Tottenham's Ambitious Summer: Aiming for the Top in WSL

Tottenham are not whispering their intentions this summer. They are shouting them.

A year after clambering away from the wrong end of the Women’s Super League table and finishing a respectable fifth, Spurs have attacked the market like a club that has decided mid-table is no longer an acceptable resting place.

This is a push for the top.

A statement window

The headline is clear enough: a club-record deal for France defender Alice Sombath from Lyon. Tottenham have already shown they are willing to pay for potential, spending around £375,000 on Signe Gaupset in January. Breaking their own record again so soon underlines a shift in gear.

Sombath is not arriving alone. Forwards Shekiera Martinez and Kirsty Hanson, defender Caitlin Dijkstra, midfielder Victoria Pelova and goalkeeper Selma Panengstuen have all been added to Martin Ho’s squad. On paper, it looks like a group built not just to compete, but to unsettle the established order.

Ho inherits a club that has already lived through a rapid evolution. Promotion in 2019, almost 40,000 fans at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for a north London derby with Arsenal, the marquee arrival of Alex Morgan on a short-term deal, a run to the Women’s FA Cup final in 2024. Spurs have flirted with the big stage. This window suggests they now intend to stay there.

The plan behind the push

None of this is scattergun. When Ho arrived in July 2025, Tottenham put a 12‑month recruitment plan in place, mapping out 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 pillars of his side.

Ho’s first act was restraint. He took a summer to study what he had, to work out who could grow with him and where the gaps lay. Only then did the evolution start in earnest.

Club sources are adamant: they have landed every key target they wanted in January and again this summer, even with the window open until 3 September. Deals were pushed through early so Ho could put the full group through a complete pre-season, bedding in new partnerships rather than scrambling for late solutions.

Behind the scenes, this has been driven by managing director Andy Rogers, a Spurs servant of 24 years. This is his last major window before stepping down, and he has approached it like a legacy project – leaving a women’s squad that looks equipped for the next phase rather than the last one.

Infrastructure rising, obstacles too

Tottenham’s growth in the women’s game has not just been about signings. Staff numbers have swelled, training standards have climbed, and the team now has its own base at the club’s Hotspur Way training centre.

Yet progress has not been seamless. Plans for a new women and girls academy facility were blocked in court this week, a reminder that off-field ambition can still hit hard, practical walls. For a club trying to build a sustainable pathway, it is a frustrating pause at precisely the moment momentum is building.

Still, the direction of travel is obvious. Spurs are no longer fighting to prove they belong in the WSL. They are planning how to break out of the pack.

Aiming for Europe in a crowded sky

The ambition has been spelled out consistently by Ho: Tottenham want to go toe-to-toe with the best in the WSL and construct a squad capable of playing in Europe.

That is not a modest target. Only the top three qualify for the Women’s Champions League. Those places have been the near-private property of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United. Cracking that cartel is one of the hardest climbs in the domestic game.

And Spurs are not the only climbers.

London City Lionesses and Brighton have thrown serious weight behind their own projects, determined to punch through the same glass ceiling. Their spending and growth have acted as a warning flare for Tottenham: stand still and get left behind.

This is a moment in the women’s game when the financial landscape is still being drawn. Conversations about regulations and salary caps are at an early stage, which leaves clubs with room to inject cash with little pushback. That freedom may not last. Tottenham are choosing to move while the door is still open.

A new era in the boardroom

The women’s investment is not happening in isolation. The men’s team, bruised by a season that lurched dangerously close to Premier League relegation, have also embarked on an aggressive rebuild. The message from the club is that both sides will be armed for recovery and progression.

All of this comes in the wake of Daniel Levy’s departure as chairman in September 2025 and a broader shift in strategy at the top. Vinai Venkatesham’s arrival as chief executive officer in April 2025 is a key part of that story. At Arsenal, he was central to the women’s team’s rise. Tottenham are banking on him repeating that blueprint on the other side of north London.

The recruitment reflects that mix of vision and pragmatism. Spurs are hoovering up some of the best young talent across Europe – Gaupset and Sombath are the clearest examples – and blending it with proven WSL output in Hanson and Martinez. On the training pitch, that gives Ho raw material he can shape: youthful ceilings, experienced reliability, and the kind of internal competition top teams rely on.

The missing piece: a crowd to match the ambition

One challenge looms large over everything else: the fanbase.

For all the investment and on-field strides, Spurs averaged just 1,734 in the WSL last season, a figure boosted by occasional fixtures at the main stadium. It is a stark number for a club of Tottenham’s size and profile.

The contrast is jarring. A squad built to chase Europe, a club restructured at the highest level, a record signing from Lyon – all played out in front of crowds that barely scratch the surface of the potential market in one of football’s richest catchment areas.

That is where the next battle lies. Recruitment plans can be drawn up a year in advance. Contracts can be negotiated, facilities upgraded, strategies rewritten. Convincing thousands more people to make this team part of their weekly routine is slower, more fragile work.

Tottenham have made their move on the pitch and in the boardroom. The money is down, the intent is obvious, the squad looks ready for a step up.

Now comes the real test: can they turn ambition into Champions League nights – and can they fill the seats when they get there?