Tottenham’s newly-appointed head coach Rehanne Skinner says the future of Alex Morgan at the club will be discussed ‘as soon as possible’.
Morgan joined Tottenham in September, though it’s unclear whether she will remain at the club for the entire season.
The short-term focus for Skinner is on this weekend’s game, when she will make her debut in the dugout against Brighton, but the future of Morgan will be addressed quickly afterwards.
“I have not been with the team for long but those are conversations that need to be had as soon as possible,” the head coach said, facing the media for the first time in her new role.
“But we have to get this game up and running this weekend and start the league in the right way.
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“Then, we will assess where we are with Alex, look at the future and see what that looks like for her with the club moving forward.
“She is obviously a fantastic character to have in the environment with her experience and she is definitely moving in the right direction now.
“She got 45 minutes away with the U.S. national team recently and we are just hoping to build on getting her back on track with that.
“In the coming weeks we are hoping to increase minutes and get her into the form she is accustomed to being in, but it has been a long break that we have to manage and be aware of.
“She is definitely heading in the right direction and has looked good in training this week.”
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A knee injury meant it took Morgan until November to make her debut, her first appearance for a year after giving birth to her daughter, Charlie, in May, but she has started to build up her minutes since.
Also in the dressing room with her are her former Orlando Pride team-mates Alanna Kennedy and Shelina Zadorsky, with all three able to offer huge experience at the top level to this team.
“They add value to what you're trying to achieve, because they know what that looks like,” Skinner said, speaking of those high-profile characters.
“They are there to support and help to bring the team along with you. It definitely works in your favour, having them in the environment.”
Skinner was announced as Spurs’ new head coach last month, after Karen Hills and Juan Amoros, the club’s long-standing co-coaches, were relieved of their duties.
It has been a difficult start to the season for the north London side, who are second from bottom of the Women’s Super League table with three points and no victories to their name.
“We've got to start to play with a little bit of freedom in possession and trust that actually, we've got very good players on the pitch and they're capable of playing at a high level as long as they trust in their ability to do that,” Skinner said.
“Ultimately, if we're not prepared to get on the ball and not prepared to look to play forward and be a little bit more threatening, then it's always going to be more of a challenge.
“I'm talking to the players a lot about having that self-belief, getting on the ball as much as possible, making sure that we work as hard as we can for each other, to then give us that little bit of confidence to be even more threatening.
“From an out of possession side of things, I'm a strong work ethic person. Ultimately, the players have got to work really hard to make sure that we start to make it difficult for teams to play through us.
“We're hoping to just get those little messages across going into this weekend.”
