Hi folks, it’s been a while! Tottenham Hotspur Women have been on a bit of a hiatus thanks to international break, and I thought we could catch up on what’s been happening around the club before we get back into it against Manchester United this weekend.
A number of our players received call ups to their international squads. Olivia Holdt got the call for Denmark, as did Eveliina Summanen and Olga Ahtinen for Finland, and Drew Spence for Jamaica. Tōko Koga and Maika Hamano rejoined Japan, Lize Kop
was called up to the Netherlands, and Tinka Tandberg, Julie Blakstad and Signe Gaupset went off to Norway. Amanda Nildén and Matilda Vinberg were called up for Sweden, and Hanna Wijk and Matilda Nildén represented Sweden’s U23 side. Lenna Gunning-Williams appeared for England’s U23 side while Sophie Jackson and Jhanaie Pierre represented the U19s.
The Good
Lenna Gunning-Williams won the WU23 European Competition with England U23s against Matilda Nildén and Hanna Wijk’s Sweden side. She registered an assist in both the semifinal and final.
Julie Blakstad scored a banger of a goal for Norway in their 5-0 victory against Slovenia. Looks to me like that was Signe Gaupset with the assist. Signe Gaupset also scored a stoppage time winner in Norway’s second game against Slovenia. Maybe Spurs can finally help Norway beat the allegations of failing to show at major tournaments… right???
Matilda Vinberg also registered a goal against Serbia in Sweden’s 1-0 win.
The Bad
Apparently Tinka Tandberg underwent evaluation and was unable to train with Norway. She subsequently returned home to Tottenham. It’s unclear what that means for her, although she’s since been pictured taking training with the rest of her teammates, so hopefully it was just a minor thing and we’ll have her back in action for the rest of our games.
I watched bits and pieces of England U23s vs. Sweden U23s, and Hanna Wijk seemed to come away with more than just a disappointing loss. In the 40th minute, she went down under no-contact and needed to be stretchered from the pitch. At the time of writing this, Spurs haven’t confirmed anything about her injury, but as far as I can tell she hasn’t been pictured in training footage so it’s hard not to fear the worst. This would leave us in a pretty uncomfortable spot for the rest of the season — relying on Ella Morris who is, as far as we know, only about 15 minutes fit, and Josefine Rybrink who is not really a right back and has had mixed performances there at best.
Other News
Worth noting that right before international break, Spurs Women fell out of the FA Cup against Chelsea with a 2-1 loss in regular time. It was a much kinder loss than our last two games against big sides (in which we lost 5-2 to both Manchester City and Arsenal), although maybe that’s just down to the fact that no opposition players got lucky enough with their bounces to score first half hattricks. This game notably saw Eveliina Summanen score a stunning free kick, and Ella Morris get her first substitute minutes of the season since suffering an ACL tear back in May.
The club announced that Spurs Women will take part in World Sevens Football in London next month, a competition featuring 7v7 30 minute games on a half-sized pitch with rolling substitutions. Other sides include Aston Villa, Manchester United, West Ham, Everton, London City Lionesses and two unannounced clubs. As a great lover of sevens rugby, I am pretty excited to see this.
Spurs also made a change in goalkeeping coach. Chris Williams left the club to pursue other opportunities, and Ian Willcock was brought in his place. Willcock was most recently employed by the Canada Women’s national team. You might recognize his name as Mary Earps’ goalkeeping coach. Make of that what you will.
Looking Ahead
The spectre of men’s team relegation is hanging heavy over the club. I’m personally finding it difficult to take joy in the positives coming out of the women’s side when there’s so much uncertainty over the future. Vinai Venkateshem certainly has been named as a reason for Spurs Women’s improved performance this season, but who really knows what’s been going on behind the scenes? With further changes likely in overall club leadership, even if the men don’t get relegated there’s no guarantee future leaders will continue to fund the women’s club even at the bare minimum level they’ve been doing. I guess we’ll find out soon enough!
