After two heavy losses, Martin Ho is not panicking ahead of Women’s NLD

LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 4: Cathinka Tandberg of Tottenham Hotspur with Tottenham Hotspur Manager Martin Ho during the Barclays Women’s Super League 2026/27 match between Tottenham Hotspur and London City Lionesses at BetWright Stadium on October 4, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Leila Coker – WSL/WSL Football via Getty Images) | WSL Football via Getty Images

The bloom is off the rose a bit if you follow Tottenham Hotspur Women. After a significant summer of major transfer signings and a strong start, there were real hopes that this could be the season that Spurs could make a major step up and not only start getting results against the best clubs in the WSL, but also make a real push for Champions League qualification.

But the last two weeks have seen Spurs get hammered twice — first a 6-1 loss against a financially juiced London City Lioness team at home, then 6-2 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a match that started off with Spurs playing well and holding the Blues more or less even in the first half. Those losses are significant, not just because they happened but the WAY they happened — it’s made a lot of Spurs Women supporters to lose some of their confidence in what could be this season.

That nervousness isn’t going away, especially with Tottenham heading into the first Women’s North London Derby of the season this Saturday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It’s the end of an absolutely brutal three match stretch for Spurs, but even after consecutive heavy defeats, manager Martin Ho is refusing to push the panic button.

As reported in The Cutback newsletter, Ho is trying to explain the recent results by pointing out that regardless of the real improvement of talent at the club, this is still a very young Spurs team going up against squads of established veterans.

“I think [the difference between] everyone’s expectations from last year to now is that we finished fifth, so [now] they expect us to finish in the top three, and we should be competing for this and this. We’re 15, 16 months into a totally different direction, a journey that the club want to go on. And if we want to be where those teams are — like Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, London City — then we have to take time to build this in a sustainable way.

“That means developing a younger team, which is the direction we’re going in, and making sure that we can build that with some consistency. I’m in no kind of panic mode, we know the areas we can be better in and they will follow.

““If you take Toko [Koga], we expect her to be playing like a 27- or 28-year-old senior player, and she’s 20.

“We have a very young squad. I think five or six players in the starting 11 on the weekend were under 24. We have to push them and challenge them and make sure they know there’s an expectation, but also there’s a reality to their growth, their development, their maturity as players.”

It’s a valid point. Although you can point to London City as a team that is definitely NOT trying to develop a team — Michelle Kang went out and purchased a team that could immediately compete for the WSL title behind players such as two time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas — Spurs are trying to inch their way upwards by buying young talent that they hope will develop into WSL stars. Players such as Signe Gaupset, Shekeira Martinez and Olivia Holdt, and defender Koga, anchored by more experienced players like former Villa star Kirsty Hans, former Lyon defender Alice Sombath, and Spurs leading scorer Victoria Pelova, who joined the club this summer from Arsenal.

The turnover in recent seasons means that this is still a Tottenham Women side that has a lot of room for growth and improvement, and Ho is now both preaching patience while also setting expectations of future excellence.

“Some of the players have taken time because we’ve had players that have come in from totally different playing styles. So most of them have played in teams that counter attack. When you have possession, it’s a totally different situation. I think they’re starting to find their feet a little bit more in a new environment, more demands, more expectation, different ways of working compared to their old clubs.

“There’s so many factors, but actually, what we need to focus on is what we can do as ourselves, and I think we’re in a good place. We need to be able to take that work from last year and take it forward, consolidate everything this year, be competitive domestically in the league and the cups especially, and make sure that we can we can continue to win. In the future, that’ll bring silverware back to the club.”

Arsenal are always a challenge to play; Spurs have only beaten them once in their history, which shows the gulf in relative talent between the two sides until recently. But Arsenal are struggling this season — they’re currently 8th in the table, four points behind Spurs, which means this could be both the best and worst possible time to play them. Tottenham have the talent to compete with Arsenal in this match and this season, but it’s a North London Derby, and those matches are never, ever easy.

The players also know how important this match is, even coming off of two heavy defeats. Spurs striker Cathinka Tandberg, a Spurs fan even before she joined the club, spoke to The Guardian’s Moving the Goalposts newsletter about the Derby and what it means to Tottenham players. She expressed belief not only in herself and her teammates, but praised Martin Ho for what he is doing at Tottenham to improve the team.

“Tottenham has always been a Champions League club for me. But I’m a fan so I can’t really talk for the other players. When I came to the club, I said that I want to get top three. But you also need to be realistic and to see where the team has been before. The transformation that Martin has done in a season is unbelievable. I don’t think anyone else could do that. That tells you everything about him. He’s one of the greatest coaches I’ve worked with and I think everyone that comes here, one of the reasons is because of him. We all trust him and the process.

““You can call [the past two results] a dip in form but I still feel like we also showed our qualities in those games. It’s just about ourselves. We maybe need to change our mentality a bit, find that fire and dig a bit deeper when we play those top teams. I feel like maybe it’s good that it’s come because it had to at some point. It’s about how we respond.

“We also have to realize where this team has been. Two years ago, it was a relegation club. We need to realize how quickly it has [changed]. But, of course, we have expectations and levels that we want to come to and we know that we can. I feel like we’re working so well … we just have to believe in everyone.”

A win, or even a result, against Arsenal, even an Arsenal team currently off the boil, will be a huge marker in the club’s progress. Spurs have had promise in the past but have always more or less bounced off the top clubs in the WSL — Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Manchester United have been major road blocks towards Spurs making the leap to league contenders. Spurs are hoping this time will be different — putting the heavy defeats aside, Spurs competed and even bettered their opponents in stretches in both matches before the wheels fell off. Martin Ho is hoping this has a galvanizing effect on his young squad and that they can use the motivation of the London City and Chelsea losses to push them to a better performance in the home NLD.

“I don’t think one or two defeats against the top, top teams with the calibre of players they have and the depth of squads they have should de

Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.