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Martin Ho: The Road Ahead
Tottenham Hotspur Women head coach Martin Ho talks to Ben Bartlett about his career journey, the importance of long-term planning, and why there is no magic wand to wave when it comes to coaching.
It’s been a thrilling season for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Women. Head coach Martin Ho arrived at the club in the summer of 2025 – and has since helped them to a record Women’s Super League points total as well as a run to the quarter-finals of the Women’s FA Cup.
Ho might not have been a well-known name in England before he took the role, but he has plenty of experience. Previously head coach of Norwegian giants Brann SK, he took them to the knockout stages of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Prior to that, he had been assistant to Casey Stoney at Manchester United and Andy Spence at Everton, with a spell coaching in Liverpool’s academy as well.
He says that his time at Brann gave him the experience of being immersed in a totally different football culture, and working in those big clubs across the north-west of England gave him the chance to learn from some leading coaches. He pays particular tribute to former Manchester United head coach Casey Stoney, now leading Canada’s women’s national team.
“You can be such a good coach on the pitch, but everyone learns differently and some people want to see things differently,” he says. “I learned a lot from Casey. She was very good on the grass coaching, but she was even better off the pitch with how she demonstrated and through analysis, but also how she showed visually through the tactics board.
“I learned a lot from Casey. She was very good on the grasps coaching, but she was even better off the pitch with how she demonstrated and through analysis, but also how she showed visually through the tactics board.
“Her mannerisms, her persona, the way she carried herself as a person and as a coach, those key traits of commitment and hard work - which everyone thinks is simple, but you either live and breathe them or you don’t, and it’s easy to say you do - but she was someone I took so many things from and I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her, especially.”
Ho says that his experience coaching in England and in Norway has given him clarity on what it takes to succeed at the highest level, or as he puts it: “What is it that’s non-negotiable if you want to build something that lasts?” But it has also shown him that there is no single perfect model that will work for every coach and club.
“There are obviously clear behaviours and standards that drive performance and they’re diverse in different places,” he says. “But for me personally, how I want my team to look tactically, it’s got to be clear physically, they’ve got to be capable of playing with an intensity and, yes, brave on the ball, but also aggressive without it and emotionally strong enough to deal with these difficult moments. At Spurs, that’s where I’m at now and where I’ve come from.”
He adds: “My experience has also taught me that style can not just look at tactics on the board, it has to suit the league, the players, the demands of the game.”
Alignment, investment, patience’
Working in the Women’s Super League as a head coach presents some big challenges. Over recent seasons, a Big Four has developed – Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United – with the other clubs trying to bridge that gap. Tottenham – who were promoted to the top flight only in 2019 – are in that chasing pack. Their previous best league performance came in 2021-22, when they finished fifth, on 32 points. In 2024-25, they narrowly avoided relegation, finishing 11th out of the 12 WSL teams on 20 points, and a goal difference of minus 20.
Revitalising a demoralised squad and fanbase and putting in a framework for the future are the top tasks Ho took on. He says that his own values are grounded in being “old school”, requiring complete effort and hard work and willingness to run for the team, but he also puts his own spin on those principles. When he accepted the Tottenham job, he knew that would be a long-term project and it needed buy-in from everyone at the club.
“We’ve tried to put a platform in place and the foundation which we can build from, but we had to go to the real core of affairs to make sure that it was very clear what it’s like to represent this football club and this badge and what it means to the city, to the people and fans that support it.
“Breaking into the top four or top five in this league, let’s be honest, it’s very challenging. It takes alignment, it takes investment, patience, and an elite daily environment, which is very important to mention. But the approach is not obsessed over the table in isolation.”
He points out that to get into the Women’s Champions League, his side need to crack the top three of the Women’s Super League.
“That means creating a football identity, which we’ve done, then improving on the consistency of our performances, recruiting the right profiles, developing players, and coaching them in the correct way. I’m raising standards across every department and environment to make sure that we’re trying to pioneer the way we move forward, but the biggest step in my opinion is moving from a team that can compete well on occasions to becoming a team that can impose itself consistently across a season.”
“I believe if they know that I care and respect them and I will give my attention to them and I’ll give my time to them, they’re going to give you that back on the pitch.
There are no shortcuts to that kind of consistency and success, he says – it needs time and work.
“We’re always looking for ways for the players to be better individually, whether they’re playing or not playing,” he says, adding that his entire coaching staff has a passion for educating players and helping them achieve and reach their full potential.
He goes on: “If their full potential’s here or somewhere else, as long as we’ve played a part to help them get there, I feel it’s important that they leave the club knowing, ‘I was made a better player than when I got here. I’ve been educated every day when I’ve come off the field.’ Those things are big for me: that they leave the field with something new every time or something that they’ve done better.”
And the aim is to back that up with data that they can show to players.
“That really shows the player how far they’ve come,” he says.
“I believe if they know that I care and respect them and I will give my attention to them and I’ll give my time to them, they’re going to give you that back on the pitch. I’ve had no doubt that the players have done that all season for me. Even when they’re frustrated within games, I know that they’re going to go the extra mile for me. and I think that’s vastly important. But that all comes from building relationships.”
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‘People first’
When Ho took the Spurs job, he did not make wholesale changes overnight.
“The initial phase when I came in was to see what was there, because when something’s not broken, I don’t believe you should change it. I believe there should be some continuity to allow players to feel comfortable and settled - but if I have to make change, then I’m not afraid to do that.
“When I came in, it was [about] making sure that there was a very clear framework around the staff and players and the team, whether that was daily, in terms of their own operations on standards, information and expectations, but also with each staffing department, making sure that there’s very clear alignment on the processes we use, how we process, how we communicate…so really holding the staff accountable in their own areas, and then really understanding the players, understanding them as people first, so I knew how they wanted to learn, what their ambitions were, where they were at psychologically after such a difficult season - and the same with the staff.”
He explains that the Tottenham project is progressing through a four-year roadmap. The 2025-26 season is its foundation year, with growth expected next season, then a leap, then sustainable performance.
“We’ve tried to develop the players and coach the players in that initial phase, make them know that they can be better and help them see a really clear pathway for their own development, and I gave everyone six or seven months to really show me what they could do, and then we started to make some changes in the January [transfer] window that we needed to make it sure we could elevate ourselves and keep the enthusiasm open.
“By doing that we’ve allowed the players to play with a bit more freedom and a bit more structure, and that structure’s allowed us to maybe get some more results and then results build confidence and motivation, and we’ve just tried to build on that.
“And it’s not been anything where you think something drastic has happened and I’ve done something amazing. It’s more [that] it’s a really basic foundation of getting the club into a position where we’re all on the same page and we’re aligned on philosophy, playing philosophy, environmental philosophy away from the pitch, and we’ve done that really well.”
‘The tools to be better’
And that alignment and the shared commitment to the way ahead will, Ho expects, bring the future success the club wants.
“Everyone looks at European football, but we want to make sure that we’re a permanent contender in the domestic competitions: the FA Cup, the League Cup, the league, and then when we get further down the line, [I want us to] sustain that.
“But I think a lot of that comes through just coaching and developing the players that you have and giving them exposure in the right environments and giving them the right tools to go and perform. If you looked at the team from where it was the season before to where it is now, before we made some changes in January, it was the same squad - we’ve just give them the confidence and belief from a coaching perspective that they can go out and perform.”
And good, straightforward coaching is something Ho wants to see more of across the women’s game – adding that it will raise standards across the board.
“I don’t feel we coach enough,” he says. “I don’t think we need to be innovative and creative with things. I think we can just go to the core parts of football, which is coaching and developing people and players.
“If you can coach and educate players more and more every single day, I believe that’s probably the biggest innovation you can have in player development. You are giving them something to be better with and you are giving them the tools to be better.”
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