Robert Vilahamn addressed the media on Thursday afternoon ahead of the FA Cup clash on Sunday that will see Tottenham Hotspur host Women’s Championship side, Sheffield United, at Leyton Orient’s Brisbane Road.
After seeing the fans celebrating the WSL London derby victory against Arsenal on December 16th, Vilahamn described how he wishes to gives fans more moments of celebration: ‘[It’s] for the fans, it’s not for me. I’m working for this club and I’m going to make sure I develop this club […] to give them a title that would be amazing, to see them celebrate, to see them celebrating at Arsenal the other game was really big for me, so I just want this club to get those trophies because they deserve and they [have] waited a long time,’ said Vilahamn.
Embed from Getty ImagesWith Tottenham as a club having last lifted the FA Cup trophy in 1991 when the men’s team beat Nottingham Forest 2-1 at Wembley in the 110th edition of the final, he is eager to win what he describes as ‘the real cup’.
‘For me growing up, this is the real cup […] this is what I think is the huge cup in this country.’
‘The FA cup might be one of the shortest ways to win. I mean the title of the league is quite hard right now because the top teams are very good, but the cup, there’s always a cup and you can always find ways to go through each stage and actually win a title.’
‘I’m dreaming of winning that title for the fans but […] I’m not stressed if we shouldn’t win the title this year because we are going to make sure we are in the big finals in the future as well.’
The prize money for winning in the fourth round Women’s FA Cup stands at £54,000. When asked by reporters what this cash injection could do for the Lilywhites, Vilahamn stated: ‘Of course it’s nice if we can win money but Tottenham Hotspur is a very big club with a big budget if you perform well and make sure you show the board that you are doing good stuff.’
‘It’s more like if we show that we can actually add money to this team and show that it’s a business case here in women’s football as well, that’s one good thing.’
‘We are not in here to win [the] money, we are in here to entertain the Tottenham fans, to win titles for this club.’
He then went on to say: ‘I hope they can raise that amount in the future as well to make sure we actually have a big benefit of it.’
Embed from Getty ImagesLooking towards the Women’s Championship opposition they will face in Sheffield United, the Spurs manager commented: ‘I think we can learn from this kind of cup game.’
‘We are looking forward to this game because after a winter break it’s nice to have this kind of game.’
‘We have really good control of how they play because we had Eleanor [Heeps] there on a loan this season, she actually played for them. I know they have really good qualities, they have some really quick strikers.’
‘But the thing is, it is when they are not succeeding I see some really good spaces we can take care of as well, I think we have a good chance to hurt them of course.’
The Swedish manager went on to provide a positive injury update following the winter break saying: ‘It looks like both Olga [Ahtinen] and Eveliina [Summanen] will be in the squad for Sunday so that’s really happy news, they have trained very well these two weeks and look sharp so they’re gonna be back in the squad.‘
In addition to Ahtinen and Summanen being back in the squad, three new faces will be present too; Shuang Wang, Matilda Vinberg and Charlotte Grant. Vilahamn explained: ‘I think when you look at what we have signed, I think it suits the way we want to play very good […] it’s three good additions to the squad.‘
Having a cup game to introduce them to football in this country is something the 41-year-old believes will be of value to them: ‘The new players in our squad coming into this need to learn the new relations […] I think it will be a good game for us to hopefully dictate and make sure they get a good start with this club.‘
