3 things that stood out in NFL Draft first round: Rams' surprise tops list | Opinion
Rams' choice of Ty Simpson in the NFL Draft surprises many, focusing on the future.
Cathinka Tandberg, a 21-year-old striker for Tottenham, expresses her ambitious dreams for the women's team, aiming for Champions League participation next season. Despite the men's team's struggles, she remains optimistic about the future.
Mentioned in this story
Tottenhamâs Cathinka Tandberg has bold dreams for womenâs team regardless of menâs plight
Cathinka Tandberg is cheerfully examining the racks of Tottenham Hotspurâs official club shop. The 21-year-old striker admires a sweatshirt and sweatpants, a plush white bathrobe emblazoned with the cockerel crest, making a point to extol its supple texture. As far as club content goes, this is easy money.
Then Tandberg, who joined Spurs last summer from Swedish side Hammarby, catches a glimpse of the keychains, specifically the one bearing the Champions League logo. The Norway international gambols in that direction, beckoning the camera into her orbit. âThis,â she whispers, âis what weâll be playing in next season.â
Thereâs a 100 per cent chance that youâve never seen this clip. âItâs him that says no!â Tandberg laughs, pointing to the media officer sitting behind us in the dugout at Spursâ training ground four days before Spurs host Manchester United in the Womenâs Super League (WSL). She knows the filtering is not from a place of personality policing, so much as protection. The internet is forever, and there is a particular titillation that accompanies a Tottenham Hotspur player publicly making bold claims about the future.
Not that any of that has stopped Tandberg. In fact, she has been making such claims since September, after she lobbed Everton goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan from the halfway line to help secure Spursâ second win of the season, declaring live on the BBC that Spurs were Champions League contenders and she intended on being the best striker in the world.
At that point, Spurs had only played Everton and West Ham (both of whom spent dalliances on the tableâs bottom this season). Since âs 2014 WSL title victory, a combination of , and have finished in the top three every season barring two, when Manchester United claimed second and third in the 2022-23 and 2024-25 seasons respectively. Excusing those two flickers of broken hegemony, the WSLâs highest echelon has been an unassailable strongbox.
Cathinka Tandberg aims for Tottenham's women's team to compete in the Champions League next season.
Cathinka Tandberg is a 21-year-old striker who joined Tottenham from the Swedish club Hammarby.
Tandberg remains focused on her ambitions for the women's team, regardless of the men's team's current struggles.
Tottenham's women's team will compete in the Women's Super League (WSL) next season.
Rams' choice of Ty Simpson in the NFL Draft surprises many, focusing on the future.
Key American Conference prospects to watch for the 2026 NFL Draft.
Who will win the Premier League title? City and Arsenal are neck and neck!

Who will win the Premier League title? City and Arsenal predictions inside!
Washington Commanders pick linebacker Sonny Styles with No. 7 overall pick in 2026 NFL Draft.

Dolphins' draft decisions spark fan frustration over local talent
See every story in Sports â including breaking news and analysis.
The closest Spurs have edged towards it was in 2024, finishing a club-record sixth and reaching a first FA Cup final (losing 4-0 to United). The very next season, Spurs dissolved into an 11-game winless run, finished second from bottom and sacked head coach Robert Vilahamn one year into a new three-year deal.
âObviously people will think [this season] is lucky because thatâs what people think about when they think about Tottenhamâs womenâs team because itâs been like that,â she says, her voice carrying a begrudging edge. In the hours after her lob against Everton, many questioned its authenticity, ignoring that she executed the precise goal 24 hours earlier in training. The same doubts have followed Spurs, even when they were as high as third in the table under new manager Martin Ho earlier this year.
Spurs have since tapered to fifth, a three-match losing streak in the league (including successive 5-2 defeats to City and Arsenal), sending them seven points adrift of United in fourth and, for some in the game, to a part of the table that makes more sense.
âIâm actually going to say Iâm really disappointed because there are loads of games where we should have taken three points against teams that are below us,â Tandberg says.
âThatâs s*** when you sit there and think we could actually have already beaten our record points total, given all that we have here; the infrastructure, the belief of what this club can achieve. Of course, we can sit there and say weâve done well because we did better than last year but thereâs some games weâre like f***, why didnât we take three points? Because we should.â
Tandberg has always been a vault of self-belief (âI play with a lot of personality and to do that I need to have confidence,â she says), but this season she has come to embody the new vintage of Spurs Women: young, hungry and brash enough to declare its intentions, even if it means reckoning with failing to reach them publicly.
Spursâ recent losing streak represents the first time under Ho, who joined Spurs in July from Norwegian side Brann, that they have lost successive league matches. They have conceded 36 goals, the third-worst in the league, with a third arriving in just their last three matches.
No one expected Spurs to solve all of last seasonâs foibles. They have made inroads on the pitch, appointed smartly off it and shattered their club-record transfer fee three times, for defender Toko Koga, Tandberg and Norway midfielder Signe Gaupset in January.
But Ho has emphasised that while Europe is an ambition, achieving it would always take more than one season. Considering Spursâ record against the WSLâs top four sides this season (two draws and five defeats with an aggregate score of 8-21), itâs difficult to disagree.
Building on this year is paramount, an ambition despite having to contend with the menâs first teamâs potential relegation from the Premier League and the financial implications that accompany a behemoth trying to fit into the shoes of a Championship club.
Spurs Women, like almost all womenâs teams in the UK, remain heavily reliant on the revenue of their menâs team. While their budget, like most, pales in comparison to the menâs senior team â in their most recent financial accounts published in March, Spurs womenâs total salaries, including bonuses, amounted to ÂŁ3.73 million last season â and any expenditure on the womenâs section is classed as an add back in Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) calculations, the team still affect the clubâs overall bottom line. There are plenty of cautionary tales, most recently Blackburn Rovers, Reading and even Everton, of suffering a financial clampdown amid the menâs teamâs struggles.
Those internally insist that the womenâs teamâs future is secure. The summerâs budget has been confirmed, they say, and the club are actively working on securing multiple signings, while more investment is planned for the academy infrastructure. Ho signed a new long-term deal last month, as have key midfielders Olivia Holdt and Matilda Vinberg. âWeâll be in a good place [even if the menâs team suffers relegation],â Ho says. âThe leadership want to support the team, make sure weâre progressing so that wonât affect us.â
For Tandberg, the image of Spurs sitting in the Premier League relegation zone is complicated by her own perception of the team she has supported since childhood, travelling over the North Sea to accompany her dad to matches at White Hart Lane. Sheâs watched Harry Kane score in the Champions League and Gareth Bale order Maicon a taxi.
âI didnât know what Spursy meant until I moved here,â she says. Sheâs since learned. âIâve always watched Spurs, but for me, Tottenham, itâs a Champions League club. Theyâve just been unlucky this season. Of course, I have to separate it because I canât be sad every day because theyâre being threatened with relegation, which of course is s***, but I donât think itâll happen. I really donât. I just try to stay positive.â
Ho had thrice before tried to cajole Tandberg to Brann during his two seasons there, only for Tandberg to feel she was better served by other clubs. It is a sign of the distance travelled under Ho that Spurs cut itself as the destination for Tandberg.
âWhen he contacted me to come here, he was, like, Iâm not going to speak to you again if you say no to this one,â she laughs.
âI trust him a lot,â she adds. âI can talk to him about anything thatâs happening, on the pitch or off it, and he can talk to me about what he expects.
âIâm also a really passionate player, and heâs a passionate guy. He can feel what I feel. Iâve been really open about my ADHD and heâs been so easy to talk with about that. Sometimes on the pitch I can make an aggressive tackle or get yellow-carded and Iâm like, âf***â . That was my ADHD coming out too much. But Martinâs really good at being like âTinks, come on,â and turning my head back on.â
Conveniently, on Tandbergâs right thigh, the words One Day At A Time shout back in black ink. For a kind of media-trained anarchist, the sight of footballâs most reliable interview cop-out (âone game at a timeâ) burnished into her thigh muscle triggers a smile.
âIâve been thinking about taking it away,â Tandberg says of the tattoo she got two years ago. âYou know when you get older and you know all those things?â
But even the most ambitious occasionally require a reminder of something so basic. The past month has been that for Spurs and Tandberg, who has failed to score since her brace in the 7-3 thrashing of Aston Villa in February. Her strong start to the season stuttered after suffering an undisclosed injury in November.
Tandberg was forced to miss the reverse fixture against United, watching helplessly from home as United â the former employers of Ho, assistant manager Lawrence Shamieh and new goalkeeping coach Ian Wilcock â salvaged a breathless point after going 3-0 down before the hour mark.
âHalf of our staff has worked at United so this one means a little bit more for everyone,â Tandberg says of Sundayâs match. âWe know what it means when you play against your old team. You want to prove them wrong, to show that weâre the better team.â
Victory would also close the gap to United to five, shifting Spurs closer to the top four and their best finish as the season comes to a close. Doing so wonât be easy, but Tandberg refuses to unsubscribe from bold dreams.
âWeâre such a great group, so we need to have something to reach for,â she says. âAnd if you donât reach it, itâs not like the world is going under.â
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tottenham Hotspur, Soccer, Women's Soccer
2026 The Athletic Media Company