The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Thursday, January 21

Hi, all!

At the top today is forward Rosella Ayane, who joined the club in 2019.

Ramble of the Day

It’s been a little while since I asked a question, so let’s change that: What’s a sport the powers that be would have to invent to give you a chance at winning an Olympic gold medal? (I think it’s another way of asking about your secret talents, but with a very specific purpose.)

I imagine a lot of our sports will be extremely niche and narrow. I’m finding it hard to think of something that I’m definitely one of the best at, but if I had to choose something, it would be between my knowledge of something specific like the cross section between football and pop culture or my ability to turn my sense of smell off. The first is self-explanatory, but the second is a skill I developed while passing by my high school cafeteria every morning in seventh and eighth grade. (Again, I cite my Hoddle from three years ago where I write about how horrible the food was in my elementary and high school cafeterias, and how they traumatized me.)

I don’t really know how to test it in such a way to create a sport. Maybe an official brings something that smells horribly, and judges have to watch “athletes” to see if their faces flinch, and the last one to flinch wins? I have no idea, honestly. It’s just a thought, in a series of other random thoughts.

tl;dr: What’s something you think would win you an Olympic gold medal if it was a sport?

Stay informed, read this: Alexandra Alter on Amanda Gorman, the US’ first National Youth Poet Laureate on her path to the role and her process for The New York Times

Links of the Day

19 Monterrey players and staff tested positive for COVID-19.

The Premier League will begin trialing concussion substitutions.

Arsenal terminated Sokratis Papastathopoulos’ contract.

A longer read: Donald McRae interviews QPR youth coach Manisha Tailor, one of English football’s few South Asian coaches for The Guardian