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The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Friday, April 16

expressive sports writing

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Tottenham Hotspur Training Session Photo by Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images

Hey, everyone!

OL Reign shared a pair of kits after I ranked this year’s new NWSL kits. They don’t provide much visual interest, so I can’t say I’d rank them very high.

Ramble of the Day

Transfer talk is inherently interesting, and even changing the tiniest variables a little bit can up the entertainment factor. Take Corriere dello Sport’s piece that Érik Lamela may be bound for Italy, which we covered on the site yesterday. What did not make it into our piece was the language of the report, as translated by Sport Witness:

That’s according to Corriere dello Sport on Thursday, who explain the idea ‘was born in the middle of spring’, with his entourage already having held chats with Milan ‘and in the last few days, they have had very intense contacts with Napoli’.

There are not one, but two instances of extremely dramatic language in that one paragraph! I had no idea if this drama comes solely from the translation, or if it came straight from Corriere dello Sport. Luckily, Cartilage Free veteran and current writer of The Hiatus Vincent Ricco can make his way through Italian, and here’s how he describes things:

That’s what those words literally translate to. The language just makes it seem more dramatic because the press doesn’t write like that in the English language but it’s pretty straightforward.

I think it’s pretty easy to interpret what Corriere dello Sport is saying: Napoli recently came up with the idea to sign Lamela, and the two sides are very seriously considering the move and discussing it. It’s very interesting to know, though, that the perceived drama is not implying anything like that — it’s just an Italian sports writer feeling the freedom to more expressive.

What can I say? This is the type of type of technical thing, as both a native English speaker with wide-ranging curiosities and a sports writer, that I find deeply interesting.

tl;dr: I learned that sports writers in Italy feel the freedom to write more expressively thanks to a transfer rumor about Érik Lamela.

Stay informed, read this: Rebecca Sun interviews Asian Americans in media on covering the rise in AAPI hate, and why newsrooms were not ready to cover it for The Hollywood Reporter

Links of the Day

The entire Hertha Berlin team is in quarantine after four people tested positive for COVID-19.

Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang contracted malaria while on international duty last month.

NISA side Chattanooga FC signed a wide-ranging partnership with Bundesliga side Wolfsburg that includes kit sponsorship and launching a women’s team in 2022.

A longer read: Susie Rantz on OL Reign’s holistic commitment to sustainability, from reducing use of single use plastics to the food they eat for Sounder at Heart