The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Wednesday, October 21

Hi, all!

At the top today is defender Shelina Zadorsky, who won bronze with Canada at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Ramble of the Day

There are a few things you can always count on me for, and one of them is knowing when someone in the football world has put out music. Pelé is the latest to join this fairly small group of people with “Acredita No Véio (Listen to the Old Man)” ft. Rodrigo y Gabriela, a song he wrote in 2005 with Ruriá Duprat. Per the BBC, Pelé’s inspiration for the song was a former manager at Santos.

I wrote this one because when I used to play with Santos, the coach used to say that when we lost it was the players’ fault, but when we won it was the macumba (magic) had helped. The song is joking about that - of course, macumba doesn’t win games at all.

The context is good to have, because I first listened to the song (and read its translated lyrics) without it, and was pretty confused by it. With the context in mind, though, I find it pretty funny; he’s completely mocking this guy, and secured the talents of a Grammy-winning acoustic guitar duo to do so.

The end result is a catchy song that feels a bit like a children’s tune, but for me earns its goodwill for the fact alone that Pelé is making fun of a coach. There’s some decent archival footage that works well in the storytelling. The biggest thing of note, though, is that Pelé isn’t too bad — he’s not doing the most technical singing, but it doesn’t have to be.

tl;dr: Pelé wrote and sang a song making fun of one of his coaches.

Stay informed, read this: Ericka N. Goodman-Hughey interviews swimmer Simone Manuel on being the first Black woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming and an increase in activism from athletes for ESPN

Links of the Day

Bayern’s Serge Gnabry and 13 AZ Alkmaar players tested positive for COVID-19.

Phoenix Rising relinquished the playoff home field advantage it received from a forfeit that saw San Diego Loyal walk off the field in protest of homophobic abuse.

Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands plan to jointly the 2027 women’s World Cup.

Merseyside Police are investigating threats made on social media towards Everton’s Jordan Pickford and Richarlison after the Merseyside derby over the weekend.

Chelsea named Petr Čech to its Premier League roster as an emergency goalkeeper.

David Squires covers offside calls, injuries, and the weekend in Premier League action in his latest cartoon.

A longer read: Donald McRae interviews Arsène Wenger on spending 22 years at Arsenal and the self-centered world of managing for The Guardian