The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Wednesday, July 21

Hi, all!

I just realized that the Premier League season is less than a month away.

Ramble of the Day

We land on the men’s Olympic tournament for the final round of kit rankings for this year’s international tournaments. This was a pretty fun group of kits, even considering some of the overlap from other tournaments. Very few of the Olympics-specific kits are special — that’s between the men’s and women’s tournaments — and it’s probably down to the lack of significance the tournament holds in the men’s game. Still, many of the other kits made for play this year are cool.

Let’s start with the ones I liked.

3. Saudi Arabia’s away kit

I love a deep green, and the base pairs very well with the lighter shade used for the pattern. It’s a modern look that works well with a pair of shorts and on a group of footballers, but also seems like it could be styled a lot of different ways.

2. South Korea’s home kit

Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images

Nike did a great job getting creative without straying from the template, providing a fresh spin on the red home kits South Korea normally wear. It makes for a unique look, and one of the few gradient kits that I think really works. That watermelon shade at the top transitions really nicely into the more traditional red.

1. Japan’s home kit

Photo by Masashi Hara/Getty Images

Yeah, I still really like these. This is probably the lone kit specifically designed for the Olympics that’s genuinely good, and this one’s great.

Let’s move on to the ones I don’t like.

3. Spain’s away kit

This kit is representative of the general trend among the Olympics-specific kits — they are extremely plain. Navy’s a great color, but needs more than a white stripe on the sleeve to look like the most generic thing in someone’s closet.

2. New Zealand’s home kit

A white kit can escape my dislike if they pick a likable detail to make it interesting, and this one doesn’t do the trick for me. That pattern seems interesting, and seems like it should be incorporated into the design in a better way. As is, it seems weird and a waste of an opportunity to make this kit more interesting.

1. Romania’s away kit

Photo by Jose Sanchez/Jam Media/Getty Images

Please forgive me for not having a better picture, and allow me to dive in. I don’t care for that shade of blue, do not like a collar that is thin at the center and wide as you go up, and find that torch outline on the right side to be very uninspiring.

tl;dr: One more round of kit rankings, this time for the men’s Olympic tournament.

Stay informed, watch this: Vicky Nguyen on Asian American Olympians competing in Tokyo and the racism they have faced and seen over the last year for NBC News

Links of the Day

Arsenal canceled its preseason trip to the US after members of the traveling party tested positive for COVID-19.

Everton suspended a first team player pending a police investigation.

Manchester City lost in a court ruling about the Premier League’s jurisdiction to investigate the club’s violation of financial fair play rules.

Swindon Town’s takeover by the Axis Group is underway after chairman Lee Power started transferring his shares.

The EFL cleared Derby to make signings, citing “exceptional circumstances.”

Transfers: Everton signed Andros Townsend on a free and Asmir Begović from Bournemouth; Burnley signed Wayne Hennessey on a free

A longer read: Suzanne Wrack interviews Great Britain’s Lucy Bronze on the team’s stop and start prep for Tokyo and the uniqueness of competing at the Olympics for the Guardian