The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Monday, January 23

good morning and happy monday everyone —

No, it isn’t a lovely day for a boat race, actually. I once said those words sometime in 2017, when I happened to stumble upon the classic Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.

My friend and I were having lunch in Wimbledon Village (oddly I went to Wimbledon almost every week though I lived in northwest London). And on our way back we saw this great commotion near Putney Bridge. And so we got off around Fulham (I forget the name of the stop).

I’ve gone around the grounds of Fulham Football Club before, once as a neutral for a Wolves-Fulham match (when they were both EFL clubs) and other times just to wander around Craven Cottage and the surrounding neighbourhoods.

But this time there were so many people. It was a lovely spring day (unlike today I’m sure), and onlookers were lined up across both sides of the Thames. We did some snooping and later realised we had stumbled upon the famous Boat Race. I watched this on television once!

Well, how exciting of a surprise.

The women boated first and I remember one of the boats, which turned out to be Oxford, got off to a nightmare start. This was called “catching a crab”, which is when a rower loses control of their oar. The race was pretty much decided on that.

But the Oxford boys made up for that an hour or so later, defeating Cambridge by what Wikipedia says is a little more than one length.

Will there be any boats rowing near Fulham today? Perhaps some of the away fans can tell us in the comments below. Either way, it could be worth going back to Craven Cottage soon.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Walk Through Fire, by Yola

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold breaks down the mess surrounding Fabio Paratici

The Athletic ($$): Silent Spurs have questions to answer over Paratici

Dan KP on why Spurs need to shift their transfer focus for Antonio Conte

Cheslea women manager calls for undersoil heating after three WSL matches abandoned to due frozen pitches

Football Association of Ireland hoping for rebrand to land title sponsor