbled backward into the oncoming path of Viviane Asseyi for a tap-in. This was a simple case of poor communication between keeper and centerback, but again, I won't be too harsh on assigning blame to either player since Summanen is unaccustomed to the CB role.

Just before Asseyi made it 2-3, Mewis had subbed on for her league debut. She helped bring West Ham level in the 70th minute with an assist from a free kick, finished with a header by 5'10" centerback Amber Tysiak. Not a particularly tall defender, but tall enough to beat Summanen with a two-inch advantage on the Finn.

We had our own super sub, thankfully. Jessica Naz put the game on ice with a first-touch, no-look shot in the 75th minute. She was picking up on the rebound from two different shots by Neville and England. Astonishingly, this was Naz's first WSL goal of the season, having only netted in the Conti and FA Cups previously this campaign. But she's brought more to the team than just the end product, with her clever movements and runs freeing up space for teammates to take their own shots in multiple games already.

It's hard to compete with a player of Clinton's undeniable caliber for the left winger starting spot, but Naz has proven she's a valuable member of the squad and will still get plenty of starts throughout the season with rotation. For a player who has been with the club since the final season in the Championship, it's impressive that she's been able to grow her individual game to continue rising alongside the team—much like Ash Neville has as well.

Now we just had to defend—better, this time. Charli Grant was brought on as a sub to help with this in the fairly lengthy stoppage time, but not before Matilda Vinberg made her league debut first in the 80th minute. It might be a while before these new signings are fully trusted to get a start, but it's great to see quality from the bench. And they did help see out the result!

I'll be sharing my mid-season review for the Women's team soon with more in-depth thoughts, but suffice it to say that we closed out the first half of the WSL season with an important win and in a great position to potentially finish in the "best of the rest" spot in the table. Most importantly, it's been encouraging to see the resilience of Vilahamn's team in responding to setbacks and challenges. It bodes well for the future as we continue to see the squad strengthened.

SAtP Player of the Match: Grace Clinton

Much as I appreciate Jess for securing the win with her game-winning goal, Grace was the clear standout player across the 90 minutes. Her two goals and one assist doubled her stats in those categories for the half-season. The glimpses of promise we saw previously have now come to fruition as she's become a guaranteed starter and key performer for the team.

Of course, the cloud threatening to rain on our collective fan parade is the fact that she's technically a Manchester United player until further notice. Grace does seem to be thoroughly enjoying her time in a Spurs shirt, so if it were solely up to her I could easily see a permanent transfer to Tottenham occurring at the end of the season. Sadly, it's not solely up to her. I just hope the club is doing everything it can to free her from Marc Skinner's clutches next season.

Notable and quotable:

• We have already reached our points total from last season at just the halfway point of this campaign. Talk about a turnaround!

• Robert's verdict on the game:

Fans want to see goals, not clean sheets!

Well, fair enough! I do wish we could start conceding fewer shambolic goals, however.

• He also had some praise for Grace:

She never lost the ball, carried it very well and made the right decisions - she has developed so much. She has been shining all week and was so nice to see her show that in the game.

Previewing League Cup | Group Stage Matchday 4 — Southampton

It would be nice to get a full week's rest after such a hard-fought game, but alas, there's a midweek cup clash. This will be our final match of the Conti Cup group stage and we're in a strong position to advance to the knockouts as one of the two best 2nd-place teams. There could be a slight wrinkle if we don't win due to some potentially disqualifying nonsense by Aston Villa, but I don't have enough firm information on that yet to say anything definitive in this preview. We'll be safe with a win, though.

Southampton may be a slightly more difficult test than Sheffield United were in the FA Cup, if the Championship league standings are anything to go by. Our opponents have won both of their first two games in the new year, although their overall form this season has been pretty up and down.

There are a few familiar faces in the Southampton squad: Chloe Peplow, Rianna Dean, and Megan Wynne. All three both played for Spurs previously. Atlanta Primus is another player to watch, having transferred from London City Lionesses in the summer after an exciting World Cup campaign with Jamaica. That being said, Southampton have already been mathematically eliminated from the Conti Cup before this final group stage matchday, so they could rotate heavily to prioritize their league prospects.

The injury equation hasn't changed for Spurs, with Luana Bühler, Shuang Wang, and Drew Spence all still out. Robert Vilahamn has promised some rotation, however, with another quick turnaround for the game on the weekend (a rematch with Manchester City in WSL play). I think we can likely expect Jess Naz to start after her heroics on Sunday, and Charli Grant could get another start at left fullback—or Amanda Nildén could get her Spurs debut there. Let's just hope we don't see the return of right fullback Ellie Brazil! Now, if Robert would like to get her some minutes in the forward line that would be much more welcome.

Fingers crossed for a straightforward win and progression into the knockout rounds!

Previewing FA Cup Round 4 — Manchester City

I won't lie... it's hard to think anything about this match other than, "dear god, why us?" Yes, we do have some important bogey energy against Manchester City but that doesn't mean it's ever an easy fixture. And let's face it: the record of keeping a clean sheet at home against City has to fall at some point.

The good news is that we could see the return of James Maddison to the matchday squad after a lengthy injury absence. No official injury update yet, so I'm not sure about Giovani Lo Celso's status.

The bad news is that City have also strengthened in their fitness. Ederson was training despite what looked like a nasty injury in their last PL game, John Stones is back in contention, and Erling Haaland could be as well. Not to mention that Kevin de Bruyne came back against Newcastle to score a crucial equalizer for his side and then assist the eventual game-winning goal. Yikes!

It's daunting to enter a match against City without our talisman, Son Heung-min, but the other attackers will simply have to step up to the task. All we can do is hope that everyone is playing at their very best.

And on a hopeful note, if we do manage to escape this round with a win the path to the final is that much easier with City eliminated. Plus, one of Chelsea and Aston Villa will be knocked out by the other during this round, as well as one of Fulham and Newcastle. Other all-PL ties include Sheffield United vs Brighton and Everton vs Luton Town.

A quick note on fixture updates:

• Both of Spurs Women's next two matches (the Conti Cup game at Southampton and the WSL game at Brisbane Road) will be available to stream on SpursPlay. I believe the WSL game will also be on the FA Player for anyone who doesn't have a SpursPlay subscription, but for some reason, they aren't showing the WSL schedule for this weekend yet. So don't quote me.

• Spurs Women's FA Cup 5th round match against Charlton Athletic will be on February 10—just after the conclusion of the Men's PL match against Brighton. Another day, another fixture clash making it impossible for local fans to attend both home matches.

• The Men's PL fixture at Chelsea will have to be rearranged due to Chelsea reaching the League Cup final (horrifying, I know). Let's hope it gets rescheduled sooner rather than later since it would be very inconvenient to squeeze it in during the stretch of games where we play Newcastle away, Manchester City and Arsenal at home, and then Liverpool away all back-to-back. On the positive side—assuming it is rescheduled for a later date and not a sooner date—we should have all of our key players back from injury and well-rested after the regional tournaments.

Transfer talk

Nothing monumental to report this week, just some minor tidbits:

Women's team

• Linyan Zhang has been recalled from her loan by her parent club, Wuhan Jianghan University. Having only made five appearances (scoring one goal), they probably weren't satisfied with the amount of game time Linyan was likely to get in the rest of the season. Best of luck to Pippi in her future career!

• Asmita Ale is heading out on loan at Leicester City for the second half of the season. She had clearly fallen out of favor under Vilahamn, but I hope she can turn her career around starting with a successful loan with the Foxes. Asmita still has a lot of potential as an attacking fullback. It's reassuring that she'll be playing under Willie Kirk, a decent manager who has been trying to overhaul Leicester's playing style since his appointment.

The squad was at capacity prior to Asmita's loan out, so there is now a possibility of bringing in a centerback for much-needed depth at that position—whether on a short-term or long-term basis. 

Academy teams

• Two more Men's Academy players signed their first professional contracts, Herbie James and Roman Egan-Riley.

Pub chat

I just read this interesting article by Flo Lloyd-Hughes about recent investment trends in women's football:

Flo Lloyd-Hughes | Women’s sport needs to be cautious of fairy godmother magic

Football writer and broadcaster Flo Lloyd-Hughes challenges the narrative around women’s sport’s boom and its bid to be commercially sustainable.

SportBusinessDan Burzynski

While I think she makes some salient points (more on that in a minute), I did take issue with the use of DAZN's UEFA Women's Champions League rights deal as a case study. The streamer's decision to reverse their earlier move to put the UWCL games behind the paywall is not necessarily a reflection of the marketability/value of the competition itself.

I don't think DAZN is a trusted provider in the football streaming space (let alone women's football as a subset) in most markets. As a Bundesliga fan, I'm aware that they have a big presence in German football, but where I live in the US it is really only known for boxing and similar sports. The lack of new subscriptions to DAZN post-UWCL rights deal doesn't necessarily point to a lack of willingness to pay for women's football, but perhaps a lack of willingness to do so on this particular platform. If the UWCL had reached an agreement with Paramount+, for example, which already carries the men's CL competition as well as the WSL and NWSL here in the US, it would have been perceived as much more accessible and trustworthy as a provider. When UEFA re-negotiates the rights for the next media cycle they need to strongly consider selling the rights to a platform that already has a positive reputation in the women's football space.

The new NWSL media rights deal could run into a similar issue with many NWSL fans unfamiliar with the Scripps Sports-owned ION network. However, they've paired this new partnership with existing partnerships that viewers of the league already know and trust (well, mostly... don't get me started on Paramount+'s stream quality), so fans will be more willing to give it a try.

Overall I think the most pressing question around building financial sustainability in women's football is: how do leagues and their media partners grow sponsorship opportunities? One obstacle to attracting and retaining sponsors is the instability of many women's football leagues/competitions as an actual viewing product. Whether it's the sporadic selection of fixtures (fans of non-top 4 teams know this struggle well), faulty or glitchy streams, or just plain lack of availability in certain competitions like the FA Cup, sponsors may not feel that the product is worth their investment. The leagues and competition governing bodies have a duty to make their product more stable and therefore more commercially viable. And yes, that includes providing their product on platforms where fans (consumers, at the end of the day) want to watch.

I do think the collapse of the Mercury13 takeover deal for Lewes FC is a good example of a cautionary tale when it comes to the emergence of multi-club ownership in women's football, as well as the dangers of venture capitalism. Women's football doesn't need to make the same mistakes as men's football when it comes to unsustainable financial strategies. But there are some lessons to be learned from the men's football space around providing a consistent, stable product with growth potential. The key will be for women's football to find a balance between reasonable growth and unrealistic expansion, as Lloyd-Hughes suggested in her article.

I'm going to close with a meme that I'm sure y'all have seen already, but nevertheless deserves another chuckle:

I'll be back on Saturday with the next issue. Until then,

COYS

Thank you for reading!

If you’re enjoying the newsletter, make sure to sign up for a free subscription to receive new issues in your inbox. You can also buy me a Ko-fi to support my work with a one-time tip. Your support keeps Spurs Across the Pond running and is much appreciated!

You can also find me on Twitter and podcasting at N17 Women and The Tottenham Depot.