The combination of warm weather and hard work in Spain has got Ashleigh Neville relishing her seventh season in the Barclays Women’s Super League this campaign.
As part of ongoing preparations for the 2025/26 WSL season, we’ve travelled to southern Spain for a week of intense training – and we are already into day three of the performance camp.
While putting in the work on the training pitch, we’ll also face Sevilla in our first pre-season friendly on Friday 15 August (7pm UK time), which will be available to watch on SPURSPLAY, giving supporters the opportunity to watch Martin Ho’s side for the first time.
Our longest-serving player in the squad, set to embark on her ninth with the Club, ‘Ash’ believes the change of scenery was much-needed to help build relationships between players and staff.
“It’s great to be out here with the team,” she told us. “It’s a different environment, it’s always good for everyone to get away into a new setting but also still be able to come here and do a week of intense training to help us push towards the first game of the season.
“We know the weather is a lot warmer, but I think it just tests us and pushes the squad to different levels. I think it also brings us together as a team, there's a lot of team-building exercises that we're going do out here and spend a lot of time together. I know most of the team was here from last season, but we've got some Academy players here with us and also Toko [Koga] joining us.
“It's just great for us to keep pushing together and using this time for us to build those relationships, on and off the pitch.”
Joining us in June from SK Brann, Martin is now into his fourth week of pre-season with the squad, and the experienced defender says the spirits have been high in camp.
Watch | Mic'd up with Martin Ho
“He has been good,” added the defender. “He has come in and set his standards from day one and it's pushed everyone to be at their best.
“Having someone new come in, it's kind of a clean slate for everyone, so we’re all pushing on and looking forward to that first game of the season. Everyone's in good shape and in good spirits, especially with Martin coming in and the quality he's brought in, on and off the pitch is great for us.”
The intense work on the pitch in Spain is all part of preparing for our WSL season opener at home to West Ham United on Sunday 7 September (12pm UK) – tickets available to buy – and Ash is excited to get going once again.
“Being at home and being a London Derby against West Ham, it will be a good one to open with,” she smiled.
“We're excited to begin at home and hopefully we can get a lot of fans there watching. But I think it will be here before we know it, so we're making the most of our time here together.”