The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Monday, February 22

Hello, all!

That’s forward Angela Addison at the top today.

Ramble of the Day

I know Tottenham just lost (again), but it’s probably important to remember that the players who frustrate us every few days are human, and that we can put it aside a little bit just for a ramble. More reasonably, it’s good to put that aside because it’s a healthy way to think about athletes, and I imagine the club’s social team probably wishes the same. After all, they shared a video last week that was most certainly recorded in the same session that a Christmas video went up.

They may have been waiting a while because the results have been mostly bad and in between the time this video went up and this Hoddle, there was another. I’m going to try and not let the results dictate the Hoddle, so let’s try to enjoy Gareth Bale, Matt Doherty, Jose Hart, and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg spill some secrets.

As always, my thoughts through bulletpoints:

• Hart alludes to being the team’s hype guy, which doesn’t surprise me because he developed a bit of a reputation for doing tunnel talks while at Manchester City. Based on results, though, I don’t think it’s working.
• Højbjerg seems like a nice guy, doesn’t want to get in trouble for calling anyone a moaner. I do wonder what his answer is, though.
• The most interesting revelation is that some folks spend a lot of time at work. The first one we learn about is Højbjerg, who is maybe sacrificing time with the family for it. He probably shouldn’t be a workaholic.
• Hart says Bale and Ben Davies “abuse” Joe Rodon, and I’m also not surprised by this. Davies once said in a Christmas video (different than the one I mentioned earlier) that Rodon “struggles to get his point across most of the time,” which I felt to be a comment a little too harsh for public.
• Bale also leaves no doubt in your mind that he’s mean to Rodon, saying his chin is “floppy.” I don’t really know what that means, but I did take the time to do a Google images search of Rodon and I feel his chin doesn’t meet that billing. It looks defined, which is not what I’d call floppy, but maybe Bale means something else by floppy?
• I teased that someone else spends a lot of time at work: Bale reveals that Rodon was at the training ground until 7:30p the night before. That feels late!
• Hart says Son Heung-min is the worst dressed player on the team, which is shocking to me. There’s an Instagram account (somewhere) dedicated to Son’s style! And it seems good. It’s possible Son saves some bad fashion for his teammates. I do appreciate Hart’s comment that he respects Son because he’s fully committed to his sense of style.

tl;dr: Let’s put aside the fact that Tottenham players frustrate us to watch a relatively engaging three and a half minute video where they spill some secrets.

Stay informed, read this: a statement from the Canada women’s national team on why they chose to kneel for the national anthem ahead of its first game of the SheBelieves Cup

Links of the Day

Members of Manchester United’s coaching staff are in quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19.

Arsenal’s Willian revealed he has received racist abuse on social media.

Players from Leiecester’s women’s team, men’s U-23 team, and Bristol’s women’s team broke COVID-19 protocol by throwing a party.

RB Salzburg’s Sékou Koïta and Mohamed Camara received three month bans for doping.

A longer listen: Sam Borden on Atalanta’s Champions League match against Valencia a year ago, and its link to a COVID-19 outbreak in Bergamo for the ESPN Daily podcast