Tottenham Women based full-time at the club's main training ground, reveals new coach Rehanne Skinner

In what marks a major change to their set-up, Tottenham Hotspur Women will now be based full-time at the club's main training ground - alongside the men's team - new head coach Rehanne Skinner revealed on Thursday.

The former England women's assistant coach, who joined up with Tottenham on Monday, says that her new team moved to Enfield on the same day. Despite the timing, Skinner said it was not a move that she had pushed for, but rather something the club had planned.

“The club were very aware the facilities the players needed to evolve. It obviously shows their interest in the women’s team because they felt it was the right time to make that move," said the 41-year-old. "It was already something that was happening [before I joined]. That made a statement to me about the intent that was around, looking after the women’s team and incorporating them so that’s been a real positive step for everybody."

Earlier this year, Spurs were criticised when it was highlighted that their women's team only trained out of their 77-acre state-of-the-art Enfield training ground once-a-week. The rest of the time, the Women's Super League squad trained at non-league Barnet's Hive facilities - where they also play matches - in a set-up that reportedly didn't provide a fridge, and left players bringing in jam sandwiches to training sessions.

Skinner confirmed there had been a marked shift in the last four days and the women's team were now working full-time at the Enfield facilities. In the WSL they join Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Aston Villa who also train full-time at the same facilities as their men's sides. In her first press conference since being announced as Tottenham manager two weeks ago, Skinner described the Spurs players as "ecstatic" and that the move was a sign the club were looking to integrate them more completely with the rest of operations.

“The game has changed massively, we all know that, and the club is now starting to encompass the women’s team more and more," Skinner said on Thursday. "We are now training here at the ground which is a great statement and provides us with unbelievable facilities to start raising the standards that we are looking to achieve.

“We have everything we need to create a high-performance environment. It’s now on our doorstep... The stuff we have access to now is unbelievable and obviously the players are ecstatic about being in this environment.”

Skinner replaced long-time joint-head coaches Karen Hills and Juan Amoros last month, the former of which had been in charge for 13 years. Despite the pair securing the biggest signing of the club's history in World Cup winner Alex Morgan, Tottenham have failed to record a single league win so far this season.

Tottenham currently place 11th of 12 WSL teams and play Brighton at home on Sunday for Skinner's first game in charge, with fans allowed at the Hive for the first time since February.

“The timing of having the fans back in is just really fortunate for me," Skinner said. "[It] will change the atmosphere in the game and hopefully bring a little lift. I can’t wait to have a game under our belt with all the work we have been putting in. In terms of this weekend, I’m hoping you will be able to see little glimpses of that but it’s a lot to ask in a short space of time. We will be evolving with more of a positive, attacking-style of play but it will take a little bit of time to achieve that."