The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Friday, October 30

Hi, all!

If you’re following along, I have decided to get a coffee advent calendar this holiday season.

Ramble of the Day

I realized I hadn’t gotten around to looking at and thanking about the collaboration Adidas recently did with Pharrell Williams, seemingly the first venture of his Humanrace company. The collaborators played on some old kits Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Manchester United, and Real Madrid have sported, and the results aren’t so bad. Some quick thoughts on each of them:

I always believe alternate kits, especially third or fourth kits, should be a venue to just try things, so I fully approve of this Arsenal kit. This is a kit that’s all about contrast and clash, and is almost overwhelming in that sense. I think of it as a shirt that needs to be styled a certain way to get away with it, and I’m not sure a pair of blue shorts is it. Still, I appreciate the effort because it’s not like the other kits teams are wearing this season.

Bayern’s kits are the best version of the new three stripe design Adidas has been using, where all of them appear diagonally on one sleeve. This one looks extremely vintage, which I think is its appeal.

Juventus’ looks a bit more contemporary than the others, but that’s not a bad thing in this case. It’s a classic, updated nicely with the stripe of white and darker pinks. It reminds me a bit of the strawberry shortcake ice cream bar I loved as a kid, so I’m getting slightly hungry looking at it, but that doesn’t change my opinion on the kit.

This reminds me a bit of the Arsenal kits, but not that much. This is a more palatable version of a tie-dye kit, and I can’t say I hate it. I remain undecided on the contrasting shade of red — I think it might be slightly too harsh — but again, I can’t hate.

This is the boring one, which is a shame for an alternative kit. The collaboration ran out of steam on this one.

tl;dr: The Adidas collaboration with Pharrell Williams is pretty good, minus the boring Real Madrid kit.

Stay informed, read this: Color of Change’s petition demanding justice for Walter Wallace, Jr., who was killed by police officers in Philadelphia while suffering from a mental health crisis

Links of the Day

Manchester United’s Alex Telles and several members of Union Omaha tested positive for COVID-19.
The Omaha positives led USL to cancel the League One final, awarding the championship to Greenville Triumph on points per game.

A UK-Egyptian consortium has reportedly proposed a £200m takeover of Burnley, making it the second group to express interest in taking over the club.

West Ham’s Michail Antonio will miss a month with a hamstring injury.

Newcastle will refund season tickets after a campaign from supporters.

A film based on the true story of a US U19 women’s team that traveled to China in 1984 as an act of diplomacy is in development.

A longer read: Sean Ingle on how FC Midtjylland’s use of analytics led to their rise in Denmark and Europe for The Guardian