Cartilage Free Captain

Tottenham Hotspur Women dispatched Leicester City away at King Power Stadium last Sunday. Thanks to first half goals from Tinka Tandberg and Olivia Holdt, Martin Ho’s side looked largely comfortable seeing out the win despite some second half trouble.

Lineup

We’re getting pretty familiar with Martin Ho’s lineups by now, and this one had all the typical features — that Nildén-Hunt-Koga-Rybrink back line, midfielders filling in at winger, and Beth England at the ten to make room for Tinka Tandberg. Notably, Ash Neville finally made the bench, a nice surprise given how wishy-washy Spurs have been about injured players’ potential returns.

How it all went down

Spurs started brightly, opening the attacking with a number of chances on goal in the opening stages, though (as I’ve gotten in the habit of saying after a few years) none found the back of the net. Tinka Tandberg struck in the 15th minute with a really scrappy toe-poke of an effort after Jess Naz’s deflected cross fell to her. I personally thought Tinka had taken too many touches once it fell to her, but she surprised me and apparently also the entire Leicester defense. Olivia Holdt added a second at 21’ after Eveliina’s pinpoint pass split Leicester up the middle. Olivia’s lovely effort came in a somewhat more joyous game state than her earlier goal against Manchester City.

Leicester pulled one back before the half after our defenders stormed to close down a run into the box and left Tierney open in front of the net. A case of our old box-defending demons coming home to roost yet again, perhaps, though I’d argue there was a foul on Tinka Tandberg in the build up that didn’t get called.

In the second half, Ho continued his habit of extensive rotation. We saw Olga Ahtinen come in for Drew Spence at halftime, and Anaya Dennis replaced Jess Naz at around the 60th minute. In the 65th minute, Martin hit us with a bit of old school Spurs nostalgia by bringing on Kit Graham and the long awaited Ashleigh Neville for Beth England and Josephine Rybrink. We also saw Martha Thomas finish out the closing stages of the game in place of the excellent Olivia Holdt.

Spurs control on the game slipped somewhat throughout the half, and towards the end, Leicester were really turning up the dial. However, they weren’t able to capitalize on any of that, and the game ended all square.

Thoughts

First things first, wow, look at Olivia Holdt go! This is much closer to the player I hoped we were signing back in January. She’s carrying the ball, she’s getting her head up, she’s picking out passes, and she’s scoring clever goals! What more could you want? I would love to see Olivia continue to thrive like this under Martin Ho.

Let’s take a moment to talk about Ash Neville’s return. Ash has been sidelined with an unspecified injury for most of preseason and the first few games of the season. The team and style of play have changed a lot in that time, so it’s not too surprising she looked a little bit off the pace. I was thrilled to see her getting in at least few Ash Neville classics — well-timed tackles, and some interplay with Amaya Dennis and the midfielders. Hopefully this is just the first step into Ash getting back into the swing of things.

I still have concerns about our depth options. We obviously saw this against Manchester City, but we saw it in a smaller way against Leicester City. Our attack isn’t the most dangerous as it is, but we see a huge drop off in threat when key figures like Olivia, Beth and Matilda aren’t on the pitch. Elsewhere, our passing and organization seem to struggle the more subs Martin makes. Don’t get me wrong, I think subs are great, I think rotation is phenomenal. I also think this it’s important for Martin to do now so he has a real sense of who’s in this squad and what they can do. I assume he’ll have some challenging decisions to make in future transfer windows.

Anyway, life is pretty good, huh? I obviously have questions about this side — top of the list are whether the attack has enough quality to consistently score goals, and whether the full team has enough quality to compete with anyone other than the midtable. But I was reassured by this game, I really was. We’ve struggled against Leicester in years past and dropped points to them when they were a much weaker team. If Martin Ho has the team consistently managing routine wins against comparable and inferior sides, I’ll take that.

Of course, I do feel a bit like I’m drawing on clown makeup every time I say something like this. I remember saying it about Robert Vilahamn, and I remember saying it about Rehanne Skinner before him. We’ve had a long history of coaches start strong and taper off, and I’m wary of going early on yet another manager, even if he does come with a more impressive pedigree and seemingly has turned around a bunch of players’ passing games overnight. And the signs are promising all around — judging by the club’s recent announcements about additions to the coaching staff (here, and here), it sounds like there’s a lot of structure being put into place behind the scenes. That should make things more stable season to season.

Looking ahead

Spurs face off against Brighton on Sunday. Brighton has had the next best start of any of the other midtable contenders (contenders for what? Don’t worry about it). They sit two points behind us in the table (and also two places, because we are 4th ahead of Arsenal. Read that twice because you won’t get that often!), though they suffered a somewhat less heavy defeat against Manchester City than we did.

Much like every other game against the perennial midtable sides shooting for progress, this will be a real test of the changes Martin’s made at Spurs. I, for one, am still unreasonably excited to watch more Ho-ball and notice some new things.

Hey, some good news! Just a week after making his club debut against Doncaster Rovers in the EFL Cup, Tottenham Hotspur academy graduate and attacking midfielder Luca Williams-Barnett has signed his first professional contract with the club. Spurs made the announcement on social media and on the club website.

It feels like we say this every time a new player is hatched from the academy, but in this case there isn’t a ton of hyperbole — LWB is one of the most promising players to come out of Spurs’ development program in many years. Heading into this season he has been utterly dominant at the youth level, scoring 20 goals and tallying 12 assists in all competitions at the U18 level. He has been too good for the U18s for a while, and has been more than holding his own at the U21 level. The past few weeks he’s been training with the first team and deservedly came off the bench for his debut last Wednesday at home vs. Doncaster. Luca Williams-Barnett is 17.

So to land him on a professional contract as soon as he’s available to sign one is an achievement, because in this day and age it’s no longer a given. It means that we’ve convinced Luca that there’s a viable path from the academy to the first team if he continues to improve and apply himself, something that players like Noni Madueke, now at Chelsea, did not feel they had.

That’s not to say that we should expect Williams-Barnett to come in and start pulling up trees. My guess is he’s going to be in line for a loan in the spring, and possibly next year as well unless he impresses Thomas Frank in preseason training next summer. He would join young players like Archie Gray (already a full-fledged first team member), Mikey Moore, Luka Vuskovic, and Will Lankshear as what could become the next young core of Tottenham Hotspur, if they all develop like Spurs hope.

Either way, this is fantastic news. Hopefully we’ll see more of LWB in the first team in the coming weeks and months.

Good morning everyone and welcome to your annual Tom Petty Track of the Day, where we at Hoddle Headquarters like to remember the great rock n’ roller.

Louisiana Rain is one of my favourite tracks from Damn the Torpedoes (I don’t think there’s a single miss in there, for what it’s worth). It’s certainly a hell of a closer.

It also came during a time of intense legal drama for the band, which was embroiled in a lawsuit battle against MCA Records.

But Century City came during an important time for the band, which was discussed at length during a must-watch four-hour documentary.

The legal trouble came when ABC Records was sold to MCA in 1979, leading his recording contract to land there. MCA proceeded to sue Petty after he said his recording contract couldn’t be assigned to another company without his permission. He eventually declared bankruptcy to get out of the contract and eventually signed with Backstreet, an MCA subsidiary, under new terms.

It was a big win at the time, and it wouldn’t be the first time Petty fought record labels.

You can feel a lot of the tension throughout Damn the Torpedoes, mostly through Refugee and Century City. I also think it needed a bit of a palate cleanser, and that’s where Louisiana Rain comes in. It’s a wonderfully soft way to end the record.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Louisiana Rain, by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

And now for your links:

Jay Harris ($$): “Tottenham need to control games better. They are too reactive”

Alasdair Gold: “The £74m Tottenham transfer hole the Lewis family must fix for Thomas Frank”

BBC: “Being USA boss like becoming a grandparent - Hayes”

Rolling Stone from 1980: “Tom Petty’s Real-Life Nightmares: Rocker on ‘Damn the Torpedoes’ Woes”

Hi everyone, quick update about my current situation.

The last few months have been very frustrating as I’ve tried everything possible to try and push through my ankle issue before taking the option of surgery.

None of this managed to solve the problem, so we had to go ahead with minor surgery which I underwent this morning. It was all successful so hopefully I’ll be back on the pitch in the very near future!

Thank you all for your love and messages.

I don’t do player rating articles after European matches or cup games. Partly that’s because those ratings articles are HARD and they take great deal of time and creative energy to do every week and who’s got the time to do that 2-3 times every week, much less once? But also because Europe in particular gives me an opportunity to focus on some other areas.

Instead I like to do an “X things we learned” piece especially after we play in Europa, as it gives a chance to drill down a bit into tactics, or individual player performances. And sure, I could come up with a few things to focus on in an article, but after watching Tottenham Hotspur slog their way to a come-from-behind draw against Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League last night there’s really only one thing I want to look at and it’s the same thing everyone saw.

The midfield is a PROBLEM and Thomas Frank needs to find a tactical fix.

OK, I’m being a bit hyperbolic here — we didn’t learn this in Norway last evening, or at least what we saw didn’t teach us something especially new, but if nothing else Spurs’ performance against Bodø/Glimt put a pretty damn fine point on it. This Tottenham team, as currently constructed, either doesn’t know how to formulate an offensive plan that involves passing through the middle of the pitch, or is currently being instructed not to. Take a look at these statistics from the excellent MarkStats:

Actually, I want to call your attention to one graphic in particular, here (with recognition that the stats reflect only up to minute 61):

Yowwwwwwwwwwza. Protip for those of you who aren’t familiar with how to interpret a pass map: the lines show passing connections between various players on the pitch over the course of the match, Tottenham are on the right, and you do NOT want your pass map to look like that. Two things stick out immediately — there is a distinct lack of connection between the midfielders and… well, anywhere, but especially to the wings. Secondly — poor Richarlison is just stuck up there on an island. He doesn’t even have a line!

That suggests, and we all saw this, that there was no midfield ball progression whatsoever. Tottenham’s offense came from the keeper or the central defenders getting the ball wide to a fullback who then passed to a winger, who then invariably lost the ball. That didn’t change much when Spurs starting bringing in players off the bench — Spurs might have played with a bit more intensity, but the overall tactical plan didn’t change, and it’s reflected in Spurs’ goals being scored from a set piece and a lucky deflected own goal.

Now you might expect me to yell at a certain suspect currently on loan from Germany, and I’m not going to — the issue was deeper. Spurs started a midfield three of Rodrigo Bentancur, Pape Sarr, and Lucas Bergvall. Of those three, only Bergvall showed anything close to dynamism with the ball at his feet or a willingness to pass, and only in the first 15 minutes or so — had Richarlison not tripped over his shoelaces in the third minute, he’d have had a goal, Lucas would have had an assist, and Spurs might have had a win. Bentancur and Sarr, however, were awful — black holes of possession with no clear vision of if and when to press or what to do in the rare times they got the ball back in midfield. I lost count of how many times the midfield coughed up the ball, made an errant pass, or just looked as if they had no idea what they were supposed to do with it. And as much as I’ve yelled at and about Joao Palhinha so far this season, I’ve never once said he’s a bad player, simply a limited one who does not fit or mitigate the things this Tottenham midfield already does poorly.

Now to be fair there’s plenty of blame to go around. We could also talk about Wilson Odobert and Brennan Johnson basically serving as passengers, how Richarlison didn’t cover himself in glory despite getting no service, and how even Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons looked as though they were trying for individual glory rather than setting up their teammates. But the real crux of the issue was that midfield, and how it is either being set up to fail, or is simply not constructed to do what Thomas Frank wants.

Were Spurs supposed to be absorbing pressure and countering at pace? Was the midfield supposed to be funneling balls out to the wingers and overlapping fullbacks to find spaces in wide areas? Were Spurs supposed to be pressing… at all? None of that happened.

This wasn’t just a bad game. This goes to something deeper — it felt systemic. Take a look at that pass map again. You’re not going to win many football matches playing like that, especially not against what is honestly a decent small European team that is clearly well-drilled and organized, playing at home.

I wasn’t the only ones who noticed, obviously. Frank was asked about the tactical setup in the post-match interview, and while I always appreciate his, well, frankness when he speaks, it wasn’t the most reassuring answer.

Was it the plan in the first half to sit back and try to get them on the counter or was that kind of imposed upon you by the way that they played?

“I think that was what we wanted. Hopefully also you saw that we went high pressure sometimes. It was not that we never went high pressure.

“So the plan was both to go into the high pressure, which we did on several occasions, and also succeed with those situations, and then there were times when we were a little bit more banked in.

“You know, exactly that we were four months ago, because they’re very, very good at what they’re doing. And then I think the counters should have been a little bit better. But I think the main bit was that when we were on the ball, we threw the ball away too quick.

“… I think [Bodø/Glimt] did exactly what I expected them to do in terms of how they wanted to play out, what they wanted to do, how they wanted to put our pressure.

I think the only little tweak was they were a little bit more flexible in the midfield rotation and a little bit more with the wingers coming inside. So that was a little bit more flexible compared to, let’s say, last game. So that was a tweak that maybe created a few problems in the first half, I think a little less in the second half.

Even that they scored the goals, there were various reasons. Because actually the way we wanted to press, we just decided not to do at the 1-0 goal, even if it’s a fantastic finish from Høgh.”

I realize that Thomas Frank is new and still figuring out his team, and he gets a fairly long leash from me for that reason. We also should give Bodø/Glimt credit for playing well at home and putting Spurs into that kind of struggleball match. But it’s a bit baffling that a bunch of nerds on the internet are able to suss out pretty easily that Tottenham is going to struggle to generate offense when the midfield can’t pass the ball, and that simple fact seems to be eluding the manager and the recruitment director. This is as much a roster construction issue as it is a tactical one, but the irony is not lost on me that Rodrigo Bentancur put in an all-time stinker of a performance just hours after news dropped that he’s in final talks with Spurs over a contract extension. That decision does not speak particularly well of Johan Lange, whose job it apparently is to put this team together — if the recruitment team looked at the lack of passing in this Spurs midfield and decided the best thing was to bring in a 30-year-old defensive specialist who also doesn’t have a progressive passing record, that speaks to a problem that goes a little deeper, I’m afraid.

So what can Thomas Frank do? I’m not sure, but whatever he’s doing now isn’t cutting it. Over the past few games, Spurs’ offensive plan has been more or less “1. Get the ball to Kudus, 2. [????], 3. PROFIT”, or more simply “get the ball wide and spam crosses.” And if Tottenham aren’t able to find some midfield passing in the couch cushions (or maybe Archie Gray) then that’s I guess as good of a plan as any I can come up with.

That said, the one thing that can be said about Spurs is that their defense is much improved. Rather than include a defensive shield, it might be time to roll the dice and commit to Xavi Simons centrally, or utilize some lesser-used midfielders with passing in their locker like Archie Gray and let the defense do their job. It feels like a stretch, but just maybe Spurs will discover that [takes off nerd glasses] the passy midfielder they prayed for was right in front of them all along.

But probably not. Spurs need help, and January can’t come soon enough. Back in May, in her Tottenham Hotspur rebuild article in The Transfer Flow newsletter, Carty Free founder Kim McCauley identified several possibilities on the continent to look at in order to address their midfield passing issue. One of them was Royal Charleroi midfielder Adem Zorgane, who was sold to current Champions League club Union Saint-Gilloise this summer for €8m and has emerged as one of their best players. I kinda wish we had this guy now.

You may be skeptical that a 25-year-old who’s still at Royal Charleroi is good enough to play for Tottenham Hotspur. I am too. But if I’m working in the recruitment for a team that needs a passing midfielder and I see this, I start grinding some tape and scrutinizing every moment he’s put into some difficulty.

I watched all the highlights I could find this morning and they’re so awesome. But obviously anyone who’s seriously thinking about signing this guy would have to watch ~5 full games against the most difficult opposition he faces, which I have not done, so I can’t tell you if he’s good enough to play for Spurs or not. I sure am interested, though.

— Kim McCauley, The Transfer Flow newsletter

The midfield is not an un-fixable problem, but it IS a problem. The Champions League is a tough league but on paper Bodø/Glimt away was probably the easiest fixture on the calendar, and they just gave a model for how to play against Thomas Frank’s Tottenham Hotspur.

We should probably consider Spurs fortunate that, despite playing some pretty unwatchable football at times already this season, Spurs have only lost once in all competitions and are fourth in the Premier League table. This is where, if Spurs can’t buy their way to midfield respectability, we need to count on Frank to magick up some offense from somewhere else. It seems like that’s what he’s trying to do, but in the meantime the football might not be the kind we especially want to watch.

Following disappointing draws against Wolverhampton Wanders and Bodo/Glimt, I know what we’re all thinking: We want more Tottenham football and we want it now!

Well have no fear, dear hoddlers, for the start of the new month brings all sorts of football in so many competitions. Let’s get straight to it:

There’s no such thing as an easy game in the Premier League, and I think October will definitely be a validation of that recent cliche. Leeds United are coming off a 2-2 draw against Bournemouth (after bossing Wolves away the week before), and then it’s a home game against a struggling Villa before visitng a resurgent Everton.

And then, of course, we’ve got the cup matches. Monaco have only played one game in the league so far, so it’s tough to gauge how tough that’ll be. BUT it should feature a reunion with Eric Dier, and that’ll be quite fun. The last time these two sides played in the group stage was in the 2016-17 season.It did not end well.

Tottenham Hotspur men’s schedule: at Leeds (4 Oct), Aston Villa (19 Oct), at Monaco (Champions League; 22 Oct), at Everton (26 Oct), at Newcastle (EFL Cup, 29 Oct)

Don’t let their 1-5 defeat to Man City fool you, Tottenham Hotspur Women are off to a pretty good start this season. Spurs are 3-0-1 with nine points on the table: That’s two fewer wins than they had in the entirety of the 2024-25 season, and 17 points off as well.

But this month brings a new test: Chelsea away. I did a quick look at their head-to-head, and it doesn’t make for good reading. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to be hopeful about as we enter October.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Bizarre Love Triangle, by New Order

And now for your links:

The Telegraph: “Lacklustre Tottenham leave it late to scrape draw against Bodo/Glimt”

Alasdair Gold: “Thomas Frank admits something about Micky van de Ven and explains Tottenham’s struggles in Bodo”

The Athletic ($$): “Tottenham end relationship with Rothschild & Co as club ‘not for sale’”

The Independent: “West Ham show signs of life for Nuno to nurture in Everton draw”

Returning to a familiar place, a mere five months since the second leg semi-final Europa League contest at Bodo/Glimt, Tottenham Hotspur returned to the Nordic pitch and narrowly escaped embarrassment with a 2-2 draw on Tuesday.

As important changes were made to the side — with Kevin Danso in for Cristian Romero — Wilson Odobert and Brennan Johnson got the nods to be the wingers for the night as Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus took to the bench for the first half.

Bodo/Glimt recorded the first major chance of the match four minutes in as Patrick Berg ripped a dipping knuckleball right into the direction of Guglielmo Vicario, which forced the Italian keeper to punch the ball out for a corner. This would be the first of many dangerous chances from the home side as Tottenham had its lone chance in the first half come a mere four minutes later.

Nicking the ball off his man and leading a quick counter-attack, Lucas Bergvall delivered a beautiful low driven cross into the direction of Richarlison at the back post. Trying to time his run for an easy tap-in, the pass took the slightest of touches that ruined the timing for the Brazilian striker to get a sure-fire goal for Spurs.

Holding an 8-4-1 record in their last 13 European matches, Spurs looked bleak throughout the rest of the first half as last-ditch tackles kept the side in the game, even with a rash two-footed sliding challenge from Rodrigo Bentancur that gifted Bodo a penalty opportunity. That penalty, taken from the Europa League’s top goal scorer, Kasper Waarts Høgh, was fired over the bar to keep the game leveled at 0-0.

Surviving every Bodo/Glimt chance in that first half, Spurs continued to let the Norwegian side dictate the attacking threat early in the second half as the home side got the well-deserved lead by way of a Jens Petter Hauge control and cut into the box for a far post shot that beat Vicario.

Down 1-0, Spurs believed they had leveled the game two minutes after going down with Rodrigo Bentancur redirecting Brennan Johnson’s shot on goal. But, VAR took a look at a possible foul in the build-up on the first delivery from Pedro Porro’s set piece, which hit the post. Watching the replay and circling in on a tug of the shirt from Micky Van de Ven, the head official went to the monitor and overturned the goal for the foul on Micky. Irate at the call, Van de Ven lost his cool as his rash challenge towards the right touchline earned him a yellow card.

Forced to make changes in hopes of adding some attack-minded guys — ones who weren’t afraid of wanting the ball - Simons and Kudus came on and instantly made impacts. Simons won a free kick a minute onto the pitch, and Kudus won a corner, but with terrible deliveries from Spurs, Bodo were able to capitalize once more.

Using the high press and winning the ball off a poor clearance from Vicario, and a touch from Djed Spence, Bodo/Glimt found Jens Petter Hauge yet again at the top of the box. Using his left foot this time, the Norwegian recorded the brace and a 2-0 lead with 20 plus minutes to go.

Down 2-0, Spurs were finally able to cut into the lead off a set piece as Van de Ven headed in a beautiful ball from Pedro Porro to give hope for the side to take something from this match.

Subbing on Archie Gray and having fresh legs in the midfield, the Englishman made an instant impact as Spurs broke the high press of Bodo/Glimt and made their way down the pitch. Getting a through ball off the wing and running with it in stride, Gray sent in a low cross for a streaking Richarlison near post. With the keeper coming out and making an attempt to save it, the ball bounced off his leg and right onto the path of Jostein Gundersen for an own goal.

Yet again, VAR had a check on the goal, with the video assistant reviewing whether the ball had not only hit Richarlison’s hand but also whether the Brazilian was onside. Spending more than three minutes going into extra time of the match, VAR ruled the goal onside as Richarlison stayed onside and didn’t touch the ball.

Both sides went for the win in the end as Bodo/Glimt had a chance to win it but fired a curler over the bar, and Wilson Odobert had a running header that hit the post.

Coming away with a 2-2 draw and a point in the second week of the Champions League group stage, Spurs sit fourth in the table. However, today’s performance was a dreadful watch, and the side has several things to clean up if they want not only to survive the group stage of the Champions League but also to be a side that can win games with ease. Not something that is normally said as a Spurs supporter, but today’s game continues to leave some doubts about the direction of the side. Thomas Frank will have to find new ways to get the side up from the opening minute, and that task will be on Saturday when the side travels to Elland Road for a 7:30 est kickoff with Leeds United

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur is currently in the last year of his contract, but he might not be for much longer. Writing in Football.London, Spurs beat reporter Alasdair Gold says that the Uruguayan is close to agreeing to a contract extension that will keep him at the club beyond 2026.

Coming into this season, it was generally understood it it was the right time for Spurs to make a decision to stick or twist on one of the club’s two peak-age central midfielders — Bentancur and Yves Bissouma. Both are nearly on the wrong side of 30 (Bentancur is 28, Bissouma 29) and the smart money was to move one or both of them on this past summer and invest in a younger, up and coming central midfielder who could make progressive passes and potentially develop into the next big star.

Instead, Tottenham sold neither Bissouma nor Bentancur (though, it should be said, not for lack of trying with Yves) and signed Joao Palhinha from Bayern Munich on loan, a player in a similarish defensive midfield mold. It’s for this reason that I can’t quite figure out the decision to extend Bentancur’s stay. He’s a fine player, but not without limitations, one of them being, obviously, his age. Details about the contract extension aren’t revealed, but unless it’s a short term, high wages deal then Spurs are committing the club to a player in Bentancur who, frankly, has shown himself to be a good player, but not an especially great one, until his early 30s.

The flip side to this argument is that Spurs might think the idea of replacing Bissouma, Bentancur, and possibly Palhinha (if Spurs decide not to pick up his purchase option) is too much for one window. They may be right about that, which is why it’s baffling they didn’t do more to shift one of Bentancur or Bissouma this past summer. There are significant holes in this Tottenham midfield, ones that extending Bentancur doesn’t really address, and extending him would just kick that particular can down the road. Extending him keeps a popular player and clubhouse leader with a great amount of Premier League experience around, and there is value to that. But I’m not sure the benefits outweigh the costs of playing it safe here.

I don’t really mind Rodrigo Bentancur and on his day he’s capable of putting in a fantastic and game-defining shift. I also get why Thomas Frank likes him. That said, we already know he doesn’t work together with Joao Palinha in Spurs’ midfield, and by extending him we’re getting dangerously close to the “Casemiro danger zone” with an aging and still peak-age player heading towards the twilight years of his career who no longer has much return on his investment. Whether it’s a high wage/short duration extension or a more moderate multi-year contract, it sure feels like Spurs are setting the stage to eventually let Bentancur walk from the club for nothing. That’s happened way too many times in recent years for me to be particularly happy about this, and doesn’t make me feel any better about Tottenham’s squad construction under Johan Lange.

Clearly Thomas Frank’s Tottenham Hotspur is a work in progress, but the fixture list continues on nonetheless. Spurs got the needed three points against Villarreal in the first matchweek of the League Phase and now their Champions League campaign brings them back to a recent battlefield. Fellow Europa League semifinalists Bodo/Glimt made the leap to top competition as well and will not be the only familiar face Spurs see this phase.

Glimt is here after winning the Norwegian Eliteserien last season and taking down Sturm Graz in the Qualifying Playoff. Despite falling behind 2-0 at Slavia Prague (who Tottenham will face in December), Glimt fought back and scored two goals in the final 15 minutes to claim a point from Matchweek 1. The location makes this a trickier fixture, but Spurs know very well that this is a venue that can be conquered.

UCL League Phase MW2

Date: Tuesday, September 30

Time: 3:00 pm ET, 8:00 pm UK

Location: Aspmyra Stadion, Bodo, Norway

TV: Paramount+ (US), TNT Sports 2 (UK)

Table: Glimt (t-15th, 1 pt), Tottenham (t-1st, 3 pts)

The head-to-head portion of this preview is more celebratory than informative. Thinking back to May, though, there was some concern after Ange Postecoglou’s side gave up a late goal in the first leg of last spring’s Europa League semifinals, forcing Tottenham to hang on to a two-goal lead at Aspmyra. The visitors kept it 0-0 until second-half goals by Dominic Solanke and Pedro Porro in a 10-minute span secured Spurs trip to Bilbao.

Three Big Questions

Is Richarlison enough up top? Overall the Spurs attack still feels insufficient, and while much of that has to do with questionable ball progression ability from the rest of the squad, it has to be said that the No. 9 position has not been stellar either. This is not all Richarlison’s fault, but with Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani injured (and Mathys Tel unavailable in Europe), the burden has fallen squarely on the Brazilian.

It has not been a horrible effort so far, with three goals to lead the team including that ridiculous strike against Burnley in the season opener. But overall it feels like Frank needs more from his center forward, both in terms of goal scoring and in the build up. Maybe Richarlison will work his way into this new system, or maybe the alternate options will return soon, but either way, matches like these are where Spurs need a clinical striker, and right now that does not feel realistic.

Will the location make a difference? Dr. Tottenham’s panacea for Wolves aside, the quality gap between these sides is massive. However, road contests in Europe are rarely straightforward, and Glimt’s notorious homefield advantage feels like an obvious hurdle. Despite Spurs’ success last May, the context is much different with the Norwegian side not beginning the match down already needing to make up two goals.

Fortunately, the weather will not be a major factor, similar to the Europa semis (but will be a consider for City in January). Still, an enlivened group of supporters — excited to finally make it through the Champions League qualifying rounds and ready for revenge over Tottenham — will make this the type of atmosphere that could certainly see the visitors struggle. Glimt after have scored eight goals in three fixtures in this competition so far, and while the Spurs defense is a step above, there will still be belief and desire to keep scoring.

Should pragmatism make its encore? The script seemed doomed for Postecoglou the last time Spurs made the journey this far north, but instead the former manager took the appropriate approach and saw out the win. While Frank’s tactics differ significantly, there have been moments of leaky defense, which is not comforting given the new regime’s commitment to cleaning up the biggest gaps first.

Last season, Tottenham was content giving Glimt plenty of possession but still looked dangerous enough with the ball. Given that this can be a difficult road test, some a balance of pragmatism and opportunism seems warranted again. Glimt is a side that can sting, and the comeback against Slavia Prague is a good reminder that protecting a lead will not be easy, but the visitors should still be seeking out all three points.

Would you look at that, there’s another Simpsons movie coming!

The latest Simpsons movie will come out nearly 20 years after the first one. I’m not sure about you all, but I do remember when I saw the first Simpsons film. I love The Simpsons. And I invited a few friends to watch it with me when it came out.

Of course, the big thing back then was “Spider Pig” - but will Spider Pig return this time? It’s too soon to say. We don’t know anything about this latest film. I’m looking forward to its release, though, and to see what hijinks the characters of Springfield get into in the latest series installation.

The more aliens, the better, I say.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Sha Sha Sha, by Fontaines DC

And now for your links:

Alasdair Gold: “Thomas Frank reveals how long he expects Dominic Solanke surgery to keep striker out for”

The Hollywood Reporter: “New ‘Simpsons’ Movie Set for 2027 Release”