“It doesn’t end if we don’t win,” says Robert Vilahamn before his Tottenham side play Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.
It is that mindset and the aura around the club that has fans so excited, because, at the end of the Swede’s first season in charge, it feels as if there is so much more to come. If anything, as Vilahamn points out, reaching a Cup final so soon into his tenure and after a relegation battle last season puts them ahead of schedule.
“We perhaps shouldn’t be in the final this year, but we are in the final and we can win it,” he says. “We can use this to go out there and enjoy it but we need to go out to try and win it … if you win this title, you’re going to be on that board for ever. That’s the main thing we can try to do and if we fail, hopefully we are starting to grow for next year. But it’s not often you get to a final so it’s mainly to make sure we go for it.”
The task in front of them is formidable. Manchester United, their opponents, are fuelled by the hurt of a 1-0 loss to Chelsea in last year’s final. However, Marc Skinner’s side are far from infallible. A bruising 1-0 defeat by Liverpool – allowing their rivals to leapfrog them into fourth in the WSL – in their final outing before the Wembley showpiece was further proof of that. United won 4-0 at Spurs in December but that was in stark contrast to the 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture, Skinner’s side needing a 92nd-minute goal from Maya Le Tissier to take a point.
For underperforming and under-pressure United there is a lot to lose, but for their opponents there is so much to gain. Not least, there is an opportunity to unite the club’s fans behind the women’s team and substantially increase the crossover.
“We’re going to grow the fanbase very much because everything is measured by titles,” says Vilahamn. “I know for [Swedish sides] Häcken and in Hammarby, the men and the women’s supporters are the same because you want to win, and if the men’s team are having a poor season, then you can go over to the women’s team and they win, you get like a double chance to win. And I think the north London derby and the last big game at the Tottenham Stadium you felt that, that we are one club.”
Getting players to buy into his style so quickly was in some ways surprising, but the environment was also ripe for change. “I knew that it was a good club to sign for because they were struggling last year and I know that the environment was not the best,” says Vilahamn. “When you come to that kind of club you know that it’s quite easy, everybody is probably going to buy into what you’re saying. So, Chelsea, they’re winning all the time, they’re going to have a new coach, you don’t really know if they’re going to buy into the new coach directly or if they feel: ‘Why do we change this, we have been winning all the time.’
“I knew that if I came with a good energy and a good mindset about this, it was going to fit them and they were going to like it and then of course it’s connected to the club’s identity.”
There have been practical changes: to the time the players arrive in the mornings, how hard they train, how much they do in the gym, how they use GPS and look at physical performance, to the social media and media teams and more.
“We have done a lot of stuff and we have a good result already now,” says Vilahamn. “In the long run hopefully we are one of the best-run clubs in the world and then perhaps we can actually beat the other teams because we’re doing better stuff than them.”
Tottenham and Manchester United arrived in the WSL in the same season, Spurs runners-up to the Championship title winners United in 2019, but their respective journeys before were very different – the north London side having worked their way through the leagues from the bottom up, while United founded a team and bid for entry straight into the Championship after a rejig in 2018. There is no right or wrong way to establish a team, particularly when the rules have allowed for teams that meet licensing criteria to jump in. However, having the opportunity to reflect on the “organic” journey Tottenham have been on is helping them take their next steps.
“Some buy their way, or they find new ways,” says Vilahamn. “I was coach at Häcken, we took over Gothenburg FC, there’s nothing wrong with finding your own way to do stuff, but this building from the ground and seeing this development, that’s quite cool. It’s for real, I would say. The fans who have been with us from the first day, they love it and the players who have been with us, they love it. The players who are coming into this feel it.
“It’s just a few years ago they were actually playing more in the countryside in very small stadiums. Then, also you see the potential. After this short time, we are already in a final. Imagine if we can work really well for a few years now? I’m quite sure we can compete for titles.”
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