Cartilage Free Captain

Good day, Tottenham Hotspur fans! Spurs lost another match on Saturday, falling to Newcastle 2-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. That said, except for the usual loud idiots on X, the reaction to this loss was much more one of pride and support rather than anger. Spurs played half the match with no recognized central defenders, 11 players out injured or ill with a virus, and they still took the match right at Toon and were unfortunate not to earn a point for their efforts — especially due to some, let’s call them “unfortunate”, decisions from the match official.

Today’s theme is just a silly one: in honor of Spurs’ newest signing, we’re rating players to the “Kinsky Scale,” a totally real and not at all made up scale that’s all about rating goalkeeper playing styles and not related to anything else that you can google that might sound similar and may or may not be safe at to view at work. And before anyone gets upset, this is just for fun, there’s nothing here beyond a silly surface-level joke, we’re not making any connections. Also this article is late so whatever.

Will give you a heart attack when they Cruyff turn an attacker in their box before streaking up the pitch on the dribble. Examples: Antonin Kinsky, Manuel Neuer, Spider-Man

Ange Postecoglou (Community — 3.5): Are you not entertained? Mate?

No hesitation to rush out and collect loose balls in midfield. Examples: peak Hugo Lloris, Rene Higuita

No Tottenham players in this category.

Not crazy attacking, but comfortable with the ball at their feet. Examples: Ederson, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marc-Andre ter Stegen

Pedro Porro (Community — 4.0): Really solid match, especially his crossing and passes from the flank into the box. Some very dangerous passing. Anthony Gordon tested him a lot defensively, but this was an overall very good performance.

Archie Gray (Community — 3.5): Honestly, I’m not sure Archie could’ve put in a better shift under the circumstances. Playing alongside Djed Spence, he was composed on the ball, defended well. This kid is special.

Lucas Bergvall (Community — 4.0): Perhaps his best match in a Tottenham shirt. At times showed his youth and inexperience in minor ways but was solid with the ball and at the base of the midfield. Involved in the buildup to Solanke’s goal. Notable that Ange got boos when Lucas was subbed off.

Dominic Solanke (Community — 4.0): On another day he has a hat trick. His headed goal was deceptively difficult, and he had a number of decent looks with his head in this match. Pressed like a monster.

Examples: take your pick of most average Premier League caliber keepers who mostly stay in their area and don’t often go a-rangin’ into midfield.

Brandon Austin (Community — 4.0): We’re not doing half stars today for theme reasons so I’m rating him a little further down than I would otherwise, but he was good! Not much he could do for either Toon goal, but made a couple of good saves and looked competent, if a little nervy, playing out of the back. The sample size is wicked small, but he did not look out of place.

Djed Spence (Community — 3.5): A tale of two halves for Djed. Looked a little suspect while playing at fullback, but was weirdly composed and solid against a good Newcastle attack playing out of position beside Gray.

Pape Sarr (Community — 3.0): A little under his more recent performances, but still covered every inch of grass and had a long shot from the top of the box saved by Dubrovsky.

Dejan Kulusevski (Community — 3.5): Lots of industry but less end product than we’ve seen form him lately.

Sergio Reguilon (Community — 3.0): Credit to Sergio — he’ s not long for this team but he put in a competent shift and showed some real emotion and energy when on the pitch in the second half.

James Maddison (Community — 3.0): Had a few bright moments, none better than that curling shot that went inches wide of the post.

Yves Bissouma (Community — 3.0): He was ok.

Rooted to the stripe. Examples: Jan Oblak, Gianluigi Buffon

Radu Dragusin (Community — 2.5): Feel a little bad putting him this low considering he was likely puking into a trash can at halftime, but he understandably didn’t look his best and had the deflection turned in for a goal by Isak (that would’ve been an own goal). No shade on Radu for obvious reasons, but this wasn’t a great half for him.

Brennan Johnson (Community — 2.5): People get tired of me saying this, but when Brennan isn’t providing goals he often is providing anything. I’m struggling to think of what he actually contributed to this match beyond plonking a rebound shot off the post.

Timo Werner (Community — 2.0): Think he needs to go back to Leipzig, it’s just not working here.

Son Heung-Min (Community — 3.0): Another relatively disappointing display. Still seems like he’s not able to get that half step of space in the box to get a shot off like we’re used to seeing, and just isn’t as sharp going forward.

Examples: a marble column, Ent, Stephen Bywater for Derby

No Tottenham Hotspur players were as bad as planting a tree in goal.

Good news, everyone!

It’s been rumored for a while, but it’s finally happened: Tottenham Hotspur have finally exercised the option in captain Son Heung-min’s contract to extend his stay at the club by another year:

As we entered into January, that meant Sonny also entered into free agent status, in that he was able to negotiate pre-contracts with other clubs ahead of the end of the season. Spurs, obviously wanting to keep their talisman at the the club, acted quickly to ensure Sonny didn’t head elsewhere.

Keeping Son around, at least in the short term, is clearly a good thing. Even though we have seen some signs of physical decline, he has adapted his game well, with the second-most big chances created from open play in the Premier League (after Mo Salah). He is (obviously) a leader in the dressing room, his enthusiasm and determination is infectious, and he is one of the best finishers in the game. And that’s with him being absolutely exhausted after being run into the ground by club and country over a number of years!

What is interesting though is there had been rumors floating around over the last 12 months that Spurs were in negotiations with Son around a new contract; rumors that haven’t come to fruition. That could portend that the end of Sonny’s time at Spurs may be closer than we think. It is possible a deal of some sort is still in the pipeline; but it could be equally possible that the Spurs hierarchy feel the writing is on the wall as to Son’s future at the top level and are beginning to plan for a Tottenham Hotspur FC without him.

That’s a sobering thought - but nothing lasts forever. Son’s contract now runs to the summer of 2026, so let’s just enjoy it while it lasts, shall we?

We’re a little halfway through the EFL Championship season, and it appears we’re seeing some legitimate separation towards the top of the table. But before we get there, a couple notable managerial changes:

First - Wayne Rooney has left Plymouth Argyle by mutual consent. It was a long time coming, frankly, and perhaps only Neil Warnock can save the club from relegation. Meanwhile, Carlos Cobreran departed West Brom to manage Valencia in a huge blow to the Baggie’s promotion hopes. They are 1-2-1 since his departure and have fallen out of the race for the automatics.

As you can see from the table below, the race for automatic promotion is down to four clubs: Leeds, Burnley, Sheffield United and Sunderland. The latter two clubs were relegated from the PL last year, while Leeds just missed out on securing promotion.

Only three points separate them all, but Leeds and Burnley have been the two most consistent clubs this seaosn. Leeds are the only squad to have scored more than 40 goals, whilst Burnley have conceded just NINE in 26 games. They’ve kept clean sheets in their last four games.

That leaves United and Sunderland. You hate to be the club chasing the pack, which is the position Sunderland’s in right now. But they’ve got a huge game coming up on 17 January against Burnley.

Meanwhile, a wonderful strike from Andre Brooks over the weekend helped United put some distance between them and other promotion hopefuls.

Is there any hope for the remaining clubs to catch these four? Most likely not. And I honestly don’t see any other major contenders who can push for the playoffs right now, but that’s for a future edition.

EFL Championship top six:

EFL Championship bottom three:

Fitzie’s track of the day: トーキョーレギー, by Masayoshi Takanaka

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$) does a profile on Antonin Kinsky

And here’s one from the BBC

Dan KP: Ange Postecoglou turns up heat on James Maddison and other senior players

The Ornacle appears to be close to the action when it comes to January Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumors. David Ornstein, writing for the Athletic’s transfer tracker this afternoon, says that Tottenham and Manchester United are the two clubs currently the closest to signing a loan deal for want-away PSG wide forward Randal Kolo Muani.

We’ve written about Kolo Muani before — he’s a talented attacker who can play both flanks as well as centrally, but has seen his playing time dwindle, along with his goal numbers. He had one excellent season at Eintracht Frankfurt a couple of years ago, but has been in something of a finishing slump since making the jump to PSG over the past two years, with 6 goals and 5 assists last season and just 2 goals in 14 appearances (350+ minutes) this season. That said, he’s a dribbly wide guy who likes to take players on and also can excel in creative passing, something Spurs could use right now.

Ornstein says that Juventus are also making contact about Kolo Muani, but United and Spurs are thought to be the leaders as they both can offer something Juventus can’t — the Premier League. A cursory search suggests he is currently on about £145k/wk in wages, well within Tottenham’s budget, though as always take those wage reports with an entire salt mine.

I know “exciting continental attacker underperforming his xG” makes people immediately think of Timo Werner, but Kolo Muani’s game is much closer to Richarlison than Timo, and at any rate he’s the kind of player that could benefit from a change of scenery and tactics. He also doesn’t have much of an injury history, so there’s hope that he might be more reliable than Richy down the stretch.

There are reports suggesting PSG are hoping for a purchase obligation of £50m in addition to a loan fee, but that’s obviously something that can be negotiated, so I wouldn’t put a ton of stock in that particular tidbit at the moment. And I think he’s a talented player who isn’t a good fit at PSG; he could cook under Ange. And he decides to avoid the flaming dumpster fire that is Manchester United and sign with Spurs, there’s every chance he could be a plus add for Ange Postecoglou in a position of need.

There’s a lot of smoke right now that Kolo Muani is at least of the priority target being considered by Johan Lange and Rob Mackenzie. Whether he ends up being the guy, of course, remains to be seen. But I wouldn’t hate this, if Spurs can pick him up as a value signing.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters may not need to wait long to see their newest signing in action. According to Jack Pitt-Brooke in the Athletic, new Czech Republic keeper Antonin Kinsky successfully fast-tracked his permit to work in the UK and is not only available to train, but also potentially to play in this Wednesday’s League Cup seminfinal first leg vs. Liverpool.

Will we actually see a Kinsky debut on Wednesday? It’s unclear. On the one hand it feels weird to just chuck him in with two days training in what will be one of the biggest matches of the season and part of a cup semifinal. On the other hand, Kinsky was signed not as a backup but as actual competition for Guglielmo Vicario, and his skill set is much more attune to the needs of Ange-ball than Fraser Forster. Plus we still don’t know the status of Forster after he missed Saturday’s match with a virus.

Kinsky reportedly was in first team training today along with Richarlison and Mikey Moore. If any of those three are available to play even partial minutes on Wednesday, that should give the entire team a huge boost, and hopefully some first team starters another bit of a rest. We’ll see.

good morning everyone - I hope I get to wake up to a bounty of snow today. Washington DC is currently forecast to receive 6 to 10 inches of snow today.

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I’m not going to lie to you all, I watched very little [Premier League] football this weekend. That makes it difficult to select which photos are most appropriate for this latest edition of “Best Pics from aroudn the Premier League”. Looking at the results, it seems like it was a bit of a bore anyways:

Bournemouth 1-0 Everton

Villa 2-1 Leicester

Palace 1-1 Chelsea

Soton 0-5 Brentford

City 4-1 West Ham

Brighton 1-1 Arsenal

Fulham 2-2 Ipswich

Liverpool 2-2 United

Wolves ??-?? Forest

Even though this weekend’s slate of matches was a bit of a snoozefest (unlike Watford-Sunderland), there was one thing that stood out to me.

First was this woman who won a Southampton shirt after correctly guessing what the score of the game would be (Soton lost 0-5). To add further insult to injury, Adam Armstrong had to present the shirt to her.

The farce is the latest in a series of horrific weekends suffered by Southampton as the club lurches closer towards one of the worst seasons in the league’s history.

Fitzie’s track of the day: When Autumn Comes, by Bill Evans

And now for your links:

Jack P-B ($$) on the case against sacking Ange Postecoglou

BBC asks if Big Ange can be a success at Spurs

Good news for all #AngeIn supporters — David Ornstein, considered the gold standard for Premier League news and transfer reports, was just on NBC Sports’ broadcast coverage giving an update on Tottenham Hotspur, where he said that embattled head coach Ange Postecoglou is “100% safe in his job.”

The video is posted in the header of this article, and it’s worth a full watch. There’s a good amount of info about Tottenham’s transfer business, including today’s signing of keeper Antonin Kinsky and what it means for the goalkeeper situation at Spurs. If you want to skip past the transfter stuff and just get to the stuff about Ange, move forward to 2:19” in the video. Here’s a transcript from that point:

“Ange Postecoglou is 100% safe in his job, I’m told. There is no uncertainty over his future, despite the pressure he appears to be feeling in some of his public comments. They’re backing him to lead this project forward and they’ll hope he delivers.

“They have a chance of a League Cup trophy and a Europa League trophy. They’re focusing on that, and they’re also fighting to get into the top four, although realistic about their chances on that too.”

Good. This is quite clearly the club briefing that Ange is is no danger of being sacked anytime soon and that Spurs are taking a long view towards rejuvenation and development of the squad in the upcoming transfer windows. There’s no better source to brief on this than Ornstein, who has a gravitas that makes a statement like “100% safe in his job” settle with a real weight of authority.

The goalkeeper you never knew you wanted is here!

Tottenham Hotspur have officially announced the signing of Czech goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky:

Spurs’ goalkeeping cadre is obviously in dire straits right now, with Guglielmo Vicario out with a long-term injury, Fraser Forster suffering with illness and a poor fit stylistically, and Brandon Austin extremely inexperienced at the top level outside of stints in checks notes MLS and the Danish Superliga.

Kinsky, however, has come through the ranks at Slavia Prague, with multiple loans across the Czech footballing pyramid before securing the starting berth at the Red and Whites this season. He’s made an immediate impact there, keeping 13 clean sheets in 19 matches and even getting a taste of European football with Slavia Prague turning out in the Europa League.

He is young, and still relatively inexperienced, but stylistically possibly the best fit for Ange-ball on Spurs’ books - and that’s including Guglielmo Vicario - though I make that judgement solely on a number of highlights packages displaying his Chiriches-like boldness with the ball at his feet. In fact, some rumors floating around have stated that the intent is that Kinsky compete with Vicario for the starting role; how much of that is true and how much of it was a story sold to Kinsky’s agents remains to be seen.

Kinsky will wear #31 and could make his first start against Liverpool in the League Cup in midweek; although the work permit and registration processes can take some time, so his availability for that fixture is not guaranteed.

Let the gif party commence!

Ange Postecoglou was not a happy camper in the immediate wake of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-2 loss to Newcastle today at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Ange cut a very angry figure on the sidelines at points during the match, seemingly taking issue with match official Andy Madley’s decisions (or lack of decisions) during the game.

Speaking to the press just after the match, Ange was raging, choosing his words carefully but clearly incensed about a “fair and even playing ground” after a match where Spurs deserved at least a point.

“Brilliant, outstanding, it was a game we deserved to win and any other day we would have won. On a fair and even playing ground we would have won the game. I know what my opinion is... if that was different day and an even and fair playing ground, we would have won.”

It’s not clear exactly what Ange was referring to, and that’s almost certainly by design — Ange has been doing this a long time and knows how to give criticism without directly implicating match officials. But the clear inference was that he was unhappy with Madley’s refereeing in this match. And he has a point! One particular moment noted was after Pedro Porro was fouled by Joelinton, who was fully deploying the Dark Arts during the match, and with Madley declining to call a foul; Ange was especially incensed on the sidelines after that incident. Joelinton also stopped a Spurs counterattack with his hand that ended up being a hockey assist for Newcastle’s equalizing first half goal, which was also not called.

We haven’t heard anything about the official post-match presser, and that might be an opportunity for Big Ange to either clarify his comments or expound upon them. But I can’t remember Ange getting that hot in the immediate aftermath of a match. It’s not necessarily a good look — complaining about refs and injuries never is, even when you’re right — but also, yeah he’s got a real point in this one. He’s probably still under significant pressure and even though there’s a lot of good will coming from supporters after that performance even with a loss, this one has to sting.

Tottenham Hotspur deserved at least a point today against Newcastle United in today’s match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Dominic Solanke scored off a header in the fourth minute, but Anthony Gordon controversially leveled two minutes later thanks to a handball in the buildup that match official Andy Madley declined to call and VAR declined to overturn.

Spurs had a number of chances to level the score — Solanke had numerous headed opportunities saved by Dubravka, Pape Sarr had a good shot saved, Deki put a ball off the post. But the real story is how much this Tottenham team fought against the in-form team in the Premier League. There were some very good performances in that match, including a quite competent display by third keeper Brandon Austin making his full Spurs debut at age 25. This was a good performance by a team playing with a defense that had Djed Spence and Archie Gray as central defenders for the entire second half.

I’m immensely proud of this team. COYS.

Lots to talk about. 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.