The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Monday, November 29

At the top today is defender Asmita Ale.

Ramble of the Day

I find that Netflix picks a certain amount of genres and produces them to almost an infinite degree, like cooking or baking competition shows. I say this because I’ve started watching another one in Baking Impossible, in which nine bakers are paired with nine engineers to create edible machines.

It feels like it belongs perfectly in the random Netflix show sweet spot: a unique idea that feels slightly contrived, but makes for casual enough television to watch on a day you didn’t plan to watch anything else. The thing about Baking Impossible, though, is that it isn’t entirely contrived — judge and executive producer Andrew Smyth (of The Great British Bake Off fame) has an actual résumé of combining baking and engineering.

One doesn’t need legitimacy to enjoy a random Netflix program, but it adds a level of seriousness. Everyone is truly striving to accomplish something special — the bakers and engineers really demonstrate an incredible amount of skill and creativity, and the judges demand it. Smyth is joined by chef Joanne Chang and astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi, with the latter maybe taking the show more seriously than anyone else. (That’s where the layer of legitimacy kicks in; the random Netflix show is supposed to feel low stakes, but Oluseyi is probably the show’s biggest reminder that there’s $100,000 at stake.)

The results are genuinely incredible at their best, and almost always fun even if the “bakineers” don’t hit the highest marks. The creations are wild in the best sense: almost difficult to believe, but always easy to respect.

tl;dr: I’m watching Baking Impossible, another Netflix baking show that is a pretty cool combination of baking and engineering.

Stay informed, read this: Rick Westhead on the concerns surrounding policing of abuse as scandals emerge across multiple sports in Canada for TSN

Links of the Day

Portugal’s Premeira Liga will investigate Benfica-Belenenses, which was partially played despite Belenenses only naming a nine player squad because of a COVID-19 outbreak.

Chelsea’s Ben Chilwell injured his ACL during last week’s match against Juventus.

A report commissioned by Southampton found that the club left former youth coach Bob Higgins “free to continue” abusing academy players during the 1970s and 1980s.

A longer read: Andy Hunter interviews Galatasaray’s Ryan Babel on publishing an autobiography in the form of a rap album for the Guardian