The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Friday, August 2

Hi, all!

Mangoes are spectacular.

Ramble of the Day

Those paying attention will know that I’m always interested when footballers enter the world of music. Latest player of interest: one of Norwich’s summer signings, Josip Drmić. The striker released a single called “No Tomorrow.” It isn’t his first musical entry; he sang with Swiss rappers Lumi and Kikz once, but it looks like “No Tomorrow” is his first solo venture. He shared on Instagram that the proceeds go to a charity.

Now, for the official music video:

Overall, it’s a relatively bland tune and video sung by someone in a monotone fashion, though it does have it moments. (Me being me, that means there were moments where I had actual reactions, frequently that of laughter, but I’ll touch on that in a bit.)

The story he seems to be telling, through lyrics and video, is of a woman who serves as a temptation in a particularly nice-looking part of the world. We get enough shots of both the location and the woman, as well as Drmić himself essentially enjoying a beach vacation. They go swimming; he hangs out on a dock; they have dinner, and he eats ice cream once. The video is a mix of nicely shot home videos — perhaps with the help of a GoPro — and actual professionally shot video. He also has his headphones in his ears a lot.

The opening scene of the video has him laying on grass with the headphones in, telling the audience that the song he’s going to listen to — “No Tomorrow” — is truly going to transport him. A few seconds later, he’s wearing them again in the story portion of the video, except he’s now standing on a cliff and a bit too close to the edge. He wears them at multiple points during the video, when he’s by himself and lip-syncing the song.

It, of course, might be a stylistic choice. Perhaps the headphones, attached to his phone, are just the audience’s reminder that he’s imagining all this in his head as he listens to the song on the grass. I may be giving everyone involved too much credit, though. Either way, it looks like the amateur version of such a sequence; it’s understandable if he needs the song playing somewhere while lip-syncing, but it does look silly.

The lyrics mostly feed into the familiar concept, but there’s a particularly amusing set of lines before the first round of the chorus: “never going to leave you alone / I love it when we speak on the phone / please stay, meet me in my zone.” The first and last of this trio match the tone of the song; it’s all about this dramatic infatuation that’s also a little bit basic. That line about phone calls, though, is hilariously mundane. It’s sweet, which I suppose adds a little bit of depth to his feelings, but hardly the thought of someone in a passionate vacation hookup.

The song and video combine for little else, but we do randomly end up watching a child in a hat playing (or just holding) what might be a recorder each time the chorus pops up. It really does come out of left field and doesn’t really work with the rest of the video at all, but it somehow doesn’t disturb the image too much.

Regardless, it’s a middle of the spectrum effort from Drmić. He certainly didn’t embarrass himself, but didn’t really hit the jackpot, either.

tl;dr: Josip Drmić has a single, and it’s only somewhat silly.

Links of the Day

Millwall has been fined £10,000 and ordered to “implement an action plan” by the FA after fans shouted racist abuse during an FA Cup match against Everton last season.

FIFPro is suggesting a mandatory four week offseason break for footballers, saying players’ health is at risk as they end up playing too many matches.

Transfer updates: Arsenal has signed Nicolas Pépé from Lille; Aston Villa has signed Marvelous Nakamba from Club Brugge and Tom Heaton from Burnley; Bournemouth has signed Arnaut Danjuma from Club Brugge; Lille has signed Victor Osimhen from Charleroi

Today’s longer read: Ben Fisher on Leyton Orient as it prepares for its return to the Football League after the death of manager Justin Edinburgh for The Guardian