The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Monday, June 3

Hi, everyone.

I imagine we all still have feelings about Saturday and the season as a whole, so I won’t stop you. I’m going to be kindly asking you to shift your thinking ever so slightly, but I’ll save the rest for the ramble.

Ramble of the Day

I’ll cut to the chase: What was your favorite moment of the 2018-19 season?

Naturally, I’ll start, and there are quite a few matches to choose from. There were a few days that left a feeling that lasted quite a while — certainly a number of the Champions League matches did. If I had to pick one, it’d be the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal against Manchester City.

It was the silliest of matches, honestly, which is probably why I remember it so fondly. Within 11 minutes, the two teams were 2-2, meaning everyone watching went through a range of thoughts and emotions. A match like this, of course, had a few more twists, meaning it was 3-2 to City at halftime, and that both teams had another goal each. I’ll never forget the last few minutes of that one; I had to step away from my screen, so I listened to the end on the radio. I heard that Raheem Sterling had scored, and quickly checked the Cartilage Free Captain writers’ room. I saw the letters “VAR,” and then I heard them, and then I said them out loud; I read that the goal didn’t count, and then I heard it, and then i said that out loud, too.

It was a ridiculous few minutes, but the match itself feels a little bit like the story of Tottenham’s weird season packaged in a 90 minute match. The team certainly was not supposed to be in a position to succeed, partly by its own making with no improvements to the squad, partly through unlucky injuries, and partly because teams like City are unquestionably better overall. Somehow, though, the team managed to succeed, with the help of some unlikely characters — Fernando Llorente played that role in this one. It was just one example of how well Mauricio Pochettino did with an extremely difficult task, which may well be the story of Tottenham’s season, and was in general an extremely entertaining game. Plus, Spurs won, drew, and lost that day. What’s not to like, in retrospect?

tl;dr: If you’re asking me what my favorite match of the 2018-19 season, it was the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal against Manchester City.

Links of the Day

Former Spain and Arsenal player José Antonio Reyes has died in a car crash at age 35.

Neymar has been accused of raping a woman in Paris last month, a claim he has since denied.

Robert Green has retired after a 20 year career.

Neil Lennon has officially been hired as the Celtic manager, his second full-time appointment by the club.

Germany manager Joachim Löw will miss Germany’s Euro qualifiers this month after reportedly injuring himself by dropping a weight on his chest.

Today’s longer read: Aimee Lewis on Nigeria’s quest to become a women’s football superpower for CNN