Cartilage Free Captain

The most compelling storyline in the English football pyramid might just be in its third tier.

With only five games remaining in the season, only three points separate second-place Wrexham (81 points) from Wycombe (78). The two clubs have been fighting for the second automatic promotion all season, but Wycombe’s 0-1 loss to Reading over the weekend pushed them back into third.

This is all exciting news for Wrexham fans, whose club is now on the precipice of ascending to the second tier after Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took it over just a few years ago.

Now, they’re aiming for a back-to-back-to-back promotion.

Wrexham’s goalscoring is a bit more even this season compared to their previous campaigns, with Steven Fletcher on eight. Three others are on seven, while Paul Mullin (who had surgery in June) is on two.

Meanwhile, Wycombe’s Richard Kone is the joint-top scorer in the league at 18 goals.

So where do we go from here? Well, let’s look at their remaining fixtures:

Wycombe: Stevenage, Bolton, Charlton, Leyton Orient, Stockport

Wrexham: Wigan, Bristol Rovers, Blackpool, Charlton, Lincoln

You have to think that Wrexham have got the easier of the two run-ins, with Wycombe facing two promotion candidates in Leyton Orient (9th) and Stockport (4th) in the final two matches of the season.

But who knows, this is League One football where all dreams are possible and all dreams simultaneously go to die.

So circle 3 May on your calendar and get ready for an eventful final day of the season.

Fitzie’s track of the day: It Never Entered My Mind, by Miles Davis

And now for your links:

ESPN: “Premier League to have five teams in 2025-26 Champions League”

BBC: Birmingham seal promotion back to Championship

Telegraph: “Bend it like Declan! Rice eclipses Real Madrid with heaven-sent rockets”

If there’s a silver lining to the incredible injury crisis that Tottenham Hotspur endured in the middle part of the season, it’s that Spurs’ cadre of young potential superstars got a lot more minutes than initially projected. Players like Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, and Mikey Moore weren’t expected to play a ton for Spurs’ first team but were thrust into roles that they maybe weren’t ready for because there was no one else available to play.

Here’s the thing though — those young players got better, or at least more experienced, and that will pay dividends down the road. I’d say the main beneficiary of those minutes this season is Bergvall, who has gone from playing in the Swedish league to starting for a Premier League team in nine months. I remember watching his early appearances for Spurs and thinking that he has a lot of talent but looks a little lost at this level. Now, he’s settled in and has become not just comfortable playing in the Premier League, but one of Spurs’ best central midfielders.

And if Swedish outlet fotbol direkt is correct, he’s about to be rewarded with an improved contract for his efforts. FD is reporting that Spurs are now in negotiations with Bergvall and his representatives for an improved contract that will take effect this summer.

Bergvall’s initial deal, according to the article, runs through 2029 and earns him 22m Swedish kronor per year. Do the math and that works out to £33k/wk in wages — certainly nowhere near the top of the wage scale at Spurs, but pretty dang good for a kid who just turned 19 and was playing in a third tier league last season. The article doesn’t specify the terms of any potential new contract (duh, they’re in talks) but one can surmise it would likely add a year or so on to the end of the deal and also give him a very healthy wage rise.

Spurs have gotten a lot of stick lately for its wage to turnover ratio, as dumping Harry Kane’s wages have given the club a lot of leeway on the wage scale. So yes, Spurs can absolutely afford to give players like Bergvall who are deserving of a new deal a substantial raise without hurting their bottom line.

And frankly, Lucas deserves it. He’s already looking like a young player you can build a team around, and the key to making sure he stays at Tottenham is to keep him happy with new deals and wage bumps. I suspect that, assuming this manifests, this is just the start of new contracts for the younger players — Bergvall is likely just the first one we’ve heard about.

Devastating news in the music world on Monday: Clem Burke, the rapturous heart beat to new wave band Blondie, has died after a prive battle with cancer.

He was so much more than the drummer behind One Way or Another. He played with Eurythmics, the Ramones, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, LAMF, Joan Jett, The Romantics, Nancy Sinatra and many more incredible artists.

Blondie members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein paid tribute to their beloved bandmate on facebook:

“His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable. Beyond his musicianship, Clem was a source of inspiration both on and off the stage. His vibrant spirit, infectious enthusiasm and rock solid work ethic touched everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.

“His influence and contributions have spanned decades and genres, leaving an indelible mark on every project he was a part of.”

I was lucky enough to catch Blondie the last time they toured in the US. While the crowd surrounded the iconic Debbie Harry, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the man on the kit. The Great Clem Burke.

Fitzie’s track of the day, part one: Atomic, by Blondie

Here’s an excerpt I wrote for that hoddle back in August 2022:

“In the many shows I have attended - whether that be rock, blues, jazz, punk, disco, pop - I have never seen anyone drum like Burke. Nor have I seen anyone carry a band for an entire two hours the way he did.

“Braving the general admission pit at The Anthem. I was transfixed on him during Fade Away and Radiate, the only member of the ensemble to ditch his bright-coloured suit jacket. Just to watch his hands at work was a sight to behold.

“Then, in that final drum fill, he completely shifted gears from the reggae beat into The Tide is High, Blondie’s famous latin-flavoured cover of a song by Jamaican band The Paragons. It was the best 13 minutes of drumming I think I have ever heard.

“And then the man did it again to close out the first set, when Blondie closed out with Heart of Glass. Only this time he sort of went into reverse, speeding up from the disco beat into the Sex Pistols’ punk-rock God Save The Queen.”

Fitzie’s track of the day: Heart of Glass, by Blondie

Burke and Blondie came onto the scene during a boon in the New York punk world. They cut their teeth at the CBGB with contemporaries the Ramones, Talking Heads, Television, the New York Dolls and Patti Smith.

But one of the most exciting sounds to come from that scene was whatever Burke was playing. His style was unparalleled.

Clem Burke was the greatest drummer I’ve ever seen in my life.

Fitzie’s track of the day, part three: Dreaming, by Blondie

And now for your links:

Rolling Stone: “Clem Burke’s Beat Helped Blondie Conquer the World”

The Athletic ($$): “Even positives for Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou now seem to come with caveats”

OK, this is late. Sorry, was a busy week at Ye Olde Day Jobbe™ and I had some personal stuff going on too. I’m not sure anyone wants to go back and have to re-litigate what happened last Thursday at Stamford Bridge (honestly, it was pretty much what happens EVERY time we go to Stamford Bridge) but for the sake of completeness I wanna bash out this player ratings quick so we can all collectively forget about it and move on to the next match to complain about.

So here’s a quick and dirty theme just so we can all move on — player ratings for Tottenham’s loss to Chelsea to the theme of color swatches randomly generated by a hex color website.

No Tottenham players in this category.

Lucas Bergvall (Community — 3.0): Quite honestly, Lucas was Tottenham’s best player on the day. Had plenty of verve and looks to have settled into a comfort zone at this level. Postecoglou was booed when he was subbed off, but has since clarified that Lucas was looking “leggy.”

Pape Matar Sarr (Community — 3.0): Got boos for replacing Bergvall and then played nearly as well, scoring what would’ve been an equalizer except for the whole “kicking the guy studs up in the knee beforehand” thing. Also should’ve earned a penalty after he got clipped in the box. Decent match!

Guglielmo Vicario (Community — 3.5): A little shaky at first, but settled in and had a number of quality stops including a spectacular one-handed save.

Djed Spence (Community — 3.0): Did ok on the whole but had a couple of defensive miscues that led to Chelsea chances.

Wilson Odobert (Community — 2.5): I thought Wilson looked like a decent outlet especially in the first half, but wasn’t getting service and faded badly.

Son Heung-MIn (Community — 2.5): Nearly, NEARLY got the equalizer late but wasn’t able to direct his sliding shot past Chelsea’s keeper. Otherwise fairly quiet on the ball.

Cuti Romero (Community — 2.5): Weirdly defensively frail in this one, with Nico Jackson kind of having his way with him at times. Got some bottle back in him after some fisticuffs with the Chelsea squad.

Micky van de Ven (Community — 2.5): Welcome back, Micky. Sorry it was a crappy game. Nearly scored an own goal in the opening minute and got drawn out of position for Chelsea’s first goal. A match to forget, and hopefully he does.

Destiny Udogie (Community — 2.0): Had a couple of solid defensive moments, but got lost at the back post for a goal and looked extremely suspect going forward. Honestly at this point I’d rather see Djed play at LB than Destiny, and I hate saying it.

Dominic Solanke (Community — 2.0): Effectively stranded on an island with no service, though he worked ferociously, as usual, in the press.

Rodrigo Bentancur (Community — 2.0): Another extremely blah match. A midfield sieve and didn’t do much to progress the ball.

James Maddison (Community — 2.0): Very little creativity on the ball in a match where it was desperately needed.

Brennan Johnson (Community — 2.0): Might have been, ironically, a better choice to play against Chelsea than Wilson. Had a few good deliveries (including the one to Son) but wasn’t able to impact the match much.

No Tottenham Hotspur players were as bad as the randomly-generated color “pearl black berry.”

Tom Carroll Memorial Non-Rating:

Some mild good news if you’re a Tottenham Hotspur fan already angsting about Spurs playing Eintracht Frankfurt this Thursday in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinals. A football journalist in Germany has reported that Frankfurt’s starting keeper, Kevin Trapp, is out with a knock for the first leg, and expects to be back between the sticks in time for the return leg in Germany next week. He will be replaced by backup keeper Jens Grahl.

Kevin Trapp is also out for the Europa League first leg at Tottenham. UEFA officially nominated Grahl for the #Eintracht-leg squad, replacing Trapp. This measure initially only applies to the first leg. Trapp is expected to replace Grahl in the squad for the return leg.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and try and tell you anything about Kevin Trapp or Jens Grahl — I don’t know anything about either of them! But while we as fans should never celebrate opposition team injuries, it does feel like a team not having their starting keeper for an important match is at least notionally a good thing for Spurs’ prospects. Regardless, there are 10 other players on that pitch and they’ll need to put in a very good performance no matter what else happens.

Unlike in the Round of 16, this time Tottenham play the home leg first before traveling to Germany for the second leg. That’s not my preferred order, of course, and it puts even more pressure on Spurs to get a solid result at home so they can hopefully hang on in a pressure cooker situation in Frankfurt next week.

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

It’s hard to gauge who and what around Tottenham is trending up/down after this past week. We got two expected results: a defeat at Chelsea and a win against Southampton.

But I’m going to do my best.

Trending Up

The weather: Yes, the weather. This is where we are currently. It looked lovely at the Lane on Sunday. By contrast, it was a gloomy day in Washington.

I’m having difficulty finding something eles to place here. Feel free to make a case for inclusion.

Trending Down

Ange Postecoglou: Not that the Hotspurverse needs any more Ange discourse, but his stock seems to continue to plummet. Sixteen Premier League losses on the season. Grateful Spurs aren’t sitting 16th anymore, but we’ll see how he holds up after this week’s fixture against Frankfurt.

Premier League fixtures: Speaking of the Premier League, we’re mercifully towards the tail-end of the season. Only seven games remain until we can do a proper post-mortem on this season and look forward to silly transfer rumours.

Fitzie’s track of the day: It Ain’t Me Babe, by Joan Baez

And now for your links:

The Telegraph: “Ange Postecoglou resorts to rock-paper-scissors during five-minute VAR delay”

Dan KP: “Ange Postecoglou avoids Tottenham disaster but judgement day is still to come”

The Athletic ($$): “Romaine Mundle interview: Lessons from Antonio Conte, Standard Liege and lighting up Sunderland”

Ange Postecoglou was pleased with his side after Tottenham Hotspur defeated Southampton at home today. The 3-1 win not only gave the team (and the fans) a bit of a vibes boost heading into a critical Europa League first leg match against Eintracht Frankfurt, but also an important league win that pushed them up to 14th in the table.

But it wasn’t all positive. Spurs struggled in the second half, at one point giving Soton 70% possession, and conceded a goal before scoring a late penalty to regain a two goal cushion. Postecoglou said that this wasn’t the plan, and that he was a little disappointed with how the team came out of the locker room for the second half.

“I was really happy with the first half. First half I thought we were really disciplined, well organised and sort of limited them to one chance. Every time we went forward we looked dangerous and as threatening as we’ve looked for quite a while, really fluent, obviously scored two goals, one disallowed and Aaron [Ramsdale] has pulled off some good saves. Really pleased.

“Second half not so much as I thought we became way too passive without the ball. We allowed Southampton to get a little bit of rhythm, we were really sloppy with ball and the substitutions we made didn’t really make the impact I wanted. As you said, that allows them to get a goal at the end which was disappointing and something we need to improve on. Overall the important thing is we got the win, scored three goals and everyone got through unscathed and ready for a big night on Thursday.”

It certainly wasn’t always champagne football, but ultimately the result is what matters the most, and beating Soton meant Spurs were spared the ignominy of losing to all three teams in the relegation zone this season. But even with a poor second half performance, what really horked Postecoglou off was, once again, VAR. In a lengthy review that lasted upwards of five minutes, the video assistant referee eventually (and controversally) chalked off what would’ve been Tottenham’s second goal, a short range strike from Lucas Bergvall. Ange made his frustrations with the system known, in what is intended to be the last match week before the debut of Semi-Automated Offisde (SAO) technology next weekend.

“They draw those lines, is anyone convinced by those? This is not a slight on anyone as I don’t think it favours us or not favours us but the fact we’re waiting five minutes I really don’t think that’s what technology was brought in for. I think it’s gone too far down the road for anyone to claw it back. We used to allow the assistants to make those decisions and we all accepted it.

“There was one in midweek with Chelsea and if they had gave it I wouldn’t have complained and said it was a toenail offside because I’ve had that my whole career. Offside was never meant to be microscopically adjudged but if they ever get to a place when that is done instantaneously then I accept it because offside is offside.

“I just can’t believe that this is what we brought it in for to stand around for five minutes for something that in the end is still, in my view anyway, is inconclusive. Like I said, the semi-automated will come in, says it’s going to hopefully improve and speed up the process but I didn’t think there was a crying need for the game of football to be disrupted like this but it has been and, as I keep saying, the overwhelming majority of voices are in favour of it and that kind of means it is very hard to stem that tide.”

Brennan Johnson, who scored two of Spurs’ three goals on the day (Mathys Tel scored the third on a penalty kick right before the full time whistle), was one of Tottenham’s best performers. Johnson, to put it mildly, hasn’t always been a consistent performer, but he’s Spurs’ leading scorer this season with 11 goals and seems to pop up in the right spot to tap in a goal or shoot from a cutback pass. Postecoglou said this is no accident.

“With Brennan he’s always in the areas we need him to be. He’s probably one of the most disciplined players we have in terms of making sure he’s always in the right positions and that’s why he gets his goals. There have been times this season when his form has suffered because of the team more than anything else.

“I think like we played in the first half Brennan becomes a really important player for us as we’re a constant threat, breaking lines, making half-space runs, we were getting balls into the box in the areas we need to and every time we went forward we looked like scoring. If we do that then I think it’s not a matter of confidence for Brennan, it just gives you more opportunities as the one thing about him is that he will always be in those positions so it’s up to us to match his discipline in that.”

Destiny Udogie and Micky van de Ven were both consigned to the bench for this match in what was otherwise a strong starting XI lineup, but Ange confirmed that the goal was to get both of those players a little extra rest before hosting Frankfurt this coming Thursday. Ange also addressed the fitness of Lucas Bergvall, another top performer for Spurs on Sunday; Bergvall’s sub vs. Chelsea earned Big Ange boos from the Spurs traveling support, and precipitated Postecoglou’s ill-conceived interaction with the fans during that match. Ange seemed to confirm that Bergvall’s sub on Thursday was due to fitness, not performance.

“Yeah Destiny and Micky are fine. They have missed a lot of football this year so it made sense to put them on ice today. Richy is good. We’ve kind of done this with a few of the boys coming back and getting them involved in the matchday and the possibility of him getting a run today, but I just thought when they’re involved in matchday it gets rid of a lot of the nerves of coming back or anxiety from coming back from a long time out. He’ll get a few more days in training and play a part from now on.

“[Lucas] looked a bit leggy on Thursday night but I thought it was important for him to get it out of his system because he hadn’t played, because he didn’t play the internationals, for two-and-a-half weeks and he hardly played. With Thursday in mind, I thought giving him 60 minutes on Thursday (against Chelsea) and another good block, he looked a lot better today, physically stronger and in the first half I felt the midfield three of Rodri, Madders and Lucas were really, really good defensively but also when we had the ball, they were really strong and it worked well.”

Tottenham Hotspur won a football match! On the back of a dispiriting loss at Chelsea midweek, Spurs had a chance to pick up a win over the worst team in the league, Southampton, and send them officially packing to the Championship. They did just that, behind a first half brace from Brennan Johnson and a late penalty from Mathys Tel, his first Premier League goal. Mateus Fernandes scored the visitor’s only goal, a late strike.

It was a strong starting lineup for Spurs, and a desperately needed league win. Now all eyes turn to Frankfurt.

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.

For just the 11th time in the Premier League this season, Tottenham Hotspur took all three points in a league match — first win since a 4-1 win at Ipswich Town on February 22nd — as the side dominated the first relegated side of the campaign in Southampton 3-1 on Sunday.

With the Saints on the brink of relegation and possibly setting a new record for fewest points in a Premier League campaign, Spurs started the game on the front foot. The side controlled the pace and shots on goal in the first 10 minutes.

The first chance of the game for Spurs came from a corner kick by Pedro Porro. Swinging in his right-footed corner to the middle of the box, Cristian Romero beat his man mark and had a bullet header straight at Aaron Ramsdale that kept the game scoreless. Romero had another header minutes later with another ball coming from Porro, and Ramsdale’s face saved his header at the back post.

The last time the two sides played, Spurs put five past the Saints in the first half. They were looking to keep the hot form rolling against the worst side in the league. Enduring a quick spell from the Saints on one of the pitches, Spurs flipped the pitch quickly and capitalized on the poor defense with a trademark goal.

Romero pinged a ball to James Maddison in the middle of the pitch before controlling it and hitting Son Heung-Min in the left channel. With Djed Spence running an overlap and laying it off for the left back, Spence took a deep touch towards the goal line before squaring it towards the 12-yard box for Brennan Johnson to be in the right spot to slip his shot past two defenders and into the back of the net.

Leading 1-0 and having an argument to be 3-0 up within a quarter of an hour, Spurs thought they had their second goal of the game and the first Premier League goal for Lucas Bergvall.

Porro sent his free kick towards the middle of the box to allow Romero to get his head on it and put it back into the middle of the box. With the ball coming down and a Saint defender around him, Bergvall stuck his leg out for a cross net volley that left Ramsdale frozen and the home side jumping. But a four-minute and 53-second VAR check determined that Romero was marginally offside and kept the game at 1-0. Semi-automated checks will be starting next week in the Premier League, with many frustrated about how long offside checks have taken.

Despite the annoyance that Spurs couldn't get the second goal across the line yet, Johnson put together a brace for himself as a defensive breakdown once more allowed Maddison to win a header inside the 18-yard box and right onto the foot of Johnson to flick it past Ramsdale for his 50th career English goal.

Only leading 2-0 into the break, Spurs came out in the second half and once more looked to be on the defensive foot to give the relegating side a chance to make it a nervous match.

Scoring in the 89th minute to stop Spurs from securing a clean sheet, Southampton showed why they are the worst side in the league, as a tackle in the box on Johnson in the final seconds of the game gave Spurs a chance to set up a hat-trick chance for Johnson.

As Mathys Tel grabbed the ball to signal this was his moment, Johson kept reminding him about the chance to get the hat-trick, but the loanee from Bayern Munich seemed not to care and buried his penalty past the diving hands of Ramsdale for his first Premier League goal.

Securing all three points and sending down the first relegated side of the season, Spurs now sit 13th with 37 points. The side turns its focus to hosting the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals against Frankfurt on Thursday.

Yup, the vibes are are bad again. After a narrow (but really not that terrible) defeat at Chelsea on Thursday, Tottenham Hotspur return home to face Southampton in what now feels like a must win match ahead of the first leg of the Europa League tie vs. Eintracht Frankfurt.

Ange Postecoglou is seemingly hanging on by a thread, but we’ve also said that about him pretty much since November, so who knows! All I know is that a win over this terrible Soton team would do a lot towards tempering the humors of a jittery Spurs fanbase that has watched Spurs slip down to 16th in the table.

COYS!

Lineups

Live Blog

How to Watch

Tottenham Hotspur vs. Southampton

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, UK

Sunday, April 6, 2025

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

TV: Not televised (USA)/UK) Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: Peacock

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!