The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Thursday, September 10

Hey, everyone!

I can’t believe I forgot to mention that there is another genuine link between Eurovision and football — Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Thór Halldórsson directed the music video of Iceland’s 2012 entry, and I wrote about it so I really should’ve remembered.

Ramble of the Day

Trophy design is such an interesting art form, especially when you allow trophy designers a lot of creativity. The results can vary, but there’s always something new to add to the list of unique trophies. The latest entries come from Wolverhampton and from the United States.

Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Raúl Jiménez recently took home a number of club awards, including player of the season. They definitely didn’t award him something boring or lame, but ... I’m not sure what that trophy is supposed to be. It looks a lot like fruit to me — either an unusually pointy pear or mango dipped in chocolate. I also see an enlarged chocolate covered almond with some dust or powder on one end, possibly for a decorative purpose. I think it could also pass for the egg of a mysterious creature in a science fiction or fantasy film.

The other strange trophy I saw recently was the Best XI award MLS is handing to players that made the cut during its MLS is Back tournament. It’s a little more basic than the Wolves trophy, but I am also a little confused by the design choices. I’m seeing it as an engraved chunk of glass that has its own angular cuts in the middle of the chunk to create two white diverging cones or pyramids when you look from a distance. I wouldn’t exactly say it’s bad because it doesn’t look so bad when you’ve dramatically zoomed up on it. It looks very weird from a distance, though, and it took me a while to figure out what the design was, which I cannot say are positives.

tl;dr: We’ve got some more interesting trophies to look at, courtesy of Wolverhampton Wanderers and MLS.

Stay informed, read this: Graciela Mochkofsky on the history of categorizing the Latinx community in the United States for The New Yorker

Links of the Day

Canadian international Quinn came out as transgender.

Concacaf delayed the start of qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup to March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan World Cup winner Yuki Nagasato will be the only woman playing with men in Japan this season, joining Hayabusa Eleven on loan from the Chicago Red Stars.

Transfer updates: Manchester United signed Tobin Heath from Portland Thorns and Christen Press from Utah Royals; Manchester City signed Alex Greenwood on a free; Aston Villa signed Ollie Watkins from Brentford; Fulham signed Alphonse Areola on loan from PSG; Sheffield United signed Oliver Burke from West Brom; West Brom signed Callum Robinson from Sheffield

A longer read: Sam Borden profiles Dortmund’s Gio Reyna on his rising star and coming of age in a foreign country during a pandemic and increasing attention towards racial injustice for ESPN