Rachel Cohen.
4^th September 2026.

The WSL returns today and Spurs play their first game on Sunday against West Ham. In case you haven’t been paying attention, there are three (big) reasons why it is time to get excited about this team.

1. We retained our best players.

That might sound like a low bar, but for mid-table WSL teams the annual pain of watching your best players depart for a ‘top’ team is real. It is also one of the reasons that teams find it so hard to sustain a good season – and Spurs have repeatedly yoyoed between the top half and a relegation-scrap.

In that context, and especially with so many teams looking for creative midfielders and centre backs, the fact that we retained the services of our three standout players of last year – Tōko Koga, Signe Gaupset and Olivia Holdt – is not to be sniffed at.

Moreover, with Gaupset now having had time to adjust to the league and finally getting a rest after joining in January following a full season in the Norwegian league, we are likely to see new levels to her performance. Widely touted as one of women’s football’s best young players, since joining Spurs she has demonstrated her ability to take hold of a game, pass opponents with ease, pick out a pass and shoot with a power few in the women’s game possess.

Last year was also Koga’s first in the WSL, despite seeming to be completely at home, exuding that classy calm on the pitch and irresistible laugh off it. Who knows what levels she might be able to reach in her sophomore season, now that she has familiarity with her teammates (and other teams in the league) and has the added confidence that her recognition in the PFA Team of the Season, as well as Asian Cup win with Japan, will have brought.

As for Holdt, our top scorer of last season is always beautifully creative – the kind of player that video-clips are made for. No matter how involved or not she has been there is always the belief in the back of your mind that she might produce a moment of magic. And the question is really just what more has she got to offer and will you be there to watch it?

But it is not only these three, we also kept the coys-loving young goalscorer that is Tinka Tandberg; the experience and midfield solidity and leadership of Eveliina Summanen and newly-appointed captain Drew Spence; or the left-footed defensive qualities of Amanda Nildén, whose value Ho reflected on in today’s press conference:

“I think Amanda’s ability with being left-footed, she played as a left-footed full-back for a long time here. When you’ve got the likes of her and Julie [Blakstad] in that position, being competitive and then the opportunity to use Amanda as a left-footed player in terms of centre-back, where she’s got the speed, she’s got the physicality, she’s got the capabilities with the ball. It’s just helping her grow and refine certain parts of her game. But what definitely gives us, from a tactical perspective, when you have two left-footed players on the left side of the pitch, [it] opens up the game more and enables you to play inside and outside the pitch. …I think that’s really important for us that we have a player who can play in both of those positions, depending on what we’re looking at within a game and the profile we need when we look at the opposition.”

Alongside Nildén this season Spurs supporters will also get to enjoy a whole season of two other attacking fullbacks, both of whom only featured for part of 2025/6: Julie Blakstad who signed in January brings tremendous energy down the left while Ella Morris, who has recently returned from an ACL injury, is a good bet as the post-Bronze answer to England’s rightback problem. Spurs also retained or gave new senior contracts to Academy and ex-Academy players (Lenna Gunnning-Williams and Jhanaie Pierre), demonstrating the beginnings of a better youth pipeline. With all of these and the other returning players our summer rebuild started from a position of strength.

2. We signed new players in key positions

By the end of last season, with Clare Hunt and Hanna Wijk injured our backline was starting to look threadbare. Now, with Wijk’s return from injury and two new defensive signings things look significantly more robust. Especially when one of those players is the massively experienced ex-Lyon Champions League winner, Alice Sombath. Sombath has not yet featured in pre-season and Martin Ho said that this is because she has been working with the staff to ensure that the “injuries and small niggles” that were a regular feature of her life at Lyon are not going to recur and that she “is not breaking down as much” and “she becomes more robust”.

That means it is not yet clear where Sombath will play, nor what that might mean for other players (for instance, will Amanda Nildén return to fullback?), but if the hype is even half-real supporters are in for a treat. Alongside her we signed experienced Dutch international Caitlin Dijkstra. Dijkstra has started at both right fullback and right centreback in pre-season games and has already scored a header from a set piece, providing an aerial threat that we too often missed last season and the attacking contribution that is a prerequisite for defenders in Ho’s team. Both Sombath are Dijkstra are defenders who play progressive football (and yes, this is definitely a pattern in our recruitment under Martin Ho).  

Finally, on the subject of about defensive reinforcement, with the departure of Eleanor Heeps to Brighton, Spurs have also brought in another goalkeeper. The fourth Norwegian to be recruited in the last year, Selma Panengstuen played under Ho at Brann and has some first team experience with her national team, but is still just 23 so a prospect for the future.

With the departure of Bethany England – the woman who single-handedly saved Spurs from relegation (probably twice) – we urgently needed to bring in new attacking options this summer. The recruitment of Kirsty Hanson from Aston Villa and Shekiera Martinez from West Ham were excellent responses. Between them, Spurs’ two new attackers scored 22 goals in all competitions last season. This is all the more impressive given that they played for teams that finished 9^th and 10^th respectively, and so neither had consistent service. Both have also already found the back of the net during pre-season. Hopefully a sign of (much) more to come.

Our sixth and final signing was a central midfielder in Victoria Pelova, who arrived from the other North London team. Not the pure 6 that many of us would have liked, Pelova is, however a very adaptable player and across pre-season we have seen used in both a more attacking and more defensive role. Her time out of the game (with ACL and then on the bench last season) means she probably needs time to come into her own, but the underling skills and all-action displays are there to be recaptured.

Talking about the window manager, Martin Ho commented about how good he thought Spurs’ transfer business has been.

“I think where we are now in terms of where we’re trying to get to. I think we knew we had to do these last two windows – we had to be effective in them. We had to be proactive to get ourselves on a level playing field with the teams around us to make sure that we can be progressive. But we have to also follow ourselves and be authentic and organic with what we do, making sure that we can attract the best talents, young talents [and] some players who are slightly more experienced, who will give us that experience, not just in league, but in European football. And I think we’ve done that.

We had a good window. We were proactive, very, very early, we got the work done. We brought in some really, really good players that I think complement what we want and complement the rest of the squad. And we filled some of the positions that we felt we needed some more depth in, with it now being four extra league games, three extra cup games, and the schedule is now a lot busier, it gives us the opportunity to rotate and manage players a little bit better as we want to.”

3. We have a manger with a plan.

Martin Ho has been at Spurs a year now and he has shown that he can attract players – who want to play with him – some of our biggest signings over the last year have stated they joined Spurs because they had previously played with Ho (e.g. Gaupset; Hanson) or have heard good things about him from team-mates who have (e.g. Tandberg).

Ho has also demonstrated an ability to exploit the strengths of his players, including most importantly their positional flexibility, making Spurs into a much more dynamic team, with a very mobile attacking line in which we see interchanges between players regularly and defenders regularly joining the attack.

After getting the club’s business done early he has also had a full summer pre-season with the players which he described as: “Absolutely golden. Because you know by when you go away in the summer to recharge that your business is done. And you can actually then plan and evolve and make sure you have everything in place for pre-season to allow your squad to gel together, to mould together.”

And after a season in which Ho said the team “suffered too much in certain games” and yet the manager was relatively reluctant to use substitutes, the squad’s new depth is likely to provide more scope for in-game management and give Ho more levers with which to make changes when things are not going right. This is something he reflected on in today’s press conference:

“What it definitely does give you is the opportunity and ability to change games more. It definitely gives you the opportunity to be up more and predictable when you bring players on. And the impact can be valuable to what you do. And we have different characteristics in different profiles, which is important. I think if you have the same type of player, it’s hard to really change your game a lot. What we definitely have is different characteristics in the individuals we have. And that depth will enable us to, with a busy calendar, rotate and rest and change players.”

He cautioned, however, that we may still see relatively stable starting 11s. “one thing I won’t do is underestimate any opponents. If I feel I need to go with the same 11 on a Saturday and go the same on a Wednesday, I will do it. But it definitely gives us the opportunity to be a little bit more flexible with the quality and profiles we have now.”

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After a season in which Spurs finished fifth with their highest ever WSL points total, there is lots of reason to tune in to watch Spurs Women this season.

And just in case you haven’t yet made your mind up about whether to get to Brisbane Road or otherwise tune in for Spurs Women’s first game of the season, Martin Ho emphasised how entertaining it is likely to be: “What better way to start than a competitive London derby”, “a good opening game. Good for a neutral. Good for both sets of fans.”