At one point, Weaver and Clarke were overseeing a club with more than 150 women’s and girls’ players at different age groups, but in 2019, as the rigours of top-flight football arrived, it was time for the men’s club to take over. Cullen says: “I remember saying, ‘I know it’s your baby, but…’ I knew in my heart that they loved the club so much that they would want to take the next correct step for it.”
Around four years later, Andy Rogers was appointed as managing director of the women’s team and he oversaw the appointment of Robert Vilahamn as head coach last summer. Carried out at a similar time to the process that saw Ange Postecoglou take over the men’s team, Rogers says they targeted a coach with a distinct style of play.
“Women’s or men’s, we go through the same thing,” Rogers says of the recruitment process. “There are some really significant similarities when you watch all our sides, the intensity that we play at, the high press, etc etc. There’s an element of risk to how we play but we want to be the most exciting team on the planet.
“[After finishing ninth last season] we wanted to change the narrative on the women’s team. The passion we have for this is relentless, there’s an obsession. Being in an FA Cup final is huge for the football club, it’s a moment, and we want to have more of these moments.”
Cullen, who has been on Tottenham’s board since 2006, believes the women’s team’s training facilities now being on the same site as the men’s have made a key difference. She adds: “That’s also allowed us to bring across some of the knowledge of expertise in the men’s set-up and some staff have gone across, sports science and nutrition, the fitness. We’ve put in a planning application for a women and girls’ academy [to be built] next door, which will enable us to put everything on one site and really drive girls’ and women’s football.”
In the more immediate term, the focus is on Sunday’s showdown at a sold-out Wembley. They reached their first major cup final thanks to a 2-1 comeback win in extra time over Leicester City.