Cartilage Free Captain

Nightmares usually occur when you’re asleep, but now I bring you one when you’re awake: Say hello to the US Men’s Soccer Team’s new mascot:

This “Banner” character is terrifying to look at. Also it’s just a generic freaking dog.

If you’re going to give us a dog, give us Air Bud.

Air Bud is a greater representation of American sport than this Banner fella could ever be. Tell me, did Banner ever help lead a young kid’s basketball team to the championship? NO !!!

Is he a golden retrievern? NO !!!

And this guy isn’t even Lassie. I just don’t see what this Banner brings to the storied US Men’s Soccer Team history that a mascot like Air Bud or Lassie would. There are far greater dogs: Heck even Brian from Family Guy or Santa’s Little Helper from The Simpsons would be better choices (but I reckon copyright issues got in the way of that).

Either way, enjoy your nightmare this morning.

Fitzie’s track of the day: The Night Santa Went Crazy, by Weird Al Yankkovic

And now for your links:

BBC: “‘Result is not what we wanted’ - games pile up for Palace”

The Guardian: “Rehanne Skinner sacked as West Ham manager with club second-bottom of WSL”

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen rumors about Tottenham possibly selling Brennan Johnson, but it’s by far the most prominent source. The BBC’s Sami Mokbel writes today that Tottenham Hotspur are open to the idea of selling Johnson in the January transfer window, and will listen to any offers with Crystal Palace among those expressing interest.

Johnson was Spurs’ top scorer last season with 18 goals in all competitions, including the winning goal in the Europa League final, but he’s found himself on the outside looking in under Thomas Frank with just three goals in about 800 minutes of match competition. Johnson was purchased to be an ideal winger for Ange Postecoglou and lived up to that hype with a limited but direct play style that was about making runs to the back post and converting chances. But that’s not what Thomas Frank is looking for in a winger.

Mockbel writes that the club isn’t actively trying to sell Johnson, but they’ll be open to letting him leave if a good offer comes their way. Palace is viewed as the club expressing the most interest, but there are unnamed other clubs that are “monitoring” his status.

Far be it from me to re-start the Johnson Wars on this website dot com, but there’s certainly arguments to be made about Johnson’s suitability going forward. To be frank (pun intended), Spurs probably missed an opportunity to sell Johnson at his peak value this past summer, as he was coming off a very good season and it’s quite possible that not playing much this fall has impacted his value. But Spurs are also probably right to listen to offers; he’ll probably still command a good price and could be a very good pickup for a club like Palace mid-season.

The downside to selling Johnson is his status as an association-trained player for European roster construction, but Spurs are already hurting in that area, will be in a much better position next season, and losing Johnson shouldn’t significantly impact what they want to do if they make it to the next round of the Champions League.

Good morning everyone. I realise it’s been some time since we last checked on the lower leagues in the English football pyramid, so let’s take a look to see what they’re currently up to.

League One:

Luton Town are climbing back into the playoff picture after a dreadful start to their League One campaign, but two poor draws against Leyton Orient and Port Vale stalled some momentum.

There’s a very interesting race for the automatic promotion spots. Seven points currently separate Cardiff (41) from fifth-placed Stevenage (34), but Stevenage have a couple games in hand. It’s hard to gauge just where these teams really are at the moment, but the Bluebirds have won their last five games.

There could also be a double double-relegation this year, with Plymouth Argyle and Blackpool in the drop zone.

Top six:

Cardiff (41 Pts, +16 GD, 19 MP)

Bradford City (37 Pts, +10 GD, 19 MP)

Lincoln City (35 Pts, +7 GD, 20 M)

Bolton (34 Pts, +10 GD, 19 MP)

Stevenage (34 Pts, +9 GD, 18 MP)

Stockport (32 Pts, +2 GD, 19 MP)

Bottom four:

Plymouth (20 Pts, -11 GD, 20 MP)

Exeter City (20 Pts, -2 GD, 19 MP)

Blackpool (20 Pts, -8 GD, 20 MP)

Port vale (15 Pts, -10 GD, 19 MP)

League Two:

I know very little about League Two, but Bromley being in the hunt for the automatics seems like a strange development. In fact, this is the highest position they’ve ever been in club history. It would be quite fun to see them get promoted to League One.

They’ve got a favourable enough run of games coming up which should help them shore up their spot in at least hte playoffs. If they can hang in there for the next few months, then they might have two big games against Salford City and Walsall to close out the season.

Top seven:

Walsall (39 Pts, +11 GD)

Notts County (37 Pts, +13 GD)

Swindon Town (37 Pts, +9 GD)

Bromley (36 Pts, +9 GD)

MK Dons (33 Pts, +14 GD)

Salford City (33 Pts, 0 GD)

Chesterfield (32 Pts, +5 GD)

Bottom two:

Bristol Rovers (17 Pts, -23 GD)

Newport County (13 Pts, -17 GD)

National League:

Rochdale seem to have the inside track here but it’s still a close call. They’re currently level on points with Forest Green and Carlisle, but have three games in hand.

Top one:

Rochdale (46 Pts, +23 GD, 19 MP)

Fitzie’s track of the day: Man Made of Meat, by Viagra Boys

And now for your links:

BBC: “‘Questions pile up at Celtic but only some are for Nancy’”

The Independent: “Bayern Munich hit with partial stadium closure after fireworks set off in stands”

A recent report in Spanish rumor-rag Fichajes suggested that Tottenham Hotspur’s 19-year-old on-loan winger Yang Min-Hyeok was a potential January transfer target for Real Madrid. That’s almost certainly full of crap and not what this article is about. However, there is another transfer rumor about Min-Heyok over the past couple of days that did pique my interest, and that’s what I’ll focus on here. According to Korea-centric football blog Football-Asian, the possibility exists that Min-Hyeok could be recalled from his loan at Championship side Portsmouth in January and loaned out again for the spring at a different club, either a higher-caliber Championship team, or possibly another club in Germany or France.

Min-Hyeok’s loan career has been a bit of a slow burner. It took a while for him to get established at Portsmouth, currently 21st out of 24 teams in the Championship table, and there were concerns earlier in the season that he wasn’t getting enough minutes. (concerns that may have been due to a minor injury he had been carrying at the time). But from what I’ve seen, Min-Hyeok has turned into something of a fan favorite at Pompey.

His stats don’t pop off the page — 2G+1A in 639 minutes in all competitions — but that likely has as much to do with the way Portsmouth play ball. They promoted up from League 1 last season and while manager John Mousinho is apparently trying to convert them to a possession side it’s not clicking yet and indications are Portsmouth are gearing up for a defensive just-survive-relegation campaign that doesn’t especially suit Min-Hyeok’s skillset.

Football-Asian posits Spurs could trigger an early termination clause in Yang’s contract and then find another loan club for him that more suits what they hope to develop in his game, emphasizing his direct nature, speed, and ability on the ball. There are probably several potential options in the Championship (though the report doesn’t name them), and there’s also supposed interest from clubs in Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga; Football-Asian also talks about a “contingency option” where Min-Hyeok could stick around Spurs in the event of injuries.

The Real Madrid links are almost certainly garbage, but there’s something to be said about a young Korean teenage attacker getting linked to the big clubs in Spain, even in the rags, that suggests there’s something there to be excited about. He’s not going to Madrid, but the mere fact that he’s being mentioned in that context suggests there’s something to be excited about.

Football-Asian doesn’t get everything right, but they were frequently close to news stories about Son Heung-Min when he was at Tottenham, so this is probably something to keep an eye on. If it’s accurate I suspect we’ll get some corroboration before too long in a couple of the English newspapers. Frankly, I’d be interested to see if there’s a club in Germany willing to take him on loan for half a season. It’s certainly done wonders for Luka Vuskovic, and playing top flight football would be a good step up for him. Before we hitch our wagons to the Yang Min-Hyeok hype train, let’s see what happens here in the second half of the season.

Good morning hoddlers. I’m glad I checked in today because this hoddle was almost set to 2.30pm ET. Could you imagine that?

It’s too darn cold to even think about the differences between the ante- and post-meridian these days. And can you really tell the difference? It’s freaking cold!

Your hoddler-in-chief, though, began his marathon training in earnest this week with a 14-mile run in the freezing cold. It was not fun.

I do take some comfort in the fact that the actual distance did not push me that much. But the wind whipping against my face for the duration of the run was not enjoyable. And that forced me to go much slower than I normally would, but that could be a blessing.

I still think I’m crazy for training during the winter. Even crazier for doing some of these runs after 5pm when it’s dark and cold, the cars are less cautious of runners, and the sidewalks are generally emptier. They’re much lonelier runs.

But I don’t care. I still have 15 weeks to go. And I intend on smashing my next marathon. The cold-weather running will only make me stronger.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Stonehenge, by Spinal Tap, featuring Elton John

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Guglielmo Vicario is far from perfect, but he’s also far from Tottenham’s biggest problem”

The Standard: “Pressure on Thomas Frank but players must take some responsibility for Spurs slump”

Tottenham Hotspur fans aren’t very happy right now and with good reason. That feeling is mostly directed at first year Spurs manager Thomas Frank, who has underachieved this season and is coming off of a humiliating 3-0 away loss to Nottingham Forest, who entered the match just above the relegation zone in the table.

But if you thought that meant Spurs would be posting a photo of a stadium detail on social media and appointing an interim head coach, think again. According to an article in The Athletic yesterday by Jack Pitt-Brooke, while Tottenham officials have held discussions about Thomas Frank, they are at present making the decision to stay the course and give Frank the time and resources he needs to succeed in the position.

Spurs have been in this position before, many many times. But until now it’s always been under the leadership of former chairman Daniel Levy, who was let go earlier this season by the Lewis family in an attempt to modernize Tottenham’s fooball operations. Spurs fans had a pretty good idea of what Daniel Levy would do in this situation — replace the coach — but we have no idea what this new group of executives and owners are thinking or what their predilections are. The Lewis family and CEO Vinai Venkatesham have made it clear in the past that they are shooting for long term, sustained success on the football pitch, but that the club needed to change to be a more modern footballing organization. This is the clearest indication yet that the Lewis Kids are taking the long view. It’s not a formal and public declaration of support (the dreaded “Vote of Confidence”) but it’s pretty significant.

You can understand the impulse. It doesn’t take much of a genius to see that there are bigger problems at Tottenham than simply who is leading the team in training and out onto the pitch. Spurs have an extremely flawed squad that’s still hurt by several long term key injuries, and there are major questions to both the construction of the squad over the past few summers and the overall organizational structure from the top down. If you subscribe to the theory that when the team plays bad the head coach gets sacked, then that’s evidence towards letting Frank go. But the “Magic Manager” theory isn’t a magic bullet, or else Spurs would have a lot more success over the last two decades than they have. There are big questions that need to be addressed, and not all of them can be fixed by replacing the manager. The efficacy of Co-Sporting Directors Johan Lange and Fabio Paratici are part of this equation as well, especially with a January transfer window upcoming, and it seems as though, for now, the new Spurs leadership is giving Frank the space to try and do what he can to turn things around.

That doesn’t mean that Frank is ultimately the right guy to lead Tottenham Hotspur. There are, as we have discussed ad nauseum on this blog, big, big questions about Frank’s tactics, personnel decisions, and team play and just because the board are backing him now doesn’t mean he’s going to be in charge this coming summer, or in March, or even in January. A lot can happen in football that can force a club’s hand, and Spurs have a tough challenge this weekend when Liverpool come to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The one thing that pretty much all Tottenham Hotspur supporters can agree on is that Spurs have not historically been a well-run club from an organizational level. Now, that’s gotten significantly muddied since the owner uprising that led to the sacking of Daniel Levy by the Lewis Kids, but there’s been so much change at the executive level over the past number of years you’ll be forgiven if you can’t remember all the backroom staff who have come and gone (remember Todd Kline?)

So I bring you this news with very little opinion or judgement — according to David Ornstein in The Athletic, Spurs are in advanced talks to appoint Manchester City football executive Rafi Moersen as Head of Football Operations. Moersen is currently Head of Football Transactions with the City Group, and previously worked with DC United and NYCFC in MLS.

What does this mean? Beats me! Most of Ornstein’s article provides a summary of the executive shuffling and changes that have gone on at Spurs over the past few months and years, and it’s not especially clear what it is exactly that Moersen will be doing at Tottenham. Is his position one that is above those of co-Sporting Directors Johan Lange and Fabio Paratici? Is it under? What is his remit and what will he do? We have no idea! I’d kill for a Tottenham Hotspur org chart!

I’d like to say that appointing a former City execeutive to Spurs would be a good thing but we tried that once before with Scott Munn and that clearly didn’t work out either, so I don’t really have a ton of guidance on how to interpret this. What we can intuit is that at minimum there’s recognition by the Lewis Kids that Spurs need(ed) an organizational shakeup, and Moersen fits into that org structure, somehow. I guess we’ll have to wait to figure out what that means. I hope he’s good!

With all the talk surrounding Thomas Frank’s future at Tottenham lately, I thought it could be time to check in two other Spurs-related mangers whose jobs are also under scrutiny: Scott Parker and Ryan Mason. Both have failed to live up to expectations so far this season. Will either survive?

In the case of Parker, his Burnley side look doomed for relegation after a record-setting spell in the Championship last season. They’ve lost their last five matches after beating Wolves in late October. They now sit 19th in the Premier League and six points adrift of safety (plus a worse goal differential than Leeds).

For those who’ve followed Parker’s managerial career, one could make the argument that this isn’t very surprising. All that’s a shame because he is a fantastic dresser.

But look at his career: Promoted Fulham after a caretaker spell, relegated with Fulham and then left by mutual consent. Brought Bournemouth back to the Premier League in 2022, and then sacked after a dismal return to the Premier League. Then he had a strange stint with Club Brugge, an appointment that was never going to work out. It didn’t. He was sacked.

Now we’ve got a similar story brewing with Burnley. Parker guided Burnley back to the Premier League and is now flirting with relegation. This begs the question if he’s capable at managing in the Premier League. I do wonder if he’ll get the sack again (they should’ve beaten Forest for Sean Dyche). With a realistic shot at survival, one wonders if the higher-ups are considering it.

And then there’s Mason, who’s struggling in his first big-boy job at West Bromwich Albion. The Baggies entered the season with an eye on the playoffs at a minimum. They’re currently six points away and currently sitting in 16th place.

They were unlucky to lose to Coventry in November after blowing a 2-0 lead (owing to a stupid foul from Jayson Molumby).

And perhaps a 2-0 win against Sheffield United this past weekend gave Mace a little more breathing room, but how much? Aune Heggebo seems to be doing the most to salvage the season for Mason but there are challenging games coming up against Hull City, Bristol City and QPR before the a winnable game at Swansea.

I would think even mixed results there would put Mason in a difficult position because he’d have Leicester and Middlesbrough coming up right after that.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Cobra, by Geese

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “Thomas Frank could be saved at Tottenham by crucial technicality ahead of transfer call”

BBC: “What fans, insiders and stats say about embattled Frank”

The Independent: “Enzo Maresca defiant over bombshell ‘worst 48 hours’ at Chelsea comment”

Look, nobody wants to talk about Tottenham Hotspur right now, I get it. It’s fine and completely understandable. So instead, let’s talk about a player who USED to be at Tottenham Hotspur but has managed to escape from its evil clutches and make his own way. According to Fabrizio Romano, former Spurs left back Sergio Reguilon has come to an agreement to sign with MLS Cup champions Inter Miami on a free transfer. Reguilon has been without a club since being cut by Spurs this past summer.

With the signing of Reguilon, Inter Miami are moving from the desiccated corpse of Jordi Alba to someone… well, at he’s least younger than Alba, right? Reguilon actually makes a lot of sense for Inter Miami, and MLS makes a lot of sense for Reggie. Say what you want about his time at Tottenham, he proved at minimum that he could be a somewhat cromulent Premier League caliber fullback after loan spells at Manchester United and Brentford.

At Inter Miami, Reguilon will presumably be given the keys to the starting left back position and will get to play with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Sergio Busquets. And he gets to live in Miami, a famously pleasant climate in which to exist and play football. Not too shabby. And it’s hard to feel too bad for him considering he won a Europa League medal with Spurs last season despite playing a grand total of 196 minutes.

It took a while, but it sure looks like Sergio managed to land on his feet and with a club that recently won a trophy. Good for him.

Welcome to another edition of Trending Up / Trending Down, where Hoddle Headquarters takes a look at all things Spurs to see who and what is trending up, and who’s trending down. Let’s get started:

Trending Up:

Champions League hopes: A win over Slavia Praha last week has Spurs sitting comfortably in 11th in the Champions League standings. They need just one point to make it out of the ‘group stage’ and have a chance to get a straight ticket into the knockouts. But that all depends on how they perform against Dortmund next.

James Maddison content: Oh look, another Madders recovery video dropped this weekend. Might be the best 45 minutes put together by Spurs:

Trending Down:

Thomas Frank: Things are looking pretty bad for Thomas Frank right now, and I do wonder how much confidence this new Spurs ownership structure has in him. The football is terrible, the stats and vibes even worse. With games against Liverpool and Crystal Palace coming up, I don’t see how Spurs pick up another point before 2026 rolls around.

Guglielmo Vicario: I’m certainly not advocating for putting in Antonin Kinsky ahead of Vicaro, but the Italian keeper’s had a few bad looks in recent weeks. First was that ridiculous attempt against Arsenal, and then a horrendous clearance against Forest on Sunday.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Good Morning Blues, by Ella Fitzgerald

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Thomas Frank expresses need for time at Tottenham after Forest defeat: ‘This is not a quick fix’”

The Telegraph: “Spurs must sign a new goalkeeper in January after indefensible display”

BBC: “‘Burning, annoying’ - Frank calls for time after ‘very bad’ Spurs loss”

Alasdair Gold: “Every word Thomas Frank said on his Tottenham future, Djed Spence incident and strange substitution”