Changing Direction

Cheers for the issue title, Thomas.

One Spurs team is clearly going in the wrong direction, while the other one could very well be pointed down the road to Wembley. The Women's FA Cup Fifth Round draw has thrown up a slight obstacle on that path, though nothing insurmountable.

It's been fascinating to watch Tottenham Hotspur as an organization get things so right on the Women's side of things, but drop the ball completely on the Men's side. Martin Ho has restored Spurs Women's attacking identity and benefited from smart transfers (though the recruitment process can still be improved in scope). Thomas Frank, meanwhile, hasn't done himself any favors of late with his one-note tactics and careless player management, but also wasn't set up for success with a lopsided and injury-ravaged squad.

So it's not altogether surprising that the two teams are at the opposite ends of their respective league tables, but understanding the reasons for the disparity is not the same thing as accepting it. Fans have been right to be disgruntled with the series of missteps that have put the Men's team at risk of serious stagnation that will be difficult to turn around any time soon. And it's also fair to ponder why the Women's team is having such a stellar campaign in front of so few fans, relatively speaking, compared to the overall Spurs fanbase. It's baffling to see the club take the attention of fans for granted in such contrasting ways—assuming they'll continue to show up at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while accepting it's a lost cause to get more of them turning up to Brisbane Road.

In this issue: West Ham United recap | Leicester City recap | Transfer talk | News from around the Lane

Coincidentally, Spurs Women's next three home matches will all take place at the club's main stadium, with only one league fixture left at Brisbane Road on the penultimate matchday. (Side note: I can't wait for the Women's Super League expansion next season, because it's wild to realize we only have four home games left this season and we're not even out of January yet!)

There could be more home FA Cup fixtures to come if things go our way in the next round, and then it will be interesting to see which stadium gets prioritized. Either way, it's always an interesting contrast to see how much marketing is put into the THS games compared to the usual home ground—and by interesting, I mean exasperating.

We covered the puzzling issue of Spurs Women's lagging attendances on this week's N17 Women episode (just recorded today, out soon), so keep an ear out for that if you're similarly frustrated by the lack of growth in that aspect of the Women's team, even as we're on pace for our best-ever WSL season.

All right, time to shift focus to the match recaps before I truly go on a tangent about my favorite topic of contention.

More transfer news has trickled in, though we still haven't seen near enough movement on the part of Spurs Men for my liking this far into the window. It doesn't help that the Men's side seems to be in a holding pattern that isn't very attractive to prospective players.

PL MD 22 | Tottenham 1 - 2 West Ham United

Romero 64' | Summerville 15', Wilson 90+3'

I hate to sound like a broken record, but Spurs Men don't give me much choice. It appears that only our defenders can score consistently, and it's rarely enough to get a result. Another failed comeback, another point dropped in stoppage time.

It seems like a silly thing to say that the loss wasn't the worst part of this game, considering that it was against a West Ham team that look like they might finally get relegated (I have been waiting for this moment since I first became a Spurs fan in 2018, so I will enjoy that small part of this season's conclusion if it actually comes to pass). But honestly, the injury losses were even worse. The player availability crisis keeps reaching new levels of severity, and we could ill afford more absences just as we're about to resume the Champions Leaguephase, where we already had constrained options due to player registration issues. Most concerning is the fact that some of the players who will have no choice but to play due to lack of cover are already nearing or at the red zone, minutes-wise, and therefore vulnerable to picking up a knock or muscle injury of their own.

You can't account for a freak accident like Ben Davies' now confirmed ankle fracture, nor can you control the fact that Aston Villa are one of the dirtiest teams in the league and were sure to do some damage (pour one out for Archie Gray, this season's target).

One of my persistent complaints about Ange Postecoglou last season was that he didn't act early and often enough in rotating the squad to prevent the injury crisis from deepening to the extent it did. While I still believe that it's bad management to be sacrificing entire competitions for the sake of another (even if it worked out to the tune of a trophy that year—but with long-lasting consequences that we're now seeing play out), it's a reality of the modern game that you have to give players a rest at some point, or else the decision is taken out of your hands when they pick up an injury or simply have nothing left to give from a fatigue standpoint. A squad like Spurs' with multiple players who are active with their national teams (at both senior and U21/U23 level) is especially at risk, even before you factor in competing in multiple European and domestic cups.

If you look at the most successful teams in recent football history, they have been strategic about when to give an academy kid or two some senior matchday experience, and when to preserve their best talent for the games that help win a title. We are obviously so far away from challenging for a title this season, but it would be nice to at least feel like we aren't realistically out of the running for a European qualification spot already at the halfway point of the campaign. Points-wise, we actually aren't that far off the top half of the table and are closer to squeaking into the Europa Conference League next season than getting relegated to the Championship. But the way performances have been trending, that status quo could easily change within the next few weeks.

And that's why the club has to act now and let Thomas Frank go. Ideally, this would have happened before the Dortmund match, but if we do end up losing that game, there truly can be no excuse left.

If there isn't a contingency plan in place for a permanent successor, then fine, we can settle for an interim manager for the time being. But I can't see a scenario where Frank gets the players (let alone the fans) back onside enough to make a difference in turning the season around.

Most importantly, we could use a new manager boost (even if temporary) to get through the remainder of the CL league phase. In the final two fixtures, we'll be playing an ascendant Dortmund at home (currently a toxic environment) and then Eintracht Frankfurt away (with their own new manager boost imminent following the sacking of Dino Topmöller). If we managed to lose both games, which is totally possible, we could slip out of the playoff spots and miss out on the knockout rounds completely. Squad morale already looks to be at a dangerous low, so we need the continued prospect of this competition to keep motivation ticking in the coming months, even if we know we won't be winning it, realistically.

To finally circle back to the details of the West Ham game, it's confusing to me why Frank won't even do himself the favor of small wins. Take, for example, the decision to start Randal Kolo Muani, a loan player who doesn't seem to want to play for him anymore (if he ever did), over one of our own like Dane Scarlett, who is eager to prove himself at the senior level and would at least provide effort, if not a perfect performance. We aren't getting perfection out of Kolo Muani anyway, and a lot of fans would prefer to see an Academy graduate given a chance.

For another point of contention, consider the fact that when Gray was forced off at halftime due to a series of rough fouls on him by Villa players, Frank didn't display any of the tactical flexibility he is supposedly known for and instead opted for a like-for-like positional swap and brought on Yves Bissouma. In a logical world, he would have been out the door via transfer as soon as he returned from AFCON. Unfortunately, we live in the world where injuries have hampered our squad's availability to the point that he's somehow meeting minimum requirements again. How he performed in his substitute appearance is a moot point, because we know he's incapable of consistency across a season—or even a half-season, as it would be, since he was effectively frozen out of the first half at Frank's disciplinary discretion.

Regardless of who ends up playing, we know the players as a collective are better than the performances we've been seeing. It's difficult to say if it's confusion about the tactics from Frank, a dearth of motivation, or pure bad luck that's causing them to drop points, but it's probably a combination of all three. On the latter point, we certainly suffered many indignities in this game, like new signing Conor Gallagher nearly being forced out of his first start in less than a minute due to a head injury, and the deflection on Micky van de Ven that led to West Ham's opening goal. To then lose another potential draw because of a late goal by a player rumored to be on their way out this transfer window was the final insult.

Cristian Romero's fourth goal of the Premier League campaign gave us some hope that we could rally, but it's also a sign of the dysfunction in the attack that he took it upon himself to get on the end of that cross from Pedro Porro in the first place. He's not the only one playing more like an individual at the moment; he was just the only one who made it count for a goal.

Notable & quotable:

• Pedro Porro made his second assist in the league this season.

• Both starting centerbacks have now scored four PL goals.

• Yves Bissouma made his first competitive appearance of the season in any competition.

• Dominic Solanke also came in off the bench to make just his third PL appearance of the season.

• There was a message from CEO Vinai Venkatesham in the matchday program, also available to read here.

Women's FA Cup Round 4 | Tottenham 3 - 0 Leicester City

England 24', Spence 74', Gunning-Williams 90+1'

Since I went so long on the Men's game/existential crisis, I'll try to keep it short here with the Women's recap.

And really, it was a pretty straightforward win. Although we were one of just two all-WSL matchups this round of the FA Cup, we handled it just as decisively as we did with our lower-division opponents in the League Cup group stage in the fall.

Leicester had a few lineup changes, and also their new signing, Rachel Williams, to come off the bench (she only gave us one minor scare, thankfully), and enjoyed more of the share of possession than they did last week in our league fixture. But Spurs still looked largely in control and had the best of the scoring opportunities.

Signe Gaupset put in another strong performance, this time from the #8 position. She forced the save from Janina Leitzig that Beth England rebounded for our first goal, then provided an actual assist for Drew Spence for the second. I'm sure she would have been involved in the final goal too if she hadn't already been subbed off!

Speaking of the last goal, Lenna Gunning-Williams scored just her second senior goal for the club, both of which have come in cup competitions.

The other big story from the game was the remaining three January signings getting their debuts, all as substitutes. Julie Blasktad immediately asserted herself and looked hungry for a goal, while Matilda Nildén bodied her way to getting off a shot that Leitzig saved, but was poached by Gunning-Williams for the third goal. Hanna Wijk didn't get near scoring, but give her time!

It's impossible to find any negatives from this game as far as I'm concerned. Martin Ho has eased the new signings in without losing any of the attacking cohesion built up during the first half of the season. Some of the players we were all concerned about never being able to get a rest now have some relief thanks to the new additions. Equally as important, Ho was able to take off Olivia Holdt at halftime as a precautionary measure since she had been on the receiving end of several heavy fouls. And as the overall quality of the squad has been lifted, existing squad members look to be raising their game as well.

This Spurs Women team has momentum and optimism on its side, and what a lovely change that is from last season.

Notable & quotable:

• This was only the third time this season that we've scored three goals in a game, and only the second time against a WSL side.

• Lize Kop and co. earned their ninth clean sheet in all competitions this season.

• All the January signings so far have now made their debuts, and two have already had one or more starts.

• Lenna Gunning-Williams scored her first competitive goal since 2022, and was quick to credit her teammates in helping her come into the game with the right mentality to score:

I’m really proud of myself because I feel like I’ve trained really well recently and I’ve had the girls behind me, giving me tips and pointers on how I can be calmer when I come on to the pitch instead of being a bit anxious. I think today I really showed that. I felt a lot calmer coming on and was lucky enough to get a goal after Matilda did all that work and I just tapped it in.

Sometimes I doubt myself and put way too much pressure on myself and sometimes I feel like, if I don’t score then I’ve done something wrong, but that’s not the case. You can do a lot of things well without scoring but it’s nice that I also got a goal.

Transfer talk

• We didn't get any rumors about this move, so it came as a surprise, but Martha Thomas is going on loan to Liverpool for the rest of the season. It's probably the best thing for her career since she wasn't going to be getting many minutes at Spurs behind our own loan signing, Maika Hamano, but she would have been a valuable squad member in the depth chart, so we'll likely need to recruit another forward this window. She won't be able to play against us on Sunday when we take on her loan club. Good luck to Martha!

• Thomas and Oliver Irow, who also went on loan last week on the Men's side, both scored braces on their debuts for their loan clubs. Apologies for sharing a Twitter link, but y'all really do need to see Irow's second goal. Irow scored both of his goals off the bench, whereas Thomas started and scored twice in 20 minutes in the first half. Liverpool Women progressed to the next round of the FA Cup with a 0-6 win at London Bees, while Mansfield Town Men earned a 3-0 league win over Port Vale.

• I almost missed this one since the club didn't announce it (h/t to r/SpursWomen), but Mia Endacott has left the club to sign with Piteå IF in the Damallsvenskan for her first professional contract. It's good that the club has been giving more updates on the Women's Academy in general, but frustrating that they only want to share the positive news. Endacott had been featured heavily in content about the Academy.

News from around the Lane

• Pape Sarr has become an AFCON champion once again, although he was unable to take part in the final due to illness. Congrats to Pape!

• Spurs Women have been drawn away to London City Lionesses for the fifth round of the FA Cup. The fixture details haven't been confirmed yet, but the match will be on the weekend of February 21/22.

Up next:

January 20 | Spurs Men vs Dortmund
Team news — Micky van de Ven suspended due to yellow card accumulation; Ben Davies out with a fractured ankle; João Palhinha added to the existing list of short/medium-term injuries; Yves Bissouma, Radu Dragusin, Mathys Tel, and Conor Gallagher are all ineligible; Dominic Solanke reinstated to the CL squad, while Tel was de-registered from his temporary inclusion during Solanke's injury absence.

Just the Men's Champions League fixture for the midweek, but we go into it bruised and beleaguered. It probably would have been easier to list who was available for selection rather than list all the injuries, suspensions, and ineligibilities. As the team news indicated, we will only have 11 senior outfield players available and eligible; Academy players will have to bridge the gap, and many were active in training today.

Either way, it's a bummer not to have Micky Van de Ven in the matchday squad; he's the joint-second top goal-scorer (two goals) for us in the league phase—after good ol' own goal (three goals).

On that absurd note,

COYS

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