Cartilage Free Captain

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”

“We have one training session. If we have training here and we want to do a little bit of tactical, with all due respect I think it would be a little bit more obvious what we would do. That’s the thing we like to keep for ourselves. Then, yes, you can say if we train here for how long we are allowed, 45 minutes, Is that going to make a difference? I know the surface is different. If you really want to get used to it, I think you need to train here day in, day out as Bodo do. We are ready for that challenge. But for me, mainly, mainly, mainly, it was the tactical reason.”

“Yeah, I’ve looked at that game [in May], of course. But I’ve also looked at a lot of other Bodø games. I think they’re a fantastic team. I think their club is fantastic. I think their story is unique in many ways. I’m pretty sure that the whole of Europe knows about Bodø, because I think it’s a little bit of a fairytale. I like, of course, that Scandinavian link between Denmark and Norway.

“So of course I follow them a little bit, maybe a tiny bit closer, and the background I’m coming from, to see how they have built that club through years of some core group of people, aligning strategy, structure, hard work over years.

“And then just build a smaller club suddenly to be the absolute force in Norway and now competing in the Europe over many seasons. That’s extremely impressive, I think. Kjetil Knutsen and his staff is remarkable, what they have done. Their style of play is quite unique in many ways. Extremely well-coached team. Big praise, I admire them a lot.”

The first proper month of the EFL Championship has come and gone, which means now is a perfect time to check out what’s going on in the second tier of the English footballing pyramid. It’s early days, I know, but there are some storylines worth looking at regardless.

Sheffield United disasterclass

This is a shockingly bad start to the season.

United sit bottom of the table at 1-0-6 and sacked Ruben Selles only to bring back Chris Wilder (now in his third stint at the club). He finally delivered the club their first win of the campaign with a 1-0 victory at Oxford United.

This is a club that finished third last season, by the way, and were a little unlucky to not get promotion to the Premier League. I trust Wilder to ensure they’re nowhere near the relegation zone, but the season already looks lost.

Surprises in the top half

I’m looking at Stoke City, Preston North End, Charlton and QPR here.

I haven’t had the chance to watch any of these teams, unfortunately, so I can’t say why they’re in the top half or - in Stoke City’s case - the top three. But I think it’s fair to say they’re all outperforming expectations so far.

A fast start for Boro

Rob Edwards has got Middlesbrough clicking, and they’re already off to a great start on 17 points (four clear of second place).

They’ve got some impressive wins including over West Brom and Millwall, too.

EFL Championship top six:

Boro (17 Pts, +7 GD)

Coventry (13 Pts, +11 GD)

Stoke (13 Pts, +5 GD)

Bristol City (12 Pts, +6 GD)

Leicester (12 Pts, +3 GD)

Preston (12 Pts, +2 GD)

EFL Championship bottom three:

Oxford United (5 Pts, -2 GD)

Wednesday (5 Pts, -7 GD)

Sheffield United (3 Pts, -11 GD)

Fitzie’s track of the day: Poinciana, by Ahmad Jamal

And now for your links:

BBC: “‘I’m in a stable environment’ - Frank comfortable with Spurs ownership”

Football London: “Why Brennan Johnson screamed at Joao Palhinha and what Thomas Frank shouted at Tottenham players”

Jack P-B ($$): “How Tottenham sacked Daniel Levy – and how they’ve filled the void in the weeks since”

The Guardian: “Welcome to West Ham, Nuno, the crisis club with no vision and no structure”

It was easy to get caught up in the moment near the end of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-1 home draw against Wolves. After all that was a lovely guided shot by Joao Palhinha to earn a last-gasp point against the team currently winless and at the bottom of the table, and the celebration was so… exuberant. That, plus the obvious BEEFCAKE, meant a lot of last minute celebrations. And celebrations are fun! We should do that more often!

But let’s not pretend like this was a good match of football. It was not. Tottenham were set up poorly, played even worse, and needed a last second goal from the most unlikely of goal-scorers on the team to avoid a hugely humiliating loss. In fact, the draw itself is still pretty embarrassing. You can kinda understand the smattering of boos that rained down from the home crowd at full time.

But on the bright side, a draw is better than a loss, right? And Spurs are still looking like a team that should be in the mix for a 5-7 finish in the Premier League, and that’s before their stars like Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison come back. So are these the dog days one must endure in order to get to the part where the team figures out Thomas Frank’s tactics, and Frank learns what his best team actually is? Let’s hope so.

Today’s theme is a look-back. I’ve been doing these articles since I took over as blog manager in October, 2014. With a few exceptions (most notably “Ratings to the Theme of Managers to Replace Jose Mourinho” which I did at least twice times mostly as a troll), they’ve been unique. And that’s hard! Sometimes these pieces are fun, sometimes they’re weird, and sometimes they’re controversial. We’re focusing on the latter today — player ratings that sparked so much conversation that they completely eclipsed the actual match we were supposed to be discussing. I couldn’t find the source articles for a couple of them, but the old-heads in the chat will remember, as does the streets.

Here are your Tottenham Hotspur player ratings to the theme of controversial player ratings themes. Time to get meta.

Shout out to the time, more than a decade ago, when I did a player rating article to the theme of Pets, and put cats at 5 stars. The comments are, alas, lost to the mists of time (and Coral) but the number eclipsed 2000, most of them yelling at me for hating dogs. Well guess what: I was right, cats rule. Suck it, haters.

No Tottenham players in this category.

I can’t find the original article, nor can I recall offhand what I put at the top (knowing me probably Kansas City because it is legit the best, fight me) but I distinctly recall having to shut the comments down at one point. I probably should’ve known better. I, a fledgling blog manager newly at the top spot of the masthead, naïvely thought this community at that time could handle some robust discussion. I got the robust discussion part right at least.

No Tottenham players in this category, either.

At the time I wrote this article, rating IPA at 3 stars was super controversial, as this was 2015, the height of the IPA craze when everyone was trying to cram the dankest pine trees into every bottle. Nowadays I feel like these ratings might be closer to modern sensibilities and less controversial, but at the time I got yelled at a LOT for not ranking IPAs higher, or every beer style, actually.

Mohammed Kudus (Community — 3.0): Tried a bunch of stuff. Scored from an offside position and later had a header tipped off the bar and out. But frequently tried one or two too many dribbles when actually passing to a dude would’ve been the better choice. I appreciate his dribbling. I would like him to pick his head up a little more sometimes.

Pineapple on pizza: it’s fine! - the greatest thread in the history of forums, locked by a moderator after 12,239 pages of heated debate

Guglielmo Vicario (Community — 3.0): I don’t think there was a ton he could do to avoid the goal considering his save deflected off of Palhinha and to an open Wolves player point blank. That said, he was shaky playing out of the back again as well.

Djed Spence (Community — 3.0): Not terrible, but I don’t think he’ll be putting anything on social media about his defense after this week. Utterly bizarre that he’s seemingly better not on his natural side.

Cuti Romero (Community — 3.0): He was fine.

Micky van de Ven (Community — 3.5): He was probably a little better than fine, but this was WOLVES, ferchrissake, so he’s was just fine.

Destiny Udogie (Community — 3.0): Took a step backwards from Wednesday against Doncaster, which makes sense since Wolves are better than Doncaster. Wasteful going forward, but decent defensively.

Lucas Bergvall (Community — 3.0): A real uneven performance. Ineffective when playing as an 8, tried a bunch of stuff that sometimes came off and sometimes didn’t as a 10. Showed a nice relationship building with Kudus at times, faded badly in the second half.

Why this theme? It was Monday, I was stuck, and I had two young kids. But seriously, why? Dude, you try writing this theme weekly for over a decade without repeating yourself. Sometimes you end up writing about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, and at the end of the day you still feel good about yourself.

Rodrigo Bentancur (Community — 2.5): Whoof. Honestly, if we’re going to rate that Spurs midfield, I think the bulk of the criticism should go to Lolo, who looked a mess, doing all of the busywork defensive stuff that Palhinha does and none of the ball progression that Palhinha also doesn’t do, just without the rad goal to go with it.

Xavi Simons (Community — 2.5): He was trying stuff and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, the stuff he was trying just wasn’t very good stuff.

Pedro Porro (Community — 2.5): Glad he got a bit of a rest, but wish he’d have had more of an impact when he came on.

There was one week where, after yet another player ratings thread with 500+ comments arguing about the stupidest shit, I made the comment that ‘Y’all would argue about igneous rocks.“ The week after, I tested that theory. To this community’s credit, you definitely tried.

Richarlison (Community — 2.5): Might have been the worst player out there, though he was in pretty good company, especially in the second half. Almost completely absent, though it should be noted he also wasn’t getting service from the midfield.

Brennan Johnson (Community — 2.0): Did he even touch the ball? He probably did, I just don’t remember it.

Thomas Frank (Community — 2.5): While I realize his hands were somewhat tied due to injury and rotation concerns, playing a Palhinha-Bentancur midfield with Xavi left against Wolves instead of an extra attacker showed the limitations of trying to play for a 1-0 win instead of actually going for it. His subs were questionable, and too late to be impactful. He needs to find some offense somewhere or I’m going to gouge my eyes out watching this team.

Yep, I phoned this one in, and nope, I regret nothing.

No Tottenham players were as bad as phoning in a player ratings theme after a bad loss.

Tom Carroll Memorial Non-Rating

Pape Matar Sarr, Wilson Odobert, Mathys Tel

Nacer Chadli Memorial Thirst Trap Award

Joao Palhinha (Community — 4.0): What the hell do I do with this guy? Definitely part of the problem in midfield today, but more endemic to the midfield problem rather than the catalyst of it since it’s just a bad idea to play him alongside Bentancur. Was he worse than Bentancur? Maybe. Certainly, at times. Was he better? Well, he scored so yes, but BOY was that midfield bad. Does what limited things he does pretty well, has a goal ricochet off his ass to an open Wolves player, then pops up for one of the raddest guided shots you’ll see in injury time. The guy can do THAT, and score awesome overhead kicks, but can’t pass the ball forward five yards. How do I rate that? I have no idea, so I’m punting, because he unquestionably looks HAWT without a shirt on. Is that worth 4 stars? Y’all think so.

Well, there sure are things to TALK ABOUT in this one, isn’t there? I’m quite certain Joao Palhinha will be the subject of much discussion, both for his goal in Tottenham Hotspur’s last-gasp 1-1 draw against Wolves at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and for…. uh, other reasons. Despite the dramatic last minute goal, more than a few boos rained down from the home fans as Spurs played arguably their worst match of the season. But there’s plenty of poor performances to talk about in this one — pick a few of them and head to the comments.

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.

Is Dr. Tottenham in the house?

Tottenham Hotspur, hosting winless Wolverhampton Wanderers, looked as if they had handed Wolves their first points of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign in a messy affair, before a late goal from Joao Palhinha spared Spurs their blushes and rescued a point in what should have been a winnable match for Thomas Frank’s side. Frank named a strong side, with only two changes from the previous Premier League fixture against Brighton: Djed Spence and Xavi Simons came in for Wilson Odobert and Pedro Porro, the Spaniard getting a well-deserved rest.

Both sides troubled the woodwork in a first half that was largely dominated by Spurs. After both Wolves and the Lilywhites struggled to impose themselves in the opening stanzas, Spurs were soon in control, playing most of the half in Wolves’ defensive third. Mohammed Kudus, who was excellent early on, should have made the net ripple as he headed a Xavi Simons cross goalwards but for an excellent save from Sam Johnstone, palming the ball onto the crossbar. Spurs alum Matt Doherty had a chance of his own, volleying a flick-on from a set piece only to hit the post just before the half-time whistle blew.

Kudus’ header wasn’t Spurs’ only chance of the half either. Lucas Bergvall found himself in space in the penalty area, only to swing his boot at thin air, before Kudus had the ball in the back of the net following a lovely one-two move with Bergvall down the right. The Ghanaian was clearly offside, and the linesman raised his flag accordingly, but it was a sign of what this Spurs side can offer going forward. Spurs also had a penalty shout: Joao Palhinha went down after receiving a boot to the ribs from Marshall Munetsi, but VAR determined the contact was too inconsequential to award a spot kick and both sides went to the break goalless, with Spurs later regretting their profligacy in attack.

Wolves looked to create some impetus at the break, making two half-time substitutions with Emmanuel Agbadou and Jackson Tchatchoua coming in for Matt Doherty and Hwang Hee-chan. The changes paid dividends almost immediately, with Wolves opening the scoring. Spurs failed to deal with a corner, as Ladislav Krejci flicked the ball on. Santiago Bueno couldn’t reach the bouncing ball with his outstretched boot, but Guglielmo Vicario’s parry ricocheted off Palhinha, before Bueno reacted fastest to tap the ball in.

Spurs responded with a double change of their own: Pedro Porro and Brennan Johnson entered the fray for Djed Spence and Rodrigo Bentancur as Frank’s side searched for a goal. It seemed as if it was to no avail though, as Spurs arguably looked even worse following the changes, struggling to find any sort of fluidity or cutting edge. Late introductions of Pape Matar Sarr, Wilson Odobert, and Mathys Tel didn’t make much of a difference either, with the home side continuing to look disjointed and frustrated.

That all changed in the final minute of added time. Mathys Tel looked to curl a cross into the box. Underhit, all Sarr could do was body the ball back to Palhinha on the edge of the 18-yard area. The Portuguese midfielder though stroked the ball beautifully through a crowd of defenders into the back of the net with Johnstone left scrambling, leaving the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium crowd in raptures. Frank celebrated, Vitor Pereira fumed, and the match finished a goal apiece.

Reactions

What a rollercoaster. It was a strong first half from Spurs, but they really struggled to adjust to Wolves’ changes in the second half. But hey, the way that was going I will take a point!

Wolves’ switch to a back three seemed to throw out all of Spurs’ pressing and build-up patterns, and due to Spurs’ positioning meant Wolves all of a sudden were far more well-placed to jump on second balls, in contrast to the first half.

Thomas Frank has to do better in preparing his side for these situations, or at least in making mid-match adjustments. It was probably 30 minutes before Spurs looked somewhat comfortable; a better side would have maximized their advantage far more and the match would have been out of reach.

Seemed a bit of an odd decision to start both Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur against a side always likely to sit deep and defend. Sitting one of those two and playing Lucas at the #8 and Xavi at the #10 would likely have done wonders for Spurs’ fluidity through the middle. Xavi especially has looked so much more comfortable in the center of the park in his time at Spurs, as he looked out of place today on the left before tiring in the second half.

But hey! It was sure good having Palhinha still on the pitch late on! Frank knows ball, I guess. I found Palhinha frustrating in a bunch of ways today, but the guy has shown thus far this season he is extremely cool in front of goal, which is not something I expected!

It was good to see Pedro Porro get at least some rest. Man looked like his legs were about to fall off against Doncaster.

There’s still some worrying signs here with regards to the attack. Sure, it’s still early days, but Spurs need better ideas to create chances when chasing a match than just pumping crosses into the box and hoping.

Also - I am getting really sick of Spurs knocking the ball around in their own half when time is almost up and there’s still a chance to take all three points. It’s not the first time it’s happened this season, and Wilson Odobert dallying on the ball for a good thirty seconds drove me nuts. Lump it forward!

The fixtures don’t let up from here: Spurs head to the far north midweek to take on last season’s Europa League opponents in the form of Bodo/Glimt.

One point gained, or two points dropped? You decide. COYS!

“The latest is that everyone who was available for the last Premier League game is available again. Midweek Pape was out as a precaution. He was good, he trained today and that is positive.

Kolo Muani is just a dead leg which is dragging on. It’s a little bit annoying. It will take a few more days so he will not be available. Dom is not available. It’s an ankle injury which has just been a little bit tricky. It’s nothing big. We are positive it will be relatively quick.

“Dom has been running a lot and done a lot, so he’s in a fine-ish place. Of course it will still take a few weeks to get up to a good place. And Kolo Muani has been off the grass for a couple of weeks and it will take some weeks after that.”

“We are facing a good Wolves side. I think everyone is aware that they haven’t had their best start in terms of points. When you look at their performances, they are much better. They are much tighter games. You can see the games they have lost, except the City game, is very super tight. So I expect a very difficult game. This is a team that the last five times we haven’t been able to beat. So I think we are very fully aware that this is another game in the Premier League [where] you can take nothing for granted. You can’t just think you can walk over any opponent. So we need to come flying out and be ready for it. We need the fans behind us. They need to back us every single second of the match. But I’m very confident, I’m positive that we’ll go out and perform well tomorrow.

“We always look backwards. We don’t look into the next game. Every game has got its own life. Every game has got its own story. You know, you’ve asked me these questions before in the past. I was thinking is it best to face a team that’s been unbeaten in 10 games or a team that haven’t won in 10 games? I don’t know and I actually don’t care. I just know we prepare for Wolves. We look at their strength and the areas where we think we could potentially hurt them. And then I think it’s good that our players are in a good place. They are confident but also know that we need to work very hard. It’s not going to be easy. And also, they know the stat as well that we haven’t beaten them the last five times.”

I wasn’t going to write about this. I didn’t want to. I still don’t. But circumstances, specifically a genuine statement from Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, have kind of forced my hand here here and now I feel like this needs to be addressed on one of the most prominent Spurs blogs on the internet.

So, fine. You win. Let’s talk about Brooklyn Earick.

Last night the Sun reported that a consortium of investors had made a “stunning” offer to purchase Tottenham Hotspur for a total package worth a reported £4.5b. Even that figure is a little suspicious — the bid for the club itself was (and I use the past tense here deliberately, we’ll get to that) £3.3b, with an additional £1.2b allocated for “the player budget.” There is also, as part of the bid, a £25om stadium sponsorship deal, with the sponsor not listed, and all of which is put together in a plan Earick calls “Tottenham 3.0.”

The consortium is led by Brooklyn Earick, whom the Sun calls a “tech entrepeneur,” but his background is uhhhhhh a fair bit more colorful than that. Earick, born in Ohio, is a “former DJ” who then spent some time as an intern at NASA in the small spacecraft division. Notably, I’m not able to find any suggestions that Earick’s time at NASA ever went beyond the internship, but he used that experience to shift into tech, where he was involved in the development of apps “Phoodie,” a social media app for foodies, and “Littlstar,” a streaming app now called “rad.”, which near as I can tell is a YouTube clone that has a premium service which you can subscribe to by purchasing an NFT with Etherium. He reportedly made his money in tech investments, notably NFTs, and founded Redacted RnD, a tech, entertainment, and sports media company which describes itself as “a thought leader in blockchain innovation and digital assets,” and Algorith Capital, an investment fund.

You really, really need to check out his Instagram. If “tech bro” had a pictorial definition, it would be this guy’s social media.

The Sun report has a quote from someone, unknown, inside Earick’s orbit who had this to say about the Spurs bid:

“Brooklyn and his team think everything is in place at Tottenham already. Spurs has a world class stadium and training ground, the infrastructure is all in place. But with the investment they are ready to make, it will be the final step to turn the club into winners on the pitch as well.”

Now look, someone could probably put out a decent argument that Earick’s bid for Tottenham Hotspur was genuine and earnest, and that, like Todd Boehly’s consortium at Chelsea, he could bring a fresh and transformative approach to leadership, effectively taking Spurs into its next successful era.

I just wouldn’t believe you. Here’s why.

For starters, consortium or no consortium, there is precisely zero evidence that the Earick bid is backed by enough actual capital to make a purchase bid even remotely feasible. Especially notable is that Earick is the only consortium member worth noting by the Sun in their report, though it makes an offhand nod towards unnamed “NBA and NFL investors,” a phrase that can literally mean anything. Earick’s actual net worth is, to put it both mildly and generously, difficult to pin down, but there doesn’t appear to be anything actually there. I’m sure he’s rich. There doesn’t seem to be any evidence he’s “buy-Tottenham-Hotspur-rich.”

And Earick also has priors — in March, Earick was apparently close to purchasing a Maserati MSG-owned Formula E team, only for the entire thing to collapse like a house of cards at the last minute despite Earick being described as “Maserati MSG Chairman and CEO” in the days leading up to the deal’s completion. The reasons for the deal’s collapse is delightfully vague.

The transaction is believed to have been dependent on certain criteria being met by the proposed new owner this month.

However, these obligations are believed to have not been met, meaning that the deal has not gone through. A consequent extrication from the takeover plan is now being executed.

The Race understands that part of Earick’s plan was to introduce some celebrity music industry personalities to the team.

It is also notable that Earick’s ACTUAL (proposed) bid of £3.3b is precisely the amount of money that Spurs were said to be soliciting this past summer when they were looking for minority investment (Spurs valued £3.3b as 10% of total club shares), and that Earick’s consortium interest comes immediately after the club made it crystal clear that it was not for sale. So the proposed bid is not only designed to be rejected, but also not even close to the amount needed to actually purchase a controlling stake in the club.

All of this brings me to a couple of pretty obvious conclusions: This is not a serious person, and this is not a serious bid.

The good news is that Tottenham Hotspur agrees with me. The club have made the extraordinary step of making a public statement categorically rejecting the interest from Earick’s consortium one day after this news broke, even though they never actually submitted a bid – only registered interest.

“The Board of Tottenham Hotspur Limited is aware of recent media speculation and confirms that its majority shareholder, ENIC Sports & Developments Holdings Ltd, has received, and unequivocally rejected, an informal expression of interest in relation to a proposal to acquire the entire issued, and to be issued, share capital of the Club from a consortium led by Mr Brooklyn Earick.

”The Board of the Club and ENIC reconfirm that Tottenham Hotspur is not for sale and ENIC is not looking to sell its stake in the Club.”

Moreover, the Lewis Family went one step further, making a direct statement about the Earick interest, and it’s delicious.

“This unsolicited and unnecessary interest does nothing to change the family’s resolve and commitment to do whatever it takes to drive success on the pitch. The club is not for sale.”

These are extraordinary statements, as Spurs are rejecting an obviously risible bid without actually any due diligence, because apparently none is needed. That said, Earick has managed to get the ninth richest football club in the world to mention him by name in a press release rejecting an unserious offer to purchase the club, and in certain corners of business that’s really all you need to call… whatever it is Earick just did a “win.”

I don’t know what kind of a person Brooklyn Earick is. I don’t know him, I don’t especially want to know him, but I certainly know his TYPE, and my opinion of that type isn’t very high. I think it’s pretty clear that Earick did not make a serious offer to purchase Tottenham Hotspur, did not expect his interest to be welcomed or his (future) bid accepted, and that he wouldn’t have had the first idea of how to actually run a football club if by some miracle he did actually end up succeeding. Nothing in his background or publicly available history makes me think that this is the kind of person who would not a) suddenly run out of money because reasons, and/or b) lose total interest in the club as soon as the next shiny object came into his field of view.

What I can surmise, however, is that this approach will do a lot to raise his public profile, which is I would hazard the entire point of the enterprise. As a football club bid, Earick’s approach is garbage. It’s not even worth talking about, and I’ve just spent 1300 words writing about why that’s the case. As a name-recognition PR stunt, however, it’s pretty impressive. Put it another way, I wouldn’t trust this guy to run Fyre Fest, much less the 9th richest club in world football, but I bet he’s going to parlay this into any number of future investment possibilities involving dumb rich people who will recognize his name as “the guy who tried to buy Tottenham.”

Tottenham Hotspur will be sold, eventually. Nobody knows when that will actually happen. The Lewis Family Trust is speaking of their ownership in terms of generations, not in terms of years, so it’s quite possible that sale may not be for a very, very long time. But the world of finance moves quickly, and who knows what will happen in the future; these kinds of stories will never fully go away and we can look forward to seeing them pop up again and again in the future.

But I think I can safely put this particular story to bed — Brooklyn Earick is not going to be the next majority owner of Tottenham Hotspur, and never was. That’s just fine with me.

West Ham’s struggles are hilarious, Villa’s slow start is surprising, but the 0-0-5 opening from Wolverhampton Wanderers is neither celebratory nor undeserved. Wolves do have a pair of League Cup wins over Premier League sides, including a 2-0 victory over Everton on Tuesday, but everything else has been alarming and depressing to start off the 2025/26 campaign.

The same cannot be said for Tottenham Hotspur, despite its blemish against Brighton over the weekend. Even in a 2-2 draw, Spurs showed reasons for promise as the season goes on, and following that up with a clean performance would justify that comeback even further. The task at hand feels very achievable, leaving no room for missing the mark.

Match Details

Date: Saturday, September 27

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

Location: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London

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

Table: Tottenham (t-2nd, 10 pts), Wolves (20th, 0 pts)

Wolves won 4-2 at Molineux last April, with goals by Mathys Tel and Richarlison not enough to overcome a rough defensive showing. That made it five straight matches in this fixture without a Tottenham win, including a 2-2 draw in North London last December. Rodrigo Bentancur and Brennan Johnson were the scorers that day, but an equalizer from Jorgen Strand Larsen in the 87th minute epitomized Spurs’ struggles last season.

Three Big Questions

Will Wolves even try to attack? With three goals in five league matches, Wolves are 18th in goals scored and 17th in xG. Losses against City and Newcastle were fairly lopsided, and one has to question how much the gameplan will really deviate from sitting back and playing for a draw, especially with some more reasonable matches following this one.

Still, Wolves are near league average in shots on target and average possession (48 percent) and did score three against West Ham and twice against Everton in League Cup fixtures, so the potential is there. Strand Larsen remains the biggest threat; he finished his opportunities against the Hammers to score a brace last month and historically has been fairly clinical.

Can Spurs keep another clean sheet? Regardless of Strand Larsen’s ability, Tottenham should really be seeking out its fourth clean sheet through six league matches (and sixth out of eight total). Brighton away is a tricky fixture — and the conceded goals were a terrifying reminder of last season — but on the whole this year’s defense has been much more reliable. Against a struggling attack, there is no reason for Thomas Frank’s side to have any sort of trouble.

Aside from the clean sheet itself, a reduction (or elimination) of individual errors feels like the key to truly move past the woes of the past couple seasons. With Wolves Saturday, Leeds next weekend, and Glimt in between, this is a good opportunity for the entire XI to show some discipline and consistency. Given the professional wins against Burnley and West Ham, I expect that to be the case, but any more sloppiness should cause some concern.

How clinical can the home side be? As the visitors should not threaten significantly, the hope is that Frank is willing to feature midfielders who err on the side of creativity and progression, as opposed to ensuring a rigorous defense is in place. Spurs have scored a healthy number of goals, but it is not hard to envision this squad struggling to break down lower sides with ease, as a complete attacking performance has been tough to come by.

Frank has yet to find the perfect combination of attackers but has the luxury of the next three fixtures to tinker a bit and figure out the right components. Odds are Wolves will concede some chances, so it will be up to Tottenham to actually take advantage of them. Convert the good looks and this should be a very comfortable three points.

It was an eventful summer transfer window for Tottenham Hotspur, to say the least. A number of “sagas” rumbled on, with mixed results: Morgan Gibbs-White stayed at Nottingham Forest after Spurs bid his release clause; Eberechi Eze seemed close to signing with Spurs before sensationally signing with North London rivals Arsenal; and a furor full of uncertainty around attacking midfield talent Xavi Simons resulted in Spurs landing their target over big spenders Chelsea.

One Spurs target it seemed the club were destined to get across the line but never did was Savinho. The Brazilian winger seemed incredibly close to signing a deal to head to N17, but reports indicated interference from Manchester City at board level prevented a deal from being completed, despite Spurs offering a hefty sum. By all accounts, Savinho was frustrated by City’s unwillingness to come to the table - especially in a World Cup year - indicating that there could still be an opportunity for Spurs to secure their target when the transfer window reopens in January (or beyond).

Not so, according to Fabrizio Romano:

Despite his chagrin at missing out on a move to Tottenham Hotspur, Savinho is reportedly in negotiations with City for a new contract - meaning a likely end to any future pursuit from Spurs, with the young Brazilian firmly out of their price range.

Savinho, I am disappoint.

Look, we don’t often like using Fab as a primary source for a number of reasons; one of which being he will apparently post pretty much anything fed to him by agents, whose agendas aren’t always aligned with factual reporting. It does though mean he gets a lot right, and it does seem notable that Romano is putting this out there; it’s in line with the sort of thing on which he tends to receive an inside scoop, and without the motivation to mislead or negotiate in the press. It just straight seems like if Savinho is going to be forced to stay at City, he may as well get paid.

I’m not going to lie; I would have loved to see Savinho in Lilywhite. I still would! I believe a player of his ilk starting on the left wing would really unlock the attack in this burgeoning Thomas Frank side, an attack that hasn’t exactly been fluid or productive, despite the encouraging results. If Frank still sees a starting winger as a need, however, it seems that Spurs will have to set their sights elsewhere.