The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Wednesday, April 24

Hey, everyone!

I just had to make part of the Hoddle about ol’ Vinny J, but don’t worry, it’s not all about him. Before I switch topics, though, I must share this:

Ramble of the Day

In addition to the return of Vincent Janssen, yesterday’s Tottenham victory saw two other significant events: the Christian Eriksen goal, and that Zac Efron attended the match. I will point out that the people covering the match for NBC Sports Network found Efron’s presence to be important, but I will also tell you that while I find celebrity sightings at sporting events of my interest to be vaguely compelling. I wouldn’t just tell you if any celebrity showed up at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but I’ve made a few conclusions about Efron since he was first seen at the match.

I guess we can give Efron some credit for the eventual result, though I’ll choose to believe the team was inspired by Janssen’s introduction to eventually get the win. Anyway, I’m sharing this tweet to indicate that the first time we saw Efron, he wasn’t visibly wearing a Spurs jersey. It wasn’t easy to figure out whether or not he was a Spurs fan, a football fan, or just someone in London interested in a sporting event. The second picture makes it seem like he might be a fan, considering he’s dedicated enough to wear an ugly jersey, but that could be the result of two things other than being a fan: one, that Efron just got swept into the whole show and thought buying gear would be appropriate, based partly on a consumerism culture that he (possibly unconsciously) subscribes to, or; two, Efron has bad taste, as exhibited by his choice in hair color. What we (I) didn’t consider is a third possibility.

The club either knew he was coming, invited him, or found out at some point he was there, and gave him the jersey for a nice little photo op with the injured Kyle Walker-Peters and Moussa Sissoko. That’s all fine and good, but this picture really does want me to go on a tangent: Does Sissoko know who Efron is? I have a feeling Walker-Peters might; he’s probably like me, a member of the High School Musical demographic, though I don’t know how popular that was in England. I don’t think High School Musical is exactly Sissoko’s cup of tea, so I wonder where he might know him from. Perhaps Baywatch or something like that.

Sissoko, Walker-peters, and Efron were all sitting near each other during the game — Efron was visibly excited in the video Sissoko recorded after Eriksen scored, which might add to any developing theory that Efron is a Spurs fan. There’s just one thing, though.

Now, this isn’t exactly proof that Efron isn’t a Spurs fan, but it does complicate matters. After all, he could be one of Spurs’ first quote-unquote plastic fans, swept away by qualifying for the Champions League semifinals and a fancy new stadium. That said, I’m not so sure Spurs have gotten to a status where said plastic fans exist. That leaves me to my final hypothesis: I think he’s trying to pull a Julia Roberts.

In a Hoddle last month, I shared a tweet with the theory that Roberts suggests she might have loyalty to a team in exchange for tickets, as she’s in the middle of a duel between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Maybe Efron’s doing the same with the North London clubs. Wonder how hard Tottenham will fight for his loyalties.

I’ve solved that mystery, but there’s still a lingering question I have.

How do you think Sissoko’s kids know Efron? Maybe for his upcoming film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, in which he plays Ted Bundy.

tl;dr: Zac Efron might be a Spurs fan. He also might be pulling a Julia Roberts.

Links of the Day

Azerbaijan will not ask visa applicants traveling to the Europa League final to take tests for HIV and hepatitis after it was deemed discriminatory.

Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling suggested teams should be deducted nine points and forced to play three matches behind closed doors if fans are caught being racist.

The Premier League rejected West Ham’s request to move the men’s team’s match against Southampton so supporters could also watch the women’s team in the FA Cup final.

Vancouver Whitecaps youth coach Brett Adams is facing scrutiny after news emerged that he left his previous post at Notts County after he allegedly racially abused players.

David Squires addresses Wayne Hennessey and Nazism in his latest cartoon.

Today’s longer read: Tom Bryant establishes the Premier League’s most incompetent teams with the ineptitude index for The Guardian