The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Tuesday, November 30

Hey, everyone!

Getty Images is full of pictures of Tottenham players arriving at Turf Moor that could double as photos for a holiday card.

Ramble of the Day

I love a food story with a proper football hook, though the football hook is really only relevant to football-liking people: there’s an MLS player whose mom is an extremely popular cook on TikTok.

Lynn Davis is the star of Cooking with Lynja, a project she developed last year with her son Tim. It’s a feat of cooking and entertainment, using the flexible platform of recipes and the endless creativity TikTok offers to create very fun videos. Here’s a recipe for meringue cookies that opens brilliantly by telling herself, “You’re going to eat another cookie and you’re going to f***ing like it.” I watched this video several minutes ago and cannot stop thinking about the cookies.

(You’re probably asking — her footballer son is Sean Davis, captain of the New York Red Bulls. Lynn Davis’ combined social media following is greater than her son’s, his team’s, and MLS’.)

I will redirect you to two pieces that add some more context to Davis’ journey as an influencer — her recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show and an MIT alumni profile from January. (You can read this in the MIT profile, but Davis was an accomplished engineer before she became a TikTok star.) In both, she reveals how Cooking with Lynja is so deeply rooted in family bonding — the name “Lynja” comes from her children’s love for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as kids, some of her recipes are her parents’ originally, and she works with one of her sons to create the content.

Simply, I find Davis and Cooking with Lynja to be perfectly enjoyable. The videos are easy to take pleasure from, a little bit of research showcases a sweet person behind it, and watching a series of videos made me so hungry I had to eat some shortbread while writing this. (It wasn’t a meringue cookie, but it was still enjoyable because shortbread rocks.) My overwhelming reaction is just to wish Davis all the best as Cooking with Lynja keeps growing — it’s just easy to love.

tl;dr: There’s a footballer whose mom is a very famous TikTok cook (and is way more famous than him).

Stay informed, read this: Jon Caramanica on designer Virgil Abloh, who died aged 41 after a battle with cancer, and his trailblazing legacy as a Black man who reached the top of the fashion world with an inclusive vision for The New York Times

Links of the Day

FIFA will begin trialing semi-automated offside technology at the Arab Cup.

Manchester United hired Ralf Rangnick as interim manager until the end of the season.

The Portland Thorns hired Rhian Wilkinson as the team’s new head coach.

All 13 reported cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in Portugal are from Premeira Liga side Belenenses, as of Monday.

Livingston-Rangers was held up for ten minutes because Rangers supporters were throwing snowballs at Livingston goalkeeper Max Stryjek.

The Premier League and EFL are reportedly in talks to refigure payment distribution and drop parachute payments.

A longer read: Rory Smith on how France Football guards the secret of the Ballon d’Or winner until the ceremony for The New York Times