Cartilage Free Captain

Social media is atwitter (pardon the pun) over a story in the Guardian this morning that appears to hint that Tottenham Hotspur could be the subject of a purchase bid from current majority stakeholders ENIC. The story suggests that a group of “private” Qatari-based investors are potentially interested in a bid for the club, and that they would prefer to keep Daniel Levy on board as “Executive Chairman” even after the takeover is complete.

This story has rustled quite a few jimmies in the Tottenham fan base, and for good reason. The piece outlines a hypothetical that would manage to piss off virtually every single fan — a moral and ethically challenged petro-state-based takeover of the club that somehow would result in Daniel Levy staying on as the head of operations. Can you imagine?

And that, in part, is why it probably won’t happen. It’s worth being skeptical of this piece and not get too concerned over what it says. Here’s why.

For starters, the piece is long on sensationalist content, but very, very short on actual details. This piece has EVERYTHING: takeover rumors! Qatari businessmen! Daniel Levy! But notably, it doesn’t say who the Qatari investors are, apart from that they’re apparently “not Qatari government-backed,” something I have deep skepticism about from the jump, and doesn’t even state that a bid is forthcoming — merely that the investors are “in talks” with the club.

We’ve been here many, many times over the past decades. Stories about interest in a potential takeover from ENIC have popped up numerous times over the past 15 years. You probably remember some of them — Cain Hoy, Iranian businessman Jahm Najafi, Sheikh Jassim, various random American-based consortia that have popped into the news and then gradually faded away as the bides either materialized or interest waned. None of them panned out. I’m skeptical that this one is anything either, and that this group of non-governmental rich Qatari actually have enough money to make a serious bid.

Consider: if this were real, we’d probably be reading stories about an actual bid for the club, not vague news pieces about prospective bidders wanting to keep Daniel Levy on as chairman. My guess is that there are some Qatari businessmen sniffing around, but they likely aren’t ready to make a bid large enough to entice ENIC to actually sell the club. This piece feels like it’s the result of someone from the Qatari side of the issue shopping a story around to various English media sources.

Now, maybe this rumor is real. It could be! One of them eventually will be! The club will eventually be sold, and the nature of football business is that it’s very likely to be to some group, individual, or nation-state that is going to be pretty gross. There’s a small chance that I’m wrong about this, and I could look pretty foolish in the coming weeks.

But I doubt it. The club, at any rate, is very unlikely to comment on any “talks” until there’s something concrete that they can talk about. Until you hear solid news that there’s an actual bid for the club that’s likely to be accepted, it’s in your best interest as a fan to remain deeply skeptical of stories like this one that have big headlines, but are very skimpy on the details.

We’re into our second week of exploring Queen’s discography. Last week we went into some of the mysticism Freddie Mercury channeled into My Fairy King on the band’s self-titled debut.

Today, we’re going to skip ahead to A Day at the Races.

It feels weird to bypass Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack and A Night At The Opera. Maybe today’s Track of the Day could supplement the latter a little bit.

Because one of the songs on A Night At The Opera was 39, a song about space exploration in the future penned by lead guitarist Brian May.

Today’s TOTD, Long Away, could be thought as a companion piece to that. I feel it’s a more mature piece of songwriting from May and perhaps a more mature piece of music from Queen in general. There’s a bit less of the overdubs and the backing vocals. It’s really a Brian May song, and he’s a terrific songwriter.

Like 39, the song evokes thoughts of space travel and exploration referencing stars, the heavens, the travel. But it attempts answers a question 39 fails to address: What happens when you travel? What do you leave behind when you go?

I feel this song fails to answer that question. Maybe that’s the point.

“Do we leave our way behind us? Such a long, long way behind us?”

May doesn’t answer the question. He ploughs forward: “Leave it for some hopeless lane.”

What are these stars he’s chasing? The blazing orbs in the sky, or the bright lights of America after finding mainstream acclaim and stardom with Queen’s previous record?

They’re fascinating questions to ask, and a fascinating juxtaposition to explore in a record that Queen purposely made would be unlike anything they did on A Night At The Opera. There’s none of those elongated operatic pieces here.

We’ve got a a rocking opener with Tie Your Mother Down, stripping away the belief this album would be anything like its successor, of course Long Away, the springtime The Millionaire Waltz, the gospel-rock Somebody to Love, the campy vaudeville Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy and the Japanese-inspired Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together).

So, of course, Long Away is unlike its astronautical sister. There’s a place in Queen’s catalogue for both, and both are lovely songs. And both should be a reminder of Brian May’s brilliant songwriting.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Long Away, by Queen

And now for your links:

Jack P-B ($$): “Can this matchless midweek help change Tottenham’s fortunes?”

Finally, on a week that Tottenham Hotspur does not play multiple football games, we’re getting some more good news. According to Dan Kilpatrick in the Standard, five Tottenham Hotspur players are returning to training and could be made available for Spurs’ home match against United this weekend.

We talked about Destiny Udogie yesterday, but the other four are somewhat unexpected. Vicario hasn’t been seen since fracturing his foot against Manchester City back in November. Maddison has been dealing with a calf injury since the Leicester City loss in late January, as has Brennan Johnson. Timo Werner had a minor hamstring pull but nevertheless has missed several weeks.

So this is all fantastic news, even if it’s likely we won’t see many if not any of these returning players starting. Ange Postecoglou has been slow-walking his players’ return to fitness for good reason — he’s seen several players including Richarlison, Micky van de Ven, and Cuti Romero reinjure themselves shortly after returning from a prolonged absence. That said, if even a couple of these players can get some minutes in reserve or off the bench, or even a half of football, that is good for them and good for the squad.

Spurs still have a number of high profile players out injured, including the aforementioned Richarlison, van de Ven, and Romero, as well as Dominic Solanke and Wilson Odobert.

Welcome to another edition of Trending Up / Trending Down, where Hoddle Headquarters takes a look at what around Spurs is trending up, and what’s trending down.

——-

I always find it good practice to launch another edition of Trending Up / Trending Down after a loss. Adds a bit of circumspection to the whole mess of Tottenham Hotspur.

But it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to find who - or exactly what - is trending up right now. The teenagers - Lucas Bergval and Archie Gray - were featured in one of the more recent selections. Who does that leave me with? Well, I can only think of one.

Trending Up

Djed Spence: A rare bright spot these days, and he’s making himself undroppable. Jack P-B ($$) wrote this story on Spence a month ago on how he is making the case to become part of Spurs’ longer-term plans. A remarkable turnaround for a player who was more or less exiled by Antonio Conte.

Trending Down

Ange Postecoglou: All of the players seem to back Postecoglou, which is great for his job security. Less great? The run of games stretching the past two months now. When you get bounced out of two competitions and are bottom table in the league, then yeah you’re going to end up here.

Cup competitions: Spurs entered last week in four cup competitions. They ended the week with that number in half. Now it’s just Europa and the Premier League (but that one only by default).

Fitzie’s track of the day: Midas, by WUNDERHORSE

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “Daniel Levy’s cruel Ange Postecoglou decision and Tottenham’s big reset”

Matt Law: “Ange Postecoglou plans reset by giving Tottenham players two days off”

Dan KP: “Ange Postecoglou comes out fighting after nightmare week - but is Daniel Levy sold?”

Ange Postecoglou loves to talk about his team, and he was in a particularly loquacious mood after Tottenham Hotspur lost 2-1 to Aston Villa, a result that crashed them out of the FA Cup in the fourth round, their second cup exit in four days. But Postecoglou’s answers and tone were a little different this time around. In his post-match press conference, Ange adopted a “us against the world” mentality in comments to the press, stoutly defending his beleaguered squad of backups and teenagers and implying that the rampant criticism of him and his team in the footballing media is agenda driven and unfair.

Ange particularly hammered home how playing constant football every few days for mon

“[Two cup exits in a week] is not damaging for me, it’s obviously disappointing for us in terms of our objectives. But for two-and-a-half months, this small group of players have given everything in multiple competitions. I think they’ve been outstanding. We had 11 first-team players missing today. We started with four teenagers, a 21 year old goalkeeper coming to one of the best teams in the country, away from home. After playing the best team in the country on Thursday night. After playing a Premier League game last Sunday, playing a Europa game [before that]. The same group of players. No rotation. And they’ve been doing this since the middle of November.

“I think they’ve given everything they can and I’ve got so much respect and admiration for the players and how they’ve gone about that. We get a couple of midweeks off now, great for them to recover. We’ll get some players back which is also great for this group that they’ll get some help. And we move on.

It’s hard to discount the negative impact on performance that comes with having to play without 10-11 first team players for 2+ months, while playing two matches a week consistently during that stretch. Postecoglou also pointed to Liverpool’s loss to Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup on Saturday, a loss in which Arne Slot heavily rotated and was without many of his regular starting XI.

“I was saying in there, take a back four of Vicario, Dragusin, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke, Odobert, Werner...take them out of any team... How did Liverpool go today? And they just did that for one game. Do that for two-and-a-half months. Any team. Do that for two-and-a-half months in multiple competitions. I don’t care about me. People will judge me. But you can’t judge this group of players on what’s happened. They’ve given everything, the performance.

“Like I said, two 18-year-olds, a 19-year-old, a 17-year-old, a 21-year-old goalkeeper starting against one of the best teams in the country at home. They’ve had a week off, they didn’t play Thursday night against Liverpool. We did. Same group of players. Not a change. You can’t measure this group of players on that and their performance where they’re at. It’s too easy for people to be critical of them. I just have huge admiration and respect for them. We kind of knew this game was going to be the finishing line because we knew what was coming ahead in terms of midweeks off and getting some players back. But they tried their hardest and that’s all you can ask.

“I don’t know how else to explain it. I don’t know how else to explain it if you can’t see that this team is just trying to play its hardest in the most extreme of circumstances. Two and a half months of asking 18-year-olds and 17-year-olds and senior players, with no rest, to play Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday. I’ll keep going for two-and-a-half months and if you think that is not at all a factor of how this team is performing then there’s nothing else I can say. There’s nothing else I can explain.”

Postecoglou was also asked about his own job security amidst this dismal run of form since November. In the past, Ange has taken the full weight of responsibility on his shoulders for the team’s performance and he did so again today, but did his utmost to protect and defend the players who are at his disposal and playing every few days.

“I’m not talking about me. People can judge me. They can say I’ve done a bad job, I’m not up to it or whatever. That’s fine. What I’m saying is you can’t be critical of players or players’ performances at this time. Because if you do, then do that with everyone else. Be as critical of other clubs when they’ve got 9 or 10 or 11 players out. And none of them have, and have to play every week. And not for one game. I’m not just saying we had to do this today. We’ve been doing this since the middle of November and you can’t judge performances of these players and critique them on what they’ve done.

“All they’ve done is given all they can and that’s all you can ask for. Me, that’s not of interest to me. My responsibility at this football club is this group of players and this team, to get them to play in the manner I want them to and bring us success. Whether people think I can do that or not, that’s for others to judge. But there’s got to be a better appreciation for what a very small group of players have been doing for the last two and a half months. It can’t be that people think that’s an excuse. That’s just not anywhere near close to objective analysis. That’s just agenda driven stuff. If it’s to get rid of me that’s fine. Good on ya. Go for it a million times. But in terms of this group of players, what they’ve given over the past two and half months has been outstanding, it’s a credit to them, I can’t speak highly enough of them.”

As for the constant drumbeat of negative criticism directed at his team and himself, Ange tetchily suggested that the media might be driven not by balanced analysis, but by an agenda. Ange was asked by one reporter why his Spurs side doesn’t play in his preferred style like they did earlier in the season, and Postecoglou fired back that he would if he could, but he didn’t want to drive his players into the ground.

“No, because they’re tired mate. Do you think they can press like [we would]. If we hadn’t played Thursday night and I hadn’t rotated that team do you think we wouldn’t have been pressing aggressively today? Fair chance, unless you don’t think they’re human beings. Unless you’re super human and you think no, after playing Liverpool on Thursday night they should be flying tonight. It doesn’t happen. They’re human beings. Why do you think Liverpool and others rotate 11 players? Why? There’s a reason and I wish I could do the same. So you can bring a freshness to the team.

“Of course they’re not playing anywhere near the levels that we want or expect, but that’s not because they’re not trying. It’s because they can’t. I think this group of players once we get the rest of the group in, will be an outstanding team. I have no doubt about that. Whether other people can’t see that, that’s of no interest to me. If you want to measure anything on what they’re doing at the moment, other than the extreme situation they’re dealing with then I think your analysis is skewed and it’s not objective. That’s my opinion.”

The good news is that Tottenham is set to welcome back a number of injured players over the next week. There are reports (this is another article) that Destiny Udogie is back in training as of this week, and players like James Maddison, Wilson Odobert, Brennan Johnson, Dominic Solanke, and Guglielmo Vicario are all anticipated to return within the next couple of weeks. Spurs crashing out of both domestic cups also means they have a couple of weeks with only one match, which should provide some additional rest to their depleted and exhausted squad.

Tottenham’s record isn’t good, nor but for a few exceptions have their performances, but there’s still optimism that with time, health, and a little luck, Spurs can still salvage something respectable from what has been a train wreck of a season. And whatever happens to Ange over the next few months, you can’t say he doesn’t have his players’ backs. Thus far, that feeling is mutual with his players.

I felt pretty good about my marathon training heading into this week. Then, I noticed something was wrong. Am I at the beginning stages of a second stress reaction? I’m not so sure. I take Saturday off.

———

After a 12 mile run this past Sunday, I felt really good. It was easy. I felt confident. I hit the track club for a second time in as many weeks on Tuesday. The run itself wasn’t laborious - if anything it was a bore, I could go so much faster, and I felt it held me back.

But on Thursday, something feels amiss. I’m not quite sure what. But it feels deeper than muscle. So I monitor it.

I take Saturday off.

———

On Sunday I run again. I want to run 14 miles.

Every mile feels difficult. I don’t feel fresh whatsoever. A few times I feel that nagging feeling that has me worried about another prolonged break.\

———

My mind races back to my MRI scan from 2017. I’m at some grey-coloured building near Waterloo Station in London. The doctor looks at my MRI scan. Not good, he says, abolishing my dreams of running a marathon that year.

I spend the majority of the spring at the orthopedic in Earl’s Court, at a subterannean gym in West Hampstead, and fitting peope for running shoes in Spitafield Market.

———

I take solace in running 14 miles. I know feels bragadocious to type it here. But it isn’t. When you’re gunning for a personal best at the marathon, you gotta do better than I did. You have to feel better.

And that has me worried about my next run. And the one after that. What will I be like after 16 miles? Eighteen? Twenty-two?

I can’t do much right now, and that’s hard. I can only rest, stretch and recover. Then Tuesday comes. What then? Another night at the track club? Or a recovery run? But how can I get faster if I don’t run fast? But how can I run if I cannot run at all?

Twenty-six-point-two miles feels so far from now. How will I do it?

My confidence is proper shaken.

I so badly want to hit a new personal best this time. Not by a little - by a lot. My current window is 3:10 - 3:20. But I am discouraged after Sunday’s run.

So what do I do? Take satisfaction in knowing I can bang out a 1:44 14-mile run when I feel like crap, or tailor my goals to the fact that I ran a 1:44 14-mile run while feeling like crap?

I don’t know. When I run, I just run.

———

These are the thoughts that run through my mind today as I go through my run.

I know what it’s like to be beset by injuries. I know what it’s like to be burnt out.

So what is the point of today? I’m not so sure.

I know I can run 14 miles. I’ve done it so many times. I know deep down that, feeling good, I can run so much better.

But what if I don’t?

What if I don’t feel better? What if I carry these pains with me again on Tuesday? Thursday? What if I get an MRI next week and the doctor tells me I cannot run again for another eight weeks?

But that’s a future fitzie thing.

———

Your insecurities, doubts and anxieties don’t disappear just because you ran a certain distance or accomplished a goal. They’re still there. That’s the point.

I wrote about this before, remember?

——-

I don’t know what the rest of my training schedule holds. I know I’m behind because the flu prevented me from doing the serious mileage I had hoped to accompish for a few weeks.

But I’m still here. I’m still fighting. I want to do the best I can. I want to do better than what I think is the best I can do.

I want so much more than what I had gone through Sunday morning. I want, on 4 May 2025, to run the best marathon of my life. To cross that finish line strong, tired but strong, through the whole thing.

It scares the hell out of me. Honestly, it does. It’s scary to run knowing I could not live up to my goals, to my expectations. But I did it anyways. And I won’t stop, unless some white-coated proctologist instructs me I have some tear in my left femur. (Please, no.)

So, yes, my confidence is proper shaken today. I felt horrible on Mile -1, Mile 3, Mile 7, Mile 12 and Mile 14. I ended Sunday’s run knowing I have at least 12.2 miles to go.

What’ll I do?

What can I do but move forward?

That’s the quickest way home, after all.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Uncle John’s Band, by the Grateful Dead

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Aston Villa 2 Tottenham 1 – Rashford debut, passive Spurs, Villa injury worries”

All the good Tottenham Hotspur vibes that had started to build again over the last few weeks went straight out the window following Liverpool’s demolition of the Lilywhites in the EFL Cup midweek. There’s no time for Spurs to lick their wounds, however, with a short turnaround before today’s match against Aston Villa.

Spurs are in the fourth round courtesy of a labored victory over National League side Tamworth, and Villa are just a few rungs higher on the English football ladder. The Villains will be fresh as well, having had the week off to prepare while Spurs crashed out of another cup competition.

Regardless, Ange Postecoglou will be keen to turn things around, with a little help from his January reinforcements. Two of those, Kevin Danso and Mathys Tel, were able to hold their heads high in the defeat to Liverpool, and will surely be in the starting lineup with injuries aplenty both in defense and the forward line. Can Spurs overcome whatever fresh hell the universe serves up this time and come away victorious?

COYS!

Lineups

Live Blog

How to Watch

Aston Villa vs. Tottenham Hotspur

Villa Park, Birmingham, UK

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Time: 12:35 p.m. ET, 5:35 p.m. UK

TV: Not televised in USA; BBC One (UK). Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: ESPN+

Match thread rules

The match thread rules are the same as always. To any visitors coming here for the first time, welcome! We’re glad you’re here! Wipe your feet, mind the gap, and be sure to check out the other pages at this outstanding site. While you’re here, though, we have a few rules and regulations:

Absolutely no links to illegal streams. They’re bad and they get us in trouble. Violators will be warned or banned.

We have rules against “relentless negativity.” Nobody likes a Negative Nancy. Don’t knee-jerk and post outlandish or hurtful things just because you’re frustrated.

Along those lines, outright abuse of players or match officials is also not allowed. It’s fine to say “wow, that was a really bad call,” but it’s NOT okay to direct copious amounts of abuse in the direction of said official over a call you did not like.

Treat other people in the match thread the way you would want someone else to treat your grandmother. Be nice. This is a community of fans, not an un-moderated message board.

NO SPIDERS!

Finally, while we don’t have a rule against profanity, please try and keep the naughty words in check. Also, language that is sexist, racist, transphobic, or homophobic in nature will be swiftly deleted and you will be immediately banned. This is an open, supportive community.

Have fun, and COYS!

Danny Rose is known for more than his first goal at Tottenham Hotspur, but that first goal was certainly a doozy. You all know it — North London Derby, 2010, Ohhhhhhhwhattagoooooal it’s Danny Rose on his Premier League debut with a memorable strike!

Danny never scored another goal as good as that one, and it didn’t matter. It was etched into Tottenham lore forever.

Jamie Donley just scored his Danny Rose Goal™ for Leyton Orient against Manchester City in the FA Cup. You have to watch this.

The sheer audacity for a 20-year-old Tottenham player on loan at Leyton Orient to even attempt a shot like that with Stefan Ortega off his line, much less for it to be THAT ACCURATE. It’s absolutely absurd. He took that shot from the CENTER CIRCLE and not only plonked it off the crossbar, but it went in.

Ok sure, the cynics will roll their eyes and say that actshually the goal was given as an Ortega own goal because it clipped off the crossbar and then Ortega’s back before going in. I call bullshit. That’s Jamie Donley’s goal and it always will be.

Leyton Orient may or may not win their FA Cup match over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Doesn’t matter. Jamie Donley will return to Tottenham after the end of this season but my guess is if he ever goes back to Leyton Orient he will never have to buy a drink ever again.

Thursday’s defeat against Liverpool means the League Cup joins the Premier League as empty competitions for Tottenham Hotspur this season. Ange Postecoglou is known for second-season trophies, putting tons of pressure on the remaining two options. While the Europa League campaign is on rest for the moment, Spurs have a big test in the FA Cup Fourth Round this weekend.

After just sneaking by perennial juggernaut Tamworth, Tottenham earned a trip to Aston Villa on Sunday. Villa needed a couple late goals to squeak past West Ham in the Third Round but is the favorite to advance in this tie. Eighth in the league and into the Champions League Round of 16, maybe this is not Villa’s biggest match circled on the calendar, but it will not be easy for the visitors regardless.

Fourth Round: Aston Villa vs. Tottenham Hotspur

Date: Sunday, February 9

Time: 12:35 pm ET, 5:35 pm UK

Location: Villa Park, Birmingham

TV: ESPN+ (USA), BBC One (UK)

It is pretty clear where Villa’s priorities lie this season. After an impressive fourth-place finish last year, the Premier League has been a bit of a disaster, with two wins in the last seven matches — and none in the past three — dropping the club down to eighth. Many of the poor results have come following Champions League fixtures however, where a top-eight finish secured an all-important bye into the last 16.

That time off is a bummer for Spurs, as now Villa can deploy a full-strength squad if desired on Sunday. There is probably going to be a time when Unai Emery will have to decide whether or not to prioritize the FA Cup, but this round does not appear to be it. Still, even with a desire to go for it, November’s 4-1 beatdown shows neither side has this guaranteed.

Tottenham’s impressive victory that day was one of the squad’s best performances of the season. Even after falling behind, Postecoglou’s side stuck with it and kept on the pressure and snagged all three points despite injuries before and during the match. Those explosive outputs have run hot and cold this season, and Thursday’s effort at Anfield left so much to be desired, so Sunday is a chance to bounce back.

Sum of the parts

Until the starting XI is back to complete health (or at least mostly complete) it will require a true team effort for this team to keep grinding out results. Sometimes that means unlikely heroes finding the scoresheet, and sometimes that will mean hodgepodge defenses putting in a shift and keeping the score line within reach. Especially being on the road, that mantra remains the call.

Ollie Watkins is certainly the biggest threat, but the departure of Jhon Duran takes away one big weapon. Donyell Malen will attempt to pick up the slack, and the recent signing nearly had a goal this past weekend. Villa’s attack has fallen off, with just average goal tallies both domestically and abroad, but expect the home side to be aggressive, especially as Postecoglou experiments with his center back pairing.

Spurs do not need a masterclass to advance to the Fifth Round but will need to find scoring from somewhere. In November’s win it was Villa who showed disorganized defense, leading to multiple Tottenham goals, and last season’s 4-0 throttling will also come to mind. I think the visitors will come into this fixture with some confidence, knowing there will be opportunities to pounce on.

Yesterday at midnight was the deadline for clubs in the knock-out phase of the Europa League to make changes to their roster. As I detailed a couple of days ago, Tottenham Hotspur could make a total three changes to their team, and there were a few obvious changes that could be made.

Today, those changes were announced, and it worked out pretty much exactly as I predicted — go me!

So it’s Kevin Danso, Mathys Del, and Djed Spence in, Radu Dragusin, Fraser Forster, and Timo Werner out. Danso for Dragusin was obvious, and bringing in Spence, who has turned into one of Tottenham’s best players of late, was also a smart move. Removing Timo may feel harsh, but Ange Postecoglou has clearly cooled on him, he’s only here on loan, and has been pretty poor before his long-term injury.

This also seems to corroborate the recent reporting that Spurs are set to get a bunch of first team players back from injury pretty soon, including Wilson Odobert. That’s also very good news for Tottenham’s Europa League campaign.

Until those players come back, Spurs will be relying on newcomers Tel and Danso to slot in and hopefully acclimate quickly.

Tottenham await the winners of the two-legged playoff round before they know who their next opponent will be; they will play the winner of either AZ Alkmaar vs. Galatasaray, or Real Sociedad vs. Midtjylland.