Christmas Eve Not-A-Hoddle: open thread for December 24

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! This is not a Hoddle, but even though I expect most people will be spending time with family and friends today, let’s get an open thread up for people who perhaps need this community today more than ever.

There’s no football on today. There is NBA basketball here in the States, as there usually is, but generally this is a sports-free day for me. That said, the news never stops, so we’ll put a few links in here and also include a theme of the day, as per usual.

But remember, the Hoddle runs Monday through Friday. This is not the Hoddle.

Theme of the Day:

Christmas Eve Links:

Because even now we can’t have good things, the Mirror has linked both Pochettino to PSG and Dele Alli to BOTH Real Madrid and Barcelona. Happy f—king Christmas!

And because we’re only days away from the January transfer window opening, our favorite stupid Italian media source Calciomercato says that Spurs are interested in 20-year old Swiss forward Dimitri Oberlin. (Oberlin is, also, one of the schools that rejected me for undergrad, not that I’m bitter about that or anything.)

In case you missed it, there was an El Classico yesterday and Barcelona essentially put a fork in Real Madrid’s La Liga title hopes.

Nashville put on a great soccer party this summer in the International Champions Cup, and now they’ve been awarded the latest MLS expansion franchise.