The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Tuesday, January 29

Hi, Hoddlers!

The results of the snap petitions are in. There was a low voter turnout, but the Mousa Dembele pictures will remain until the end of the transfer window, winning by a margin of eight to two.

Ramble of the Day

The mood’s been very down in Spurs land, for several good reasons I don’t need to list. I spent a bit of time wondering what exactly I could do to cheer up the masses. I thought, what if I just posted cat or dog videos for everyone to watch? What if you don’t cheer up from animal videos, the way my younger sister doesn’t automatically spring into a good mood this way?

I continued thinking, and perhaps too easily, I settled on this: I probably can’t accomplish this feat. It’s probably impossible to cheer every last one of you up, and perhaps more importantly, I probably don’t have the power, and it might not be my responsibility. I did briefly think about thinking of a hot take to distract you all, but I think I burned my weekly hot take in yesterday’s Hoddle.

I do wonder if that estimate is incorrect. There are times when I’m convinced I don’t have a lot of hot takes, and others when I feel like I have a bunch. I can hardly ever think of them on command, though. That does remind me that I did see what someone would consider a hot take on Twitter yesterday:

The phrase “this is the hill I die on” implies that acknowledging Paddington 2’s perfection is an unpopular belief that might be up for debate, but it really shouldn’t be. I only just realized that I didn’t end up rambling — or even mentioning in a Hoddle — that I watched Paddington 2 a couple of weeks ago (without having seen the first one), and Sathnam Sanghera is right. The movie is truly outstanding, and gets every layer right.

It’s a classic story of a character, in this case Paddington, having to clear his name after being wrongly accused of a crime. It sets you up perfectly for this lovely life Paddington leads with his family, the aunt in Peru he’s arranging a special birthday present for, and the probably one of the most well-written villains I’ve seen on screen in a neighbor and washed-up actor played by Hugh Grant. Every single character is written perfectly: Paddington’s essence is captured in all things, from the way he picks out a present for Aunt Lucy to the way he handles life in jail; Mr. and Mrs. Brown, played by Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins, are perfect supporting characters whose stories are appropriately separate and part of Paddington’s; and Grant’s Phoenix Buchanan proves to be weird, self-centered, and yet easy to understand.

The direction and cinematography are sublime. It’s an artsy film in a way you don’t expect out of a children’s movie, but perfectly matches the tone. Paddington 2’s perfection likely comes from its consistency and attention to detail; every single thing has a purpose, and not a thing is wasted. It is an example of filmmaking at its finest, and was easily one of the best films that was released in the U.S. in 2018. It’s a shame Paddington 2 didn’t get an Oscar campaign, but perhaps more importantly, it’s a shame the members of the Academy didn’t check it out regardless of a campaign.

tl;dr: I accidentally rambled about Paddington 2.

Links of the Day

FIFA is investigating Chelsea regarding compliance of rules regarding youth transfers.

Arsenal’s Sokratis Papastathopoulos will miss a month with an ankle injury, while Laurent Koscielny is being assessed on a daily basis after suffering bruising and swelling to the face.

Transfer roundup: Atlético Madrid has signed Álvaro Morata on loan until the end of the season from Chelsea

Today’s longer read: Rory Smith on the derby between Dutch amateur sides IJsselmeervogels and Spakenburg that is gaining a global reputation for The New York Times