The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Thursday, December 13

Hi, everyone!

Shall we talk about holidays?

Ramble of the Day

We’re fully into the Western world’s definition of holiday season, where every single day in the buildup to Christmas is essentially a part of Christmas. The buildup usually starts a bit too early — I saw Christmas decorations in a store on October 7 this year, a full 78 days before Christmas and 24 days before Halloween. Thanksgiving gets somewhat shut out, but I won’t go on about that today.

I’ve been working for a little while to find the right phrasing, because I don’t actually mean any offense to Christmas. I like a lot of it, from the way the whole holiday season makes getting used to shorter daylight hours and winter to the gift-giving (and receiving), and I even appreciate that people like to decorate their homes and buildings to celebrate. It’s just that I find Christmas day to be a little bit boring in comparison to the hype that surrounds it.

I’m aware that a lot of people go see some extended family on Christmas, but Thanksgiving is the same thing for me, and there’s the all-important fact that I don’t do that on either holiday. If you’re not hanging out with a lot of people, you can at least cook the whole day on Thanksgiving or, in my family, put up a Christmas tree and watch some Europa League. (The FIFA calendar took away this tradition this year by scheduling the international break for a week later.) I guess you could spend all day in the kitchen again, but you just did that a month ago. No need to repeat.

Now that I’ve gotten my controversial opinion out of the way, I think we can all agree that the most boring part of any holiday that is deemed a day off is the morning. The latest I can sleep in until is probably around 9a, meaning I still have plenty of morning hours to get through. There’s no reason to rush out of the gate to do things or go places for the most part, so you’re stuck with nothing to watch on television except for boring network holiday-themed programming. (I’m sorry, you won’t be able to convince me the parades on Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day are interesting.)

I’ll admit that I have a certain amount of disinterest in New Year’s Eve as well, while the Fourth of July also falls under the category of very boring in the morning. I realize that I’ve listed a few specifically American holidays, which is probably noteworthy, and that I just keep insulting holidays by calling them boring. Is it possible that...I just don’t love holidays?

I think I might be an all-year round Grinch. Maybe I can use this as a New Year’s resolution for 2019.

tl;dr: I have come to a horrible realization.

Links of the Day

Dundee United defender Jamie Robson will undertake inclusion and diversity training after wearing blackface at a party over the weekend.

Huddersfield’s Aaron Mooy will miss the Asian Cup with a knee injury that will keep him out until February.

Liverpool’s Joël Matip will miss six weeks after breaking his collarbone during Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over Napoli on Tuesday.

Today’s longer read: Grant Wahl on the story of former U.S. international and currently NYCFC director of football operations Claudio Reyna and his family after the loss of son Jack and during the rise of son Giovanni for Sports Illustrated