The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Monday, September 21

Hey, everyone!

Here’s the link to the collaborative Gareth Bale playlist if you’ve got some recommendations, since we’ve finally (re-)signed the guy.

Ramble of the Day

The football audience is a football kit audience, waiting for new — and hopefully unique — designs ahead of each season. In both categories, FC Barcelona delivered with their third kits, modeled by Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets below.

Photo by Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

I have legitimately never seen these two colors paired together before. I’d never even imagine it. I did a Google image search of pink and green and can’t find these two colors together. I couldn’t even tell you where those two colors may have previously coexisted outside of a box of colored pencils. A vibrantly colored hotel, perhaps? A list of a person’s favorite colors?

I could not begin to understand the inspiration. Are they supposed to be variations of the colors of a watermelon? Did Nike just pull two random colors out of that box of colored pencils and decide to run with it?

Does it matter if this combination is jarring because you’ve never seen it? I think I’m almost appreciative of the approach to randomize the process and see what happens because this is terrible in an entirely enjoyable way. If you can’t be creative with a third kit, when can you? Go for it, Nike and Barcelona.

tl;dr: Barcelona’s got a very unique third kit this year, and though it’s strange, I ask: Why not?

Stay informed, read this: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the importance of Black heroes in genre films for The Hollywood Reporter

Links of the Day

Middlesborough manager Neil Warnock tested positive for COVID-19.

Utah Royals head coach Craig Harrington and assistant Louis Lancaster were put on administrative leave as the club is investigating a toxic working culture.

A vote to force Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and the board out will be held in November.

Transfer updates: Liverpool signed Thiago Alcântara on from Bayern and Diogo Jota from Wolves; Leicester City signed Cengiz Ünder on loan from Roma; Wolves signed Ki-Jana Hoever on loan from Liverpool; Aston Villa signed Bertrand Traoré from Lyon

A longer read: John Brewin on Macclesfield’s road to a winding up order for The Guardian