The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Friday, September 14

Hello, all!

Finally, I will pictures from another match to use as the lead art starting next week. I was running out of pictures from the Watford match. (I think only I care about this.)

Ramble of the Day

Let’s get right into it and start with a question: Who gets to be bad at their jobs and famous?

This question comes from a thought I once had about how, regardless of how much flack athletes catch, the ones at the top levels of their particular sport are hardly ever bad. For example, there are plenty of Premier League footballers that are some of the best in the world, and plenty that aren’t, and some even considered to be bad. Compared to the best, plenty of Premier League footballers are going to look like amateurs on occasion, but it is really rare that there is a genuinely bad Premier League footballer. For the most part, this is pretty consistent amongst sports, and I’d argue that most famous coaches are rather good at their jobs.

The question is not about being overrated, which obviously plenty of people are, or being famous for being bad. Those are ultimately different things, but most well-known people aren’t actually that bad at their jobs.

I was going to argue that this is true amongst most fame related professions, but I am really unsure that is the case. The notes I left in my Google doc clearly suggested some actors get away with being famous and not being particularly good at their jobs, but I’m not so sure bad actors end up famous. I can think of a few performances I’ve not enjoyed, but those people are only famous to a certain degree. The first performance that springs to mind is Poppy Delevingne in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, but just how famous she is is up for debate. She has not been exactly rewarded with larger roles in the greatest films or television series out there, so I feel like she is not a great fit for the question. The worst actors tend to be in some less prestigious productions, like Lifetime movies.

Those who are in the business of being famous, like reality television stars, tend to be rather good at their jobs. They do all they can to be relevant, and most of them are good enough at actually achieving that, though only up to a certain point. How long certain reality stars can stay their welcomes is interesting (at least to me), but I will save that for another day (maybe or maybe not another ramble).

I feel, though, that musicians come closest to having the ability to be bad and famous. The first one I won’t touch for obvious reasons, but I bet we can all think of at least one popular musician who we just don’t like. Perhaps that person is not very talented, like half of the kids on Kidz Bop albums, or maybe is not very good at using their talents to make good music. There are always a few examples in each industry, but I think the percentage of bad and famous professionals is higher in the music industry than in other industries.

I could be wrong, though. Maybe I’m giving the professionals in other industries too much credit.

tl;dr: I *think* it takes quality to achieve fame, but I could be wrong.

Links of the Day

Denis Cheryshev has been cleared of doping by the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency.

The Premier League will be testing out VAR technology during Saturday’s 3p (local time) matches this weekend.

RB Leipzig have a wheel of punishments for players that break certain rules instead of fining them, sometimes requiring players to do stadium tours or work in the fan shop.

Today’s longer read: Tariq Panja reports on the changes FIFA wants to make to the transfer window, including imposing a cap on transfer fees, for The New York Times