Robert Vilahamn on youth development: “Age is just a number, it’s all about performance”

Robert Vilahamn loves to take pride in the development of young players.

The mentality of ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old enough’ comes to mind when our new Women’s Head Coach discusses his principles on youth in the sport.

But Robert won’t sacrifice the experience of older, senior players, who he believes are just as integral to the balance of the squad.

“For me as a coach, I want to have a mixture of some older players but also a lot of younger players that can develop,” he said to SPURSPLAY after his arrival at Hotspur Way on Monday.

“Then we can see the benefit of it, right? 

“In BK Häcken [where Robert was head coach of the women’s team from 2021 to 2023], I had quite an old team, so we tried to reduce that a little bit by bringing some young, talented players in to develop with the older ones. 

“We’re going to do the same stuff here, we want to have those players who can be in the national team in the future and we need to have those players who are in the national team now, and they can work together. 

“My centre-back at Häcken is 38 and she has developed a lot this year. The full-backs are 19 and they have developed a lot, so I like to play with all the age groups and I like to have the balance. 

“Age is just a number, it’s all about the performance and what you can bring to the team.”