Building a Winning Culture: What Martin Ho’s Tottenham Are Really Playing For

Tottenham Hotspur Women head into their last Subway Women’s League Cup group match against Bristol City, knowing that a win will send them straight to the quarter-finals. But listening to what manager Martin Ho had to say ahead of the trip makes it clear that qualification is only part of the bigger picture.

📸via shekicks.net

For Ho, the League Cup is not a side competition, even though it often gets overlooked in the media.

“Every competition matters to me because I’m a serial winner. I want to win. I don’t want to lose,” he said. “We win or we lose. I want to make sure we build a winning culture.”

His idea of a winning culture stretches beyond the squad list or the result itself. Consistency across competitions, he believes, is the key to long-term progress.

“Winning breeds confidence, and confidence is very, very important in football. If you have that confidence, you can go a long way.”

Tottenham’s recent 0–0 draw with Arsenal in the league showed how much the team has grown in just a few months, something Ho recognises as well. The result may not have changed the table, but it reinforced the belief that Spurs can compete with the league’s top teams.

Ho also highlighted the growing connection with supporters. Nearly 7,000 fans were at Brisbane Road for the derby, a number that reflects both visibility and support.

“It was the first time I really felt we out-sung and out-cheered the home team,” he said. “The connection with the fans is there, and we want to keep pushing women’s football forward.”

That connection also extends to visibility. With SpursPlay broadcasting the upcoming match, fans will once again be able to follow the team’s journey, something Ho values deeply as part of the club’s growing identity.

“These competitions can propel your profile and your connection with supporters,” he said. “They build massive belief in individuals that they can compete at the top level.”

Looking ahead to Sunday, the match against Bristol City will be an especially interesting contest. The Robins are in strong Championship form under Charlotte Healy, a coach Ho knows well from their time together at Manchester United.

With both managers familiar with each other’s ideas and principles, the tactical battle will be fascinating to watch. While many coaches use the early rounds of cup competitions to rotate, Ho made it clear that he won’t.

“Just by rotating your team, how much do you show that you respect the opposition?” he said. “The team I feel can win the game will play.”

Ho spoke with genuine respect about Healy’s approach:

“Her team is well organised, efficient with the ball, and defensively resilient,” he said. “She definitely knows how I think about football and how I want my team to behave.”

Tottenham are unbeaten against Bristol City in all previous meetings, but Ho’s focus remains firmly on progress rather than records. Over recent months, he has built a foundation of belief, respect, and steady improvement, qualities that will follow Spurs into their next challenge.

The match in Bristol will determine who reaches the quarter-finals, but more importantly, it will offer another measure of how far Tottenham have come under Martin Ho,  and how much further they can go.