A Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links April 20, 2016

Good morning!

Mauricio talks a lot about the philosophy at the club and it got me to thinking. Insert joke here about Vin thinking, but I'm undeterred; here we go down the rabbit hole.

I'm not anti-relaxation, nor anti-rest, but I believe in action. Even in the face of uncertainty and doubt, it is our duty as humans to continue to live our lives as the act of doing is within our own control, day in, day out. I think finding inner peace is key to living a happy life even if that inner peace is inherently fluid, rather than static. I think a lot of things, just like anybody else, and these things that I think guide me through my day.

If these seems strange topics to take up, it's because they are. What I am trying to establish, however, is how important philosophy is to any of us even if we don't think about it on a daily basis. Even being anti-philosophy is in itself a philosophy!

That being said some manners of thought are more agreeable to me than others. As with any line of thinking, my opinions don't make me objectively correct, but a philosophy that rubs me the wrong way these days is the philosophy of "chill". I'm not the first person to write on this, and I'm most certainly not going to be the most thorough. If you'd like a more in depth read, I suggest this piece by Alana Massey. Chill is a synonym for "cool" but I've also always taken it to me "unaffected". Frankly, I can't think of a worse thing to be. Which brings me to Tottenham.

Mauricio Pochettino has got no chill. In fact, he's so not chill, he's trained our players to win the ball back with a ferocity that pops on television, forget what it must look like in person. He pounds the ground with his fists when Dele Alli hits the post. He screams out directions when he feels intensity is lacking. He keeps Ryan Mason around, I'm convinced, simply because Ryan gives as many f**** as he does.

Part of this is me expressing admiration, but it's also a call to arms. Let's be agreeable, affable, and accommodating, but let's be intensely engaged. Be a Mauricio for your passion, not a guy or girl who cares so little about things that emotional responses become impossible. I realize that many out there may describe themselves as "chill" and will take offense to my rant. I can deal with that.

I could go on, but this is a Spurs site, and I have headlines to make mock, so I'll sum up below.

tl;dr #AgainstModernChill

And now for the "news":

Mauricio to Manchester United is a thing again| Express

This has been a boring day of the rags reintegrating this into the news cycle. I'm too bored by this to make a proper crack. Oh god, I'm being chill about this, aren't I? Noooooooooooo!!!

How Maurico is stoking the fire in the belly of each player| Telegraph

What he said is more or less what I said, so of course, I like what he has to say.

Grant Ward keeps doing his thing at Rotherham| Vital Football-Rotherham

The Millers are probably staying up and it seems like our young attacker/midfielder has had much to do with that.

LVG says Manchester United are close to Spurs| Goal.com

These comments are so not chill that I almost love them. Is it possible he was hanging with Gabby Agbonlahor before granting this interview?