The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Tuesday, February 12

Hi, all!

I still can’t believe there isn’t going to be a cheese room at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Ramble of the Day

The world’s most renowned footballers are not particularly relatable. They don’t have to be, and should enjoy the pleasures and perks of the job as they see fit, as long as their behavior isn’t destructive. Their flashy lives are no surprise at this point, and again, they don’t have to be. That said, every now and again, the life of people with disposable incomes is just that, but in a way that makes you pose a few innocent questions.

Take Dele Alli, for example. The midfielder was in Dubai soaking up some sun, getting fit, and feeding animals, but mostly the second one. As one does, he documented it on his Instagram account, and he seemed to be enjoying his week-long trip. He also decided to have a professional photographer take artsy pictures of him working out for his Instagram story a couple of days ago:

These are obviously nice pictures, but too nice to be ones that your companion that’s really good at photography took. This obviously isn’t the worst thing to spend your extra money on, and it looks like everyone here achieved what they wanted to. Yet, I am left with the question I am frequently left with: Why?

A good answer to this question is Why not?, but I just keeping bouncing back and forth between the two questions. It’s possible that the photographer needed to add something to their portfolio, and this person made it obvious that gym sessions can be photogenic. In which case, there’s probably a future for this photographer working for a sports team.

In a sense, though, it’s just a very elaborate thing that one footballer did one time, which I find very amusing. It’s such a specific young athlete thing to do. There’s a certain attitude the pictures send in the way younger famous people are being told to document their lives on social platforms, but it also ticks off the athlete box with the content. It’s like the mildest version of the student athlete meme, demonstrating constantly that you actually care about your job.

It’s also entirely possible Dele just wanted to do this, the way lots of people randomly want to share snapshots from their jobs, and I totally believe that he was. The gloss is a little bit funny at first glance, but it’s all good. It’s probably the best gym photoshoot, for what it’s worth.

tl;dr: A gym photoshoot, starring Dele Alli.

Links of the Day

Hakeem al-Araibi has returned to Australia following a two-month stay in a Thai jail, as Bahrain ended attempts to extradite the player.

Paul Scholes has been named the manager of League Two side Oldham Athletic, his first professional managerial job.

Today’s longer read: Rory Smith on the former dominance of the Doncaster Belles and how women’s football in England moved on without them for The New York Times