The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Friday, February 5

Hello, all!

I can’t imagine thinking about Tottenham is putting any of us in a good mood right now.

Ramble of the Day

My friends, I will make no attempt at distracting you today. Why? In part because I don’t think it works with this group, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. The true reason is this, though: if the Hoddle cannot be your space to chat about how miserable Tottenham is making you, then what can be?

It has been such a miserable stretch of matches, hasn’t it? The play has been a very unpleasant combination of both boring and ineffective, with no redeemable action in sight. It’s pretty clear the team’s hit a very serious point of reflection, and one of action — deciding to stick with José Mourinho now is just as much of an action as deciding to fire him.

You don’t need a cue to chime in — I imagine some of you just skipped over this to start conversations in the comments. (I just want to be clear that I have absolutely no problem with that.) If you did read this, though, in desperate search of a distraction, I will link you to a video of large ice spheres that washed up on the shores of Indiana Dunes State Park.

tl;dr: Not that you needed me to label it, but this is officially a space to vent about Tottenham.

Stay informed, read this: Eni Subair interviews actress and writer Issa Rae on her evolution from an acclaimed web series to Insecure, and telling Black stories for British Vogue

Links of the Day

Germany will not allow Liverpool to enter the country for the team’s Champions League tie at RB Leipzig, citing COVID-19 protocols.

Serbian police raided the Partizan and Red Star stadiums after arresting 17 people linked to fan groups on suspicion of organized crime, drug trafficking, and murder.

MLS extended the deadline to reach a new collective bargaining agreement with players by 24 hours.

A longer read: Adam Bate interviews Crystal Palace’s Leigh Nicol on overcoming the trauma of a hack that saw a private video go public, and her aim to help others by sharing her story for Sky Sports