When Tottenham Hotspur recruited Ange Postecoglou from Celtic before the start of the season he hit the headlines for his determination to change the way the club played their football.
But the north Londoners’ rest didn’t start and end with the Australian’s arrival, because the women’s team too recruited a manager to radically change how they play.
Robert Vilahamn took previous club BK Hacken to back-to-back cup finals and, in his first year at Spurs, is just one game from replicating that feat with his new club.
Though they play the majority of their games at Brisbane Road, home of League One’s Leyton Orient, Sunday will see the women play Leicester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the club’s first ever FA Cup semi-final. Tickets are available on the club’s website.
For 41-year-old Swede Vilahamn, it’s a one club mentality in conjunction with Postecoglou that’s helping the side grow into a winning machine.
Tottenham cooperation
“In the beginning we [Vilahamn and Postecoglou] were together and we spoke and listened to each other and so on. But then I quite quickly realised that we play quite similar and we speak quite similar stuff,” he said.
“Then I realised the recruitment team in Tottenham had the same recruitment team when they signed him and me, so of course they want to have a certain style of coaches.
“After that we got to know each other and then we try to meet him once in a while just to make sure we can discuss stuff that I come up with or ask him questions.”
Added Vilahamn: “He’s interested in what we’re doing as well so we tried to make sure we have a meeting point where we can discuss that. It’s important, if you’re one club you need to speak football, talk to each other and ask questions about that.
“We had a week where we lost 1-0 against Man City and they lost 1-0 against Man City in the same week. Of course we spoke about that and we both realise it’s a gap [to the top teams] but with different scenarios.
“We can learn from that and can discuss through that and we also feel like we are a team, like we can actually have each other’s back and make sure we support each other.”
Battle to the top
Tottenham are playing catch-up on the women’s circuit. Not only are they trailing London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal but the likes of Manchester City and, on occasion, Manchester United look to have eased away too.
But that does not deter many, including Vilahamn, from hailing the quality of the WSL.
“A lot of clubs push each other,” he adds. “Some of them do it with high quality football and some by filling the stadiums; some of them just try to make sure that they follow the men’s team and have a good women’s team as well.
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