Tottenham Hotspur Women have completed the signing of 28-year-old Scottish forward Kirsty Hanson from Aston Villa. Hanson is coming off a WSL campaign in which she put away twelve goals, and she should add much-needed speed and variety into our attack.
If you’ve been following Spurs Women this season you may already be familiar with Kirsty
Hanson. She’s scored four goals in her last three league games against Tottenham, and she’s just generally terrorized our slow-footed back line. After watching her run past Molly Bartrip to score back in December, I thought to myself, “we should back up a huge truck load of money to Aston Villa and buy Kirsty Hanson. We’ll never do it though.” I couldn’t be happier to be wrong on that second count, and I hope I’m right on the first.
Kirsty Hanson has typically played as a striker or a left winger for Villa. I remain annoyed that Spurs keep signing central players instead of any true wide ones, but at least in this case I’ve seen evidence that Kirsty Hanson can occupy those spaces as a winger. Wherever she plays, her speed and directness will be a great addition to our squad, which is currently full of technically gifted players who aren’t particularly speedy (especially since Jess Naz is currently out due to an ACL injury).
Before her Villa days, Kirsty was a member of the Manchester United side that gained promotion to the WSL at the same time as Spurs. She also already knows Martin Ho from those days.
“Kirsty is a player with proven quality in the WSL and someone who has consistently shown she can affect games at this level,” Martin Ho said, speaking of her signing. “She brings pace, energy, directness and real threat in the final third, but also the work ethic and intensity we want in our attacking players.”
It should be noted that Kirsty was running a bit hot versus her xG in the 2025/26 season (she scored 12 goals from 6.66 xG), and her goal totals in previous seasons are far lower. She scored 7 for a high-flying Aston Villa side in 2022-23, but struggled in Villa’s subsequent less-dominant sides until this year. I’m not too concerned about whether or not she matches her goal total again. She may not put away twelve goals again, but if we get her good service and continually put out strong sides, she should do just fine. Between Shekiera Martinez, Tinka Tandberg, Olivia Holdt and Signe Gaupset, this side has plenty of goals in it. I’m much more excited about the speed, variety and directness Hanson provides.
In closing, please enjoy her 2025-26 Barclays WSL GotS-winning goal against West Ham. It doesn’t have the pace I typically associate with a Kirsty Hanson goal, but it is very pretty:
