Cartilage Free Captain

Will Lankshear is a player in demand. One season removed from an impressive loan at at bad Championship side in Oxford United where he scored 11 goals and notched 2 assists as a striker, Tottenham Hotspur have now had to reject three “approaches” for him from Sporting, Southampton, and Wolves, according to Alasdair Gold in Football.London.

You can understand why. BIG WILLY LANKS is impressing in the English second division, and now at age 21 he’s nearing the point where Spurs will either need to integrate him into the first team, or sell him. Based on the current evidence, Tottenham seem to be signalling that they’re not that interested in the latter option.

Or are they? Gold notes, correctly, that “approaches” are not the same thing as actual bids, and if a club is serious about bringing in Big Willy this summer they’ll likely have to pony up a transfer fee in the eight figures. That’s good money for a player who hasn’t proved himself at the Premier League level, and Gold implies the club may have to put some thought into what they want to do with him.

It’s not the easiest of decisions. Lankshear’s value to Spurs is not just his potential as a first team striker — he’s also both homegrown and club-trained, making him an invaluable squad player should Spurs qualify for European competition next season. The jury’s still out on Lankshear’s ceiling — he’s a big, strong striker who thrives on service and he did a good job despite playing on an Oxford team that played some absolute terror-ball tactics last season. He could explode given the right chance, or he could level out at Championship/lower-level Premier League striker. But I still feel it’s too soon to say.

Lankshear is probably not too keen on another loan this upcoming season after spending the past two seasons out at West Brom and Oxford. That said, it’s also not clear how much game time he’s going to get if he sticks around Tottenham, with two senior strikers ahead of him and the possibility that Roberto De Zerbi might demand another one (possibly replacing Richy). Gold also notes that Spurs’ decision on BIG WILLY LANKS might also impact what they do with the OTHER talented U23 striker on their books — 18-year-old Irish full international forward Mason Melia.

For that reason, it probably makes the most sense for Spurs to keep Lankshear around for at least most of the preseason. Take him on the tour to Australia and New Zealand. Throw him into the squad in a couple more friendlies, see how he does. It’s possible the results of that could influence Spurs’ decision on what to do with him longer term. Since they don’t appear keen on selling him, then give him a raise and a loan to a good club in the Champo or Bundesliga.

That said, who knows — we might have another diamond in the rough on our hands. Or, as one member of Carty Free’s Slack channel put it, “He’s had a better loan career than Harry Kane, so it stands to reason he’ll have a better senior career as well.” I’ll buy that for a dollar.

One of the more emotional farewells from last season came at the end of the Women’s Super League campaign, when Bethany England’s contract expired and Tottenham Hotspur Women opted not to offer her a new deal. It was a surprising decision, considering the enormous impact England had on Spurs over the past few seasons. England quickly became Spurs’ all time leading WSL goal scorer and was a massive addition to the club — at times Beth put the entire team on her back and willed them to results, and she quickly became club captain. Losing her felt like a gut punch, not just to the club but to Spurs fans who have loved watching her play in lilywhite the past three seasons.

A free agent, England had her choice as to where to go next, and she has decided to sign with Crystal Palace Women, according to Pete O’Rourke.

Now good ol’ Sports Peeto is not a source we generally rely on here at Carty Free Towers, but he does occasionally have the odd scoop and this appears to be one of them. Palace spent the past season down a division in WSL2, but directly promoted along with Birmingham City Women, finishing second in the table. England’s decision to head to a newly promoted side might tell us something about the decision to let her go.

As important as England was to Spurs over the past three seasons, she was showing signs of slowing down in 2025-26, with Martin Ho often preferring Cathinka Tandberg in starting lineups and opting to bring England in as an impact sub. England is nearing the end of her football career — she’s 32, and while women tend to play on average a little longer than men do in football, she’s got a lot of miles on the tires.

Moving to Palace does feel a bit like (sob sob sob) confirmation that England is no longer the player she was. She’ll almost certainly be one of the best players (if not the best player) at Palace, and I have no doubt she’ll still be a load to mark when Spurs play them this season. But the fact that a lot of other, much better, clubs passed her up might signify that she’s no longer at the level that she was.

There’s another possibility too — England obviously has agency and she might have chosen Palace as the interested club where she could make the biggest impact. But that choice tells us something too.

All players eventually decline. It’s part of the process. It doesn’t minimize all of the incredible things Beth England did while at Spurs, and we can look back at the past three years with pride and with gratitude. But Spurs’ decision to let her go and her choice to join Palace does make it sound like she’s entering a new, less impactful phase in her football career.

Good morning everyone - We have off days for both the World Cup and the Tour de France today, and I don’t think anyone is that interested in the tennis tournaments in Gstad, Umag, or Bastad . The great news is this gives us lots of time to talk about Wimbledon.

This time we’re going to be focusing on just the women’s final, where Linda Noskova defeated her Czech countrywoman Karolina Muchova 6-2 5-7 6-3. Noskova raced out ahead to a 6-2 5-2 lead before the nerves of her first Grand Slame title got to her, and Muchova saved several championship points to force a third set.

But then Noskova settled early on and, like the first set, overpowered the crafty Muchova.

For those of you who might’ve not watched the game, there are a couple things between the second and third sets worth noting:

Noskova plugged her ears after the end of the second set to block out the noise

She stared down the Venus Rosewater Dish before the third set began

It’s a pretty bold move to do something like that, but Noskova showed incredible poise for almost the entirety of the match. Aside from those five games at the end of the second, it was clear that his was her match to lose.

Muchova is a terrific player who has modeled her game after Roger Federer. Perhaps that’s why she’s so beloved by tennis fans with that lovely chip-backhand, the way she runs around to hit her forehand (very Federer-esque) and her crisp volleys.

Yet she made a few mistakes in her return game. She tried to force Noskova to serve it to her backhand, but the 21-year-old kept pushing Muchova to the backhand side, which was especially deadly on the advantage side of the court.

I think what struck me the most, though, was the on-court ceremony after the match. I wanted both players to win (I would’ve preferred Muchova - see above). But they’re both very good for women’s tennis. And there are times we learn a little bit more about the champions of the sport, like how we learned about Noskova on Saturday:

Here’s another fun fact for you all: For those of you who don’t know the tennis calendar, the offseason is very short (mayne no more than a few weeks). Noskova spent some of her time during the offseason to volunteer in Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania.

There she volunteered at a school of 300 pupils, living in a volunteer house with shared rooms. Here’s a quick quote from the WTA site from December: “This trip opened my eyes in ways I didn’t expect, and it reminded me how fortunate we are -- an experience I believe everyone should have at least once in their life.”

Saturday’s win is a huge jump for Noskova, whose best result at a Grand Slam before this was the quarterfinals of the 2024 Australian Open. She’s actually had some pretty disappointing major tournaments before Wimbledon, and it’d be great if this one unlocked something in her game.

She moves up to Number 6 in the world.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Solitude, by Billie Holiday

And now for your links:

BBC: “England have another level we can reach - Kane”

The Telegraph: “Fifa looking at 64-team World Cup, says Gianni Infantino”

Vogue: “At 21, Linda Nosková Becomes the Youngest Wimbledon Champion in 15 Years”

We are down to four teams left in the 2026 World Cup — France, Spain, England, and Argentina. If those were the four teams you expected to make the semifinal before the tournament began, well, congratulations — you like picking tournament favorites. In this case, however, you were right. We’ve got a reboot of the Franco-Spanish war from 1635 on one side, and the Falklands war of 1982 on the other. Any team could beat any other team. It’s gonna be a fun one.

We also don’t have any football games until Tuesday. That’s wild. I’ve ingested so much football over the past month that I’ll spend the break sitting in the corner with my knees under my chin rocking back and forth and shaking with withdrawal symptoms.

If you want, there’s plenty of controversy to talk about in this one, not least being a goal kick that apparently? deflected off of a spidercam cable and led to one of England’s goals, plus a Norway goal that was called back after Erling Haaland shoved a dude in the chest before the corner. Was it good football? Ehhhhhhhh. England came out playing at half speed for the first 20 minutes and only kicked it into gear in the second half. But Jude Bellingham is Good at Football™ and Djed Spence again showed Thomas Tuchel why he should be starting every match with an impressive late substitute appearance. England move on to face Argentina.

I’ll admit I didn’t stay up late to watch this one and am relying on highlights for this summary. In short: Alexis Mac Allister looks like the most sunburned person in Argentina, and the Swiss deserved to lose for that absolutely ludicrous flop by Breel Embolo that resulted in a second yellow card and his sending off. Alvarez’s extra time goal was a magnificent strike.

So. It’s down to the Final Four (ERROR - trademark infringed, sending corporate enforcement bots). Who do you think will meet in the final? Put it in the comments and let’s chat.

Last season, a number of Tottenham Hotspur’s young academy graduates and U23 stars went out and had successful loans. 20-year-old English/Moroccan right winger Yusuf Akhamrich was one of those players — he spent half the season on loan at League 2 Bristol Rovers where he scored six goals and had two assists in just over 900 minutes.

That loan to League 2 has prompted another one this season — Yusuf is heading back out but up a division, and is heading to League One Leyton Orient on a season long loan.

Akhamrich has been somewhat under the radar in terms of hype profile, but he’s considered one of the best players to come out of the academy in a while, and his loan to Bristol Rovers last season was certainly eye-opening. He has two years left on his initial professional contract, but his pathway to the first team is pretty well blocked at the moment with numerous players expected ahead of him. A loan is the right answer at this time, and Leyton Orient is a club Spurs have a good relationship with; they’ve sent a number of players there in recent years, and it is notably the club where one Harold Edward Kane, OBE, got his start.

Akhamrich is certainly a player Spurs fans will want to keep an eye on. I keep hammering on about this but youth development is rarely a straight line and there are no guarantees he’ll break into the first team, but he’s one that has a lot of promise. We’ll see how he does in the third division this season.

The World Cup is starting to wind down and at the end of today we’ll know the first semifinal matchup, as Belgium and Spain battle. The “winner” gets to play France. Spain played one of the most boring games of the tournament in the last round, not really befitting their status as a World Cup tournament favorite. However, in this match both teams will be playing under the “watchful eye” of Michael Oliver, so you know it’s going to be extremely stupid.

Well, considering I had pegged this as most likely the best match in the quarterfinals, I was sure made to look like a fool, huh? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that France looks like they’re pretty good at this whole football thing.

SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, USA

TV: FOX (USA), Telemundo (USA - Español), BBC One (UK)

Stream: Fox One, Peacock (Español)

Well, this is cool. Want a break from transfer rumors? How about a story that intersects football with green energy? Tottenham Hotspur have contacted Haringey Council ahead of putting 3,800 solar panels on the roof of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, enough to generate 1.64 megawatts of renewable energy.

The energy generated would go to offset the power needed to run the stadium, from lighting, matches, concerts, hospitality, and other buildings nearby. Stadiums are huge buildings, and the power costs to run them are similarly huge. Offsetting that power with green energy just makes sense, even if it’s England and the sun doesn’t show its face for like six months out of the year (I kid).

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium roof is also pretty much ideal for installing solar on it, to the extent that I wonder if that was a planned potential expansion when the stadium was first designed and constructed. Or maybe it’s just a happy accident — either way, it’s a good thing.

Why now and why not when the stadium was first constructed? Well, it’s been a few years since the stadium was new, and since then the cost of green energy and of solar panels to generate that energy has plummeted to an all-time low.

The club is seeking clarification from the council as to whether they need to submit a new proposal before starting the build, or if previous rules will allow them to start soon. The club wants to start the installation of solar panels on the roof in September, and finish by December of this year.

Quite frankly, at this point there’s no reason why most large buildings shouldn’t have their roofs covered in solar panels everywhere. It’s a common-sense and relatively low cost enterprise that pays for itself in the medium term and reduces reliance on the electric grid. The article doesn’t say so, but I’d assume there’s also going to be plenty of battery storage so that night time events can pull on some of that power during evening matches and concerts.

Tottenham isn’t be the first stadium to put solar panels on the roof, and hopefully it won’t be the last. But I welcome this move.

good morning everyone and welcome to the final day of Fitzie’s Track of the Day (Revisited). This whole week we have been pouring through the archives of the 1,000-plus TOTD playlist, pulling out some of our favourite songs and exploring what drew fitzie to include them. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, and now we’ve got a BOGO TOTD (revisited).

But first, let’s recap the past four days:

Monday: Too Late Now, by Wet Leg

Tuesday: Mood Indigo, by Charles Mingus

Wednesday: トーキョー レギー, by Masayoshi Takanaka

Thursday: Carried Away, by Television

Today’s Tracks of the Day (revisited) follow two themes: versions that don’t actually appear on the playlist because they aren’t available, and songs done by artists who inspired me to go on to explore new artists.

The first is a version of Rhiannon I discovered many years ago. Fleetwood Mac have always been one of my favourite bands, and Rhiannon my favourite song from Fleetwood Mac’s white album.

This is from the Old Grey Whistle Test, which I first heard of when I was a kid in high school (this was well after the test ceased airing). But the first time I heard of this was with Talking Heads’ version of Psycho Killer. I was hooked.

And I was hooked on Fleetwood Mac. Still am.

This version is not like the studio version at all. It’s sped up, darker, and full of rancor. Stevie Nicks lets loose as she summons the Welsh witch, and Lindsey Buckingham shreds on the guitar while Mick Fleetwood and John McVie drive the rhythm. And, of course, the haunting layers composed by keyboardist Christine McVie.

The first time I heard this song I got chills. Tonight was the first time in quite a while I listened to it, and I got chills again. This song, and Rumours in general, sealed my love for the Mac that’s since expanded far and away from just Rumours. I love Mystery to Me, Bare Trees, Kiln House and everything from the Peter Green era.

But it was this particular song that I listened in my earphones walking to class at Leeds Beckett University more than a decade ago. Every night I would see a fox. It reminded me of Stevie Nicks.

Fitzie’s track of the day (revisited), part one: Rhiannon, by Fleetwood Mac

So it shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that I take Nicks’s suggestions to heart. If she supports an artist, then they deserve my attention (and, frankly, the world’s attention).

It was during her induction speech into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019 where she gave a shoutout to the Haim sisters. A year later I heard The Steps play on the radio for the first time. I was hooked.

And it was during Nicks’s performance during the induction ceremony where Harry Styles filled in for the late Tom Petty in Stop Dragging My Heart Around. It was Styles who inducted Nicks into the Hall.

I didn’t care much for Styles at the time. I thought he was just one of those kids from One Direction.

During the pandemic I set out to finish reading Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet, which would go on to become a core piece in my literature collection. I consumed the pages, line by line as Bernardo Soares wrestled with the mundanity of existence and the metaphysics on the conditions of what it means to live.

During this same time I had purchased a copy of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. I knew the self-titled song already, but for me it was Madame George that took away my breath. At nearly 10 minutes, the song about a Belfast drag queen slips into the stream of conscience in a style I felt matched with Pessoa’s own perfunctory technique.

One day I wanted to learn more about both of them. It was here where I stumbled upon an article in which Harry Styles and Timothee Chalamet interviewed each other in 2018. The pair name-dropped The Book of Disquiet and Madame George.

After reading this, I felt I should check out this Harry Styles fella. If he has Nicks’s stamp of approval, finds Madame George as his favourite song, and is within the same literary circle as someone reading The Book of Disquiet, then he is deserving of my time.

So I began listening to his music and found that I quite liked it. It was rock and roll, as Nicks said. Very unlike One Direction. Watermelon Sugar can be a little bit silly, but Sign of the Times, Kiwi, Carolina and Sweet Creature were all standouts from his debut solo album.

And I adored his record Harry’s House and its lead single As It Was, which catapulted him to claim the Album of the Year at the 2023 Grammy Awards.

Years later I would read Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, a brilliant introspective on what it means to take up long-distance running. In April, two days before my most recent marathon, I picked up the latest edition of Runners World. Harry Styles was the cover story: “Harry Styles Is One of Us”.

And who was he doing a joint interview with? Haruki Murakami.

It was also before this that I saw he likes to cover other artists from time to time. I’ve featured a couple here before: Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer and Tears For Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World.

So now as we close this week’s project of revisiting Tracks of the Day, I want to end where we began: with Wet Leg.

Although it isn’t really Wet Leg, but Harry Styles covering the song Wet Dream, which appeared on Wet Leg’s debut album in 2021.

This is one of the great joys of music. To fall in love with one artist, who becomes a gateway into multiple avenues of discovery which bear fruits more than a decade later.

And so wraps up our week of Fitzie’s Track of the Day (Revisited). I’ve had a lot of fun with this. Maybe I’ll revisit some other tracks in the future and see where the music and memories take me. Til then I’ll keep looking for more tunes and please keep sending along your recommendations!

Fitzie’s track of the day (revisited), part two: Wet Dream, by Harry Styles

And now for your links:

The Standard: “Three Tottenham players who must convince Roberto De Zerbi during pre-season”

BBC: “What’s going on with penalties - is it time to end the ‘stutter’?”

ESPN: “U.S. star Christian Pulisic suffered microfracture vs. Belgium”

The Independent: “How should England line-up against Norway? Our writers pick their XIs for World Cup quarter-final”

The Telegraph: “Wimbledon women’s final: When is it and how to watch Noskova vs Muchova on TV”

Another busy day, another late open thread. Sorry, gang. I’m through the worst of it now.

We’re down to the final 8 teams in the World Cup, and the opening match of this round could be the most exciting of the rounds. France has looked solid but not unbeatable in this tournament, and Morocco has survived a couple of scares but still looks capable of beating anyone, as you’d expect from the team that finished as a semifinalist in 2022. Can they do it again? We’re going to find out here in a few minutes!

This is your open thread. We’ll be back to the usual recaps and previews posts tomorrow, following yesterday’s pausa de hidratación.

Gillette Stadium, Boston, USA

TV: FOX (USA), Telemundo (USA - Spanish), ITV 1 (UK)

Stream: Fox One, ITVX

Mikey Moore had a nice time in Scotland on loan at Rangers last season, and now it looks like he could be heading out again, with a step up in competition level. Ekrem Konur is reporting that Spurs and Dortmund are in talks that could see Mikey head to the Bundesliga runners-up on loan this season.

So this is REALLY interesting, and if it bears out we could learn a lot about Mikey Moore’s ability and ceiling. Dortmund finished 2nd behind (who else) Bayern Munich last season, so Moore would be heading to a very solid team that is again in European competition. I’m not wild about the purchase option, but it does seem like, according to Konur, Spurs are trying to negotiate that clause out of the deal. No idea if that’ll happen, but it’s a good sign that Mikey’s still in Spurs’ future plans.

Dortmund is going to be a real test for Mikey. The ideal situation is that he goes there, plays a bunch of minutes, and comes away with a solid experience, even if he doesn’t set the world on fire. If he has a bad loan — chained to the bench or even just training and not named to first team squads — well, that’s bad but it also tells us something important about Mikey and his ceiling. He’s still a young guy, but if this loan goes through how he does there should be pretty illuminating.

I like the idea of sending Mikey out to a good team in probably the third best league in Europe. That’s better than getting lost on the bench at Spurs with other, older and more experienced wingers playing ahead of him. Since Spurs aren’t in Europe this season, getting our talented youngsters first team experience is paramount. I like this deal, and hope it happens. We’ll probably find out soon enough.

And in the meantime, you can check out this training video of Moore and Will “BIG WILLY LANKS” Lanskshear absolutely leathering the ball into the net.