The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Monday, December 25

Hey, Hoddlers! Merry Christmas to those of us celebrating!

For those of you that do not celebrate or do celebrate and are looking to socialize with your fellow Hoddlers and/or avoid your families, I have a Christmas themed ramble for everyone today.

Ramble of the Day

I am going to pick on Juan Foyth a little bit today. Sorry to him in advance.

Every year, the club likes to do a feature on the website called “My First Spurs Christmas.” It consists of a few questions and answers about the newest signings’ Christmas traditions. It is usually standard fare, but that was not the case when it came to asking Foyth some questions.

Talking about the differences between the holiday in Argentina and England, the center back said:

When you wake up, like here in England, the presents are hanging from the tree or sometimes underneath it.

I have never seen a Christmas tree with gifts hanging from it. Also, what does he mean that the gifts are “sometimes underneath” the tree? Are they not always there? What is Christmas like in Argentina and England?

Anyway, Foyth moved on to talking about his favorite meal for Christmas.

Easy – I like chicken and potatoes!

Good choices! We all know about my love for potatoes. I do, however, have a question. Does he mean grilled chicken with roasted potatoes or chicken tenders with french fries, or something else? (I’m hoping for the second one.)

Finally, they got to the most important question: What presents did you get as a child? There is a lot to unpack here.

I always asked Papa Noel for a football, or football boots. I also collected shirts for different teams but they always stayed in the closet – I never put them on, I just collected them! I remember I had Argentinian shirts, one for Estudiantes, a Ronaldinho shirt for Brazil, and one for AC Milan because I liked Kaka. I got a replica and put his name on it. They were all small as I was just a child. Now I have Tottenham shirts!

Let’s start with how simple, but really rather sweet, it is that most of these players, Foyth included, answer that question with “a football,” but on to the real stuff now. It is a bit strange that he never wore any of the shirts he got for Christmas and just left them hanging, but a shirt collection sounds cool. The most important detail, though, is that Argentine Foyth had a Brazil jersey and an AC Milan jersey with Brazilian Kaká’s name on the back. Does that not make him a bad Argentine?

Clearly, Foyth is an interesting kid, and you can read the rest of his interview here. (The bottom of that piece links to the other First Spurs Christmases of the season, though those players do not prove to be as fascinating as Foyth.)

To the links!

Links of the Day

This weekend, Sheffield Wednesday played Middlesborough, a match which resulted in a 2-1 win for Boro. By the end of the weekend, both managers, Carlos Carvalhal from Wednesday and Garry Monk from Boro, were fired. Merry Christmas!

Speaking of Boro, apparently Tony Pulis is set to be the club’s next manager.

And speaking of sacked managers, Sevilla fired Eduardo Berizzo.

For today’s longer read: Inside the life of some Premier League players’ personal chefs.