The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Wednesday, February 27

Hey, Hoddlers!

Let’s start with a tweet and a question. First, the tweet:

Now, the question: Is Jurgen Klopp saying that he’s living in the house Brendan Rodgers lived in, and does that mean there is one house designated for Liverpool managers?

Ramble of the Day

As you may know by now, Brendan Rodgers has returned to the Premier League as the new boss of Leicester City. Rodgers brings with him a preference for teams that dominate possession, a winning record in Scotland, and a reputation for saying amazing things. We are all very fortunate that the people at Football365 compiled a list of the 20 best things Rodgers has said, and I’ve decided that I’ll pull a few out and discuss them today.

We play with 11 men, other teams play with 10 men and a goalkeeper.

This one comes in at 15 on Football365’s list, and it’s a very good one when establishing Rodgers’s perception of football and self. Quote number 17 establishes a desire to praise himself “without being arrogant,” which ends up with him actually sounding arrogant, but at least you always get a chuckle out of it. There might be a legitimate point in most teams playing with ten on-field players and a goalkeeper, but the first part of the quote really makes this funnier than it needs to be.

I will leave no stone unturned in my quest – and that quest will be relentless.

This one was ranked 13th, and it exhibits another quality of Rodgers’s: a remarkable self-belief in himself and his ideas. I wish I knew what the quest he was speaking of was, but it’s clear that basically everything Rodgers does is, dare I say it, 110% Rodgers. He’s...relentless.

I always say a squad is like a good meal. I’m not a great cook, but a good meal takes a wee bit of time. But also, to offer a good meal you need good ingredients.

Among other things, it means that Rodgers is 110% into his particular brand of silliness. He clearly isn’t relentless in a quest for cooking, but again, he might have a point. I do have to wonder if Brendan Rodgers, self-proclaimed bad cook, should be comparing skills in the kitchen with skills on the pitch, because the work in the kitchen doesn’t pan out and I’m sure he wouldn’t like his work at the training ground to turn out the same way.

It’s not just about training players, it’s about educating players. You train dogs.

Naturally, he’s talked about his cooking/managing methods, and has again established himself as one who believes in himself quite a bit. At the back end of this statement, he makes it seem as if only dogs can be trained, but he never actually says footballers can’t — or shouldn’t be — trained.

If you spend more than £100 million, you expect to be challenging for the league.

Of course, the contradictions don’t end there, and there’s some real content to the statement this time. Football365 provides the necessary context: “On Spurs after they sold Gareth Bale in 2013, spent £103million and finished 6th. Liverpool sold Luis Suarez the next summer, spent £117million and finished 6th.”

Nothing quite captures the essence of Rodgers’s silliness like the top two quotes on the list, but I’d encourage you all to visit Football365 for the reveal in addition to reading the other quotes. Whether you’re a fan or not, it is undeniable that Rodgers is pretty entertaining, and that there’s probably more on the way soon.

tl;dr: On the essence of Brendan Rodgers.

Links of the Day

Neil Lennon has replaced Brendan Rodgers as the Celtic manager after he took the Leicester City job.

Manchester City’s Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte could miss five matches with muscle injuries.

U.S. Soccer has sent a letter to Concacaf and CONMEBOL proposing a joint tournament for 2020.

David Squires comments on the Maurizio Sarri-Kepa Arrizabalaga saga in his latest cartoon.

Today’s longer read: Andy West on the footballing culture that Madrid’s three less famous La Liga clubs create for the BBC