Martin Ho full of ambition as his first WSL campaign with Tottenham Hotspur is on the horizon

Tottenham Hotspur FC Women will be looking to bounce back from last season’s disappointing eleventh place finish. They begin the new WSL season with a London Derby against West Ham at Brisbane Road.

Ahead of their match, recently appointed manager Martin Ho addressed the media to explain his plans going forward.

Team news

Ahead of the match, Ho spoke about the team news. With several key players and fan favourites being absent during preseason, he was delighted to confirm that most of them are available for Sunday’s fixture.

Ella Morris and Luana Bühler still remain sidelined with long term injuries, and Molly Bartrip faces a late fitness test to determine if she will make the first match day squad of the season.

"Molly has a bit of a knock, she’s been out of the last two games, so we’re assessing her. That's it really. The long-term ones before I was here, Ella and Luana, are still the same. They’re the ones who are really missing, we’ve had a few little knocks throughout, but a lot of those players have trained today. Apart from the long-term absentees, and Molly, we seem to be in a really good place.”

What to expect from Spurs

On to expect from Ho’s Spurs, he demands a highly aggressive and attacking style of play. The  players expressing themselves on the pitch, as well as embracing the Club’s identity as a whole are central to his vision:

 “Passion, desire, commitment. There’ll be a very high intensity off the ball, in terms of aggression, being on the front-foot, defending forward. Then with the ball, being expressive, players can express their personality. We want to be very direct, front-footed, energetic, creative. We need to use the Club’s DNA and identity from a football perspective, make sure we embrace that, and hopefully we’ll do that throughout the season.” 

Spurs’ first match of the season is at the home of Tottenham Hotspur Women, Brisbane Road. Regarding the fanbase, Ho speaks about the importance of playing with passion and hunger at home to inspire the younger generations of fans. He aims to get to know his squad and club as a whole promptly:

“It's really nice for me to have the first game in front of the fans. Being able to witness what it’s like in terms of the stadium, getting to the game, being able to look at the fans that come out to support, and make sure they want to come back and watch. That comes from performance on the pitch, the playing group and the commitment they give. Away from that, we have to make sure we’re inspiring a new generation of fans. We need those fans to make sure we take the necessary steps to where we want to go.”

For Spurs, their preseason campaign shows the potential of this newly freshened side. Ho is impressed with his team and their standout preseason: victories against North London rivals, Arsenal, Southampton, and a draw with Levante stand them in good stead going into the 2025/26 WSL season.  

The head coach also expressed huge respect and admiration of his players for adjusting to a whole new way of football and training in a short period of time:

“They’ve all been brilliant, I couldn’t have asked any more. A change in playing style, identity, coach, process can be challenging for everyone, staff included, but the players have embraced everything we’ve done. They’ve applied themselves correctly, gone above and beyond, the intent, the application… everyone’s doing really well. There’s a lot of talent in this group; it’s for me to bring that out of them and maybe changes in the environment have allowed that. I’ve got to make sure that’s maintained throughout the season and beyond.”

Ambitions going into a new era

On his long- and short-term ambitions, the manager has nothing but high expectations. The squad are encouraged to be consistently playing well and look competitive. However, he recognises that there is a lot of work to be done before they can challenge for trophies. When asked about fighting for top spots and playing European football, he said:

“ I think the ambitions for the group, more importantly as we know, we know we need to be better than we were last year, and that will start with me and finish with me in terms of how we play and how we behave on the pitch, more importantly. We want to make sure we better last year. We should be pushing ourselves and you don’t want to put a ceiling on where you can finish because then it looks like an overachievement, in my opinion. We’ll push as much as we can and make sure we get as high up in the table as we can.

To kickstart the new era under Ho, Spurs are looking to stun West Ham on home soil. The importance of this fixture cannot be underestimated:

“As I’ve said to the players, you’re usually remembered for your first performance in the league, and we want to make sure that’s a good one. We have ambitions to get there, but we know we have a lot of work to do to get to those top three.”