The story of Tottenham Hotspur Women and their former manager Karen Hills sounds like something from a fairytale, the kind you would read to your child as a bedtime story but never quite believe was real.
In 20 years Hills, now 45, went from playing for Charlton Athletic Women and helping out at Spurs soccer schools to working as Tottenham’s women and girls development officer and then, in 2009, was officially appointed first-team manager.
Speaking to The Times on a video call, she laughs as we reach the part of her career that has been much publicised — her role as minibus driver, jam-sandwich maker and kit washer. “That’s what you do to run a grassroots football team,” she says, matter-of-factly.
Alongside her co-manager, Juan Carlos Amorós, who joined Tottenham shortly after Hills was appointed, the women’s side progressed through the pyramid, earning promotion to the women’s top flight in 2018-19, as they convinced the club that they were a worthy investment.
They were proven right in October of 2019, when Tottenham set the attendance record for a Women’s Super League match: 38,262 fans watched their north London derby against Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Alex Morgan, the two-times World Cup winner with the USA, and Alanna Kennedy, the Australia international, are only two of the world-class stars to play for the club this season.
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But those remarkable feats would be the pinnacle of Hills’s Tottenham journey — the fairytale would not have a happily ever after. In November last year Hills and Amorós were “relieved of their duties with immediate effect”. The statement on the club website referenced their efforts in “helping elevate the team from amateur level to become a fully professional side”.
But the statement also focused on the need for further “upward trajectory”. There is a cruel irony in Hills’s journey from grassroots manager to Uefa A Licence holder developing concurrently with women’s football becoming a professional sport that increasingly mirrors the men’s game.
When it comes to managerial safety, the more money spent by a club, the bigger the pressure, and there is little room for sentiment.
“It wasn’t how I wanted it to end, obviously, it wasn’t how I planned it,” Hills says. “I had no thought of that entering my head and when it did, it was a tough couple of weeks initially because you felt numb, you didn’t have a sense of purpose.
“All of a sudden you’ve gone from 100 miles an hour doing everything for a team . . . to then being [told] actually, we are going to part company. It was a numb moment and then you go through mixed emotions. [You’re] down a little bit because you can’t get out and see anyone [because of lockdown], so you’re quite isolated.”
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Her dismissal coincided with the coronavirus pandemic, making an already mentally challenging scenario even harder, though a bright point was her and her partner’s French bulldog puppy, Bobby, that they had bought two weeks earlier.
The other source of strength in the weeks and months that followed was her mentor, Emma Mitchell, a performance lifestyle adviser at the English Institute of Sport who is part of the support Hills has received from the FA’s new Coaches Excellence Initiative, an 18-month programme that has handpicked 14 coaches to support and develop.
“Every Monday we would get on a call and really talk through the week and give me that confidence to know it’s OK to feel how I’m feeling and it’s OK to have good days and bad days,” Hills says.
“There were some amazing coaches that reached out: Emma Hayes [of Chelsea], Hope Powell [of Brighton & Hove Albion], Kelly [Chambers] over at Reading, obviously Carla [Ward, of Birmingham City] I’m very good friends with.
“I could always reach out to people if I needed and then a month later, it hit me a little bit because that’s when everything died down.
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“All the phone calls and all the texts have stopped. You’re not messaging your players, and you feel a little bit like, ‘Now what?’ We spoke a lot about my self-awareness and how I showed up and I can’t speak more highly of her [Mitchell]. She was a little bit of a lifesaver.”
Part of the thinking behind the FA course is to support coaches such as Hills, who have overseen huge changes in the women’s game.
In the WSL, only the Everton manager, Willie Kirk, and the Bristol City interim manager, Matt Beard, have managed more than one club. Managers are facing new challenges to be job-ready as the turnover of roles increases, despite only having a 12-team professional league, with Championship teams Liverpool and Leicester City also fully professional.
“There aren’t hundreds of jobs in the women’s game and so to be in a big club, to then have what happened to me, it was always a doubt . . . What was I going to do? Is there going to be [another] opportunity?” Hills said.
“It was all about just trying to work through what it is I wanted to do, because you give so much, you give absolutely everything. I’ve given everything to Spurs and they’ve given everything to me for 20 years.”
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The course has helped Hills to strengthen and update her CV and led to a new role as the head coach of Charlton, the club where she ended her playing career, who now compete in the Championship as a semi-professional side. They have recently been welcomed into the Charlton Athletic umbrella, with the club’s new owner, Thomas Sandgaard, passionate about including the women’s team in his plans.
“All the football courses are based around your technical, tactical [knowledge], but this [the FA course] is really about yourself and understanding how you can be the best you can in a really high-pressure environment,” Hills says.
“As the game is progressing, more people are obviously showing an interest but there’s limited jobs. You have to be the best you can to get the best out of managing your staff, managing your players, managing your environment, making sure all your values are aligned with the club.
“I’m not precious about being a WSL manager at the moment, I’m precious about the development of the women’s game, and I want as many clubs to do what Charlton are doing.”
