Cartilage Free Captain

We’ve finally made it to the end of the week, which normally means Tottenham football is right around the corner. ‘Cept this is the international break, and we have to settle for a weekend without Spurs. What’ll we do?

The great news is this is the time of year when we have so many different sporting options to choose from, unless you watch the rugby.

But if you follow some other sports - those coming from the US - there’s plenty to follow.

MLB

We’re in the most exciting time of the season - the playoffs. The LA Angels (America’s sweethearts) might be out of it, and probably were as back as May, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be watching. Who doesn’t want to see Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s Toronto Blue Jays romp to the American League Championship Series?

Of course, on the other side of the bracket we have the Los Angeles Dodgers, the other team from Southern California but north of San Diego. No, I don’t want to talk about Shohei Ohtani.

NHL

The season’s finally begun! And this is a new year full of hope. Will the San Jose Sharks eclipse the bottom-of-the-table mediocrity they suffered last year? Probably not. But, as of this writing, they’re tied 1-1 versus the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

Meanwhile, Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers could be the team to beat this year, while the Florida Panthers are chasing the three-peat.

NBA

Still two weeks away - but we’re excited. Not really, if you’re a Suns fan.

NFL

That Vikings-Browns game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium sure was fun (and it gave us a COYS reference in today’s hoddle). Spurs host another NFL game this weekend when the Denver Broncos take on the New York Jets.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Oxford Comma, by Vampire Weekend

And now for your links:

BBC: “How Frank is tweaking Tottenham”

Jack P-B ($$): “Tottenham owners pledge ‘more money to deliver success’ after £100m injection”

Sky Sports: “Thomas Tuchel calls England fans ‘silent’ in Wales win and wants ‘energy’ from Three Lions support”

The Mercury News: “Kurtenbach: Three things I’m watching for at the start of this crucial Sharks season”

But when Tottenham Hotspur take the opportunity afforded by the international break to announce a financial windfall for the club, I hate it significantly less:

In an official press release, the club confirmed that ENIC, the majority owner, has invested £100 million of additional capital into the club. It’s something unheard of in recent times, with ENIC typically unwilling to invest their own funds to support club operations; a stance that is not necessarily a negative, albeit a frustrating one at times. There was a £150 million investment back in 2022, but it does seem like the structure of that investment was more of a gradual, drawdown arrangement, though don’t take my word for that: I am not a Finance Bro™.

What’s a bit depressing though is in today’s market, £100 million barely gets you an Adam Wharton, and it sure doesn’t get you an Alexander Isak; so the “windfall” comment earlier in the piece is written with tongue very much firmly in cheek. It also doesn’t magically mean Spurs will get any better at targeting or signing players, and it’s possible the money isn’t even earmarked for the purpose of transfers. Chairman Peter Charrington (boy, does it feel weird not to write Daniel Levy there) is reasonably evasive in his comments on the injection of cash:

…our focus is on stability and empowering the management team to deliver on the Club’s ambitions. I know the Lewis family are also ambitious for the future. Today’s capital commitment reflects that ambition and I would like to thank them for their ongoing support. We will continue to do all we can to ensure that Vinai and his team are supported in the best way possible to take this Club forward.

So… is it for staffing? A new medical team (again)? Some new hamstrings for Micky van de Ven? It’s hard to say, but even with my cynicism, this is undoubtedly a good thing. The ownership want the club to succeed, and this is a small but significant step towards that end.

Listen, I never thought I’d be sitting here writing a hoddle about Dancing With The Stars (the US version of Strictly Come Dancing). But here we are. It’s international break, and I’m writing about it.

The only reason - and I mean ONLY - that I have any sort of interest in this reality television show is because of Andy Richter the Swedish German, famously the sidekick to late-night television icon Conan O’Brien.

Andy Richter and his dancing partner Emma survived the latest round in the dance contest - supposedly Disney night. There are 14 celebrity contestants this year - crazy! After Hilaria Baldwin’s exit this week (uh oh, spoiler alert), Andy Richter is in the top 10.

Andy, it should be noted, is probably the oldest contestant in the series at age 69. He and his partner have had the lowest scores in three of the first five dances (and the second-lowest in two).

Want more of Andy? Well here is his most recent dance routine, set to the theme of Ratatouille:

But Andy Richter says he’s having a lot of fun on this show, which has been a very new experience for someone who’s biggest on-stage persona has been defined by sitting on a couch (hey, somebody’s got to make those great one-liners, am I right?).

Who knows how long this underdog run can continue for. I certainly hope that he goes the whole way and completely destroys this programme, which is amazingly in its 34th series (that means there are more than 340 celebrities out there - insane - and how?).

If anyone has more insight on Andy Richter’s performances on the show, please share.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Night Lights, by the Gerry Mulligan Sextet

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “How Thomas Frank’s Tottenham can improve in attack after strong start to season”

BBC: [Josh Cavallo]: “‘Being gay in men’s football is a very toxic place’”

The Guardian: “Ratcliffe says Ruben Amorim has three years to prove himself at Manchester United”

It’s the international break, which means there’s no club football, which means that everything quiets down and attention shifts to other areas. That includes rumination over potential summer 2026 transfer moves, and when THAT happens, it almost always seem to involve Tottenham Hotspur somehow.

Okay, that’s true for every club, but this is a Tottenham blog and so we pay close attention to the things we pay close attention to. So this made my ears prick up: According to (deep sigh) Fabrizio Romano’s podcast, Orlando City has had contact with Richarlison’s entourage about a possible move to MLS this coming summer.

Richarlison is under contract at Tottenham Hotspur until summer of 2027, but in truth we’ve been talking about the possibility of moving him on for a couple of years now. It’s not that he’s a bad player — he isn’t. When he’s on his game he’s can be a deadly finisher and he’s very good at holding the ball up and getting on the ends of crosses for headers and one-time finishes. There’s also no chance that he’d leave the club in January, since with Dom Solanke’s injury he’s Spurs’ de facto first choice striker.

But he’s 28, has struggled with injury since moving to the club from Everton, and Spurs will need to think about upgrading him in the medium term whether or not he regains enough form to make Brazil’s World Cup squad.

MLS has been weirdly flush with cash lately, and we don’t have to look very far to see an example of it — LAFC’s record £20m signing of Son Heung-Min has been good for everyone involved, and MLS is starting to be seen as a viable destination for a certain type of aging footballer who might want to squeeze a couple more years out of his career before either returning to Brazil or hanging up his boots.

In the interest of clarity it should be pointed out that there’s not a lot of meat on this particular bone. Nothing is imminent, just international break quiet time news that Orlando’s people have talked with Richy’s people. So let’s not put the cart in front of the horse just yet. That said, is this PLAUSIBLE? Well, sure! Why not! MLS seems like the kind of league that would suit a 29-year-old Richarlison quite well. He’d definitely take one of Orlando’s Designated Player slots, one of which is held by 34-year-old forward Colombian forward Luis Muriel. And if Orlando City is interested, my guess is that there’s probably other teams, both in MLS and elsewhere, sniffing around.

Like it or not we’re going to have to start thinking about life after Richarlison. This is the first semi-real link I’ve seen that potentially points to that future.

The last time we heard from Sergio Reguilon he had just left Tottenham Hotspur at the conclusion of his contract and was without a club. It looks like he might be trading unemployment with an opportunity to play football with Lionel Messi.

According to The Athletic, Sergio is in negotiations with Inter Miami to sign with the MLS side on a free transfer with the deal expected to be completed soon.

Reguilon would initially start as a rotation option and backup to to his countryman, 36-year-old former Barcelona star Jordi Alba. However, Alba just announced that he’s retiring at the end of the current MLS season, so this provides and excellent opportunity for Reguilon to replace him next season. Alba joins Sergio Busquets, who also announced his retirement from football last month, opening up two designated player spots for Miami next season.

Should the move go through, Reguilon is joining after the MLS roster after the September 12 roster freeze. Inter Miami can petition the league for an exception, but if that is rejected Sergio would not be able to play for Inter Miami until the 2026 season. Regardless, even if the exemption is not granted it appears all Sergio would need to do is keep his head down and train, knowing that Alba would hand him the keys to the kingdom next season. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

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Tottenham Hotspur Women slipped past fellow best-of-the-rest hopefuls Brighton on the south coast. Thanks to a great goal spearheaded by Jess Naz and finished by Tinka Tandberg, Spurs sit third in the table ahead of both Manchester United and Arsenal.

Martin only made one change to the starting XI from the previous weekend’s successful lineup. Ash Neville made her long-awaited season debut after an injury-marred September. She replaced Josefine Rybrink, who it should be noted is a more natural center back than fullback.

The game opened with an uncharacteristic error from Toko Koga. While the slip was unlike her, the way she threw her whole body on top of the ball to protect it was very quick thinking, which does seem to be a specialty of hers. Thankfully, the whole sequence went unpunished. Things improved from there. Jess Naz looked particularly sharp creating danger on the wing. Jess’ hard work ultimately led to our goal. She smartly tucked in to provide Olivia Holdt with an outlet and made a run ahead to receive the ball back. Jess’ cross across the mouth of the goal was dangerous, and Tinka Tandberg made no mistake with the back post finish. Brighton had plenty of attacking juice throughout the half, though Spurs did enough to keep them out. They nearly equalized on a corner just before the whistle, but Lize Kop collected the ball and kept things safe.

Ho was once again generous with his second half substitutions — Matilda Vinberg replaced Olivia Holdt in the 66th minute. Olga Ahtinen and Martha Thomas replaced Drew Spence and Tinka Tandberg in the 72nd, and Charli Grant in for Jess Naz in the 88th minute. Brighton gave us a bit more trouble throughout the half. They put their best chance at an equalizer wide when a more lethal side (ahem, Manchester City) might’ve capitalized, but in the end, we held on for the win.

Thoughts

First of all let me start with something we don’t get to say very often. HELL YEAH we’re ahead of Manchester United and Arsenal in the table, my two most hated sides of all time. This team (minus Toko Koga and Tinka Tandberg) looked the part in 11th last season, so either Martin Ho is a good wizard or Bob Vilahamn is an evil one. You decide.

But I don’t want to give Martin Ho all the credit (or Robert all the blame). I’ve been saying this literally every game, but our new signings are seriously nice. If we had to only make two of them, at least it was two absolute gems. On the other end of things, some Spurs Women veterans turned in excellent performances today. It was fantastic to see Ash back in the side. When the season started and she wasn’t making the bench, I was a little bit worried Martin was in the process of banishing her for unknown reasons. I am so glad this wasn’t the case, and I’m not surprised. Ash has shown her adaptability over the years in a number of different leagues, a number of different managers and a number of different positions.

Jess Naz was also a standout, ultimately collecting the player of the match award. Fully deserved — she’s shown a real progression these last few games, getting more and more involved, growing in confidence carrying the ball, and making better decisions. Long may the upward trajectory continue!!

Next weekend will probably not be so successful. We head to Chelsea, a team that has won the league for so many consecutive years I’ve literally lost count. If we want to get anything out of it, we’ll need to be defensively perfect all day, and of course, we’ll need a moment of magic in attack (Tinka, that’s your music). Although we’ve beaten all the comparable or worse sides so far this season, we got absolutely smushed by Manchester City. I’m looking at Chelsea as an opportunity to see what Martin has learned from that game.

And who knows? Maybe this will be the time we pull one over on Chelsea. It’s early days, but maybe Martin Ho is starting to make me believe.

Tottenham Hotspur had a lot going against it — an away match against a newly promoted opponent that is playing well and is unbeaten at home in their last 23 matches. Oh, and there was a European away fixture a few days ago AND an upcoming international break. The negative karma was off the scale as Spurs traveled to Elland Road.

Spurs said “forget all that.” Tottenham two club debut goals today, one from Mathys Tel and one from Mohammed Kudus, and Spurs held on for a 1-2 away win over Leeds to put them, at least temporarily, into second place in the Premier League table.

Was it a great performance? Probably not. There’s lots to criticize if you want to. But for THIS Spurs team in these conditions and with the injuries they already have, it’s a very solid result, and one I honestly did not see coming. It’s a good win that I think Spurs will point to with satisfaction later in the season.

It’s time to rate the players.

Rate the players from 1⁄2 to 5 stars. If the player doesn’t deserve a rating due to minutes played, DO NOT RANK. I will round the stars up/down to the nearest half-star for the player ratings later this week.

If you’re on mobile or found this via AMP and the survey isn’t appearing below, here’s a direct link.

With yet another international break looming, Tottenham Hotspur headed to Elland Road to take on Leeds United, a venue where the home side had not lost a league match in over a year. Spurs would have been hoping this match could be a return to form following the stodgy performances of recent weeks, and though not all questions were answered by the performance, there was enough there to at least silence those asking temporarily.

Thomas Frank made a number of changes following Spurs’ Champions League draw against Bodo/Glimt in midweek: Mathys Tel made a rare start up top for Richarlison; Destiny Udogie and Cristian Romero returned at the back; and Joao Palhinha, Mohammed Kudus, and Xavi Simons also made the XI, at the expense of Pape Matar Sarr, Lucas Bergvall, and Brennan Johnson. The rotation initially appeared to present itself as a lack of cohesion, with Spurs starting the match a bit off the pace, before things developed into more of an end-to-end affair. Leeds should have opened the scoring: Spurs alum Joe Rodon clattered the far post with a header off a free kick that Guglielmo Vicario misjudged; but instead, Spurs took first advantage, as Mathys Tel drove into the Leeds penalty area after being fed by Kudus and took a speculative shot at goal. The attempt deflected off the leg of Pascal Struijk, which was enough to tip the ball over the outstretched palm of Karl Darlow in goal.

The opportunities for either side didn’t stop there, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin presented with a chance following a Spurs giveaway, and Kudus slicing an opportunity well wide after being teed up by Destiny Udogie. Leeds, however, were the next side to hit the back of the net, as Brenden Aaronson gave himself enough space for a shot following Calvert-Lewin’s knock-down. Aaronson’s effort deflected off Romero’s leg, meaning Vicario could only palm it out into a dangerous area, and Noah Okafor was on hand for a tap-in.

With the score one apiece going into the second half, Spurs began to take more of an ascendancy, albeit with Leeds still offering a threat. Vicario made an excellent kick save on a Calvert-Lewin shot, before Leeds fizzed a cross across the face of Spurs’ goal, in some nervy moments for the Lilywhite defense. Instead of capitulating, though, Spurs struck at the other end. Kudus dribbled at Struijk, before unleashing a strike from the top of the 18-yard area through the legs of the Dutch defender. It took a slight deflection and nestled just inside the right upright.

From there, Thomas Frank opted to shift to defensive mode, bringing in reinforcements via way of the bench. Daniel Farke also pulled from his bench as his side hunted for a goal, but Spurs held firm outside of a couple of half-chances and one very good Vicario save off another Calvert-Lewin shot. After a late flurry of Leeds set pieces, the referee blew the whistle and Spurs took a hard-fought 2-1 win into the break.

Reactions

It’s nice to secure another three points, rather than just one.

There seemed to be a bit more cohesion this time around for Spurs in their build-up, though things still aren’t great in that respect. The left side interplay between Xavi Simons, Destiny, and Wilson Odobert especially was really good, and it seemed should have generated more shooting opportunities.

That said, Xavi was often having to drop VERY deep to pick up the ball because the midfield double pivot just could not find him. I’m still not a fan of playing Bentancur and Palhinha together for this reason, especially as it didn’t even seem to give Spurs that much in the way of defensive solidity today.

Xavi, though. He is a lot of fun to watch. Keep playing him at the #10, Thomas.

Destiny Udogie was really good today. He’s won his starting spot back as far as I’m concerned, though obviously Frank will continue to rotate as needed.

Though you can certainly be critical of Guglielmo Vicario for that early Rodon chance, it’s hard to be too harsh on him for Leeds’ goal, considering the deflection - though I have seen some fans do so anyway. He really came to the fore though as the match progressed, making a number of excellent saves.

It’s kinda weird that all three goals came from deflections, right? That can’t be a hugely common occurrence.

The refereeing. Hoo boy. Way to call absolutely nothing for around half an hour then wonder why all the players start clattering each other. Then immediately start calling absolutely everything. The players were clearly confused, as the way this match was refereed was all over the place for both sides. Get some consistency! There were a couple of flashpoints that could have been avoided.

Hey, three points before an international break… and Spurs are temporarily up to second! COYS!

After a couple of scratchy performances and three draws from four matches, Tottenham Hotspur will be looking for a statement performance today against Leeds United. The Lilywhites have struggled for cohesion of late, and it could be that a match against a promoted side could present as something of a palate cleanser.

Unfortunately, the promoted sides in this 2025/26 instance of the Premier League seem to not be the pushovers seen in recent years, with Leeds only losing two of six fixtures thus far. Elland Road is never the easiest place to visit either, so this match is certainly not going to be a cakewalk for Thomas Frank’s side.

Here’s hoping for some fluency and focus, and three well-earned points!

COYS!

Lineups

Lineups will be posted closer to kick-off.

Live Blog

How to Watch

Leeds United vs. Tottenham Hotspur

Elland Road, Leeds, UK

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Time: 7:30 a.m. ET, 12:30 p.m. UK

TV: USA Network, TNT Sports 1 (UK). Check international listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming: nbcsports.com

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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Along those lines, outright abuse of players or match officials is also not allowed. It’s fine to say “wow, that was a really bad call,” but it’s NOT okay to direct copious amounts of abuse in the direction of said official over a call you did not like.

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Have fun, and COYS!