The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Thursday, August 8

Hey, Hoddlers!

Anything going on today?

Ramble of the Day

Sky sources understand that you’ll be distracted from the ramble today, and who could blame you? Even I’m distracted from rambling, waiting for the next update like my life depends on it.

It hardly matters where that update is coming from. It’s not to say all updates are equal; if you’re not reputable, you’re not, but it doesn’t mean you can’t entertain. After all, a silly rumor is often a source of some fun. There’s also fun to be had in actually figuring out how reliable certain items are, and the full context of it.

Really, what’s great about the transfer updates is that they come in all forms. We’ve seen grainy images of players at hotels, and we’ve seen what they and their loved ones have liked on social media. We check to see what teams are still in their social media bios. We get reports that teams don’t answer phone calls, and we track multiple planes to find out just when someone might be arriving somewhere. We talk about momagers and dadagers, or as one person in the Cartilage Free Captain writers’ room dubbed them, famagers. (I do hope it catches on.)

There’s so much beyond transfer fees and contract negotiations. There are reports of players dropping transfer requests at any point of the window (the later the better, I say). We learn about their desires, aspirations, and whims. We find out much more than we truly ever anticipate, and maybe even need. Our appetite for information is somehow always matched with the most random tidbits of information. It’s a glorious mess, really.

The last few days have been a lot of fun in the land of the transfer window, as it should be. May today be the same for all of the normal reasons, but mostly for the outrageous ones.

tl;dr: Gotta love transfer season.

Links of the Day

Diego Forlán has retired after a 21 year career.

The U.S. Soccer Federation has hired Washington lobbyists to counter the women’s national teams claims of unequal pay.

Transfer updates: Manchester City and Juventus have swapped João Cancelo and Danilo; Crystal Palace has signed James McCarthy from Everton and Victor Camarasa from Real Betis; Everton has signed Djibril Sidibé from Monaco; Watford has signed Danny Welbeck on a free; Norwich has signed Ibrahim Amadou from Sevilla on a season-long loan; Montréal Impact has signed Bojan Krkic on a free

Today’s longer read: Lucas Radbourne interviews Melbourne Victory’s Thomas Deng on being a voice for refugees in Australia for The Guardian