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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Jonathan Liew

What is the big idea? Levy’s second-class Tottenham Women mired in mediocrity

Olga Ahtinen feels the pain of Tottenham's defeat at Everton in the Women's FA Cup in January
Olga Ahtinen (centre) feels the pain of defeat as Tottenham once again struggle to compete with the top four. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/Tottenham Hotspur FC/Shutterstock

A couple of years ago it was reported that Daniel Levy, the man in charge of Tottenham Hotspur, was lobbying to abolish promotion and relegation to and from the Women’s Super League. Levy’s vision was of a steady-state league, with no mobility and therefore no real jeopardy, where the same teams competed for the same stuff every season. How we laughed. As it turned out, he needn’t have gone to the trouble. It pretty much ended up happening anyway.

For Tottenham at least, a season that began replete with possibility has buffed down to a blunt point. Marooned in mid-table, eliminated from both cup competitions, safe from relegation and well out of the Champions League race, their last nine games – starting with the north London derby at the Emirates on Sunday – are essentially pure content, dead rubbers, puff football. Will they put in a strong run of results and finish in fifth? Or will they falter and slump to seventh? Tune in to find out!

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