Tottenham's Ambitious Women's Squad: Aiming for European Glory
Tottenham mean business. You can see it in the fees, the names, the timing of the deals. This is not a club content with mid-table comfort in the Women's Super League. Not anymore.
Last season’s fifth-place finish felt like a statement of recovery after a year spent flirting dangerously with relegation. This summer feels like something else entirely: a declaration of intent.
A squad built to rattle the elite
Tottenham have gone into this window with clarity and aggression. They have broken their transfer record to prise France defender Alice Sombath from Lyon, a move that underlines both ambition and financial muscle. It follows the £375,000 spent in January on Signe Gaupset, another young talent snapped up from Europe’s emerging pool.
Around those marquee investments, the recruitment has been broad and targeted. Forwards Shekiera Martinez and Kirsty Hanson arrive to add goals and bite in the final third. Caitlin Dijkstra strengthens the back line, Victoria Pelova adds guile in midfield, and Selma Panengstuen comes in to deepen the goalkeeping department.
On paper, it looks like a squad built not just to compete, but to irritate the established order.
This is Tottenham’s seventh season in the top flight, and the infrastructure has grown with them. Staff numbers have risen, training facilities have improved, and the women’s team now has its own base at Hotspur Way. A court decision has blocked plans for a new women and girls academy facility for now, but the direction of travel is obvious: Spurs are building a serious operation.
They have flirted with the big stage before. Promotion in 2019 was followed quickly by a north London derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, drawing almost 40,000 fans. A year later, they pulled in USA star Alex Morgan on a short-term deal after the birth of her child. This year, they reached the Women's FA Cup final. The club has been edging closer to the game’s sharp end, step by step.
Ho’s 12‑month blueprint
The turning point on the pitch came after a slump. A disappointing 2024-25 campaign under Robert Vilahamn cost him his job. Martin Ho walked into the role with Tottenham drifting, and promptly yanked them back up the table in his first season.
Ho did not arrive to firefight. Since he joined in July 2025, Tottenham have worked to a defined 12‑month recruitment plan, mapping targets across three transfer windows. Talks with striker Cathinka Tandberg and defender Toko Koga were already advanced before his contract was even signed; both have since become central to his team.
Ho’s first summer was about assessment, not upheaval. He studied what he had, then pushed for what he needed. From there, the evolution has been deliberate and sustained. Club sources say that every key target identified for January was secured. The same, they insist, is true of this summer’s business, even with the window open until 3 September.
The pressure finally told in the timing of their deals. Spurs moved early. They wanted Ho to have a full squad on the grass for pre-season, to drill his ideas and build cohesion rather than scramble late in August.
Behind the scenes, this has been the summer of Andy Rogers. The managing director, a 24-year servant of the club, has led the women’s transfer strategy with one eye on the future. He is stepping down, but determined to leave Tottenham in a position of strength and to make the handover as clean as possible.
A club looking upwards
So what does all this forward-planning actually buy them?
Tottenham have secured their status as a WSL club. That much is clear. The resources off the pitch now give them the platform to think beyond survival and consolidation. The conversation has shifted: it is no longer “can they stay up?” but “how far can they go?”
Ho has not hidden the target. He has consistently spoken about competing with the league’s best and building a squad capable of playing in Europe. The problem is simple and brutal: only the top three in the WSL qualify for the Women's Champions League. Those spots have been locked down by Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United.
Breaking that cartel is a huge ask.
And Tottenham are not the only ones trying. London City Lionesses and Brighton are spending heavily, both openly chasing a route into that same top-three bracket. Their ambition has forced Spurs to react. In a market where transfer fee records are tumbling almost annually, standing still is the fastest way to fall behind.
This is also a volatile moment in the women’s game. Financial regulations and salary caps remain in their early stages, still more theory than iron rule. That leaves room for clubs willing to push harder, invest more and accept the risks. Tottenham have chosen their moment to lean in, on both sides of the club.
The women’s spending this summer runs alongside a bold window for the men’s team, who are trying to recover from a disastrous Premier League campaign that came perilously close to relegation. It all feeds into a wider strategic reset after the departure of chairman Daniel Levy in September 2025 and the reshaping of the boardroom.
Vinai Venkatesham’s arrival as CEO from Arsenal in April 2025 is another thread in that story. He played a key role in Arsenal’s women’s success and has been brought in with the clear expectation he can help replicate that model at Tottenham.
Talent, identity – and a missing crowd
On the pitch, the plan is clear: blend some of Europe’s best young talent with proven WSL output. Gaupset and Sombath headline the youth investment. Hanson and Martinez bring goals and know-how. Ho is being handed a group he can shape over time, not just plug gaps with.
The challenge now is to make that ambition visible in the stands.
Last season, Spurs averaged just 1,734 fans in the WSL, a number boosted by the occasional game at the main stadium. For a club with this level of investment, that figure jars. The football operation is growing. The squad is growing. The question is whether the fanbase can be grown to match.
Tottenham have built a team that looks ready to chase Europe. Whether north London turns up in the numbers to push them there may define what this project becomes.
