Into the Final Stretch
I was going to say that we begin the final three weeks of the season, but annoyingly, there's still one more weekend off thanks to already being out of the FA Cup. Regardless, we are decidedly in the home stretch now. This, of course, is only for the Women's side of the club; the nonsense happening on the Men's side is none of my business, at least not in this newsletter.
In this issue: News from around the Lane
This is going to be a short and sweet issue with just a news roundup and a quick preview of the upcoming game against Manchester United. At least that interminable international break is finally over! I can see the rationale for three-week breaks from the players' and national team managers' sides, but it's a pretty deflating experience on the fan side—unless you're really into international footy, I suppose. And it would have been an even longer wait for a return to club action if we hadn't been involved in the FA Cup quarter-finals. Something will have to be done about the uneven scheduling next season, especially with two new teams joining the Women's Super League in the expansion phase.
News from around the Lane
• Spurs Women Academy U19s were knocked out of the Capital Cup at the semi-final stage after a 2-1 loss at Fulham. Coach Sabiha Jamal reflected on the takeaways from the narrow defeat:
For both goals, we need to reflect on and appreciate the small margins when it comes to individual actions and how they can have immediate consequences at this level. But as far as an overall performance goes against a very good side that's just achieved two unbeaten seasons, I think we can leave with our heads held high.
• Former Spurs Women player Kerys Harrop will be inducted into the Women's Super League Hall of Fame next month. She's in esteemed company for the honor, with Casey Stoney and the late Matt Beard also being inducted this year. Big congrats to Kerys!
• Spurs Women have appointed Ian Willcock as First Team Goalkeeping Coach. He joins the club from the Canada Women's National Team, and he previously worked with manager Martin Ho and his assistant Lawrence Shamieh at Manchester United.
• A few Spurs Men loan army updates:
- Damola Ajayi helped his boyhood club, Bromley, to a promotion from League Two to League One. This will be Bromley's first time playing in League One in the club's history. They could also secure the League Two title this season. Alfie Dorrington and Salford City could also secure automatic promotion on the final matchday, while Tyrese Hall and Notts County are in position to participate in the promotion playoff.
- In the Championship, Jamie Donley and Will Lankshear are at risk of relegation with their loan team, Oxford United. Yang Min-hyeok has had limited game time recently at Coventry City, but nevertheless gets to celebrate promotion with them.
- Luka Vušković has suffered an injury setback to his knee, but could still feature again for Hamburg before the end of the Bundesliga season. They are not yet safe from relegation and have a difficult schedule for their final four fixtures. Kōta Takai is in a similar position with Borussia Mönchengladbach on the same number of points as Hamburg, but with a slightly more favorable run-in.
Up next:
April 26 | Spurs Women vs Manchester United
Team news — Hanna Wijk picked up an MCL injury on international break with Sweden U23s and will miss the remainder of this season; Maika Hamano is available for selection again after being ineligible to play against her parent club in the FA Cup prior to the break; despite a couple of other injury concerns from the international break, there are no other changes to the squad availability.
Opposition note: Ella Toone could return from injury, but Dominique Janssen, Elisabeth Terland, and Leah Galton will all miss out.
Spurs are yet to beat Manchester United in Women's Super League play, and we have the added motivation of pushing for our best-ever WSL points total. We can also play spoiler to United's hopes of securing the Champions League playoff qualification spot in 3rd place; they are currently tied with Arsenal on points but significantly behind on goal difference—and Arsenal have two games in hand.
The big question for Martin Ho's team selection is who will start at the right fullback position in Hanna Wijk's absence. It would be risky to increase Ella Morris' minutes too quickly after her return from an ACL injury, but Josefine Rybrink has barely played in recent weeks. Ho could opt to make his decision with an eye to the future and give Araya Dennis some valuable development minutes.
The backline is the last settled part of the lineup overall at the moment. I would prefer to see Molly Bartrip restored to the centerback duo alongside Tōko Koga. This would allow for Amanda Nildén to shift back to her usual left fullback spot and give Julie Blakstad another chance to feature at left winger, even if only as a spark off the bench later in the game. Ho has plenty of options for the midfield and forward lines and simply needs to ensure we score some goals and end the streak of four losses on the bounce across all competitions.
Ella Morris commented on the team's perspective heading into the match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium:
We want to push to finish as high in the league as we can. It's a stepping stone for us to then build on that for next season.
I'll throw in a bonus bookmark to close, a new, spirited interview with Cathinka Tandberg from Megan Feringa at The Athletic:
Megan Feringa
That’s s*** when you sit there and think we could actually have already beaten our record points total, given all that we have here; the infrastructure, the belief of what this club can achieve. Of course, we can sit there and say we’ve done well because we did better than last year but there’s some games we’re like f***, why didn’t we take three points? Because we should.
The fact that they had to visually bleep out several curse words from Tinka is delightful. She really cares! I hope the club continues to increase its backing of Spurs Women so we can achieve her fully-COYS goals.
There are also some candid comments about playing football with ADHD and her thoughts on Spurs Men's relegation threat.
Another interesting tidbit from the article is that Spurs Women's summer transfer budget is "confirmed" and transfer deals are already being put in motion. So that's reassuring! It also helps that we have some contract extensions completed and have a core of players from which we can continue building the squad. Just trying to end on a note of optimism for once!
COYS
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