Cartilage Free Captain

In the middle of last month, reports emerged that Brazilian side Bahia were interested in signing Tottenham Hotspur striker Alejo Veliz, who is currently on loan back at his first club Rosario Central in Argentina. The report stated that Baha were looking at a January transfer with a “quite high” transfer fee, but the window came and went without the transfer going through.

But it looks like it WILL go through, just not until this summer. Fabrizio Romano is reporting now that a full agreement has been reached with Tottenham for a summer sale of Veliz to Bahia, effective in June. The transfer fee is reportedly €9m (£7.8m).

That’s actually a decent fee for a player who obviously has no future at Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs reportedly spent £9m (with escalators potentially rising to £13m) to purchase him from Rosario Central 2023 and he did get a few matches in his first season at the club, but has spent the past season on loan at Sevilla, Espanyol, and back at Rosario Central with varying degrees of success. This season, he has 6 goals in 18 appearances in Argentina, which is apparently enough for Bahia to make a move.

£7.8m is actually a pretty good return on investment, especially if the fee they actually paid to Rosario Central is closer to the £9m than the £13m; I don’t know what the triggers were for escalators but I find it hard to believe many were actually met, which probably makes €7.8m a slight profit after considering amortization of his fee. Not too shabby, I guess.

Romano hints that the January move didn’t pan out because Veliz asked to stay at Rosario Central until the end of the season, and wanted to make the move in summer. So this is a pre-agreement, likely made official on June 1. Sounds fine by me.

Tottenham Hotspur confirmed their spot in the Champions League Round of 16 thanks to their final group stage win over Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany a couple weeks ago. That win cemented their place in the top 8 spots of the group table, meaning they not only advance but earned a bye past the two-legged playoff round.

This also gives Tottenham the opportunity to re-jigger their squad, although they are restricted by UEFA rules which state they can only make three changes to the squad with which they started the competition. Today, Spurs released their Champions League List A squad in a release on their website.

Tottenham Hotspur Champions League R16 squad — List A

The additions to the squad are Conor Gallagher, whom Spurs purchased from Atletico Madrid in January, Radu Dragusin, who has now recovered from an ACL injury last season, and Mathys Tel, who is brought back into the side. Omitted were Ben Davies and Rodrigo Bentancur, who are both injured, and Brennan Johnson, whom Spurs sold to Crystal Palace last month. Also omitted were Dejan Kulusevsi and Yves Bissouma.

We can probably glean a little bit of info by reading between the lines of who made the cut and who didn’t. I’m personally happy to see Tel make the squad again, especially since Richarlison will be out for a few weeks; there’s a decent chance he’ll get some CL minutes against whoever their R16 opponent is. Mohammed Kudus and Kevin Danso also retain their spots; perhaps there’s hope that their injuries aren’t as bad as feared? On the flip side, leaving Deki, Davies, and Bentancur out suggests that all of them are longer-term injuries and that we either won’t be seeing them play for a while, and/or it was deemed their recovery is better served by playing league minutes. Leaving Bissouma out entirely is a bit head scratching, as it leaves Spurs pretty thin in central midfield. But whatever.

Less clear is whether new signing Souza is eligible for List B or not; I haven’t gotten a firm answer on that yet, nor have I seen the List B squad.

What do you think about this squad? I’d ask you to put your replies in the comments, but you’re already doing that since you haven’t read this article.

While the Champions League has brought plenty of positive results, Tottenham Hotspur is still winless in its last six Premier League contests, with many of those against the bottom of the league. However, the dramatic 2-2 draw last weekend inspires some hope going forward, which is crucial for this very tricky run of fixtures that continues on Saturday.

Trouble in the league has not been the recent story for Manchester United. Since Michael Carrick took over, the Red Devils have won three in three — including wins over the best two teams in the country — snapping a stretch of three straight draws and jumping up to fourth in the table. Spurs have a modest amount of momentum to build on, but the home side holds the majority of confidence heading into this one.

Match Details

Date: Saturday, February 7

Time: 7:30 am ET, 12:30 pm UK

Location: Old Trafford, Manchester

TV: USA Network (US), TNT Sports 1 (UK)

Table: United (4th, 41 pts), Spurs (t-14th, 29 pts)

These sides met in North London back in November before the wheels had completely fallen off. Thomas Frank’s group was trying to respond after the abysmal Chelsea loss, but found themselves down a goal with under 10 minutes remaining. Mathys Tel equalized in the 84th minute before Richarlison nodded in the apparent winner shortly after, but unfortunately United scored at the death to end the match 2-2.

Two Things to Watch

Care-rick effect

The caretaker bounce was to be expected, and United look like a completely different side. Wins over City and Arsenal are hard to discredit, and while last weekend against Fulham was a bit frenetic at the end, the fact of the matter is that the former Tottenham player has done something that Spurs have failed to achieve all season: win three in a row (even across all competitions).

The reasons for this run are many, including just a general vibes boost from the managerial change, but it is hard to ignore that five of the eight goals scored over these three matches came from summer signings (specifically Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha, and Benjamin Sesko). This really stands out after yet another uninspiring transfer window from Spurs, where consistent scoring remains a big gap.

Speaking of vibes, it is no secret which dressing room is behind its manager right now and which one is nearing revolt. Cristian Romero’s complaints are not directly at Frank, but there is plenty of blame to be spread all around. Spurs finished well last weekend and should be ready to show up for this one, but doing so would probably be in spite of their leadership, not because of it.

The right opportunities

United’s goals under Carrick have come in all sorts of forms, with counters, defensive lapses, and long-range strikes all finding the back of the net. Self-infliction is what worries Spurs supporters most, and after conceding two goals in each of the past three matches, and 10 over the last five, it is fair to question the defense’s ability and focus. Having both Romero and Micky van de Ven would certainly help, but the defensive issues are deeply embeded into this squad.

On the flip side, Arsenal scored twice against the Red Devils, as did Fulham. Tottenham is not scoring a ton, but does have multiple goals in three of the last four, so there could be opportunities on the other end as well. Relying on its center backs would seem to be a bad strategy, though it has cashed multiple times; instead, the return of Dominic Solanke is a very welcome addition.

This should be a match that sees both teams willing to attack, and perhaps comes down to which defense succumbs to the pressure. I am probably ready to retire the Spurs road narrative after just two points over the past three away trips, but Frank does have a history performing well against bigger sides. Under Carrick, United seems to be just that, perhaps setting the stage for a positive outing early Saturday.

Good morning, everyone. Are you ready for a big weekend in sport?

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Tottenham Hotspur have a big match against Manchester Untied at Old Trafford on Saturday. We’ve all known Thomas Frank’s future has been in question, but what does Cristian Romero’s recent instagram post say about his own? I love the off-the-field drama. I just wish watching Spurs was as exciting.

Otherwise, there’s of course the Super Bowl. The New England Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in northern California.

Other than the moon landing, the Super Bowl occupies every slot in the top 10 most-watched US broadcasts. And at No.2 overall (again, after the moon landing), is last year’s Super Bowl.

That pales in comparison to the Puppy Bowl, though. I mean, just look at these pups.

But the biggest - and I mean BIGGEST - game of the weekend comes tonight. It’s St John’s versus UConn in men’s college basketball.

The venue: Madison Square Garden.

Does it get any bigger than this?

The Johnnies began the season in the ranked fifth in the nation but, after a really bad loss against Providence, crashed out of the Top 25 altogether. They’ve since strung together eight wins in a row and now sit at No. 22 in the polls.

They’ve got a tough matchup against Connecticut, though, whose only loss this season was against Arizona. I think it’s going to be a tight game. Neither school has had real dominant stretches in the Big East.

But hopefully the New York crowd lifts St John’s over the Huskies.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Elderberry Wine, by Wednesday

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “Thomas Frank has ‘no idea’ if Cristian Romero will be at Tottenham next season”

The Athletic ($$): “‘Fiorentina have a serious set of owners’: Fabio Paratici on why he left Tottenham”

BBC: “Celtic chairman calls for unity over fan boycott plans”

Yahoo Sports: “Leicester City docked six points for financial breach”

City insiders have doubted whether Levy could get £1bn for his shares, given it is a minority stake and offers no position of influence or power. His stake does not give him any preferred bidder status for control of Tottenham.

Not only does Levy’s stake come with no voting rights, place on the board or position of influence at Tottenham, it does not give the holder any first refusal or preferred bidder status if the club are ever sold.

— Matt Law, The Telegraph

”My understanding at this stage is that nobody has met Levy’s valuation. Now, we heard some reports suggesting that two failed prospective bidders, who were ruled out to buy 100 per cent of Tottenham, are going to team up and try to take Levy’s 29 per cent.

”One of them is the former DJ, Brooklyn Earick, and the other is Hong Kong-based businessman, Ng Wing-Fai, who put together a broader group.

“… Spurs sources I speak to say two things really clearly.

”One, they’ve not been informed that Levy is about to sell and two, there is scepticism that whether the individuals that were named in the press have the funds to meet Levy’s valuation.

”The other thing to note is that this isn’t a trojan horse into the club, so if somebody buys Levy’s stake, it comes with no power, and Tottenham are adamant that you can’t then go and take more shares off more people and get a longer-term pat to buying the entire club.

“So it’s a lot of money and ultimately, even if someone does buy Levy’s 29 per cent, they’re not going to get any control of even voting power.”

— Ben Jacobs, talkSPORT

”I had a very brief exchange with Daniel, he was on a flight, just to get some sort of understanding of where he is in it all so that you can get some degree of ‘from the horse’s mouth’.

”His opinion, these guys don’t have the money and are creating noise, and publicity. So, whether that’s positioning from Daniel about the fact that he wants to call their bluff...

”I mean listen, let’s be clear, he will sell his shares in ENIC, that’s what he’ll do if the price is met, and take the opportunities that that kind of money will present to him.

“… The deals that get done are the ones that you hear about at the last minute. There’s a few exceptions, we know there’s a few exceptions, that we get to hear it from the beginning, from its gestation, to its end product. But most of the time when it’s big deals or football clubs being sold, or major shareholdings being sold, you tend to hear about it just as it’s about to be done or when it’s done.

”So in this instance, it looks like people are running around, running their mouths and don’t have the cash to do it.”

— Simon Jordan, talkSPORT

Good morning everyone and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading Right Now?, where the hoddle asks the Carty Free Community what it’s currently reading.

I think you all know how much I love my nature books - especially those involving mushrooms. I think in the previous edition to this that I started reading Entangled Life, which is more about fungi and fungal networks than it is about mushrooms.

It’s a fascinating book. I most recently learnt about mycoheterotrophs - which includes all 25,000 species of orchid. These mycoheterotrophs obtain their nutrients through some sort of parasitic relationship with fungi than via photosynthesis. The book points out, though, that the orchid eventually pays this back. Who knows what the actual timeline of this is, though.

And that leads me to wonder what my orchid Planty does. It’s in a new environment. Instead of facing east, it is now facing west. It’s still holding up strong, but I never stop worrying about it. And now I wonder how else I should place it in my new apartment.

That’s unnecessary. What is necessary is to point out that I’m nearly done with my fungi book - I highly recommend it. A trusty hoddler recommended and orchid book to pick up soon after this. I’ll get to that eventually, but I’ve got two other ones that are on my radar I want to get to first. What those are, though, I’ll save for another day.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Gay Bar, by Electric Six

And now for your links:

JAck P-B ($$): “Tottenham Supporters’ Trust survey shows satisfaction with ownership at ‘all-time low’”

BBC: “Is Spurs’ Moore the answer to Rangers’ open-play issues?”

TimeOut: “New York Botanical Garden’s Orchid Show turns NYC street life into flowers”

Tottenham Hotspur Women pulled off a second half comeback against West Ham away from home. Olivia Holdt and Matilda Vinberg scored stunning outside-the-box strikes in the victory, which saw Spurs move level on points with Arsenal (although Arsenal have a game in hand).

Martin Ho made a few changes to the starting lineup that lost to Liverpool. Matilda Vinberg came in for Maika Hamano on the right wing, and Julie Blakstad got the start over Amanda Nildén.

Spurs opened the first half with a flurry of activity, but West Ham struck early and first. Olivia Holdt lost the ball in West Ham’s third, and Vivianne Asseyi took advantage of Tōko Koga’s unfortunate slip out wide and found her wide open teammate on the opposite wing. Martinez rushed into the center of our box unmarked to finish the resulting cross. West Ham continued to look dangerous on the counter, even forcing a goal line clearance out of Koga in the 20th minute. Spurs dominated possession for the rest of the half, but struggled to turn it into quality shots, and went into the half deservedly 1-0 down.

The second half began much the same. Spurs finally managed to turn all that possession into an equalizer after ten minutes when Matilda Vinberg unleashed a speculative yet stunning shot from range. Amanda Nildén replaced Julie Blakstad in the 60th minute, and Tinka Tandberg replaced Beth England in the 70th minute as Spurs searched for a winner. That winner came in the 73rd minute, again from outside the box. This time, Tuva Hansen mislaid a clearance that fell directly to Olivia Holdt just outside the box. Holdt made no mistake in threading the ball into the back of the net.

Despite a late flurry of activity, Spurs saw out the win pretty comfortably. In the end, only a straight red card to Drew Spence for a high challenge marred the occasion. Spurs will now be without Spence for a run of games including our next fixture at Chelsea.

Thoughts

Getting cooked on the wings is kind of becoming a theme with Ho-ball. That first goal was particularly unfortunate – Tōko Koga doesn’t usually make mistakes like that (she accounted for it later with a few clutch clearances), and probably 9/10 times she cleans up and the goal is avoided. But Spurs were in such a state of disarray after Olivia Holdt lost the ball that Koga’s slip became disastrous. I’d love to see a better plan for turnovers, especially since we commit so many players forward and don’t have much speed across the back line.

We didn’t see too much more of our new signings in this game, though obviously we got a good look at Signe Gaupset and Julie Blakstad. Gaupset continued to look bright, although she seems more frustrated than anyone that she hasn’t scored yet. Blakstad had a few moments of quality but didn’t particularly shine. In general, I am mildly curious about the fact that both our goals in this game came from outside the box. It makes sense because West Ham were super compact in this game and it was difficult to find space to shoot inside the box. But I would’ve expected players like Gaupset and Holdt to be able to unlock sides that sit back like that. It’s another thing I’ll be watching going forward (although I don’t think we’ll face another side who parks the bus like that for a while).

Looking Ahead

Spurs take on Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next. This is not the title-winning Chelsea side of old. Spurs are only one point off them, and they’ve recently suffered a fate we are all too familiar with (a heavy defeat at the hands of Bunny Shaw and Kerolin). It may be the best chance we’ve ever had to take points off them, but don’t be fooled – this Chelsea side is still stacked. It’s still one of the most challenging games on the calendar, and we’ll be without Drew Spence (suspension) and Maika Hamano (who is on loan to us from Chelsea). Tune in on Sunday, February 8th at 9:25 ET/2:25 UK time if you’re as curious as I am to see what happens!!

Tottenham Hotspur executives may or may not read this blog (my money’s on “reads the blog” but I don’t think anyone would ever admit to such), but they’re certainly not taking my opinions into consideration as to how the club should be structured and run. According to a new (paywalled) article from Matt Law in the Telegraph, Spurs are actively searching for a new recruitment guru to replace the departed Fabio Paratici, and plan to stick with the co-Director of Football model that it established at the beginning of this season.

The article is light on details, but does say that they plan to keep the existing structure in place, which to my understanding had Johan Lange overseeing talent identification, with Paratici supplementing that work while also serving as the point in active transfer negotiations and deal-closing. Spurs are said to be already looking for a replacement for Paratici, with Lange set to remain in his role for now.

OK. Look. I think anyone who has read this blog for the past few weeks knows my opinion on Lange and the overall recruitment structure at the club, so there’s no need to rehash that. I have always found the co-sporting director model to be a weird one, but one perhaps made out of necessity, especially if the club feels as though Lange’s specific skill set is more appropriate in certain areas and need supplementation in other areas. I guess I don’t have strong opinions about the need for two executives to do what is normally a one person Director of Football position, but if the club thinks that this is the right way to go I won’t go as far as to say it’s the wrong idea. It’s just weird! Paratici and Lange made a really uncomfortable and awkward pairing as evidenced by the bizarre couch video from last September. Maybe whoever the new guy Spurs CEO Vinai Venkatesham opts to bring in will be a better fit, I don’t know.

But it does seem to suggest that Spurs are sticking with the plan for now, and while I have my doubts about it there’s nothing I can say or write that will likely make a difference. That puts me in that weird half-space where I have no choice but to Trust the Process™ while virtually side-eying the entire Tottenham corporate executive structure.

“Yes, firstly, this is always an issue I enjoy doing because I think this gives me and us a great opportunity to communicate directly with the fans around the transfer periods. I saw this window here as one of the quieter January windows across not only the Premier League, but across football in general. I think there were, including free transfers, 33 transfers across the Premier League. That is a result of especially the new format in Europe. Now we have clubs competing in either Champions League or Europa League during December and of course during the last part of January as well - 48 teams progressing further in the European competitions after the window. I think we saw that a little bit last year and I think we saw even more this year that have changed the dynamic a little bit of the January transfer window, with just less business is being done. Of course, a knock-on effect of the increased fixture schedule is also that not only us, but a number of clubs would say that they have too many injuries. That meant that there were simply not many available players across the whole marketplace during January.

“When we go into January, we didn’t anticipate that we’ll have seven injuries during the month of January. So, that of course changes things during the course of the window. It’s very important, even though that is highly frustrating with all the injuries, to remain disciplined because, A, the players are coming back and, B, if you then, can you say, go in and make a stress purchase of any football players, then yes, the immediate feeling gives you is nice, but there’s no point in signing players that have not helped us in the short term, in the medium term, or even in the long term. So, even though that is highly frustrating with all the injuries, the majority of the players will return this season here, hopefully a few very soon. It is important as a club to remain disciplined and make sure to do our best, our ability only to sign players that can generally help the team now or in the future.”

“The summer market is where eight or nine out of 10 players, they move clubs, so we will go into the summer window with big ambitions of strengthening the team. We know there’ll be more movements, we know there’ll be more opportunities, so the plans are already, can you see, drawn up. We have a clear picture of which position and also which profiles. Could we have brought one or two more in this January window? We would have been delighted to do so. but that was not a possibility. So, we are looking forward to the summer, now we focus on the rest of the season and that is very, very important as well because we have big objectives. We’re still in the Champions League. We want to, of course, be higher in the Premier League and then myself and others will have our eyes already now directed towards the summer transfer window.”

Good morning everyone.

It’s been quite a few months since I last gave an update on Fitzie’s Film and TV Reviews, the regular hoddle feature where fitzie reviews all the things he’s seen on the television and in cinemas.

That’s because there haven’t been many (or any) new shows that I’ve been watching. At the very least, the ones I’ve watched are so forgettable that I don’t even think to mention them here.

The one movie that’s really exciting me - and now available to stream on HBO Max - is If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. I don’t know much about the movie except for that Rose Byrne’s character has some bad relationship with her therapist, played by Conan O’Brien.

Otherwise, I’m just treading water until the latest series of Survivor begins later this month. I’m satisfying some of the reality-tv itch with the latest series of The Traitors US, but I find this group of players so unlikable and in such contrast to the celebrity version of the UK’s celebrity tradition of The Traitors.

There must be something I’m missing here, right? There’s got to be some good television series or films out there that are worth watching. So I’m letting this hoddle be a small request in that I want you to share some of the things you’re watching.

Fitzie’s track of the day: I Put A Spell On You, by Nina Simone

And now for your links:

Matt Law: “Cristian Romero was Tottenham’s ‘pussycat’, now he is the bomb-proof rebel”

Jay Harris ($$): “Can Cristian Romero keep criticising the Spurs hierarchy and remain club captain?”

The Standard: “Tottenham confirm new hire as medical department revamp continues amid injury crisis”

The Daily Record: “Hearts stumble at St Mirren as ten men feel the Premiership title pressure – five talking points”

The Guardian: “Are the Whitecaps about to die? Vancouver sound alarm bells amid difficult sale process”