The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Thursday, January 30

Hi, everyone!

It’s Steven Bergwijn making his Hoddle debut!

Ramble of the Day

I know, I know — you don’t really want to talk about Christian Eriksen. I don’t blame you, but I ask only for a little bit of permission to do so, mostly because Inter Milan made this video:

Soon after the signing was official, I commended Inter for their efforts in the unveiling. I once campaigned for more unique player unveilings, and Inter basically followed the basic guideline I set: pick a decent backdrop in the city or town your team is located in and work from there. The pictures, while slightly dramatic, actually turned out quite nicely and I’m happy about it. This, though? It brings me to a series of questions that can also be summed up in one question: Why?

For whatever reason, they picked a dream theme for this one, and while I’m happy for Eriksen that Inter thought it’d be a good idea to associate him with dreams, the execution is weird. The combination of things — literally having Eriksen go from “sleeping” to awake, the voiceover that isn’t quite as soothing as you’d like, the integration of the venue with the shot of the orchestral instruments — really take the drama of the photographs and make it worse.

Somehow, it gets weirder. Instead of making the point that signing Eriksen is a dream come true (the messaging I thought the video was going for), it instead ties in its easy to mock slogan: not for everyone.

The slogan itself does this, but the whole video really adds to that very unique sense of drama sports teams always go for. It’s a toughness combined with an idea of exceptionalism and a never say die attitude, a combination that has so far proven to be a very difficult thing to put into words and slogans. It becomes even more difficult when you’re in the business of coming up with them at a certain rate, for the most part every transfer window (or every other one). It is very difficult to come up with different representative slogans: take Barcelona’s #EnjoyBarça campaign from a couple of summers ago that featured a creepy talking ball as an example.

The slogans always fall a little short on such a tight turnaround, but this video makes it worse — you’re calling Eriksen a dream, which is supposed to be a universal concept of greatness when rating the signing. I suppose adding that it’s not for everyone means certain people aren’t good enough to have the dream come true (or maybe even dream it?), but the messaging just doesn’t match at all. I want to say Inter’s on the right track, but I can’t be sure of it, and I’m just happy for all involved that they won’t have to use the string of words much longer.

tl;dr: Inter Milan did a weird video to announce Christian Eriksen’s arrival.

Links of the Day

Football Federation Australia delayed selling tickets indefinitely for next week’s women’s Olympic qualifiers because of coronavirus concerns raised by Australia’s chief medical officer.

Canada’s Christine Sinclair broke the all-time international scoring record, scoring her 185th goal for her national team.

Transfer updates: Arsenal signed Pablo Marí on loan from Flamengo; Wolverhampton signed Enzo Loiodice from Dijon

Today’s longer read: Graham MacAree on the messy but wonderful Premier League top 4 race this season for SB Nation