“If we don’t attain the Champions League within the subsequent three years, then I will be very unhappy,” says an formidable Robert Vilahamn at Tottenham Hotspur’s coaching floor.
The 41-year-old has just lately cemented his future on the membership for the following three years after a historic first season. Staying in north London was a no brainer for Vilahamn who, after getting “increasingly more good outcomes”, rapidly got here to grasp that Tottenham’s squad was one he “needed to maintain constructing”.
Vilahamn has taken Spurs to locations they might’ve solely ever dreamed of after narrowly avoiding relegation solely two seasons in the past. Not solely did he assist them safe a sixth-spot end within the Barclays Ladies’s Tremendous League, he additionally led them to the FA Cup ultimate for the primary time of their historical past.
Off the pitch, his ardour for the sport is infectious and has created such a buzz about the way forward for the membership for therefore many. The Swede’s need to develop girls’s soccer, alongside his “one membership” mentality with males’s crew coach Ange Postecoglou, has helped him develop into one of the thrilling and influential girls’s soccer managers within the league proper now.
“Figuring out I am right here for the following three years means I can truly plan,” Vilahamn solely tells 90min. “You typically want that with recruitment of gamers and employees members. I did not know what to anticipate final season. I got here right into a league that I did not know something about and I wanted to study so much.
“As we go into this season, I now know the gamers and the way we play. We’re extra into the small print as a result of we’re constructing on the groundwork we laid out final 12 months. We are able to now push to the following degree, however it’ll be powerful. We have started working actually onerous.”
Vilahamn relished his first alternative to take the lead in recruitment when the summer season switch window opened, seeing him have the facility to pick gamers that he felt may take the membership to the following degree.
He reveals to 90min that bringing in a handful of each youthful and extra skilled gamers was a vital a part of his long-term aim of qualifying for the Champions League.
“I believe we appeared on the switch window in several methods,” Vilahamn explains. “One was that we needed to have a younger, gifted group and discover gamers who did not have one or two years left on their enjoying profession, however alternatively we would have liked to have gamers that may assist us develop much more as a result of we wish to be a Champions League crew.”
Spurs recruited gamers from a few of Europe’s prime golf equipment, together with PSG’s Clare Hunt, Actual Madrid’s Hayley Raso and Maite Oroz, in addition to Juventus’ Amanda Nilden. Alongside them had been breakthrough stars Anna Csiki, Katelin Talbert and Ella Morris.
“We confirmed final season that we will compete with the highest groups and I believe we now have a very good likelihood of competing with them this season,” says Vilahamn. “Whether or not we will attain the Champions League this season or not is determined by how a lot we will develop collectively, however we’re heading in that route. I’ve a three-year contract and I will be very, very unhappy if I don’t attain the Champions League throughout that point.”
Though the switch window introduced an opportunity to bolster the crew, Spurs had been pressured to say goodbye to midfielder Grace Clinton, who made an enormous impression throughout her time on mortgage from Manchester United. So as to add insult to damage, the 21-year-old additionally took ahead Celin Bizet along with her.
Vilahamn made clear that he anticipated the departures and “tried to remain one step forward” whereas studying from the method.
“We attempt to put together if we all know any individual needs or wants to go away,” he says. “We knew Manchester United needed to have Grace again, so we started searching for individuals who may fill that position. We used her as a case examine of how we will enhance and develop gamers and that is tremendous.
“When Celin needed to go away, there was nothing we may do about it however try to discover a solution to get a brand new participant into that place. Shedding gamers is a part of the enterprise, and accepting that and discovering new individuals who wish to be right here and carry out is what takes us to the following degree.”
Tune in to 90min’s YouTube channel to observe our interview with Robert Vilahamn in full.
Earlier than coming into the world of soccer, Vilahamn spent the early a part of his profession in training as a PE and English instructor. In relation to describing his management model that has been praised by so lots of his gamers, Vilahamn says his time spent in faculties was massively influential.
“I wish to make sure that I deal with folks effectively,” he says. “I wish to make sure that I assist them to really feel freedom and play the very best soccer, however nonetheless join as a crew. I do not wish to micromanage. I wish to make sure that they really feel belief, however typically it is onerous as you should push them, so it is so much in regards to the surroundings you create.
“We wish to play bravely, so it is vital to attach with that and in the event you do, I will offer you a lot power, however in the event you do not then that is going to be an issue. I am very a lot specializing in the way you convey power to the desk and what you’ll be able to convey to the crew.
“I will assist construct an surroundings to verify they’ll attain the best degree, however it’s about teamwork. I am completely a supervisor, however I need them to verify I will help drive them.”
Vilahamn bid farewell to his place as supervisor of the ladies’s crew at Sweden’s BK Hacken to affix Tottenham, however previous to that he was assistant coach of the boys’s crew. He explains that “attending to know the historical past of ladies’s soccer” was a precedence when first making the change.
“You must encompass your self with each women and men in employees which is essential,” he says. “However it’s additionally vital to know the folks you’re employed with and what they need. It fits my means of main as a result of I am a instructor, so I sort of like to show them why we do stuff and what is the goal of every little thing. My expertise with girls’s gamers is that they need that and so they truly demand that.”
Vilahamn has not solely been in a position to foster an surroundings on and off the pitch that has instilled confidence and perception, however he is additionally remained vocal about what’s wanted to additional develop the ladies’s sport.
The WSL and Ladies’s Championship have just lately entered a brand new period {of professional} soccer, with management being taken away from the FA and given to a brand new impartial physique, often known as the Ladies’s Skilled Leagues Restricted (WPLL).
Vilahamn mentions that, with the intention to develop, it is important they “do not simply comply with the boys’s soccer trade”.
“I really feel like there may be hope with this new group that they’ll discover methods to verify girls’s soccer grows into one thing actually huge,” he explains. “I really feel like we want to verify girls get what they want and that features enjoying at stadiums and higher salaries, in order that in flip the fanbase can get what they want, too.”
