The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Wednesday, July 31

Hi, all!

MLS had a skills challenge for the first time ahead of its All-Star game against Atlético Madrid. It was cool, so I’ll drop some highlights (via Twitter moments — it was all I could find) here ahead of the ramble.

Ramble of the Day

I find myself stuck in rabbit holes somewhat frequently. The internet, after all, is full of them.

You know exactly what I’m talking about. You go to some random person’s Instagram account, maybe a famous person, or someone in your social circle. Maybe you’re looking at something on your feed or going straight to the source, but you soon tap on the image and you see the tagged accounts. One piques your interest; there are many reasons why they would. You click, and scroll through that account. You tap another picture, click on another account. All of a sudden, it’s been ten minutes and you should’ve been doing something else, but at least you know about the many tracksuits Armie Hammer wore about a year and a half ago.

You can tell I’ve done this before, though I will admit that’s not how I found out about Hammer’s tracksuits. I’ll admit that I’ve also done this on Wikipedia. Clicking on Wikipedia page after Wikipedia page is a different version of the same concept, with more dense reading materials instead of (mostly) colorful imagery. I can tell you that I did this after I finished The Americans on Monday, clicking on some of the actors’ Wikipedia pages and a few of the more history-related or newsy topics linked on the show’s Wikipedia page. (It’s all about gaining a very simple knowledge; more deep accounts of histories exist elsewhere, I’m aware.) I learned the very important tidbit that I’d been meaning to look up: Noah Emmerich and Roland Emmerich are not related, but many people have asked this question, and some other things.

Again, it can really hold your attention. I can tell you I spent more than ten minutes on Wikipedia on Monday, and that I also did on a different occasion when I was summoned (on the internet) after spending time in a Wikipedia hole. This type I tend to enjoy a little bit more than the Instagram type, mostly because I end up with more information so the whole session doesn’t feel wasteful. It obviously is a little bit, though, especially on occasions when I should’ve been doing something else.

It’s still a little bit too fun to resist, but only on occasion.

tl;dr: I get lost on Instagram and on Wikipedia a lot.

Links of the Day

Brazilian police will not charge Neymar after he was accused of rape, citing a lack of evidence. Prosecutors have 15 days to decide to revise the decision.

Chelsea has banned one fan for life for racially abusing Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling, and handed out one to two year bans for five others who were racist at the same match.

U.S. head coach Jill Ellis will step down after five years in the job and winning back-to-back World Cups.

Manchester United’s Eric Bailly will miss up to five months after undergoing knee surgery.

Transfer updates: Paris Saint-Germain has signed Idrissa Gueye from Everton; Wolves have signed Patrick Cutrone from AC Milan; Leverkusen has signed Nadiem Amiri from Hoffenheim

Today’s longer read: Paul MacInnes interviews former Norwich forward Grant Holt on missing out on the Euros and playing in the English footballing pyramid for The Guardian