The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Friday, July 27

Hi, everyone!

Let’s do the picture book version of a ramble today.

Ramble of the Day

Preseason in Southern California is clearly a treat for footballers used to playing in gloomy London and visiting various parts of not-so-sunny England. The quartet of Paulo Gazzaniga, Lucas Moura, Kyle Walker-Peters, and Victor Wanyama went out of their way to prove that in case it was not obvious.

Spending time in Venice Beach two days before the team beat AS Roma 4-1, the teammates basically reenacted what you would imagine a bunch of young, non-American men enjoying a beach in California on a work trip. Here are some of the best pictures of the beach day, courtesy of Getty.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Here is your setting, and the most perfect visual of your day at the beach. It’s the kind of picture that you’d post on Instagram from your vacation/work trip with your friends/colleagues.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Of course, this group traveled with a professional photographer, which is an experience available at Disney World and also to professional athletes. That’s why you can get a picture of you and your friends taking a picture of yourselves. Genius, really.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

The day at Venice Beach also involved some props. A sunglasses stand was also at the beach that day, and whether encouraged by their photographer for the ‘gram (or a stock photo agency) or intrigued on their own, our four players made their way to the sunglasses stand.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

They went boldly when it came to choosing sunglasses. Wanyama opted for a the most futuristic pair he could find, and I hope he bought them and wears them on the rare sunny days in London.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

No one, though, had more fun with the sunglasses than Walker-Peters and Moura, as they picked out a couple of pairs to model for their photographer. Walker-Peters clearly doesn’t mind a pair of trendy pointy sunglasses with thick frames, while Moura seems to prefer a larger type. I also hope they bought what they tried on, though I imagine Walker-Peters might not get away with buying red sunglasses.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Soon, antics followed. The pairing of Moura and Walker-Peters, becoming more iconic with each passing minute at the beach, even took the time out to reenact Baywatch. (I’m not joking; that’s what the Getty Images caption said.)

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Being that it was a work trip, the quartet did make the time out for official business. They met and posed with members of Venice Beach FC, almost everyone wearing sleekly designed work t-shirts.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

If the quartet played football after meeting another football team, it was lost to history. They did meet a bodybuilder named Ike, though, capping off what was a glorious day in the sunshine.

tl;dr: Tottenham Hotspur goes to the beach, a picture book.

Links of the Day

FC Barcelona’s men’s and women’s teams traveled to the United States for preseason together, but the women were put in economy while the men sat in business class.

Neymar finished in sixth place at a Brazilian Series of Poker event that started with a field of 288 players.

Transfer roundup: Robert Green has joined Chelsea from Huddersfield; Newcastle have signed Fabian Schär from Deportivo La Coruña

Today’s longer read: Simon Stone interviews former Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre, currently the CEO of the incoming MLS expansion club in Nashville, about building a club from scratch for the BBC