HOT SPURS? Frank Exchange with Ho

After his time coaching in the North West with Everton, Liverpool and then Manchester United, Martin Ho spent 18 months as head coach of Norwegian side SK Brann – even learning the language to help communication.

Now the 35-year-old Scouser has joined Tottenham, and he’s smiling from ear to ear. Helen M Jerome chatted with him twice in a week (plus once to Beth England) to find out why they’re so revved up for the new season.

What sold you on coming to Spurs?

Martin Ho: I’ve come to Spurs because it’s authentic and I like that it’s a club that’s on the rise – and has been on the rise. We want to get it back on that track, because we know we’ve maybe fallen off that track.

The ambition, the commitment in terms of two women’s sport and women’s football, Daniel’s got very big plans for this club and this team moving forward, from facility to infrastructure and so on.

Then the staff around that with Vinai [Venkatesham, CEO] and Rebecca [Caplehorn, Director of Football Administration and Governance] and Andy [Rogers, Women’s Managing Director], it’s been really key for me that we’re all aligned on where we want to go strategically. When you’re all aligned strategically and you’re all going the right direction, I believe you can make things happen.

More importantly, we’re all on the same boat, rowing the same way – and no one’s drilling holes.

And that’s the big thing for me, that they share the same ambition and view as me. And more importantly, then when that all aligned, over a really short space of time, it made sense.

Have you been liaising with Thomas Frank?

I’ve actually met Thomas quite a few times, real good guy, humble, someone I’ve looked up as a role model. When I first met him I was a bit frozen if I’m honest, because I’ve looked at the way he does things and how he develops teams and individuals and that’s a big thing in my own methodology.

Any more transfers lined up?

Yes, hopefully. You never say never until the window closes. We’re working on some things.

What are the positions you’re looking for?

Numerous positions on the pitch, forward line, field line. But as we know, it’s difficult in these markets when it gets so close and you’re competing with numerous clubs for those players. But hopefully we’ll try and add some to it before the window closes.

Your pitchside communication involves lots of arm-waving, we thought you were like an air traffic controller!

Love it. That’s my new pose then.

No, more importantly, I want to make sure that I breathe my passion and my personality onto the players.

Understandably you want bravery and commitment. But in terms of tactics, watching the friendly against Arsenal (which Spurs won 4-3), you had a plan A, which evolved into a plan B in the second half. So I wonder how many plans you’ve got?

A to Z. No, more importantly, the game’s going to throw you so many different problems and in England now it’s a more of a chess game, I come with plan A, they come with plan A, I go with plan B and so on. That’s where you have to be very flexible tactically.

More importantly first half we established good structure, but we weren’t using that properly, so we readjusted slightly in the second half and that gave us more control and more opportunity to play forward and be brave.

Sometimes it’s just a little bit of courage and bravery and trust from the players – and once we did embrace the game and took it on our shoulders, the back end of the first half into 30 minutes in the second half, I thought our pressure was good. You have to appreciate Arsenal are a super, super team and they’re going to have possession and going to make us surrender at times, and we did.

But the most important thing for me was the ruthless edge we had. When we got chances and got into attacking positions, we were creating big enough opportunities to goal. They weren’t small chances. We’re taking chances, creating chances, you get a good bit of good fortune with maybe the free kick and the penalty, but actually getting into those positions is more important. If we’re not getting there, that would be a concern.

We’re going to have to be very tactically flexible, and there’s going to be numerous ways we’re going to have to adjust and play. But more importantly, I want us to focus on us, and what we’re going to do and how we want to play, and make the opposition focus on us. But I also know we have to have an eye on the opposition because that’s part of football.

Perhaps you need to wrap Beth England in cottonwool – keep her fit for the season and you’ll be fine?

Keep everyone fit for the season, hopefully. But no, we’re moving in the right direction, more importantly, and I think the more the players adapt to a totally different playing style, which takes time, I think you’ll see the fruits of that. And hopefully, it’s the same progression if I look at it now.

I’m looking at it from when I went to Norway. I went into a team that was kind of really low on confidence and belief, and we had to rebuild it. Hopefully now, we can do the same, but I want to do it in a shorter time period.

Last word goes to Beth England herself, and having just scored twice against Arsenal, the Spurs captain agrees with Gunners head coach Renée Slegers, that Spurs feel more aggressive and front-footed now.

Beth England: Yeah, Martin has really pushed that. I think he wants the aggression. We have to be better at being in teams’ faces, and I think we were probably a bit too soft in previous seasons. I think you’re going to see a much more aggressive side, and hopefully it’ll pay off like it did today.

I think as many bodies as we can keep fit and on the grass as possible, it’ll be amazing for us. We’ve got an amazing squad, so the squad depth will become really important going into the latter parts of the season.