Martin Ho: Tottenham are a sleeping giant in women's football, says Spurs boss as he signs new long-term deal ahead of North London derby

There’s no bigger boost ahead of one of your biggest games of the season against your local rivals than a managerial extension – but Tottenham and Martin Ho have done just that ahead of Saturday’s trip to Arsenal in the WSL, live on Sky Sports.

The 35-year-old has signed a new long-term deal just nine months after arriving at the club, having overseen a complete turnaround since Spurs finished 11th in the WSL last season.

Tottenham are currently in fifth place and at one point in the season they upset the traditional top four and were ahead of Arsenal.

As the season has progressed, Ho points to consistency as a reason for a drop away from the European race, but he has certainly proved that with a bit more work, Tottenham can become part of the elite WSL group.

Ho has now been given the time and confidence to do that job with a new contract, and it’s one that surprised him.

He discussed how the deal came about, told exclusively Sky Sports: “Three or four weeks ago, Andy [Rodgers] messaged me and said ‘can we catch up tomorrow?’ and naturally, when the CEO sends it to you, you think ‘what’s going on here?’.

“But he had had meetings with the management team and the board, and they were really happy with what we’re doing and the direction we’re going.

“They wanted to make sure I’m here for the long term to work on this project and take it forward. They felt I was the person who could help them achieve what they want to achieve, which is nice to hear as a coach.

“Then you want to make sure that you can adjust many things, and we adjust absolutely everything. I absolutely love the staff and the players I work with.

“I feel like we’ve actually got a lot going for us here and we might be a bit of a sleeping giant in women’s football. It just needs that little bit of direction and polish and we can really make big strides.

“It is a credit to everyone who has come before me who has made it possible for this club to be where it is and I have a lot of respect for them.

“I’m really grateful to the ownership, the management, for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. I want to make sure I can repay that faith by giving them some silverware.”

It is perhaps a measure of Ho’s own success that with defeats to Everton and Manchester City in their last two games, it is the first time Spurs have recorded back-to-back WSL losses under him.

Tottenham are almost in a bubble of their own in the table, currently six points off the fourth-placed Gunners but nine ahead of everyone else. The improvement and ambition is clear, but the ceiling for those above them is not yet smashed.

“We can’t be comfortable where we are because we’re not,” Ho said. “If you want to close that gap, you need consistency — that’s the biggest thing for me.

“You can talk about players and all these other things, but actually you get in that position and the teams above you are there because of consistency.

“At the end of the season, where you finish is where you deserve to be and I always say to the players, persistence gets you there but consistency keeps you there.

“We need to find a level of consistency in our performances. If we find that as a team and individually, we can really push the bar.

“Maybe at times we’ve just been inconsistent with performances. We had a really good spell early on [in the season]we’ve had a good run coming back and we’ve had a bit of a dip in form, which of course happens and the onus is on me to make sure we don’t have those dips.”

There was no better demonstration of this than against Man City on Saturday. The WSL leaders stormed into a 5-1 lead in the first half, but a far better performance from Spurs in the second half kept their opponents at bay.

Indeed, Bethany England – who will make her 200th WSL appearance this weekend – scored the only goal after the break, but the discrepancy between the halves was stark.

“It was a disappointing performance in the first half,” Ho said. “We didn’t get going, we weren’t aggressive enough in our close duels, our one-on-ones. We didn’t defend the box well enough for the first contacts, and we didn’t win enough of them. Even the second phase, we didn’t get enough.

“The second half was much more like us. We were more aggressive, we were closer in the duels to win the ball higher up and in our half we defended the field well. We had so many opportunities with the ball, we were brave, we had a lot of individual brilliance, intuition and creativity in the middle parts of the pitch.

“Maybe at half-time, when you look at the game, the pressure is off the players because you’re 5-1 down and you can play with a bit more freedom and not something sitting on your shoulders.

“If we perform like we did in the second half, which we know we can at a good level, then we can compete with a lot of teams.

“We have to make sure we put it [second half] performance each week. We can’t afford to only have a 45-minute performance – we have to make sure we’re on it for 90 and at this level, if you don’t, you’re punished. We have to see it as more of a wake-up call than an alarm.”

Tottenham will hope to produce one of the best 90 minutes of their season when they travel to Arsenal on Saturday, live on Sky Sports. Spurs held their north London rivals to a goalless draw in November and will be hoping to hand Renee Slegers only her second loss in 21 games at the Emirates Stadium.

On the question – simply – how do Spurs go about beating Arsenal? Ho replied: “Score more goals than they do – that’s probably the easiest way to do it.

“I enjoy these games and so do the players. You don’t have to motivate them for a North London derby – there should be a real pride and passion within to represent this club and play in these games.

“Obviously what we need to do is make sure we perform at a high level and maximize the potential of each one and if we play the way we want to play we can be a match for anyone.

“We performed relatively well against them early in the season at home and really took the game to them in the first half. We had to defend a lot more in the second half but it showed real character.

“That should give us the belief that when we want to perform at that level, we can do it. The big thing for us is to find a consistency with it and not leave it too long before we actually perform at a high level in the game.”

Martin Ho on Asian Cup winners Maika Hamano and Toko Koga

“When you’ve just been away and won, they bring back a winning mentality, winning behaviour, winning attitude and winning feelings and enthusiasm around the group.

“They are both uplifting as people and they will play with a lot of confidence and belief in themselves.

“It’s important for us because we want to make sure the players are full of those things and if they can do that for their national team and come back with us then that’s great.”

The building blocks are there for Tottenham. Ho has quickly and effectively implemented his own ideas amongst a talented squad, with preparations to build on that next season picking up speed.

“We’ve got a really good foundation in place now to build from and the standards, the expectations, the style of play and the identity is really set, so going into next year, it’s how we can build on that growth and really develop,” added Ho.

“You have to develop the squad if you want to develop and we will do that in the summer, but it has to fit our dynamic as a team and with the person – their characteristics as an individual are really important.

“We will do business in the summer, we just have to make sure it’s the right players in the right positions and by doing that we will not only develop as a team, we will have more competition and balance throughout the team.”

Watch out for the sleeping giant. Before long, they might rise from their slumber to give those above them in the WSL something to think about.

Watch Arsenal vs Tottenham in the WSL live on Sky Sports Main Event and Premier League from kick-off 5.30 p.m.