Cartilage Free Captain

Good morning, everyone.

Your hoddler-in-chief spent his weekend moving apartments and has had a heck of a challenge getting the internet set up at his new place.

If you’re receiving this hoddle it’s because your HIC is still experiencing some technical difficulties. If that is the case, then please just go straight to the comments (as you normally do) and enjoy your commenting time.

Hopefully fitzie’s WiFi will be up and running soon so he could hoddle properly again. In the meantime, please have some patience with him as he tries to get everything together.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Looks Like Rain, by the Grateful Dead

And now for your links:

no links due to technical difficulties

Do you smell that on the air? That’s the smell of flop sweat and desperation. According to the David Ornstein in the Athetic, Aston Villa is currently in negotiations to sign Atletico Madrid midfielder Conor Gallagher this month as the player is keen on a return to English football, but Tottenham Hotspur are now also actively negotiating for the player. The Ornacle is now reporting that Spurs and Atletico are nearing a €40m (£35m) deal that would bring the former Chelsea man to North London.

You might recall that Conor Gallagher was one of Tottenham’s primary targets ahead of the 2023-24 season after Ange Postecoglou first joined the club. None of us especially liked it back then, though I suspect it had as much to do with him being a Chelsea player who didn’t especially want to leave Chelsea than anything else. But now, Gallagher is 25, wants to leave Spain, and Tottenham are DESPERATE after losing Rodrigo Bentancur for three months due to a hamstring injury.

So on the one hand Conor Gallagher would probably improve the squad. He’d be probably the third or fourth best midfielder currently on the squad (assuming all of them are healthy) and lord knows we’re going to have a hard time getting through the rest of the season without adding SOMEBODY. But holy smokes y’all, I wasn’t wild on the idea of Conor Gallagher two years ago, and there isn’t much that he’s done since that sells me on the idea now, other than we are apparently a club that is nude, red, and sweaty with panic.

If Spurs actually do sign Conor Gallagher here shortly, it says a LOT about what a trash fire this club’s operations are. This is not a plan! There is no plan! This is Spurs’ recruitment team and CEO running around with their pants on fire set on top of their head. I can’t even pretend to tell you with a straight face that this signing would be done because they’ve carefully evaluated their options and think Conor Gallagher is a player they can build around for the future. It’s farcical. It’s insane. It’s further evidence that this club, after sticking a knife in Daniel Levy’s back, is officially run by doofuses needs a hard reset at all levels of the organization.

And yes, before anyone looks it up, I also think he’ll make the team, at least in the short term, better. But that’s not the point. Like, holy smokes y’all, what are we even DOING?

Make it make sense!

If you wanted confirmation that Spurs are now even deeper into an injury crisis as they navigate another disappointing season, well I’m sorry to be the person to have to bring it to you. Multiple outlets are now reporting that midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur will miss the next three months and will undergo surgery after injuring his hamstring in Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the FA Cup this past weekend.

Lolo was one of two players to leave the match with suspected hamstring injuries, along with Tottenham’s starting striker and leading scorer Richarlison, who pulled up holding the back of his leg during the same match. We haven’t heard anything about Richarlison’s injury, but losing Bentancur just makes Tottenham’s already-existing injury crisis even more critical.

Consider: with Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr still (technically) at AFCON, Spurs essentially only have three “natural” first team central midfielders available for selection — Joao Palhinha, Archie Gray, and Xavi Simons. And Xavi’s basically a 10. Thomas Frank might have to get creative [ironic chuckle] with players such as Wilson Odobert and Mathys Tel in future matches, and we better hope that Lucas Bergvall isn’t as injured as we suspect he might be.

But what makes me giggle the most is the implication, as Romano outlines above, that Bentancur’s injury will now prompt Spurs to look for a central midfielder in the January transfer window. Oh, NOW you want to look for a central midfielder, and not, y’know, any time since last June when it’s been desperate that we’ve needed midfield passing since Ange Postecoglou left the club? OK.

It’s grimly funny. Still, hope we sign one, because we sure could use them.

I was heartbroken when I learnt the death of Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir, the guitar virtuoso who carried on the band’s legacy following Jerry Garcia’s death three decades ago, died on Saturday.

For us Deadheads, Bobby Weir meant so much to us. He and the rest of the band, as well as all those within the band’s orbit, forged some of the most creative music put together and stamped themselves as the kids waving their freak flags in red, white and tie-dye.

It’s a strange feeling to know that Weir has “transition to the next life”, as his family said in a statement. That’s the sort of terminology he would use to describe death - not as an end, per se, but as a transitional period.

Before then, though, he brought thousands of hours of music to as many fans. Many would travel from coast to coast to catch the Dead. Your hoddler-in-chief was born a year before Garcia died, and so I never saw the band with him. But I did see them fronted by Weir in the Dead outfit Dead & Co.

I travelled to Saratoga Springs, Bristow, Queens and Las Vegas to hear the music. Every time was something totally different, and many a times I wished I could hold onto that music for a little while longer.

Over the next few days we’re going to be celebrating Weir’s music, and I’ll be picking out some of the songs that I enjoy the most. Five days isn’t nearly enough time to run through every single song in Weir’s catalogue and of course a few will be missing. But the wonderful part about music is I’m sure thousands of fans could each come up with their own five Weir songs/moments, which shows you the breadth of his work.

Today’s Track of the Day is one of my favourites, and one of the very first he penned for the Grateful Dead. The performance of Sugar Magnolia came at the Veneta Fairgrounds, one of the most legendary concerts in the band’s history.

It’s really the coda - Sunshine Daydream - that I find powerful in this. It’s wonderful to listen to.

Alasdair Gold: “Thomas Frank future to be decided as Tottenham must remember what they once were”

Mathys Tel isn’t the only current Tottenham Hotspur player who has been pushing for the exit door on loan this month. Romanian central defender Radu Dragusin, freshly returned from a knee injury that kept him out nearly a year, has been making noise via his fake agent that he wants to head out on loan to Serie A in order to get minutes. Like with Tel, the push to leave on loan is almost certainly World Cup related — Dragusin wants to be on Romania’s squad for this summer’s tournament in North America, and at present he’s stuck behind Cuti Romero, Micky van de Ven, and Kevin Danso in Spurs’ depth chart. Dragusin has been the subject of rumors taht both Fiorentina and Roma are interested in him.

I totally get the impulse, but just like with Tel’s situation it doesn’t appear as though Spurs are willing to let him go. According to the Sky Sports transfer tracker, Roma even made a bid to take Radu on loan, and Spurs rejected the offer.

Really, I could just copy-paste the reasons why this doesn’t make much sense for Spurs from the Mathys Tel article I posted 15 minutes ago. The biggest reason is that with Kota Taka already out on loan to Gladbach this month, Spurs have five natural CBs on their roster and one of them is Ben Davies. Now, five CBs is (under most circumstances, 2024-25 Tottenham excepted) perfectly adequate depth, but thing start to get really shaky if you go down to four, especially if Davies will be expected to fill in at left back at any point. Spurs look like they’re bringing Souza in this month, but still — letting Radu go would be a risk, unless they bring in another defender, always a tricky thing to do in January.

Now, I think it’s quite possible Radu could depart the club this summer, as he’s at best a depth option for Spurs at CB unless things significantly change. (You could also say that if Radu ever WERE a starting option for Tottenham it means the club has bigger problems than we though.) It might also be the right decision to sell him whenever they can and make space for, say, Luka Vuskovic next season. But I think Spurs would need something better than a “loan plus option” bid to let Dragusin leave now. Just doesn’t make sense to my mind.

Despite securing a permanent move to Tottenham Hotspur this summer, Mathys Tel sure seems like he wants to leave already. It’s understandable — he was left out of the Champions League squad by Thomas Frank in the fall, has spent much of the season on the bench, and has only recently started to get regular first team minutes and only because of a pretty significant injury crisis at the club. That’s a problem for Mathys, who is pretty desperate to make the France World Cup squad but won’t if he’s not getting regular minutes.

You have probably already noticed a lot of smoke from some somewhat dubious transfer sources suggesting there are clubs interested in taking Mathys Tel on loan in January. I’ve seen them too. Here’s another somewhat dubious source: Fabrizio Romano, saying Paris FC are one of those clubs who would be perfectly glad to take Mathys on loan thank you very much.

There’s a problem with these stories, however — they’re almost certainly driven by Mathys’ agents, but that won’t matter if Spurs don’t have any intention to loan him out. Which they probably don’t. And why would they? Spurs are now without Mohammed Kudus for the next three months or so, Richarlison just tweaked his hamstring in yesterday’s FA Cup loss to Aston Villa, and Spurs are in a world of hurt. Even if Spurs bring in another attacker in the transfer window, which it seems pretty likely that they’re at least trying, the situation is such that Tel is now very likely to be getting the minutes at Spurs that he’s been craving all along.

Now, I’m sure there are other reasons why he might want out of Tottenham Hotspur, considering the club is struggling and isn’t very good right now. But I would advise everyone reading this article to stop for a second, take a breath, and ask yourselves a couple of important questions, starting with: Does it make any amount of sense for Spurs to loan out Tel in January considering the position they’re in right now? I would argue — no, it does not. Nor would it make much sense for Tel to down tools if he doesn’t get his way.

Tel is a talented young player, with emphasis on the “young.” There are reasons to be optimistic that players like Tel, Wilson Odobert, Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, Luka Vuskovic, etc. are the future of the club and could develop into exceptional Premier League players. He wants to play and wants to make the World Cup, and he might think a loan to another French club, even one like Paris FC (which is NOT Paris Saint-Germain btw) might help facilitate that better than staying at Spurs. But it has to make sense to Spurs as well. Further weakening the squad to let him to chase his World Cup dreams that may or may not be a reality anyway just feels like wishcasting.

So for now I’d advise you all to chill out with these rumors. They’re clearly agent-driven with an even more clear agenda. That doesn’t mean they’re going to happen. Keep your powder dry until you get some rumors from legitimate sources that suggest Tottenham might be actually considering letting him leave. I rather doubt we’ll hear those.

I think most Tottenham Hotspur fans expected that current Co-Sporting Director Fabio Paratici was leaving the club imminently. The rumors have been flying for weeks now, with Paratici closely linked with a return to Italy to take the Director of Football position at Fiorentina. The only question was when, and now according to David Ornstein we have our answer — Paratici will leave Spurs for “personal reasons” after the close of the January transfer window.

So this month is the last hurrah for Don Fabio, who will return to Italy after one final scattergun transfer window in order to spend more time with his crimes. It makes a certain amount of sense — whatever Tottenham’s medium-to-long-term plans for the Sporting Director position (and that includes Johan Lange) it would be a little silly to let them both go now when the current window is so incredibly important. It makes you wonder how much his heart is actually in it, but I suppose the job is the job and he’ll do his job until it’s no longer his job.

Ornstein cites “personal reasons” as the reason for Paratici’s departure despite only getting the Co-Sporting Director position in October, and while I won’t dwell too much on what those reasons actually are, there were rumors in the Italian media that Paratici’s partner was homesick and wanted to return to Italy. On that level, I can’t exactly blame him — all things being equal I would also strongly consider leaving London for a life in Florence, though Paratici will have a heck of a job ahead of him turning around a Fiorentina side that looks destined for Serie B next season.

Anyway, at least we know the plan. Hopefully he and Lange can “Bentancur” up a couple more Kulusevskis before he rides off into Northern Italy next month.

With pressure continuing to build on Thomas Frank, the embattled coach asserted in midweek that Tottenham Hotspur were going to go all in on their quest to secure their first FA Cup in 35 years. With an unfortunate early round tie against fellow Premier League side Aston Villa, Spurs instead fell victim to a third round exit.

With Spurs in the midst of yet another injury crisis, Frank named probably the strongest side he could: Kevin Danso came in for the suspended Cristian Romero, while Ben Davies provided passing down the left. The injured Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall were replaced by Wilson Odobert and Archie Gray, respectively, while Richarlison started up top. The real surprise though came via the bench, with both Destiny Udogie and Dominic Solanke making their returns from injury. Unai Emery named a strong side for Villa as well, rotating only at striker and goalkeeper, clearly viewing the competition as an opportunity to secure the Birmingham side a trophy of their own.

The first half was hard to watch for Spurs fans. With the Lilywhites utterly passive in and out of possession, Aston Villa controlled the play as Spurs looked like passengers in their own stadium. An early injury to Boubacar Kamara, replaced by Youri Tielemans, didn’t slow Villa down either, as they opened the scoring after 22 minutes. An aggressive pass by John McGinn into the feet of Donyell Malen sucked in both Pedro Porro and Kevin Danso, when the latter probably should have dropped off. Instead, there were acres of space created on Spurs’ right upon which Emiliano Buendia capitalized. His run was found by Malen and Buendia finished confidently over Guglielmo Vicario.

The negatives didn’t stop there either. Richarlison soon pulled up with what appeared to be a hamstring injury, with Randal Kolo Muani his replacement, and then Villa added insult to injury through Morgan Rogers just before the half-time break. Buendia and Malen were involved again, this time down Spurs’ left, with the Villa attackers playing a one-two with Buendia attacking the penalty area. The Argentine then showed good awareness to flick the ball back to the incoming Rogers, who finished from the penalty spot and doubled Aston Villa’s lead.

Things thankfully started looking a bit brighter in the second half. Kolo Muani hustled well to win the ball Lamare Bogarde in midfield, before bursting forward and finding Odobert in his stride with an inch-perfect pass down his right. The Frenchman swept home his finish with aplomb and all of a sudden Spurs were back in the match from nowhere, allowing Spurs fans a momentary respite. Villa weren’t far from restoring their lead to two goals, however, with only a heroic last-ditch block on the line by Pedro Porro preventing Buendia from scoring via a scuffed effort.

Xavi Simons soon looked to have equalized, latching on to a pass through from Kolo Muani before rounding keeper Marco Bizot and finishing calmly, only for the offside flag to be raised. Frank made a number of attacking substitutions to try and capitalize on the momentary momentum shift, but it wasn’t to be. Simons’ offside goal was Spurs’ last chance of note and Tottenham Hotspur exited their second cup competition of the season thanks to a 1-2 loss.

Reactions

I was thinking during the match that Frank was going to suffer Martin Jol’s fate: sacked at half-time. That first half was unbelievably poor. Frank really is a dead man walking at this point.

Things got better in the second half, but that was partially just a function of Villa dropping off, happy to sit on a two-goal lead. As soon as Spurs scored, Villa sprung back to life and the Lilywhites basically were unable to create anything further.

Subbing off one of your best players in Mathys Tel for an academy striker is a choice.

There were some interesting tactical tweaks though: Archie Gray was used to split the center backs in build-up and out of possession, not dissimilar to how Mauricio Pochettino used to use Eric Dier. We got to see a bit more of Gray’s passing range, which wasn’t terrible… but the front four were so out of sync that nothing was ever likely to come from his long balls.

Yet another injury. Richy is now the latest to hit the treatment room. At least Dominic Solanke is now available? Yay, I guess.

The interplay between the Villa front four on both of their goals is something I would love to see at Spurs but just feels impossible at the moment. Frank seems to have zero plans in attack, with players often running into one another, mistiming runs, and unaware of their teammates. It’s a mess.

Silver linings: at least this cup exit means fewer Spurs matches to watch now, as watching Spurs currently seems less preferable to just rubbing sand into one’s eyes.

Spurs finally have a respite now in the fixture list: they have a week off until they host a struggling West Ham side. If that doesn’t go well, I’d say it’s curtains for Frank (if he isn’t fired this week).

COYS.

The early rounds of the FA Cup. A great occasion for aspiring lower league teams to face up to Premier League giants and dream; and usually a fantastic chance for tiring Premier League sides to rotate their sides and promote up-and-coming talent from the wider squad.

What do you mean, Tottenham Hotspur have been drawn against another Premier League side?

That’s right, against all odds Spurs have unfortunately been handed the very tough assignment of Aston Villa if they want to progress to the next round. It couldn’t have come at a worse possible time, either: more injuries eventuated during the course of Spurs’ loss to Bournemouth in midweek, with Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall the latest to be added to the casualty list, while captain Cristian Romero has been bizarrely suspended by the FA for a match.

All this against a team flying high in the league, with Villa currently third on the table. Sound fun? Sounds fun.

COYS!

Lineups

Lineups will be posted closer to kick-off.

Live Blog

How to Watch

Tottenham Hotspur vs. Aston Villa

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, UK

Saturday, January 10, 2026

Time: 12:45 p.m. ET, 5:45 p.m. UK

TV: ESPN Select, BBC One (UK). Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: ESPN App

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:

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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.

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Have fun, and COYS!

We wrote just yesterday on Tottenham Hotspur center back Radu Dragusin’s links with a return to Serie A, and over the last few hours there’s been further developments: actual quotes from someone involved in the transfer process! This tends to be a rarity these days, but Dragusin’s agent Florian Manea is well known at this point for his garrulous nature.

In an interview with Italian TV network RaiSport, Manea indicated an offer had been made by Roma to Spurs, while also downplaying the chance of a move to struggling side Fiorentina:

I’m waiting for Tottenham to say yes to Roma before we can get to the heart of the matter.

[On Fiorentina] With all due respect, it wouldn’t be the right path for him.

This comes on the heels of Italian transfer guru Gianluca Di Marzio confirming Roma have submitted their first offer in their attempts to sign Dragusin:

Di Marzio’s report, which can be found on his website, is light on detail, but indicates that Roma are proposing a loan with option to buy. Whether that “option” is indeed an option on Roma’s side or an obligation is unclear, as is the value of said option.

Look, it seems like this one now has some wheels. Spurs have a thin squad, but it’s hard to say Dragusin has a long-term future in the Premier League with his skillset, and if Spurs can recoup a tidy fee after the Romanian suffered an ACL injury then they probably should. Is the time right? Possibly not - but business is business. Let’s see how this one develops.