Cartilage Free Captain

Enjoy watching Rodrigo Bentancur play for Tottenham Hotspur while you can, because it sounds like he’ll be sidelined for a while. According to multiple reports including Sami Mokbel at the Daily Mail, the FA is close to issuing a lengthy match ban on Bentancur for racist comments he made this summer about South Koreans and Son Heung-Min in a social media video. The length of the ban has not yet been released, but unconfirmed sources has suggested it could be as long as seven matches.

Spurs have been bracing for this ruling for a while and we’ve written extensively about it since it happened this summer. As a quick summary, Bentancur was filmed on an Uruguayan television show making disparaging jokes about his teammate, Tottenham club captain Son, and how all South Koreans “look the same.” The FA charged Bentancur with “aggravated breach” of the federations’ rules back in September, and we’ve been waiting for the FA to make their decision for the past two months. Now it sounds like they have.

A seven match ban would be lengthy, but notably less than the maximum sentence of 12 matches that was being tossed around a couple of months ago. In that sense, Tottenham and Bentancur might be getting off a touch easy.

It should be noted that Bentancur tearfully apologized to Son in the midst of all this for what he said, and Sonny gracefully accepted his apology and forgave his teammate. As far as the club is concerned, it’s a done deal and water under the bridge. The FA process is separate from any (unstated) club sanctions to come from this incident.

It’s hard to get too upset about Bentancur picking up a ban for what happened. Actions have consequences, and although he and Son have patched things up it was still a stupid, racist thing to say on camera, and I don’t really have an issue with the FA’s decisionmaking. You can (and many will) quibble with a hypothetical seven match ban for racist comments, especially when compared to other punishments given (or not given) to other players for similar incidents, but I’m honestly still upset at Lolo that he put himself and the club in this position. It was dumb then, it’s dumb now, and it’s not like we didn’t see any of this coming.

Good morning, my well-read commentariat.

Today we’re revisiting what I think is one of the commentariat’s most-loved hoddles: What are you reading right now?

I’ve found many users on this site to enjoy reading, and there is a wide varray of tastes among you.

The last time I checked in with this hoddle I was roughly 370 pages into Richard Zenith’s biography of Fernando Pesso called Pessoa: A Biography.

I haven’t come across many biographies that are as well researched as this, which goes into a detailed biography of Portugal’s greatest writer who bore three of Portugal’s other greatest literary minds (Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis).

Finally, finally I reached the point in this book where the heteronyms were revealed, as Pessoa described it in his “Triumphal Day”.

It’s a truly sublime book, one that now wrestles with Pessoa’s complicated stances on the Great War and racism. Of course, Pessoa being Pessoa, his views for the most part are wildly inconsistent.

There are still plenty of pages left (400), but I am looking forward to discovering more about this labrynthine writer who left indelible marks on poetry, prose, politics, astrology and so much more.

Fitzie’s track of the day: More of the Same, by Caroline Rose

And now for your links:

You want a loanee roundup? You got it, from Alasdair Gold

The Athletic ($$) asks why the Premier League’s elites’ levels have dropped

Gary Lineker to stop hosting Match of the Day

Good morning, Tottenham Hotspur fans and blog readers. Look, straight talk — I don’t want to do this article. You probably don’t want to read it. We just started another interminable two week international break, the world is on fire, there are multiple EVENTS happening across the planet, and everything seems grim. I’ve been putting this off — and why not? My favorite sports club just lost at home to the worst team in the league, I have cancer, and my surgical scar hurts.

So we’re doing cute animals with minimal player performance summaries. Don’t read this article, put your usual #jokes in the comments, and let’s just forget this ever happened, ok? Here are your Tottenham Hotspur player ratings to the theme of photos of cute animals.

Yeah, there are no Tottenham Hotspur players in this category.

No Tottenham players in this category either.

Guglielmo Vicario (Community — 2.5): I mean, he let in two goals but it’s not like he could’ve done much to prevent them.

Rodrigo Bentancur (Community — 3.0): Probably the wrong choice for the midfield in this match but he did play decent well for much of it. And scored on an offensive set piece, so that’s something.

Pape Sarr (Community — 2.5): Hard to fault him too much for this match. Looked like one of the few players whose engine wasn’t running on fumes.

Dominic Solanke (Community — 3.0): He did have the ball in the net, but only by kicking it off of his own arm. Probably should’ve had at least one other goal but was strangely wasteful with his shooting. One of Tottenham’s better performers, which isn’t saying much.

Timo Werner (Community — 2.5): Timo’s speed and directness were exactly what Spurs needed to get back into this match, and I thought he provided both, though the rest of the squad didn’t help matters much. Timo’d a decent shot attempt 10’ over the bar, which, lol.

Pedro Porro (Community — 2.0): Not a great match, but the dude has played just about every minute of every match for the past three weeks. And he put in that one corner.

Cuti Romero (Community — 2.0): More worried about this guy right now. What’s going on with him?

Destiny Udogie (Community — 2.5): Looks exhausted, and why wouldn’t he be?

Dejan Kulusevski (Community — 2.5): We know that Deki struggles against teams that put lots of men behind the ball. Probably should’ve been pulled earlier for Maddison.

Son Heung-Min (Community — 2.5): Bless him, he tried. Bless him, he largely failed.

Radu Dragusin (Community — 1.5): Awful on the ball, lax off the ball. I think he’s a good defender. I don’t think he’s a good defender for Ange.

Brennan Johnson (Community — 2.0): Terrible match on both sides of the ball, but perhaps to be expected when Ipswich found a way to neutralize his One Weird Trick.

Ange Postecoglou (Community — 1.5): I am coming around to the idea that Ange is an incredible manager, capable of maximizing underwhelming ability and getting teams to play his football above their talent level, and also has some really annoying habits like substitutions and in-game management. We should keep him and trust him for the next two years though because a) when it works it REALLY works and b) sacking managers after 18 months and starting over projects has ALWAYS worked well every time we’ve tried it over the past 20 years, right?

No Tottenham Hotspur players were as bad as The Original Piggy Poop Balls.

Tom Carroll Memorial Non-Rating

good morning !

The Cure are BACK with a new album: Songs of a Lost World.

This is one I’ve been waiting for (and I’m sure many other Cure fans have been waiting for this too). The album does not dissapoint.

In fact, I’d say it’s perhaps my favourite album released this year. Released 16 years after their previous album, The Cure’s latest returns to the goth-rock that they pioneered decades ago.

Even a look at the album artwork - an off-white asteroid suspended alone against a dark black backdrop - previews some of the core themes from the album. Much of it feels isolated and far away from this earth. You’ll find no ready-made hits for mainstream radio here, so don’t expect anything like a Friday I’m in Love or Lovesong.

The band instead builds out a landscape, one that seems to explore an infinitely expanding space.

One of my favourites from this record is I Can Never Say Goodbye, a song that appears to be Robert Smith’s acceptance of his brother’s death.

Something wicked this way comes

From out the cruel and treacherous night

Something wicked this way comes

To steal away my brother’s life

Something wicked this way comes

I can never say goodbye

And so continues this theme of foreboding dread.

Perhaps the closest we get to a true “pop song” (which I use very loosely here) is A Fragile Thing, which recalls some loss of love.

“And there’s nothing you can do to change it back, “ she said

”Nothing you can do but sing, this love is a fragile thing

Nothing you can do now but pretend again”

Concluding the album is a terrific 10-minute song, Endsong. There reportedly was supposed to be another song to close the album, but I feel this is a fitting bookend and one that captures another theme: the emptiness in the vast expanse of space.

All that’s left as the 10-minute song winds down, we’re asked what is left at the end. Smith answers:

Nothing

Nothing

Nothing

Fitzie’s track of the day: I Can Never Say Goodbye, by The Cure

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: Why Daniel Levy ‘shouldn’t want his Tottenham back’

Jay Harris ($): Ange Postecoglou must find solution to Spurs’ inconsistency

Matt Law says Levy ‘does not care about winning’

Dan KP: Postecoglou’s biggest problems at Spurs

good morning everyone! your hoddler-in-chief is BACK! a huge thanks to mattyflatt for charting the seas in your commentariat captain’s absence.

——-

I’m not gonna lie gang. I’m pretty tired tonight. It’s been a hell of a week, and I only just returned from Colorado tonight.

Apparently Tottenham lost to Galtasaray and Ipswich Town whilst I was away (wtf was that about?).

Can’t say I’m surprised. Seriously, when was the last time you felt pretty good during and international break?

For all you upset about Sunday’s result, just imagine how I feel. I have to figure out 10 days’ worth of content with no footie! Egad!

As dissapointed as I am about Tottenham’s loss, at least St John’s defeated Quinnipiac on Saturday by a healthy margin. And let’s not forget about the hot start to the season that the Phoenix Suns have made!

(But let’s DO forget the San Jose Sharks’ season.)

All this is to say, your hoddler-in-chief is in need of a reboot. Following Sunday’s loss, I reckon you folks are too. So here is your reboot hoddle. Use it wisely.

This reminds me, I need to update the TOTD playlist.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Over the Hills and Far Away, by Led Zeppelin

And now for your links:

Jay Harris ($): Tottenham inconsistency and slow starts a big problem

Dan KP: Big Ange and Spurs face serious questions after loss to Ipswich Town

Honestly, there’s not much to say here. Tottenham Hotspur hosted newly-promoted Ipswich Town, statistically and points-wise the worst team in the Premier League, and laid an egg in front of their home fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Spurs gave up two first half goals and while they earned one back thanks to a Rodrigo Bentancur header off of a corner, looked lackadaisical and off-color, barely able to string two passes together and rarely threatening the Tractor Boys’ goal en route to a dispiriting 1-2 loss.

I don’t know, y’all, but it’s another vibe-sucking failure ahead of an international break that will do nothing but let us stew for two weeks waiting for more football. Spurs are now in 10th place in the table. And the next match? At Manchester City.

Pretty grim. It’s time to rate the players.

Rate the players from 1⁄2 to 5 stars. If the player doesn’t deserve a rating due to minutes played, DO NOT RANK. I will round the stars up/down to the nearest half-star for the player ratings later this week.

Filed under:

Tottenham Hotspur Match Reports

Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Ipswich Town: Spurs ploughed by Tractor Boys

It’s happened again.

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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a North London club heading into an international break must first lose at home to a winless club. For the second time this season, Tottenham Hotspur fell to a Premier League club without a victory, this time inexplicably going down 2-0 in the first half to newly promoted Ipswich Town. Spurs clawed back one goal off of a corner kick thanks to a Rodrigo Bentancur header, but overall they looked listless and off the boil. Despite a late push, Spurs couldn’t find a way back into the match and fell with a final score of 1-2. Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap scored the goals by the visitors as Tottenham missed an opportunity to move into fifth.

Pretty garbage match, fam. Here are my notes.

Match Reactions:

Final xG was 1.12 - 1.59. That is just awful against what is demonstrably the worst team in the Premier League.

I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to put here. The overall performance was putrid, Ange Postecoglou again waited too long to make impact substitutions, and Spurs once again handed a Premier League bottom-tier club their first win of the season. It sucks and I’m quite upset about this.

Not really a match observation, but Ipswich’s pink away kits rule. I want a pink Tottenham third kit and would instantly buy it if we ever got one. Pink kits = awesome.

Ipswich set up to defend and counter, and it was mostly effective in the first half. Spurs had lots of the ball but found it tough to pick that big pink lock in front of goal. Made me wonder if Maddison might have been a better choice than Kulusevski in midfield for this match, although Maddison showed very little in the brief cameo appearance he made at the end of the match.

Dom Solanke’s work in the press is just so imPRESSive. See what I did there? I tell #jokes.

Ipswich’s first half goals were super annoying in that both came against the run of play. Brennan Johnson and Pedro Porro were both just watching the action and not closing players down in the first one, and the second was both poor defending and just dumb fucking luck. I hate it.

Spurs are a second half team and started off brightly, but waving off Solanke’s early goal was the right call. It’s unfortunate, but his arm was outstretched and the ball definitely changes direction on its way into the goal.

Tottenham were god-awful on offensive corner kicks in this match... until they weren’t. That headed goal by Bentancur was sneaky tough, but he made it look easy. That said, the rest of them were garbage.

Very, very unimpressed with the play of Radu Dragusin and Brennan Johnson today. Radu looked like a defensive sieve and was constantly making poor passes out of the back, while Johnson looked (again) very one-dimensional going forward.

I’m once again angry with Ange Postecoglou’s subs — not making some changes with enough time to make a difference in the match when Spurs are chasing the game is inexcusable. Sometimes he does well and other times he just seems obstinate in this regard and I cant figure it out.

Timo Werner was a revelation as a second half sub — his directness exploited the space that Ipswich were leaving behind the line and he had some excellent deliveries from the flank. Sure he Timo’d his one decent shot opportunity ten feet over the bar, but whatever offense Spurs generated in the second half went through him.

Apropos of nothing, Ipswich’s squad had both Jack Clarke and Massimo Luongo in it, both former Tottenham academy players. Luongo also has some history with Ange, being part of his Australia squad that won the Asia Cup. This isn’t significant, just mildly interesting.

Awesome, another two weeks for us to stew on a bad loss, I’m sure this won’t be emotionally damaging at all, wheeeeeeeee.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Tottenham Hotspur have a match against a winless side they are expected to win, right before an international break.

That’s the background for this weekend’s match against Ipswich Town. The Tractor Boys, under the tutelage of former Spurs academy coach Kieran McKenna, are well ensconced in the relegation zone, picking up five points from their fixtures thus far.

The difference in this match vs. some of the shock defeats Spurs have seen this season? This match is at home. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is starting to become something of a fortress for the Lilywhites this season, and though the squad from which Ange Postecoglou will pick his XI is starting to struggle for fit players, the expectation is that Spurs will get this done and stave off another visit from Dr. Tottenham. Hopefully.

COYS!

Lineups

Lineups will be posted closer to kick-off.

Live Blog

How to Watch

Tottenham Hotspur vs. Ipswich Town

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, UK

Sunday, November 10, 2024

Time: 9:00 a.m. ET, 2:00 p.m. UK

TV: USA Network, not televised in the UK. Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: nbcsports.com

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!

Good day, Tottenham fans! The good news is that Tottenham Hotspur Women play football today and they’re on national television in the United States! The bad news is that they’re playing a WSL match at undefeated and league leading Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

It’s a tall order. City could potentially do something this season that nobody has done for the past five years — actually beat Chelsea to a league title. They’re that good. Spurs, by contrast, have had a bit of a rocky start. After an opening week win over Crystal Palace, Spurs dropped three out of their next four league matches before getting off the schnide against West Ham last weekend and are currently in seventh place with 7 points from 6 matches.

But City are an entirely different beast, and it will be a huge challenge to get a result. Spurs are also a bit banged up at the moment (sounds familiar) — Kit Graham is out with a long-term knee injury, while new signing and former Real Madrid midfielder Maite Oroz is still injured as well. But Spurs do welcome back Haley Raso and Amy James-Turner, so Spurs will have a couple of important pieces available to them that they haven’t had for a while.

The good news for American viewers — the match is on TV! It will be televised on ESPN2 in the United States, and Sky Sports in the UK.

It’ll be a really tough matchup, but we’ve seen Spurs do amazing things. Maybe they will today! COYS!

How to Watch

Want some good news? Everyone who played for Tottenham Hotspur in yesterday’s 3-2 loss to Galatasaray in the Europa League made it through unscathed and there are no new injury concerns for Ange Postecoglou’s men. However, according to the man himself, who posted his customary injury update video ahead of this weekend’s match vs. Ipswich Town, there are still four injured players who will not feature, and Cristian Romero is questionable.

“Yeah, look last night the brief I got after the game was everyone came through unscathed so there’s no issues from last night. Cristian, we’ll see how he goes the next couple of days, the idea is to try and get him out there and train and he’s pretty keen to so he has a chance for the weekend.

“Mikey [Moore] probably still not right for the weekend, and probably Timo [Werner] as well. Really out of the ones who are out, only Cristian could be back.”

So that’s Wilson Odobert, Richarlison, Timo Werner, Micky van de Ven, and Mikey Moore who are all out and will not feature against the (snicker) Tractor Boys. Mikey at least we know is due to a virus, the same one that ruled him out vs. Galatasaray yesterday. Timo is still dealing with his own injury, and Wilson Odobert is on the long-term injury list.\

The biggest bummer continues to be Richarlison, who had just returned from injury and was starting to round into form before he pulled his hamstring while assisting a goal last weekend. Postecoglou expounded a bit on Richy’s situation in his pre-match press conference.

“He was very disappointed. I think I said in the lead up, we tried to take a different approach, he worked awfully hard on his rehab but also his general fitness. He’d really trimmed down in terms of his conditioning. He was doing everything right, we eased him back into playing we didn’t want to overload him and unfortunately he broke down again.

“He’s disappointed but ultimately, we’ve just got to keep getting him back in there and work with him to get him back up because he’s an important player. You saw last week the impact he had coming off the bench and setting up the goal. Disappointing for him, disappointing for us because we haven’t really had him at our disposal this year. But we’ll just keep working with Richy and try to get him back.

“I’m reticent to put [a time on] it but he’ll be out for a significant amount of time. It’s a significant hamstring injury.”

Postecoglou also declined to put a timeline on Micky van de Ven’s return from a strained hamstring, but for the first time hinted that it might go beyond the upcoming international break.

“Yeah, it will be after the international break. When after will just dictate sort of his progress during that time. I think probably the end of the break will be four weeks, so when exactly after that we’ll have to wait and see.”

With Timo, Mikey, and Richarlison all out, it means Son Heung-Min will again be relied upon at the left forward position, with no real natural backup behind him. And based on his performance in Turkey yesterday and his own recent recovery from injury, it wouldn’t surprise me if Sonny doesn’t go the whole 90 on Sunday either. Postecoglou also suggested that the club is treating Son with kid gloves, making sure they don’t overtax him as he returns to fitness.

“For Sonny where obviously he had the injury we brought him back, he kind of had a relapse and what we don’t want to do is put him back into that cycle. It’s very easy to fall into that cycle by pushing players, particularly when they’re coming back from injury.

“Managing his minutes, building his up. He got a good 55 on the weekend, he got 45 last night. Yeah hopefully we can continue to build that up but ultimately for us its about getting him back and keeping him back because we cant afford any more injuries in that position.

“We’ve already got Wilson [Odebert] with a long-term injury, and we’ve got a Richy with long-term issue. We’ve got Mikey out, we cant afford to lose a player in that area of the park so, I’ll always make decisions that I think are best for the club and for what we’re trying to achieve.”

Tottenham host winless and newly-promoted Ipswich this Sunday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Kickoff time is 9 am ET / 2 pm UK. The match will be televised on USA Network in the States.