Cartilage Free Captain

To whom it may concern,

My name is Dustin George-Miller. I am managing editor of Cartilage Free Captain, the largest Tottenham Hotspur fan blog in the United States. But I am writing to you today as an international Spurs fan deeply disturbed by some of what I am hearing in the media.

Recently there have been rumors, some from well respected journalists, that the Club is considering appointing Roberto De Zerbi as its next permanent manager. While I fully understand the extremely unreliable nature of “transfer rumors,” especially regarding such an incredibly high profile appointment as the Head Coach of Tottenham Hotspur, this particular rumor seems to have more gravitas than most. I acknowledge that the situation surrounding the managerial position at Spurs is complicated, in flux, and highly dependent on the Club’s status at the end of the season, but I wanted to personally write and express my emphatic opposition to the appointment of De Zerbi and would strongly suggest that the Club look to other candidates, of which there are no doubt many.

Roberto De Zerbi is without a doubt a talented football manager. He is also a highly divisive figure within the coaching ranks. His public falling out with his previous managerial appointments at Brighton and Marseille should be a huge red flag for the club when it comes to who should take charge. De Zerbi has proven himself to be caustic, acerbic, high strung, and confrontational in his interactions -- just one example is the sideline confrontation he had with Cristian Stellini that resulted in both managers being ejected and issued heavy fines. We have had hot-tempered managers before. It rarely ends well, or long.

But more importantly, I am extremely concerned with the club’s (apparent) flirtation with De Zerbi considering his history of apologia for sexual violence and rape. In particular, his decision, while at Marseille, to acquire and vigorously defend Mason Greenwood, a player credibly accused of rape and sexual assault, should be disqualifying for a club of Tottenham Hotspur’s stature. Hiring a manager who showed support for Greenwood at a time when he was exceedingly toxic throughout world football sends a terrible message to Tottenham supporters who are survivors of sexual assault -- it suggests the club prioritizes on-pitch results more than relationships with its own supporters.

I would remind the Club leadership of the fan outrage that emerged a few years ago when Spurs seemingly were interested in appointing Gennaro Gattuso to the managerial position. That proved to be exceedingly unpopular. This would be far, far worse. Some things are more important than football. This is one of them. Tottenham’s culture needs a hard reset after the past two years, but I can’t think of a worse way of establishing that culture than by alienating a significant portion of the fan base that are sexual abuse survivors. I have heard from many, many Spurs fans through my connections at Cartilage Free Captain and on social media, and the vast majority oppose the idea of appointing De Zerbi.

Obviously, I do not know for sure whether the Club is seriously considering the appointment of De Zerbi. If it turns out the Club is not, I would welcome that news. I would however again reiterate my, and my blog’s, strong opposition to his hypothetical appointment. There are plenty of managers who would do an excellent job managing Tottenham Hotspur, in whatever division they find themselves in, that do not contain the excessive baggage that Roberto De Zerbi carries with him. I would, in the strongest possible terms, suggest the club eliminate him as a potential candidate.

Tottenham Hotspur fans are smart. They understand the realities of modern football, but also are not willing to appoint problematic characters for the sole purpose of winning football matches. They also deeply care about the culture within the club. The fan protests over Gattuso (and, related, the attempt to join the Super League) should prove that. It did not work with Jose Mourinho. It did not work with Antonio Conte. It will not work with Roberto De Zerbi, and his appointment would only prove that the Club leadership is willfully blind to the real pain suffered by its supporters who are survivors of sexual abuse and rape.

Please choose someone else.

Tottenham Hotspur Women have put an emphasis on locking down their best players this week. After the hugely important new contract from Olivia Holdt earlier this week, in the past two days the club also announced two more important contract extensions — Swedish winger Matilda Vinberg and head coach Martin Ho.

Vinberg first — she’s been a revelation this season under Ho, adding width, pace, and crossing ability from the left flank this season. She’s developed a lot over the past season and locking her down to a new long-term contract feels more than appropriate. The Swedish international currently has one goal and two assists in 11 matches so far this season.

Ho’s extension is even more appropriate. He’s taken a team that nearly got relegated under now Portland Thurns head coach Robert Vilahamn, enhanced them through key signings in the transfer market such as Cathinka Tandberg, Signe Gaupset, and Toko Koga, and got them playing an offensive-minded, progressive style of football that they have responded to dramatically. Spurs are still knocking at the door of the big WSL clubs that perennially qualify for Champions League, but they’re back on their perch as Best of the Rest in fifth place in the table, and are continuing to improve. Ho has a clear plan on how to develop this team, and he’s worked wonders so far. It’s certainly worth committing to him and his tactics, since the players are absolutely responding to his coaching.

Ho has described Tottenham Hotspur Women as a “sleeping giant.” He’s currently in the beginning stages of waking them up, and it’s gratifying to see the club recognize that fact, and reward him for the excellent work he’s already done.

You know how Guglielmo Vicario’s stats and metrics have been dropping like a stone this season, going from statistically one of the best shot stoppers to one of the worst in the Premier League in recent months? Turns out there’s a reason for that — he’s likely been carrying an injury for months and been playing through the pain.

According to an article in Football.London and citing Vicario’s Instagram, assistant coach Fabian Otte replied to a Vicario post after his hernia surgery and implied that he’s been dealing with this for a while now.

Months? MONTHS? Well, that certainly explains a few things. That statistical drop was dramatic, and fanalysts had already picked up on it. It was suggested that Vic’s performance drop was due to him being on a bad team that faces more shots than before, or that he was just having a bad season, or maybe was reverting to the mean after overperforming since joining Spurs.

But this suggests something different, and depending on how you view things, infuriating. Playing through injury is rarely a good idea, and Vicario’s stats seem to prove that. I mean, it’s already a bad season and it’s a little tricky to try and unpick how Vicario’s regression is intertwined with Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor’s tactics, the regression of the team as a whole, and the injury itself. It’s probably a bit of everything. It’s also impossible to know whether the team would’ve been better off if Vicario had had the hernia surgery much earlier and put the club in the hands of Tonda Kinsky for a few weeks. Maybe it would’ve been better, maybe worse. Who can say!

This is not going to do anything to appease the section of the fan base that is convinced that Spurs’ medical staff are comprised of cloned copies of Dr. Nick from the Simpsons, or mannequins with cleavers instead of hands, and they have a point — it’s a little infuriating to learn that your starting, and struggling, keeper has apparently been playing through pain for months in an attempt to help the team, when he might have actually been doing the opposite. Add another narrative point in This Effing Season™ I guess.

Happy Friday, Hoddlers! Yesterday’s Hoddle was about browser games and it was super fun. So let’s make today about board games. I’m a big board game fan that doesn’t get to board game much these days, due to lack of time, health, and just not having a reliable gaming group available to me.

My wife also likes to play board games quite a bit, but she’s pretty particular about the kinds of games she likes — not into the heavy tactical stuff, or campaign-style games, and the theme really, really matters. Doesn’t matter how much fun a game is to play, because if it features zombies or horror themes, she’s out. So we stick to semi-casual games these days, when we do play, and frequently they’re two-player games.

Here’s a few of the games we have been playing lately, when we play. I admit they’re a bit basic, but I’m a casual gamer. Drop your favorite casual games in the comments.

A two player analog Tetrus board game that’s about quilting? Shut up, it works and is one of the more fun casual two players games I’ve played in a long, long time. You draft polyhedron shaped quilt patches and place them on your grid board to form a patchwork quilt, collecting button tokens along the way that earn you points.It’s easy to learn, fast, and satisfying, especially when you land that perfect shaped piece to complete your goal.

A draft-and-play game based around the acquisition of colorful gems, Splendor has near infinite replay value because of the way the game is set up with lots of variations and changes that can impact how you play. You spend colored tokens which you draw from a supply to purchase gem cards in three tiers, with the bottom tier being the cheapest and the top the most expensive. It’s an engine-building game and you are trying to get enough gems in your deck that you can afford the really expensive and maximum point-gaining cards. It’s fun, easy, and fast. Even my kids figured it out as pre-teens and regularly trounced me once they got going.

I’ve only played this a couple of times but I bought it the day after it was taught to me. You are crafting a wildlife habitat and score points by drafting animal cards that play resource tiles in a particular pattern, so you have to be careful of which cards you draft and how they fit into your resource board. There’s a 3D element to it as well, and the card artwork is pretty unique and really fun. There’s strategy, but you’re mostly concerned about your own board compared to others. It fits in well with other animal games like Wingspan and Cascadia, but it’s more casual than either.

Want a single player board game? I have a good one for you. You are the final girl in a slasher horror movie, and your job is to kill the evil murdering villain and rescue as many of your friends as you can before you kill the baddie, or the baddie kills you. It plays on 1980s horror movie tropes where the one victim turns out to be the hero of the movie, but it’s HARD. You purchase a core box and one of dozens of expansions or themes that imitate classic horror movie genres like the slasher film set at the summer camp, the sci-fi Aliens-style epic, etc. You can play it solo, or with a group with you all collaborating to decide what moves to take.

What games have you played lately? Have a great weekend!

Song of the Day: “Pudding & Pie” by The New Mastersounds

Remember yesterday when a Swedish newspaper posted a video of Dejan Kulusevski visiting the Sweden national team and walking with a slight limp, and then it got amplified by the worst Twitter aggregators and everyone got really mad about it considering how long he’s been out of action due to a fractured patella injury he received late last season? Also, was that the single longest run-on sentence in the history of Cartilage Free Captain? Cannot confirm.

Well anyway, apparently that got enough attention that Kukusevski himself took to social media to comment on it. He basically said that he had a small procedure a couple of weeks ago to remove some stuff that was floating around his knee, and that the knee itself feels “great.”

But who are you going to believe, Dejan Kulusevski or your lying eyes? Well, enter Jack Pitt-Brooke at the Athletic, who basically made an entire article out of Deki’s Instagram story. The key difference, however, is that JPB actually took the time to speak to the club to confirm it.

According to The Athletic, unnamed club sources speaking anonymously confirmed that Kulusevski underwent an arthroscopic surgical procedure, what was called a “small intervention,” two weeks ago to remove some debris in the knee, or what Deki called stuff that “was not suppose [sic] to be there.”

I know some people are going to read this and be all “WHY IS DEKI HAVING ANOTHER SURGERY FFS SPURS MEDICAL STAFF” but in speaking to a few medical professionals I know in real life, this kind of thing is both a) pretty common and b) usually minimally invasive if done arthroscopically, which it seems it was.

Does this mean Deki is ready to come back and gloriously lead us out of relegation danger? Oh hell no, probably not. Everything I’ve read about Deki’s injury suggests that patella injuries are both rare and complicated, and can take a long time to come back from. Nothing I’ve seen in Deki’s injury recovery process makes me think any differently, and while you can be mad at the club for slow-walking the reveal the extent of Kulusevski’s injury and recovery time, getting irrationally upset about LimpGate just feels to me like doom-scrolling Spurs content on your phone. If you want to get upset at someone, try the aggregators who did their damndest to make this a THING™ and amplified a video without context in order to further vague (and likely rage-induced) engagement.

Hi, Hoddlers! Guess who remembered to schedule this thing this morning? I feel so proud and accomplished.

One of the great joys of having a cell phone is the ability to fart around on it and play games while you’re waiting to do adulting things. I confess that my phone has been a great help while I’m waiting in doctors’ offices, or at the BMV, or for the red light to change (KIDDING KIDDING KIDDING). And I have a stable of small, daily web-based games that I have come to enjoy and play almost daily.

Yeah yeah yeah, we all know about Wordle and Connections, those are fun but hardly noteworthy. Here are a few of my go-to web games that I play on the daily. Add your favorites in the comments!

Are you a geography nerd? You might like this one. You’re given a blank globe with no country lines or cities, and are given 5 cities or landmarks daily that you need to try and find. You get one tap and get points for how close you are to the actual location. It’s harder than you think, but super fun! Try it out, it’s usually the first one I play.

If you’re tired of the usual games at New York Times, try Puzzmo. It’s a daily mish-mash of short daily tap to complete games, including crosswords, tile puzzles, chess, and word games. It’s a paid site so a few are behind a paywall, but there’s a bunch of free ones you can play daily.

Another Wordle offshoot, this one comes from the Office of Economic Complexity. You’re given a series of squares that indicate a country’s export commodities, and you need to figure out which country that is. It’s surprisingly challenging!

Want something a little outside the box? Fallen London is an alternate history, moody, text-based browser RPG set in a Lovecraftian, Gothic-Victorian underworld, where an alternate-history 19th centuryLondon was stolen by bats to a subterranean realm called the Neath. It’s a game you play over the course of YEARS, not days, and it has some pretty outstanding (and weird) writing. You can buy paid content and it unlocks some options, but you certainly don’t have to pay to play.

The idea is simple: you are given a photo, and you need to guess where it was taken on a map based on context clues in the photo. It’s a bit like GeoGuessr, but it’s static. And fun. And quite challenging.

What are your favorite web games to play on your phone? Put them in the comments.

Song of the Day: “Boiling Point” by The Soundcarriers

Here are your Tottenham links for the day.

Ange Postecoglou reflects on his time at Spurs, and that he still feels a strong connection to the club.

Troy Parrott, Ireland’s new darling, now carries his country’s hope of qualifying for this summer’s World Cup.

According to MARCA (lol), Cuti Romero has a clause in his contract to go to either Atletico Madrid or Real Madrid for £60m. (This is almost certainly fake)

Fabrizio Romano suggests Spurs are considering Fulham manager Marco Silva as an option “internally.” Roberto De Zerbi won’t join until summer, if he’s interested at all.

Late again! Man! I really suck at this whole “running a blog” thing and I am expecting to see torches and pitchforks outside my window when I leave for work.

Anyway, this is the Hoddle, the daily open thread for Cartilage Free Captain where pretty much anything goes except religion and politics. I’m Dustin, blog manager, though this particular column is Fitzie’s domain — he’s busy with the day job and left it in my increasingly incapable hands, since I’m clearly no longer trusted to actually get an article written and scheduled in a timely manner. Who’s got two thumbs and is bad at his job? This guy!

So once again, no theme, no chronicle of my running journey (since cancer and winter I haven’t gotten back on that horse). Just an apology and a Song of the Day.

Song of the Day: “Nothing Touches Me,” Sam Burton

At a time when the footballing world is raining a constant stream of crap down upon Tottenham Hotspur supporters, sometimes it’s nice to get just a little glimpse of hope. Tottenham may or may not be without a manager again, with unconfirmed and spurious reports suggesting Igor Tudor might depart the club by mutual consent, and the long-term new manager to replace Thomas Frank is likely not going to be known until Spurs know their Premier League fate at bare minimum.

But here’s Mauricio Pochettino, giving us all the feels. In an interview with French language newspaper L’Equipe (as reported by SportWitness), USA national team manager Pochettino said that he “misses” football in England and the Premier League, and once again tossing fuel on the fire that he could be the one who eventually takes charge.

Honestly, if you wanted the best manager to rebuild Tottenham from the ground up next season, Pochettino may not be your guy. But if you just wanted a manager that you know loves the club and loves football and has history here and is just a cuddly warm hug of a man, well it’s hard not to be seduced by the idea of a Mauricio Pochettino return. That doesn’t mean that everything would turn out good, or even that Poch would succeed in the job. Certainly there are plenty of us that remember how things ended the last time he was here — it didn’t end so well. And the challenge is definitely significantly greater now than it was in 2014 when Poch joined the club fresh from a positive stint with Southampton. There are no guarantees in football.

Poch also admitted that Spurs reached out to him a couple of years ago before hiring Ange Postecoglou, but said that the conditions weren’t right at the time for him to leave PSG and return to the loving embrace of Spurs fans.

“Not just Tottenham [contacted me]. Other big clubs too.

“When that six-month season ended, there was a bit of… Well, with this whole COVID situation, the club situation created instability. In every area. There was a period of change, uncomfortable situations, situations that… (He thinks about his words.) That didn’t give the impression that it was possible to work in a stable environment, like the one we have today. I enjoyed my experience at PSG. But I had other options, which I shared with the club, but they chose not to listen to any of them.”

I know. I know. My head says that this is probably not a great idea, but the heart wants what it wants, right? I look at the other options reportedly available in the media (stares in Roberto De Zerbi) and I can’t help but be swayed by the idea of Pochettino returning to his old club, a club he still obviously loves and which loves him right back. It’s been a horrible year. I kinda just want Dad back, even though he left to go get cigs a few years ago and then went to live in Paris and ended up shacking up with that South London hussy for a while. Is that so wrong?

Yeah yeah this is on me, Fitzie is busy with the day job and I was supposed to get this up and instead I spent two hours at the computer playing Atomfall. Sue me.

This is your emergency Hoddle. I’ll even throw in a Song of the Day. Sorry y’all.

Song of the Day: “I Am A Dalek” — the Art Attacks

Tottenham Hotspur Women suffered yet another heavy defeat at the hands of Manchester City. Spurs Women have been a real success story so far this season, but the 5-2 loss highlighted the club’s failure to provide backup at the centerback position during the Asian Cup.

With Clare Hunt, Toko Koga and Maika Hamano all still away at the Asian Cup, Martin Ho had a real selection headache on his hands. The previous weekend’s defeat at Everton proved that the backup centerback pairing of Molly Bartrip and Josefine Rybrink was insufficient, conceding three goals to a side we should’ve probably played about even. So who to choose against a City side to whom we frequently concede at least four goals?

Martin went with left back Amanda Nildén as Molly Bartrip’s centerback partner in this game. This meant Julie Blakstad retained her position as left back. Martin also made the big call of starting Drew Spence instead of Eveliina Summanen as the six.

Look, the game went about how you’d expect. City were dominant from the get go, and Spurs relied on counterattacks to create chances. Bunny Shaw opened the scoring in the 8th minute after Spurs failed to clear a corner. Spurs grabbed one back in the 15th minute when Drew Spence played a ball over the top to Olivia Holdt, who cooly took a few touches and shot past the keeper (I love her).

It was only a temporary reprieve. Bunny Shaw scored twice more in quick succession. The first came when she rose the highest on another corner placed directly on top of her head, and the second came when Julie Blakstad gave Kerolin enough time to cross a ball directly onto Bunny Shaw’s head. After a few fruitless Tottenham counters, an unmarked Kerolin struck with a fourth on a cutback. The fifth was a rather unfortunate Amanda Nildén own goal after Bunny Shaw’s bouncing header struck her in the side of the head and deflected into the net.

It’s never nice to go into the second half down 5-1, but Spurs made the best of it. Martin Ho stuck with his side at halftime, and that same side managed to really get their teeth into City. City taking their foot off the gas and making a few substitutions didn’t hurt either, and Spurs were able to create a ton of chances and cause a lot of trouble. In the end, we were only able to pull one back with Beth England’s 84th minute strike. It’s worth noting that even so deep into such a tough game, this goal was a real triumph of Martin Ho-ball. Hanna Wijk won the ball back after some excellent team pressing, Drew Spence played a patient throughball to Tinka Tandberg, who fought hard to keep possession. Matilda Vinberg showed poise and calmness to lay the ball off to Beth, whose excellent shot finished the move.

Thoughts

You’ll have to excuse the rant I’m about to do. For some reason I’m not inclined to be particularly charitable to the organization Tottenham Hotspur at this moment, and although I have generally nice things to say about what Spurs Women have done this season, I have a few squad construction bones to pick.

It’s been obvious this was coming since like October when we realized that the Hunt-Koga duo was something special, and that if they stayed healthy, they’d both be called up, and that we’d face Manchester City during their time away. We’ve seen Molly Bartrip act as a solid backup in some cup games, but she can’t sustain a backline on her own. Josefine Rybrink’s obvious limits as a player (she’s not particularly fast, she’s not a particularly good one-on-one defender, and she’s not particularly good on the ball or in the air).

Given we knew these things in the fall, I thought for sure we’d sign another centerback even on loan in the January transfer window. We did not, and so we lost to Everton and Manchester City (and I have major concerns about how we’ll fare against Arsenal next week, too). The decision not to reinforce centerback looks even worse now that Clare Hunt has sustained a knee injury that requires surgery. Let’s put Toko Koga in bubble wrap because if not, we’ll be stuck with these kinds of performances for the rest of the season.

Martin’s use of Amanda Nildén in this game was largely a failure, though not because of Amanda herself – even with the own goal, I thought Amanda was ~fine – it’s that we have to play Julie Blakstad at left back, and Julie has yet to show she can do the defending necessary. It was a big problem against such a superior attacking side. Knowing we had this period coming, why did we sell our one defensively solid fullback (Ash Neville) and sign an untested youngster (Hanna Wijk) and a player who only looks comfortable as a winger?

It’s tough, because I actually think our talent ID has been generally good recently. Olivia Holdt, Tinka Tandberg, Signe Gaupset, Toko Koga and Clare Hunt have all joined in the last two years and seem wonderfully promising. But it leaves something to be desired in terms of squad construction. I suspect the club would argue they’re waiting for the “right” players, and I’d tell them that maybe they’d have more luck finding the “right” players in the “right” positions if they felt like looking somewhere outside of Scandinavia.

Thoughts (but I try to be positive)

I really admired how hard the team fought in the second half to try to cut down that 5-1 deficit. I took a look at FotMob, and incredibly, Spurs actually won on xG and had more shots thanks to that second half. I wouldn’t put too much stake into this since it’s obvious City took their foot off the gas. But it’s at least nice to see the team play with personality under very bad circumstances.

And there were some great individual performances here. Signe Gaupset and Olivia Holdt both showed they can go toe-to-toe against Manchester City. The whole squad showed excellence on the counter (at least up until that final ball). If we can really dial that in, it’ll be a great tool to have in our locker as a team who would rather enjoy most of the possession.

It’s difficult not to end on a downer, so I’ll have to apologize for this again. But in the end, I’m not too concerned about what actually happened on the pitch. Spurs don’t have a Bunny Shaw and Kerolin right now, they didn’t cover a few key positions, and that just is what it is. Here’s hoping we’ll address some of these issues in the summer and try again next year.