The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Tuesday, September 21

Hi, all!

At the top today is forward Kyah Simon.

Ramble of the Day

Tradition is a universally understood concept, almost entirely regardless of form. It also a revered concept; that does not mean it escapes criticism, but tradition persists, particularly those we inherit. David Beckham and Phil Neville, two men with a longtime professional association with one another, have become the latest to participate in a tradition seemingly as old as time: having their children play for clubs they have leadership roles at.

It’s never really surprising to see a retired footballer’s kid getting into the game in some capacity, but I realized I knew nothing about Romeo Beckham’s aspirations. I remember his older brother, Brooklyn, received a lot of attention for his time in the Arsenal academy and figured Romeo would’ve received the same. He may have, because he joined the Arsenal youth setup when Brooklyn and younger brother Cruz did; I may have accidentally missed it.

I also missed Romeo joining Fort Lauderdale CF, Inter Miami’s lower-league affiliate, but People didn’t and published a fairly informative writeup about the signing. The most important takeaway from the article, if you ask me, is that Romeo had an eight tier birthday cake that included the Inter Miami crest on it. It definitely feels a little weird to have the crest of the club your dad owns on your birthday cake, but I hope the cake was good and that he enjoyed his birthday. (I wonder if the cake was designed by people who don’t really know him but wanted him to post about it on the socials.)

As for Harvey Neville, he seems to have more of a résumé than his new teammate Romeo does, but I won’t discount Romeo for it too much. (Romeo reportedly retired from the sport for a little while, a totally reasonable decision considering how difficult football at the youth level can be.) What I do know about Harvey is that he has represented Ireland at the U19 level, a solid accomplishment. What I unfortunately do not know about Harvey is if he celebrated his birthday this year with a cake that had the Inter Miami crest on it.

tl;dr: New football nepotism, but mainly I’d like to point you towards a cake I accidentally discovered.

Stay informed, read this: Steven Godfrey on East Kentucky University’s football team, a year after they received an unusually large spotlight when protesting against racism for The Washington Post

Links of the Day

Ligue 1 side Lens will play its next two home matches in an empty stadium after supporters invaded the pitch at halftime of the team’s match against Lille over the weekend.

FIFA invited all 211 member nations to a virtual talk this month as part of its push to hold World Cups every two years.

Australian referee Jarred Gillett will become the first foreign referee to take charge of a Premier League match this weekend.

A longer read: Cesar Hernandez interviews San Diego Loyal manager Landon Donovan on treating his players as humans first and footballers second for the Guardian