The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Tuesday, January 15

Hi, all!

Important update: Raul Meireles was on the Portuguese Lip Sync Battles and his performance is so fun.

Ramble of the Day

As members of a football-loving society, we live in a jersey and kit world. We’re always curious, either outwardly or otherwise, about what players will be wearing when we can see them playing. The people that make their uniforms either created this feeling or have capitalized on it — whichever one it is doesn’t matter for this ramble, but the point is that there’s quite an amount of anticipation around new kits. If we’re not interested in buying, we’re interested in looking, either to say nice things or to make jokes at their expense. We make our versions of the best and worst dressed lists that dominate celebrity fashion coverage, too.

There is, though, far more than just kits to ogle at in the world of football clothing. Sure, there’s that Kane hat you see at the top of the Hoddle today, but I’m talking about training gear, and I come only with compliments. It’s about time that we recognize that Tottenham has had some really nice training gear over the last several years, and done so while sometimes having bad kits and different kit manufacturers.

Footballers are part-time models; they wear clothes for free and get photographed in them, partly for practical and professional reasons, and partly to aid the manufacturers. Here, Jan Vertonghen is doing a little bit of banter, fulfilling footballing social media responsibilities, and modeling a really nice dark lilac top. I hadn’t seen it before, and it’s lovely; it takes a vibrant and unique color and runs with it, allowing it to do all the work in a minimalist sort of way. I wish I could buy this.

The lilac is probably just an extension of the club’s long Spurple history, which Under Armour resorted to for the training top in 2016, among other kits. It’s a less refined look, but still a good one.

Under Armour’s real area of excellence in training gear came with through their goalkeeping collections. They had a purple one just like this orange one, which obviously feels natural for a goalkeeper. The fun thing about these training tops — and this is also true for Nike’s — is that there seems to be a formula and yet a sense of freedom. The tops can be whatever they want them to be — it’s even better than third kits because the designers don’t get bogged down with details.

I’ll highlight two more, since this is getting a bit lengthy. Nike’s really well suited to pulling off the unique/bright color technique because they really love a clean, minimalist design. These two tops are from 2017/18, and the color selection is sublime. Separating the sleeve so it’s subtly distinct and yet perfectly in coordination with the rest of the shirt is a really good design quality, especially with these colors. That yellow is perfect for athletic gear, and the very light aquamarine has enough pop to stand out while also being an unusually quiet choice.

It’s just a shame that these end up priced way too closely to jerseys. Then again, I’d probably have more training shirts than I needed if they didn’t.

tl;dr: Lovely and colorful Tottenham training gear.

Links of the Day

David Wagner has left Huddersfield Town after more than three years at the club.

Charlton’s Charlotte Kerr has left the hospital after bruising her ribs and sternum in the abandoned match against Manchester United on Sunday.

Transfer roundup: Borussia Dortmund has signed defender Leonardo Balerdi from Boca Juniors

Today’s longer read: David Conn on football clubs, the betting sites that have partnerships with them, and that relationship’s influence on younger players for The Guardian