Robert Vilahamn unique: "We wish to be a Champions League group"

“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 not too long ago 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 good outcomes”, shortly got here to grasp that Tottenham’s squad was one he “wished 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 Girls’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 group coach Ange Postecoglou, has helped him develop into probably the most thrilling and influential girls’s soccer managers within the league proper now.

“Understanding I am right here for the following three years means I can really 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 be taught rather a lot.

“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 yr. We will now push to the following degree, however it should be powerful. We have set to work actually arduous.”

Vilahamn relished his first alternative to take the lead in recruitment when the summer season switch window opened, seeing him have the ability to pick out gamers that he felt might 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 necessary a part of his long-term purpose of qualifying for the Champions League.

“I feel we appeared on the switch window in numerous methods,” Vilahamn explains. “One was that we wished 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 wanted to have gamers that may assist us develop much more as a result of we wish to be a Champions League group.”

Spurs recruited gamers from a few of Europe’s high 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 are able to compete with the highest groups and I feel we have now a great likelihood of competing with them this season,” says Vilahamn. “Whether or not we are able to attain the Champions League this season or not depends upon how a lot we are able to develop collectively, however we’re heading in that path. 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 group, Spurs had been compelled 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 depart,” he says. “We knew Manchester United wished to have Grace again, so we started in search of individuals who might fill that function. We used her as a case examine of how we are able to enhance and develop gamers and that is advantageous.

“When Celin wished to depart, there was nothing we might do about it however attempt to discover a strategy to get a brand new participant into that place. Dropping 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.”

Earlier than getting into the world of soccer, Vilahamn spent the early a part of his profession in schooling as a PE and English trainer. With regards to describing his management model that has been praised by so lots of his gamers, Vilahamn says his time spent in colleges was massively influential.

“I wish to ensure I deal with folks nicely,” he says. “I wish to ensure I assist them to really feel freedom and play one of the best soccer, however nonetheless join as a group. I do not wish to micromanage. I wish to ensure they really feel belief, however typically it is arduous as you want to push them, so it is rather a lot in regards to the atmosphere you create.

“We wish to play bravely, so it is vital to attach with that and in the event you do, I’ll provide you with a lot vitality, 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 deliver vitality to the desk and what you may deliver to the group.

“I’ll assist construct an atmosphere to ensure they will attain the very best degree, but it surely’s about teamwork. I am completely a supervisor, however I would like them to ensure I may help drive them.”

Vilahamn bid farewell to his place as supervisor of the ladies’s group at Sweden’s BK Hacken to hitch Tottenham, however previous to that he was assistant coach of the lads’s group. He explains that “attending to know the historical past of girls’s soccer” was a precedence when first making the swap.

“You need to encompass your self with each women and men in employees which is essential,” he says. “However it’s additionally vital to grasp the folks you’re employed with and what they need. It fits my means of main as a result of I am a trainer, so I type 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 really demand that.”

Vilahamn has not solely been capable of foster an atmosphere 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 Girls’s Championship have not too long ago entered a brand new period {of professional} soccer, with management being taken away from the FA and given to a brand new unbiased physique, referred to as the Girls’s Skilled Leagues Restricted (WPLL).

Vilahamn mentions that, with a purpose to develop, it is important they “do not simply observe the lads’s soccer trade”.

“I really feel like there’s hope with this new group that they will discover methods to ensure girls’s soccer grows into one thing actually large,” he explains. “I really feel like we want to ensure 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.”