Cartilage Free Captain

As fun as a win would have been, Igor Tudor was not hired by Tottenham Hotspur to come in and immediately claim the North London Derby. No one is excusing the loss, but at the same time, that fixture is not how the interim manager’s tenure will be judged. However, reality sets in now. Matches against Fulham on Sunday and Palace next week are not gimmes, but points need to come from somewhere, even if they arrive one at a time.

Fulham is certainly having a better season than Spurs, but enters the weekend having dropped four of the last six in the league. Last weekend did feature a victory against Sunderland, though, the first one in the month of February. Tudor has a difficult task ahead of him, so snagging three points would go a long way. With Champions League matches coming up relatively soon, continuing to miss opportunities will really ramp up the pressure later.

Match Details

Date: Sunday, March 1

Time: 9:00 am ET, 2:00 pm UK

Location: Craven Cottage, London

TV: USA Network (US), Sky Sports Premier League (UK)

Table: Fulham (t-9th, 37 pts), Spurs (16th, 29 pts)

Tottenham has done terribly against its neighbors recently. After winning both contests after Fulham’s promotion in 2022/2023, Spurs have one just one victory in the last six head-to-heads. The Cottagers took all three points in North London back in November after the home side comically surrendered a pair of goals in the opening six minutes. Mohammed Kudus pulled one back in the second half, but it was not enough to rescue anything.

Two Things to Watch

Defensive discipline

Hopefully, four-goal demolitions will be rare, but the Tottenham defense was not exactly inspiring in the new regime’s debut. Obviously, Tudor is dealing with an extremely handicapped roster, but reinforcements could arrive in the form of Kevin Danso and Pedro Porro this weekend. A solid backline is imperative for this system to work, and it was alarming at times to watch the struggles on Sunday.

Fulham’s 38 goals this season sit just above the middle of the table. Raul Jimenez and Harry Wilson each have eight apiece, which is higher than anyone wearing lilywhite, though just one of the past three league contests have seen the Cottagers score multiple goals. Of course, domestic clean sheets are a distant memory for Spurs, last occuring against Brentford on New Year’s.

With another week under Tudor’s…tutelage, the hope is that the defense will be more organized and sharper mentally to avoid committing those back-breaking turnovers. It also would be nice to use the defense to spring attacks going the other way, but at this point all anyone is asking for is a relatively clean showing in the defensive third without any unnecessary mistakes.

A hero for spring

Richarlison is Spurs’ leading goal scorer in the league (7), but Tudor will need someone to be a difference maker down the stretch if he is going to achieve his task. The obvious candidate is Randal Kolo Muani, and face familiar to the manager and the only one who really looked up for it last weekend, first scoring the initial equalizer, then being (unjustly) robbed of a second.

Tudor’s system will need others to contribute as well, whether that be Xavi Simons, Conor Gallagher, or someone else behind the striker. The challenge is much more manageable this Sunday, and this should provide a much clearer look at what Tottenham might expect out of its attack for the next few months, even with depleted resources up front as well.

Fulham has allowed as many goals in the league as Spurs this season — which is not great! — and has conceded nine times over the past four matches. Expecting the Tottenham attack to suddenly spring back to life might be unrealistic, though points are needed immediately, and those are unlikely to come without any goals. It might be a battle at Craven Cottage, but it is fair to ask for some sort of result.

Sheffield Wednesday are in trouble (as if they weren’t before).

Not only have the Owls secured relegation at the earliest point in the history of the EFL Championship, the consortium led by James Bord withdrew its interest in taking over the club.

For those who haven’t been following Wednesday’s season, let me give a brief recap. It actually stretches back to when Dejphon Chansiri bought the club in 2015 but it reached new lows this year.

The club was placed under a registration embargo in June after being charged with multiple breaches of EFL regulations on payment obligations, then placed under a three-window restriction ban just a couple weeks later. A group of players in July submitted notices to leave the club after delays in receiving their June wages, and the club was again placed on an embargo.

The EFL issued a statement on its concerns about Wednesday back in August and more embargoes were placed in September. They were given a 12-point deduction in October after entering administration. They were deducted another six points in December.

There’s a lot more that’s happened between June and today, but I think those are the highlights.

Where does that leave Sheffield Wednesday now?

Well, Sky Sports is reporting that former Newcastle owner Mike Ashley remains interested in buying the club. Considering how Newcastle fans felt about him, I’m a little concerned about Wednesday (as if I wasn’t before).

Now it’s to League One that Wednesday go, but there’s still a lot of football left this season. They still haven’t won a game since September and are currently on an 11-game winning streak - not a single point picked up this season.

So it’s all very, very bad. And I think the main concern for Wednesday shouldn’t be about a simple relegation, but perhaps something more existential.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Who’s That?, by Brother Wallace

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “Every word Igor Tudor said on Dejan Kulusevski and the truth behind that Micky van de Ven moment”

BBC: “‘Don’t know what the fuss was about’ - chaotic Palace season could end in glory”

The Times: “Mike Ashley could revive bid to buy Sheffield Wednesday”

“Yes, very tough, but it’s what I said before, I don’t change my opinion, it is how it is. So, daily work, focus, raising in all things we need to do, physical condition, mental confidence, performance and waiting for the players to come back. So, we need to be focused on us, what we can do, less thinking about others, that’s always good and it will be good.

“Probably yes, probably yes [the job is more difficult than expecTudted]. I agree with you.”

“I don’t think too much about the draw. If you ask me whether I expect the draw tomorrow, it won’t change for me nothing. In the moment we are, we can also discuss about what you said, but in other ways, it’s a difficult competition to play, everyone wants to play.

“So, the problem is the lack of numbers of players, the amount of players we have in the team, that is the problem. Because if you need to play every three days with 10, 12, 13 and then you get, you know, that’s the problem. Not that we play in the Champions League or not.

‌“Also, it’s not about only spending physical energy but also mental energy, every game for us in the league, it’s a final. So, it’s not an ideal situation, but it’s how it is.”

“I don’t know [about the formation]. I don’t know because we are going to see when they (Porro and Danso) are back, how they are back, what are the other players. So, this is work to recognize what this team can do. You know, because when you start to work, you start, but then it’s a game to show you how is the real situation of the team.

“You know, in a physical condition, because it’s fantastic to go to press up and that’s when I speak about style. That’s also one part of the style, how you want to be without the ball. But then, if you have too much problems (at the) back, you need to think about the style. Is it the right style? Is it the right way, you can call it how you want.

“So, I need to be smart to understand deeper the moment and the way how to take the points. Even not looking to the style now at this moment. The style needs to be in the second moment, because now it’s a question of life and death, if I can say that in that way, sportingly. You can use that term.”

“No, I never used [the word relegation], but not because it’s something too scary, or it’s a danger word, or we won’t sleep. It’s about that we need to refocus on ourselves. I also see the same way I speak with my players. To be focused on ourselves, on the training. That’s the only thing we can change. So there is nothing to think about. The future, or the points, even. The points come as a consequence of the training and the game. That’s the focus. That’s the main and only focus we need to have.”

“Yeah, [the press officer] show me now so it’s a video from one fan yeah? So, I usually need to comment on the fan’s video? I saw that, but it was not an instruction to Micky, it was an instruction to the team to go up. It was about the team coming up and what we were speaking before. We want to go up because we want to have this style where we press high, but in this moment it’s too much for them, so that’s why I was a little frustrated on that, but this is part of it.

“If you watch carefully now, you see that I don’t speak with him because after that one advice, I said to him, come closer and he came closer. In that moment, I stood there like this, it was all for the defense to go up. We didn’t even speak about this me and Micky because there was nothing to speak about. He’s a fantastic guy, a very good professional and he would never do these things.”

good morning everyone and welcome to the latest round of What are you reading right now?, where your hoddler-in-chief takes the temperature of this well-read commentariat.

It’s been about a month since I’ve last done this. I am happy to announce that since then, I have since moved on to a book that has been on my list for years: Frankenstein.

I don’t remember what it was that drew me to read this one. I did read Dracula a little over a year ago, which was one of the most haunted texts I’ve ever encountered. Perhaps Frankenstein completes this monstrous duo.

An early flip through the book tells me that I’m reading the 1838 version as opposed to the 1818 version. From what I saw on the interwebs there are some notable differences Mary Shelley made in the 1831 version, which also contained an introduction of how she came to write the novel. Apparently the question over which version is superior has sparked a debate within literary circles.

I’m not nearly far deep enough in the book to ascribe any sort of judgment on it. I’ve just finished reading the opening letters to Elizabeth in a style that reminded me of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, although maybe that’s too superficial of a comparison to make.

Still, I’m very excited about continuing this book. And maybe after I’m done with the 1831 text I’ll jump to the 1818 version.

There are a few things I’ll be looking for while I’m reading Frankenstein. I’ll be trying to understand some of the more gothic and romantic themes throughout, the symbolism behind Frankenstein’s monster and - the Deadhead that I am - try to understand how it came to be of such inspiration to Jerry Garcia more than a century after its release.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Don’t Delete the Kisses, by Wolf Alice

And now for your links:

The Guardian: “Bodø/Glimt bask in ‘crazy’ Champions League victory over shellshocked Inter”

Telegraph: “Sheffield Wednesday takeover collapses three days after relegation to League One”

Is it too soon for transfer rumors? I say: no! So here’s a “fun” one — according to the Evening Standard, Guglielmo Vicario wants to return to Italy and could be sold this summer, and he’s apparently on Juventus’ summer transfer shortlist.

There’s been a ton of smoke, both from Italian soccer sources (lol) but also elsewhere, that both Tottenham Hotspur and Vicario have decided to part ways this summer, meaning Spurs will be looking for another No. 1 when the window opens up. This particular rumor says that Juventus’ top keeper target is persuading Liverpool to part ways with 33-year-old keeper Allisson on a cheap transfer deal, but if that doesn’t work they are keeping an eye on Vicario as a backup option. That’s not exactly EXCITING breaking news, but it’s something.

Vicario is, and has been, an excellent shot stopper for Spurs since arriving in 2023, but his distribution from the back and especially his long kicking leaves a lot to be desired. The Standard says Juventus think they could land Vicario on a summer transfer deal for around €25-30 million (£22-26m). That’d represent a profit any way you look at it, as he was signed for €19m and is on a contract that expires in 2028.

I suspect this isn’t the last time we’ll see links between Juventus and Vicario, or other Serie A teams in the coming months. The writing does seem to be somewhat on the wall, but it means Tottenham will have another major hole to fill when the transfer window opens in June. Well, there will be plenty of those.

There’s not a whole lot to be excited about if you’re a Tottenham Hotspur fan right now, but here’s a small bit of sunshine amidst all the storm clouds: Igor Tudor has two injured defensive players back in training. Tudor mentioned that he expected to have two injured Spurs players back this week after missing the North London Derby, and Football.London’s Alasdair Gold confirmed that both Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso were back in training today ahead of Spurs’ trip to Craven Cottage to play Fulham on Sunday.

That’s pretty huge, if both of them are available. Tudor was forced by circumstance and injury to play a back line that included Archie Gray at right back and Joao Palhinha in central defense, and it was summarily dismantled by the Gunners in Sunday’s 4-1 loss. It’s a small thing but having a back three that includes Danso, Micky van de Ven, and Radu Dragusin is superior to putting a defensive midfielder in the back line, just my opinion! (And before anyone makes jokes in the comments, yes, Radu Dragusin is a better central defender than Joao Palhinha, come on)

Look, we’re under no illusions here. Relegation is a tangible (if unlikely) threat this season and Spurs will need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps to get enough points to ensure safety. But safety IS in their hands, and having players back from injury will only help. Having Porro and Danso back in training — especially Danso, whom initial reports on his toe injury suggested a much lengthier period on the sidelines — is huge.

Good morning everyone.

I nearly forgot to do the hoddle today, so you’re just getting a short one.

The good news is I remembered to do the hoddle. The bad news is I didn’t remember until after midnight.

So I’m just going to jot down a couple more words and throw a little track in the track of the day slot for you to enjoy. Hopefully you’ll engage with the hoddle in some capacity.

In the event you’re craving a hoddle topic and absolutely cannot function without one, then fine I’ll give you a topic: Pick your favourite colour.

I’ll start: My favourite colour is purple. What joy it is when Tottenham release those Spurple kits.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Wuthering Heights, by Kate Bush

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Igor Tudor lamented Tottenham’s ‘bad habits’ after Arsenal defeat — so what are they?”

BBC: “‘Historical moment’ as Bodo/Glimt succeed against all odds”

Sky Sports: “Eric Ramsay sacked: West Brom part company with boss after failing to win in eight league games”

FFS SPEND SOME MONEY LEVY has been the rallying cry of every angry Tottenham Hotspur fan for nearly two decades, from the ENIC OUTers to the people with purple/gold emoji in their social media profiles. According to the Guardian, months after former Spurs chairman Daniel Levy’s departure, the club is preparing to do just that.

The report suggests that if Spurs are able to play their way to Premier League safety in what remains of this season, they will “rip up the wage structure” and heavily invest in players in what’s being called a “major overhaul of the squad.” This article appears to be corroboration of comments by Spurs Sporting Director Johan Lange that acknowledged that the wage structure needed to be updated.

I shouldn’t have to tell you that “IF” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that last paragraph. Tottenham are currently in 16th, two points ahead of Nottingham Forest and four ahead of West Ham in the relegation zone. Spurs realistically need 12 points from their last 11 league matches to secure safety from relegation, but the new manager vibes brought by Igor Tudor are a little tarnished already after Sunday’s 4-1 home North London Derby loss to Arsenal. Still, there’s optimism within the Spurs camp that they’ll be able to get the job done and then fully focus on next season.

The Guardian notes that Tottenham have the lowest wage bill of any club in the so-called “big six” — Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs. That’s borne out from this chart, taken from the excellent Swiss Ramble from 2023-24, which showed Spurs with the second lowest squad cost ratio (which includes amortization of wages and fees) in the league. (It should be noted that Spurs spent heavily this past summer and have been offering increased wages to players like Mohammed Kudus, Xavi Simons, and Conor Gallagher; Gallagher is now the club’s highest-earning player at £200k/wk after the departure of Son Heung-Min this summer and the ratio is probably not as low as depicted here).

But that doesn’t really change the core issue at play here, which is Spurs haven’t been offering wages competitive to the teams they want to compete with for a long time. If you want to believe this report, that’s going to change this summer, assuming Spurs are still in the top flight.

So what does that mean? Well, we don’t really know, but “major overhaul” suggests Spurs will be active in the transfer market this summer with players both out and in the door. We can also probably assume Spurs will be trying to offer current players they want to keep new deals on substantially higher wages to entice them to stick around, while being more competitive for incoming players. That could be a pretty enticing carrot, since no matter how bad a club is operating at the moment he one thing you can say about professional footballers is that they 100% like money. Throwing money at players is basically how Manchester United has been able to stay relevant over the past five seasons or so. If it works for them, why not us?

Now, of course that also means Spurs need to knock it out of the park this summer and there’s a significant percentage of the fan base that doesn’t trust Lange to do that based on his existing track record (myself included). But let’s sideline the cynicism for a hot minute here — there isn’t a lot to hope on this season, but this suggests ENIC and the club are, finally, ready to put its money where its mouth is.

Good morning everyone.

For those of you who haven’t checked the hoddle these last few weeks, then you might’ve missed that I’ve begun documenting my training for my next marathon, which is on 4 April. The goal is to smash by personal best and see just how close to a 3-hour marathon I can get (pretty close, I think).

The whole point of this is to almost document my anxiety from all this training. It’s a big commitment to run a marathon. It’s sure as heck very difficult during the cold and dark winter months, and aiming for a new personal best is no small matter either.

Still, I carry on - literally one foot after another. One day at a time. One week at a time. Let’s see where things are.

(Catch up on Weeks 9 and 10 here)

Week 11:

I’m getting into the final few weeks of my serious training. After my latest long run on Sunday (coming in a second), I have three Sunday runs left before the tapering process begins. Right now a lot of the focus is about preventing fatigue and not letting myself get off track.

The weather was better until Sunday came, then I got out in the cold and rain in what turned out to be uncomfortable positions. Now I await the next snowfall that’s supposed to hit DC Sunday night, and I’m not looking forward to seeing how that affects my running routes.

It’s been very difficult to run at pace this winter because of the weather or have the confidence that I can hit a certain pace target, so I might have to adjust on race day accordingly. I’ve still got a few weeks left to see just where I am.

I’m looking at my training calendar now seeing I began way back on 14 December - literally last year! But I am so close now.

Sunday: 20 miles (first 10 miles easy, second 10 at moderate pace)

This was my third 20-mile session of my training. Like the other two, the conditions were not ideal. I got out there in the cold rain and wind. A goof amount of water got in my left shoe and I could feel the blisters under my toes in the final two miles, where the freezing rain and wind picked up again.

I had set this out to be split in two: First 10 miles easy pace, second 10 miles at full pace. The rain kind of ruined that for me, but as hit Mile 10 I wanted to push myself a little bit. So I picked up the pace to run around 6:45-6:55. I also felt my watch was running a little too fast at one point so I added another 0.3 miles at the end to finish the 20 miles (or 20.3 miles) in 2:23.36 to average at 7:05 per mile.

I wish I had felt more comfortable on this one. My legs didn’t feel super great from the beginning and I’m glad they eventually sorted themselves out around Mile 7, but it wasn’t the confidence-building run I had hoped it would be.

Having said that, I’ve still done three 20-milers during this training bloc, in addition to the three 16-milers and two 18-milers I’ve done, so I’ve definitely go the distance down. And I felt comfortable until around Mile 18 when that wind and rain picked back up, and I really felt the blisters. I can’t dictate what the conditions will be like on race day, but I can at least feel good knowing I’ve put myself through some difficult weather conditions.

Monday: Rest day

And a well-earned one. I was thrilled to sleep in until 9am because of the US federal holiday last week. Not so for this one, where I’ll have to be on the metro by probably 7am or so.

Tuesday: 6-8 mile recovery run

It’s pretty rare that any run for me is shorter than an hour these days. That’ll likely be the case again Tuesday, where I’ll probably opt for the 8 miles over the 6.

Wednesday: Treadmill interviews TBD

This one all depends when I get home. And you know what? I ran pretty dang hard on Sunday, so I’m willing to be flexible today and do a short run if I feel like my legs cannot manage intervals. Maybe I’ll even take a bonus day off (would rather not, though).

Thursday: 10-12 miles easy

I’ll be bumping up my Thursday mileage again these last few weeks. The question is do I do 10 miles three Thursdays in a row, or do I begin moving to 12-mile runs. If the former, then I’ll have three 12-mile runs in the next three weeks. If it’s the latter, it’ll be four weeks of 12-mile Thursday runs.

This is my least favourite run of the week because it takes up so much time, and I’m usually not aware enough to realise until after I’m home (or close to it) that I still have to cook dinner. The days are getting longer again, but I’ll still be finishing in the darkness.

Friday: Gym

Considering I’m taking this coming Sunday’s run a bit lighter (at 14 miles), I’ll probably do a slightly harder workout that’ll focus a few more leg exercises than this past week. Still, I’ve got no intention of lifting too heavy.

Saturday: 9 miles easy

Just like I’m boosting my Thursday mileage, I’m also boosting my Saturday mileage. I accidentally ran 9 miles this past Saturday because of a counting error. This time it’ll be on purpose.

Expected total weekly miles: 50-55

Fitzie’s track of the day: All That You Dream, by Linda Ronstadt

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “Luka Vuskovic summer statement, rare Mikey Moore moment and Jamie Donley returns”

Jay Harris ($$): “Tudor’s nightmare first game paints an even clearer picture: Spurs are in serious trouble”

BBC: “Benfica’s Prestianni gets provisional one-match ban”

ESPN: “Why Man United fan’s viral haircut challenge might not end anytime soon”

“Both things. [There’s a] big gap in this specific moment between the two teams. It was too much Arsenal for us in this moment with the problems we have. Also it’s nice to understand where we are because you prepare in the best possible way then there is the game to show you reality. So it’s nice from one point of view so each of us understand and come, as I said the players, stay quiet they come on Tuesday and restart after these three or four training sessions to start to work harder than we did until now. To change our habits, to change the state of mind which is now as a team. It is the only way to work.”

“[There were too many] problems in this moment to let this level of team not punish you. Because you wanted to go to press high but to press high from back you need to jump so if you are late and don’t take the ball around there, also with the ball. So we prepare to press high but we didn’t take the ball. So we need more time to be in a physical moment and physical situation that we can go strong and take the ball. Now we are not in that moment.

“Even with the ball, a lack of confidence is very evident in the team. So we wanted and prepared to do the things but there is an opponent, there is a reality today. So I’m very sad and very angry and everything but in one way it is also good to understand where is our goal. What is the goal of this club? What is the goal of this team? What is this goal of this coach, these players, this staff? To become serious. Serious, not just a group of 20 players. The medicine is you look in the mirror. Each of us look in the mirror and really try, really start to change the habits. Working hard is the only way.”

“I saw the passion. I saw the will. So I was not angry because they wanted to do but then they were not able to do in this moment the things. They wanted to do all what we prepared so I said ‘that is good’ but we need to understand which moment we are now because we are not able to do. Why we are not able to do is the question we resolve and I speak from day one at the club I come here to resolve the problems. You believe that in three/four trainings you will do your best but when the game starts you don’t know what will happen because it is like this.

“But as I said before, Tuesday I [came] in [and] everyone [was] there. Stay humble — that is the key. Stay humble that is the key of each of us and trying to become, what I said before, a team. A Squad. A hard-working team. That is the only goal we have now in this moment.”

“Of course, there is enough time. As I said, this was not a perfect team to play the first game after three or four sessions, but in one way we need to see something good. If I can tell this, you know. Something good to see where we need to be. You know, where is the goal? What is the level? What is, you know. So today, totally different worlds. I need to be honest. Two totally different worlds. Psychological and physical worlds, levels.”