Cartilage Free Captain

It’s a done deal, almost! According to both Fabrizio Romano and Alasdair Gold, Tottenham Hotspur was indeed the club working to bring in 18-year old South Korean winger Yang Min-Hyuk from Gangwon FC. The deal is now agreed apart from part of the medical, and he’ll join Spurs at the end of the K-League season in January 2025.

So this was originally couched as a “loan back” to Gangwon, but I’m not actually sure that’s the case. Instead I think it’s more like the Lucas Bergvall deal in that Yang will just stay on at his current club until the end of the K-League season in November, then join up with Spurs in January, 2025. No loan needed, which means Spurs don’t use up one of their decreasing, and valuable, loan spots for this window.

Writing in Football.London, Gold spoke to South Korean journalist Sungmo Lee about Yang and what he might bring to Tottenham.

“Yang Min-hyuk is the best young player in the K League right now, and most significantly, he’s still a high school student. His talent was so exceptional so his club Gangwon proposed the professional contract to a high school student which was the first ever case in K League’s history.

“He showed great performances in K League this season, winning the ‘young player of the month’ award three times in a row from April to June. He is a great dribbler but also possesses great finishing skills which makes Korean fans hope that he can become the next Son Heung-min, especially if he joins the same club with Son in Tottenham.”

—Sungmo Lee, via Football.London

Sounds pretty good to me! But I wouldn’t expect that Yang will make an instant impact at Spurs when he joins in January. He’s still just 18, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him slot into the U23s to get adapted to life and football in England. I’d guess he’s at least a year or so away from showing up in a first team match or anything. But hey, I’ve been wrong before, so let’s hope I am and he starts kicking butt right away.

Yang will also have the advantage of having a fantastic mentor in Son Heung-Min when he arrives. Sonny’s spoken in the past about how difficult it is to adapt to a new culture when you first leave Korea, especially when you’re young. If there’s one thing we know about Son is that he’s an incredible teammate and friend, and I have no doubt he’ll bend over backwards to help Yang adapt.

There are reports that the transfer fee for Yang is just €4m, which depending on who you ask is either stupid low for a potentially generational Korean talent, or a rather high swing for a foreign player lottery ticket. I lean towards the former, but I’m also an optimist.

Earlier this summer, Tottenham Hotspur and left back Ryan Sessegnon amicably parted ways. It wasn’t exactly a surprise; Sessegnon’s career had been almost completely derailed by persistent injuries over the past two seasons to the point where he had barely played football for more than a year.

It was decided that he needed a fresh start somewhere new where he could hopefully get back to fitness and playing condition. To that end Spurs and Sess mutually terminated his contract and Ryan been training for the past few weeks at Crystal Palace.

But it doesn’t look like he’ll be playing for Palace after all. According to Fabrizio Romano, Sessegnon will re-sign with his former club Fulham, where he and his twin brother Steven came up as youth players.

There’s something romantic about going home, and that feels exactly like what Ryan’s doing here. Fulham is clearly a club where he feels comfortable, as he spent 11 years there as a schoolboy and professional there before moving to Spurs in 2019. He gets to stay in London as well, which along with Palace I’m sure was a big part of his decision-making process.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here — I’m sad that things just didn’t work out for Sessegnon at Tottenham, because I like him a lot. But things just don’t work out sometimes, and Fulham feels like a place where he’ll, ironically, put his past behind him while heading back to the club of his youth. I wish him well.

Earlier this summer, Tottenham Hotspur and left back Ryan Sessegnon amicably parted ways. It wasn’t exactly a surprise; Sessegnon’s career had been almost completely derailed by persistent injuries over the past two seasons to the point where he had barely played football for more than a year.

It was decided that he needed a fresh start somewhere new where he could hopefully get back to fitness and playing condition. To that end Spurs and Sess mutually terminated his contract and Ryan been training for the past few weeks at Crystal Palace.

But it doesn’t look like he’ll be playing for Palace after all. According to Fabrizio Romano, Sessegnon will re-sign with his former club Fulham, where he and his twin brother Steven came up as youth players.

There’s something romantic about going home, and that feels exactly like what Ryan’s doing here. Fulham is clearly a club where he feels comfortable, as he spent 11 years there as a schoolboy and professional there before moving to Spurs in 2019. He gets to stay in London as well, which along with Palace I’m sure was a big part of his decision-making process.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here — I’m sad that things just didn’t work out for Sessegnon at Tottenham, because I like him a lot. But things just don’t work out sometimes, and Fulham feels like a place where he’ll, ironically, put his past behind him while heading back to the club of his youth. I wish him well.

Preseason can be grueling; even more so when your preseason is in 90°F plus temperatures.

From a coaching perspective, it’s the time to build fitness and conditioning for the long season ahead, but also to give opportunities to players to prove themselves. From a club and commercial perspective, it’s a chance to grow the team’s profile around the world.

All these things exist in a delicate balance: matches in far-flung corners of the globe (not that Japan is that) are great from a marketing perspective, but is the volume of travel too much? How hard do you push your players so that they are peaking coming into the season proper? How do you balance ensuring your nailed-on starters are Premier League match-fit versus allowing your youth talent time to shine and possibly break through?

It’s likely this delicate balance that has resulted in the club scheduling an additional behind-closed-doors friendly later today (Thursday evening, Japan time) ahead of the first official friendly of the Asian tour on Saturday against Vissel Kobe, as reported by Alasdair Gold:

There’s not much info on the match, with neither a kick-off time nor opponent mentioned (though it’s likely to be a local club side); but the rationale is that with two official friendlies (plus another behind-closed-doors match against Cambridge United) already under the belt, it’s time for the senior players to start upping their minutes.

That doesn’t mean the youth players will be left out; there’s obviously a tight turnaround leading into the Vissel Kobe match, and it’s the same with the matches following, with the Kobe, K-League All Stars, and Bayern Munich friendlies all scheduled in the space of a week. There’s plenty of minutes to go around. My prediction instead is that we’ll likely see a number of the senior starters go 60 minutes against Vissel Kobe, supplemented with some youth teamers who will play a half each; with then a different set of senior players doing the same against the K-League All Stars side.

I’m all for more football; I just hope that the team don’t overdo it, with a litany of hamstring injuries last season and the sheer exhaustion we saw under Conte the year prior. I’m sure Ange knows what he’s doing.

Kia ora.

I’m a big TV fan. My wife and I watch a fair few shows between us, and one thing that’s become noticeable over the past 5-10 years is how much TV, and how it’s structured, has changed.

The advent of streaming services, better hardware quality, and improvements in CGI has resulted in big, movie-level budgets to deliver a “prestige-level” product; this increase in cost to film has also seen seasons grow shorter, with the desire to binge watch meaning less room for “filler” or “monster-of-the-week” (to use an X-Files term) episodes to pad out a 20+ episode season, with viewers often complaining about the insertion of such breaks from the main plot.

The really big change though has been the wait between seasons.

Gone are the days of surety surrounding the yearly September to May air window for network shows; instead, we sometimes see 2+ year waits as new seasons are prepared. The increased cost means studios are often reluctant to renew shows early without some quantification of show performance; there’s also increased time spent writing, the advent of film actors moving into TV (often meaning scheduling conflicts), and a longer post-production window to get shows looking sharp (as we’ve all come to expect).

This can actively harm shows as well, as long-running plot lines get forgotten, fans disconnect from the show, or people with busy lives start new shows and find they can’t really be bothered picking up another one again; Westworld was somewhat a victim of this (though it had other issues) with huge gaps between seasons.

I’ve honestly forgotten some of the shows on which I’m waiting; Severance Season 2 is a big one, airing early next year; the second season of Andor is another likely releasing around the same time. Stranger Things, Silo, For All Mankind, Fargo, The White Lotus... the list goes on. I guess you could say I’m impatient.

What about you? Do you prefer the longer wait for “higher quality” TV? Is there anything you’ve been waiting a long time to continue watching?

Matty’s track of the day: This Is Why (Live), by Paramore

And now for your links:

Ledley King & Ossie Ardiles have been hanging out in Japan with supporters

A K-League perspective on purported Spurs signing Yang Min-Hyuk’s rise to stardom

A fantastic video from The Extra Inch highlighting the problems with Spurs’ squad and how to potentially fix them (or not)

Kia ora.

I’m a big TV fan. My wife and I watch a fair few shows between us, and one thing that’s become noticeable over the past 5-10 years is how much TV, and how it’s structured, has changed.

The advent of streaming services, better hardware quality, and improvements in CGI has resulted in big, movie-level budgets to deliver a “prestige-level” product; this increase in cost to film has also seen seasons grow shorter, with the desire to binge watch meaning less room for “filler” or “monster-of-the-week” (to use an X-Files term) episodes to pad out a 20+ episode season, with viewers often complaining about the insertion of such breaks from the main plot.

The really big change though has been the wait between seasons.

Gone are the days of surety surrounding the yearly September to May air window for network shows; instead, we sometimes see 2+ year waits as new seasons are prepared. The increased cost means studios are often reluctant to renew shows early without some quantification of show performance; there’s also increased time spent writing, the advent of film actors moving into TV (often meaning scheduling conflicts), and a longer post-production window to get shows looking sharp (as we’ve all come to expect).

This can actively harm shows as well, as long-running plot lines get forgotten, fans disconnect from the show, or people with busy lives start new shows and find they can’t really be bothered picking up another one again; Westworld was somewhat a victim of this (though it had other issues) with huge gaps between seasons.

I’ve honestly forgotten some of the shows on which I’m waiting; Severance Season 2 is a big one, airing early next year; the second season of Andor is another likely releasing around the same time. Stranger Things, Silo, For All Mankind, Fargo, The White Lotus... the list goes on. I guess you could say I’m impatient.

What about you? Do you prefer the longer wait for “higher quality” TV? Is there anything you’ve been waiting a long time to continue watching?

Matty’s track of the day: This Is Why (Live), by Paramore

And now for your links:

Ledley King & Ossie Ardiles have been hanging out in Japan with supporters

A K-League perspective on purported Spurs signing Yang Min-Hyuk’s rise to stardom

A fantastic video from The Extra Inch highlighting the problems with Spurs’ squad and how to potentially fix them (or not)

If you’re a fan of Tottenham Hotspur Women, want to be, or just like English women’s football in general, then you’re going to like what I’m about to write. Beginning this upcoming season in 2024-25, the Barclay’s Women’s Super League will begin broadcasting all non-televised WSL matches on YouTube, rather than on its proprietary streaming service FA Player!

The announcement was made in a couple of throw-away lines at the bottom of a press release announcing the new fixtures for the 2024-25 season, but the news is abundantly welcome! The WSL now has its own dedicated YouTube channel and, similar to what it did on the FA Player in past seasons, promises to stream all WSL matches there that aren’t televised in the United Kingdom. YouTube will also host full match replays for viewers who can’t tune into the matches live, as well as highlight packages and behind-the-scenes content via a new partnership with DAZN, all free of charge.

According to sportindustry.biz, Sky Sports will broadcast as many as 44 WSL matches in the UK next season, with BBC broadcasting at least 22 matches. Those not selected for TV coverage will be streamed on YouTube. For viewers in the United States, those televised matches are typically streamed via Paramount+, and there are suggestions that Paramount will be broadcasting more matches this upcoming season than in years past.

The Women’s FA Cup competition is notably NOT included in this deal; all FA Cup matches this coming season will continue to be streamed on the FA Player.

This is good stuff. It should be acknowledged that the FA Player has filled a real hole over the past few years for fans who had no other real option to watch Spurs Women (or any other WSL team) play, but there have been significant headaches. The production value on FA Player streams was pretty sub-standard, and since the FA Player app is a standalone for mobile devices and not optimized for TV, it required casting a low-quality feed to your streaming box of choice in order to watch on television. I can’t tell you how many times the feed has crapped out on me while I was watching FA Player games in years past.

But this is excellent news. Moving to YouTube will make it easier for fans to find, and watch, WSL matches this coming season and will hopefully continue to boost women’s soccer in the UK.

Kia ora.

This is going to be a bit more of a rushed Hoddle, the reason being I’m writing this while in a work meeting.

Oh, the joy of meetings.

Meetings are great when it allows you to engage with your colleagues, build a rapport, and have a level of connection that depending on your day-to-day role, you may sorely miss. They’re also good if there is a purpose or a function, in that you can expect to come out of said meeting with takeaways or actions with which to proceed.

And speaking of takeaways, having them catered is always a bonus.

Unfortunately, meetings are often not great.

I recently shifted to a new role in which I find myself in 6+ hours of meetings on certain days, which is brutal when you also need to... well, get work done. A lot of meetings or calls are remote, so I can work away on things on my PC while trying to keep one ear open.

The worst meetings though are the ones where you are unlikely to have any actions come your way, but you need to actively listen just in case. I’ve mentioned before that I work in IT; to be more specific, I work closely with data, and so I find myself in a lot of calls, meetings, and groups where changes and updates to data are being discussed. This means I need to be always listening because there could be flow-on impacts to my team (and therefore the whole business).

Consequently, I am sometimes sitting in a meeting for a couple of hours, actively listening - only to have zero input or takeaways. It is not fun.

Do you have any meetings you wish you could just not go to? Does your job even have meetings? Or maybe you dream of a job that has lots of meetings? Trust me, you shouldn’t.

Matty’s track of the day: Over the Hillside, by The Blue Nile

And now for your links:

Robert Vilahamn talks to the club about his plans for the future after signing a contract extension

Alasdair Gold’s takeaways from Spurs’ first training session in Tokyo

Kia ora.

This is going to be a bit more of a rushed Hoddle, the reason being I’m writing this while in a work meeting.

Oh, the joy of meetings.

Meetings are great when it allows you to engage with your colleagues, build a rapport, and have a level of connection that depending on your day-to-day role, you may sorely miss. They’re also good if there is a purpose or a function, in that you can expect to come out of said meeting with takeaways or actions with which to proceed.

And speaking of takeaways, having them catered is always a bonus.

Unfortunately, meetings are often not great.

I recently shifted to a new role in which I find myself in 6+ hours of meetings on certain days, which is brutal when you also need to... well, get work done. A lot of meetings or calls are remote, so I can work away on things on my PC while trying to keep one ear open.

The worst meetings though are the ones where you are unlikely to have any actions come your way, but you need to actively listen just in case. I’ve mentioned before that I work in IT; to be more specific, I work closely with data, and so I find myself in a lot of calls, meetings, and groups where changes and updates to data are being discussed. This means I need to be always listening because there could be flow-on impacts to my team (and therefore the whole business).

Consequently, I am sometimes sitting in a meeting for a couple of hours, actively listening - only to have zero input or takeaways. It is not fun.

Do you have any meetings you wish you could just not go to? Does your job even have meetings? Or maybe you dream of a job that has lots of meetings? Trust me, you shouldn’t.

Matty’s track of the day: Over the Hillside, by The Blue Nile

And now for your links:

Robert Vilahamn talks to the club about his plans for the future after signing a contract extension

Alasdair Gold’s takeaways from Spurs’ first training session in Tokyo

I hear you saying to yourself, You know what, I don’t think we’ve had enough football this summer, what we need is one more major tournament. Good news! The Olympics start tomorrow, with the opening ceremonies taking place in Paris this weekend, and there’s a whole gosh-danged Olympic soccer tournament happening over the next few weeks!

Now, this is mostly a U23 tournament with a few overage players allowed, so these matches will mostly involve younger players who you may not be as familiar with. That said, there are number of players involved in the Paris Olympics who have been linked with Spurs, at least nominally, over the course of the summer and before. I have been tracking transfer links — there are 105 names on my spreadsheet dating back to last February, so this list is mostly a cross-reference between that spreadsheet and the Olympic rosters, plus one or two players who aren’t linked but maybe should be.

So let’s highlight a few players that Spurs fans might want to keep an eye on. And fair warning — most of them play for France.

France (first match vs. USA, Wed. July 24)

Ryan Cherki (Lyon)

Spurs have seemed to be at least nominally linked to Cherki for years now, but while he’s appeared on a few “lists” this summer there doesn’t seem to be much genuine interest in him. That’s a shame, because he’s pretty great — a ball-playing midfielder, he’s not a prolific scorer but had 3G+9a for Lyon last season and had more than 4 successful take-ons/90, but has been somewhat marred by perceptions of a poor attitude. He’s closest to a move to Dortmund at present but the last update is that any transfer is on hold as he’s not Dortmund’s first choice. There’s still time, Johan!

Desire Doué (Stade Rennais)

Yeah, this guy. He’s real good. Extremely real good. The kind of dribbly winger/central mid who could absolutely explode in Ange Postecoglou’s system, and at age 19 has plenty of time to develop further. That said, he’s all potential at this point, so it’s an expensive bet on future performance, much like with Brennan Johnson. Even so, this kid’s ceiling is high, but Stade Rennais is holding out for a huge payday well north of €60m, and right now it looks like he’s more likely to head to either Bayern Munich or PSG. There are indications that Spurs are a dark horse for him, so maybe they just need to arrange a phone call with Ange where can say “mate” a lot and convince him of his plans for the future. It’s worked before!

Bradley Locko (Brest)

Tottenham are in need of a backup/rotation option at left back for Destiny Udogie, and Locko’s name has come up several times. There are suggestions that Spurs have raised their interest in him lately. The 22-year old Brest LB has been on my tracker spreadsheet since May — he offers plenty of offensive play from deep positions (1.94 successful take-ons/90) but also seems to be a cromulent passer, suggesting he could invert well. The question is whether he can push Udogie for a position, and potentially raising both of their games. Locko should get plenty of minutes in Paris during the Olympics, so he’d be one to watch if you’re watching France (and you should be watching France)

Castello Lukeba (RB Leipzig)

This is more of a dark horse pick; there aren’t really any solid or tenuous links between Lukeba and Tottenham, but he’s a left-sided central defender/left back hybrid who is highly regarded, and Spurs could use another player in that area. He’s extremely strong on the ball and comfortable playing out of the back, and can slide left if needed to deputize or cover at the left-back position as well. He’s a regular starter for RB Leipzig who don’t seem that keen on letting him go, but there are suggestions he could be had for somewhere in the £20m-25m range. I quite like him.

Argentina (first match vs. Morocco, Wed. July 24)

Cristian Medina (Boca Juniors)

Links between Tottenham and the 22-year old Boca midfielder Medina go back to last April, but there’s been absolutely nothing since, and those initial links were probably media or agent-driven. He’s a strong passer and breaking into Boca Juniors’ first team squad at 19 isn’t easy. Medina seems like perfectly cromulent player but Spurs seemingly have their own targets now, I’m sure he’s on a list somewhere, though. Boca’s season has only just kicked off, but he had 3G+1A in 1300 minutes for Boca last season. Worth keeping an eye on, but I doubt he’s a high priority target for Spurs in what’s left of the window.

Spain (first match vs. Uzbekistan, Wed. July 24)

Alex Baena (Villarreal)

Baena’s been nominally linked to Spurs since last April, and there’s a lot to like about the 22-year old Villarreal midfielder. He can play across the midfield line and his stats really pop, especially his playmaking metrics — 5G+17A in all competitions last season, including 2g+3A in the Europa League last season. Unai Emery apparently really likes him for Villa. He mostly played as an 8 or as a left-sided winger for the Yellow Submarine and I could see him as a rotation option for James Maddison as a central playmaker. The problem with Baena is he’s a bit of a shithead — he got into big trouble last year for supposedly making a disparaging comment to his teammate Federico Valverde on the Villarreal team bus after his wife nearly lost their unborn child; Valverde punched Baena and then sued him over the incident, though Baena’s camp denies it ever happened. So that pretty much sums up Alex Baena — good player, but maaaaaaaybe one we should avoid on squad unity/good people metrics/vibes. But you should watch him on a young and talented Spain squad.

Japan (first match vs. Paraguay, Wed. July 24)

Look, just watch them, ok?

I don’t have anyone specific that you should watch on Japan’s squad, just they’re supposed to be technical, good, and fun. Japan finished fourth at the 2020 Olympics, losing the bronze medal match to Mexico, and we know Ange Postecoglou has managed in Japan and isn’t averse to scouting that part of the world for underrated talent. In the warm-up friendlies before this week, they beat USA 2-0 and drew hosts France 1-1. I’m not an expert on U23 international football, but that seems to indicate dark horse status to me. Hopefully Spurs have some scouts in Paris.

Did I miss anyone? Are there players Spurs aren’t linked to but SHOULD be? Have your say in the comments.