Vicky on last season, a new role and hopes for the upcoming campaign

Following her appointment as Senior Assistant Head Coach for our Women’s First Team, Vicky Jepson told us how much the Club means to her and why she’s so pleased to extend her stay with us.

“I’m quite a loyal person when it comes to football,” she said. “I was at my last club for 12 years, this is my third season now at Tottenham. One of the reasons why I wanted to stay is the vision and it’s one of the reasons why I came here. I believe that they’re putting an infrastructure in place that helps the female athletes to perform to the best of their ability. The facility that we’ve got is one of the best in the league. We get opportunities to play at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and there will be more this season. 

“Ultimately, there are no excuses for the players. It’s an elite performing environment that we’re working to create and it’s one of the reasons why I didn’t want to walk away. It’s not time for me to exit the Club and I’m very much looking forward to the next chapter of my journey here under new leadership.”

By new leadership, Vicky is referring to our new Head Coach, Robert Vilahamn, whose philosophy of developing young players aligns with the values of Vicky.

“It’s massive and it was one of the things that I said when I first stepped into Tottenham two seasons ago,” she explained. “My time at Liverpool was renowned for producing youth players. We had 17 that progressed into the WSL. We want to make sure we do that here at Tottenham. 

“Our youth setup is stronger than it’s ever been and we’ve already got two younger players that are stepping up to be part of our full-time environment with the seniors. Absolutely, we want to make sure we’re producing young players, the next generation of our Tottenham youth.”

Last season, Vicky took over from Rehanne Skinner as Interim Head Coach in March, and led us to nine precious points as we secured our Barclays Women’s Super League status.

“It was a bit of a whirlwind - two months of high, intense pressure,” she reflected. “The moment I walked in as the Interim Head Coach, there wasn’t a day in the building or on the grass that we weren’t under pressure because the label of the relegation battle was over us. I enjoyed wearing that pressure well because it’s important, as a leader under a lot of pressure, that your behaviours don’t change and you wear the pressure well. I often have a smile on my face regardless of how I actually really feel, so being calm and confident was something I had to make sure I was in those 10 weeks. 

“The staff worked tirelessly hard to deal with the pressure we were under but the main people were the players. I really enjoyed working with them and saw them grow so much. Those players that will stay with us for the next season will be in a far better place having dealt with the adversity that we had to deal with. Turning up to games when our chips were down and overcoming the scrutiny and negativity that comes with being a big Club like Tottenham in a relegation battle, they handled it really well. 

“There’s one key performance that will stick with me and I’ll be grateful for the way that they applied themselves and that was at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium against Reading. To play there straight after a men’s game in what we would call a six-pointer with Reading’s position in the league, to perform the way that we did under that pressure was immense around all moments of the game. It was really good to see them step up to that and I’m really privileged to be a part of that performance and that journey over the 10 weeks with all of the players and the staff. 

“Not forgetting the fans, because it’s important that, when you are hitting a little bit if turbulence, that they’re still there turning up every week. I remember travelling to Everton away and seeing a cluster of Spurs fans and it meant the world to the players because we want our fans to be with us win, lose or draw. You have to be with us and back us and I saw that from a group of special fans in those last 10 weeks. Hopefully we see more of that going forward next season whilst growing our fanbase, because I think we need to do that.”

Vicky has been making the most of her time off following the end of last season, recharging her batteries but also working towards her UEFA Pro License.

“I’ve been playing a little bit of golf! That’s my way to switch off from the game, getting on the fairway," she said.

“I’ve been away on my Pro License, so I went out to the men’s Under-21 Championship in Romania. Personal development is key for me. I don’t know it all and I don’t pretend to. No manager or coach does. Part of my personal development is to go through and complete my Pro License, which I’m really enjoying so far.”

The Women’s World Cup has presented a number of early starts for Vicky, who is monitoring the progress of our seven Lilywhites in action on the biggest stage.

“Some are 2am, 3am, 5am, so it’s certainly tested me, but my alarm has been set and we’ve watched every game for every player and supported them. I’ve reached out to them, texted them after and there’s been some fantastic firsts for some nations which is also great. It’s just a great showcase for everybody to watch and we’ll continue to do that each day. Hopefully our players do us proud, as they already have, and their nations continue to succeed as their fixtures come.

“We watched Luana Bühler’s first game. She didn’t play in the second one, but I’m always excited to see what new players can bring. I think she’ll bring something different as a centre-half. She’s very much stepping in to serve the ball into midfield, which is a different element. That will be good to see what dynamic she can bring but ultimately there’s still competition there. Myself and Robert have spoken a lot that we have to make sure that there’s competition in every position in this team, which is what we will have next season.”

So what are Vicky’s main hopes and expectations for the season ahead?

“To make sure we progress on what we did last season. What we did in those last 10 weeks was great because we survived, but we should never have been in that survival mode in the first place. We want to make sure that we compete and we finish a lot higher than where we were last season. We want to make sure that it’s a competitive squad and that the players that walk in on 7 August and those that return, those that were here last season, they have to give an extra 30 per cent because the bar has been raised again. We hope the new players come in and hit the ground running, but ultimately everyone has got to earn that starting shirt.”