For five years, the Argentine media gave special attention to Tottenham Hotspur, as manager Mauricio Pochettino was heralded for doing a great job at the club.
With the coach now gone, the local press turn their attention today to another Spanish-speaking boss at Spurs, which is Juan Amoros.
The manager has been Tottenham Hotspur Women Head Coach since 2011, and carried the team to the FA Women’s Super League last year.
He was interviewed by Infobae, and had a lot to say about the job that has been done at the London side lately.
“There’s a fairly large development. When we were promoted from the third to the second division, there was already quite a big change and we began to move to a much more professionalised system, with many more departments. We’ve always had the department of video analysis and physical preparation, even in the third division, but, when accessing the second, the club’s medical department begins to take on much more relevance and especially the football demands.
“There was a quite qualitative and quantitative assault there: we started training four times a week instead of three and that helps a lot in the development of the players in the way they play and in the style of play. With the promotion to the first division, everything is completely professionalised, with a structure that doesn’t only play football, but everything that surrounds it in terms of fans, marketing, commercialisation, advertising, television and the profile of female players. Everything already happens on a global scale.
“The support is now totally professional. The club is totally committed to the women’s project. Ten years ago were other times. Today women’s football has grown a lot. Back then, the support was different because the female game was different worldwide. Since we have been promoted, the club has been turning a lot with everything we need. Now we are fully professionalised and we train in the sports city. We have support from all departments, a special area of media, marketing and a medical department. Also other areas that are integrated with the men’s team, such as the nutrition department or the match analysis department. The support is quite strong and, in fact, the women’s soccer director is part of the club’s board and is part of a pyramid system of influence. Also in the training part we have a lot of support and it’s very professional.”
On the signing of US superstar Alex Morgan, which has generated a huge amount of worldwide coverage, Amoros talked about her arrival and the expectation around her debut for the club.
“She is the most recognised forward worldwide in the last ten years for all that she’s accomplished. The truth is that she’s surprisingly a fantastic girl, not because of her professionalism, because that’s something to be expected, but because of how she is willing to help all the players, her teammates, the coach.
“She tries to be the best in the gym, the best on the playing field, the best in the match analysis room, she tries to help the younger ones, she sits down with everyone to eat, she tries to mix and meet all the people. The truth is that this has surprised me a lot about such a top player who decides to come to England. In the last ten years, she’s won two World Cups and the Olympic Games, and we are an evolving club, so one might think that maybe “big head” is coming, but it hasn’t been like that at all. It’s been something spectacular and all the technical staff and the players are very happy to have her with us.
“Right now she’s not ready yet. We know that she recently had her daughter Charlie and that it’s still been a little while, but I’m sure that very soon we will be able to enjoy her with the Tottenham jersey.”
Amoros talked about the many stars that have joined English clubs this summer, and why they’re all taking this decision.
“I think the English league has been very well organised and from the beginning they’ve established very clearly what the foundations of what they want are. Since 2012 or 2013, with the total professionalisation of all the clubs in the league. In the men’s branch, the Premier League and the Spanish league are surely the two best leagues in the world and the clubs in those leagues are giving a lot of support to women’s sport, which is why each time these clubs have the best players.
“To this is added that there are problems in the United States to play due to the issue of the pandemic, they debate that if the league is suspended, if it’s postponed, that if you try to play but it doesn’t work out at all. On the contrary, in England there’s stability and there is a lot dependent on women’s football. Well, in the end there’s a magnet effect: if a player makes the decision to come, others will want the same. It is the players who decide their future when their contracts end, which are shorter for women.”
When Alex Morgan finally gets on the pitch, the hype around Tottenham is only going to grow.
