Cartilage Free Captain

good morning everyone - fitzie is BACK!!!

And hopefully I’m back for a good while. I do miss hoddling. And I feel like I’ve missed so much! I’d like to give a big thanks to menno for hoddling in my absence these last few weeks, and I’d also like to thank all of you for being patience while fitzie was tending to other matters.

I’m keeping this hoddle relatively straightforward because there are two huge games today: England vs DR Congo and the USA vs Bosnia and Herzegovina (Belgium vs Senegal is also happening).

There’ll be a separate World Cup thread on the above-listed matches so I won’t get into it.

But I will remind myself of one of my New Year Resolutions: To keep the Track of the Day playlist regularly updated. With all my travels I have missed a good few weeks, so I’ll be spending the next handful of days adding to it and getting this back for you all by next week.

And I’m going to make a little treat out of it. When I was on the aeroplane heading to Dallas, I listened to the Track of the Day playlist and Vampire Empire by Big Thief played. “What a track!,” I said to myself. I couldn’t believe how long it’s been since I listened to it.

Is it right for the hoddle of coffee to recognise a track once and only once? I don’t think so!

That’s why next week will feature five separate Track of the Day Revisiteds, where the hoddler-in-chief (fitzie) will reshare a particular song that he (again, fitzie) wants to feature here again. I don’t have anything planned so far, but I’m looking forward to it!

Anyways, enjoy the footy today and we’ll gradually ease back into daily hoddling.

Fitzie’s track of the day: House Tour, by Sabrina Carpenter

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Tottenham’s Mateus Fernandes coup is a big-club move. At last, they are serious”

BBC: “Defying logic - how Haaland could end up with 260 international goals”

The Guardian: “Forest Green Rovers scrap women’s team to ‘concentrate resources’ on men’s side”

We knew it was unlikely that Maika Hamano would be allowed to stay at Tottenham Hotspur Women beyond her loan spell, and now the club have confirmed she’s on her way back to Chelsea.

Hamano was brought in for attacking firepower after Jess Naz’s December ACL injury, but that’s not to say she was just some kind of backup. She has real superstar potential, and I’m disappointed we won’t get to realize that at Tottenham. Hamano played ten games for us and registered a goal and an assist. She missed a few games while she was away winning the Asian Cup with Japan along with our favorite centerback, Tōko Koga. I’ll miss seeing them do joint media with the club almost as much as I’ll miss Maika’s trickery.

It’s clear Martin Ho will miss Hamano’s impact as well. “Thank you for everything over the last six months,” Ho said in an Instagram story. “Your quality on the pitch has been clear, but the person you are every day has had just as big an impact. Your humility, standards, professionalism and energy have been unbelievable for our environment and our team. It has been a real pleasure to work with you. Wishing you nothing but success back at Chelsea, you’ll always have people here supporting you.”

Maika had just as many nice things to say about Spurs. “Thank you for everything,” she wrote. “Grateful for the opportunity to represent Tottenham on loan. Thank you to my amazing manager, the coaching staff, everyone behind the scenes, my teammates, and the lifelong friends I’ve made :) I’ll never forget this chapter. Wishing you all the very best for the future.”

All that said, I can’t say I’m not pleased to see some thinning out in the center of the pitch. Maika is, like many of our players, more comfortable in the center of the pitch even though she can be deployed on the wings. I’m not too sure the players we’ve brought in in attack really have any more wide threat, but we’ve got a long way to go until the season starts back up so I remain hopeful. In any case, we’ve brought in a lot of fresh talent that will hopefully fill the Maika-shaped hole in our hearts.

Spurs also announced, along with the news about Maika, that Anna Csiki and Martha Thomas had returned from their loans at AS Roma and Liverpool respectively. Anna won Serie A Women with Roma, featuring in eight matches and grabbing one assist. Martha had a decent season for Liverpool, helping them climb out of the bottom of the table with a goal in the league (and a goal and an assist in the FA cup). I don’t imagine there’s much of a place for either player at Spurs right now, so stay tuned to find out where they might head off to next.

”Selma is a goalkeeper with outstanding potential, but also someone who already has a very strong foundation to her game. She has real presence, bravery and personality, and she is comfortable playing with the ball, taking responsibility and being part of how a team wants to build and control games. As a goalkeeper, she has the qualities we value highly, shot-stopping ability, courage, communication, athleticism and the mentality to keep improving every single day.

”What makes Selma special is not only her talent, but the way she works. Her attitude, commitment and dedication to her development are genuinely among the best I have seen. She wants to be challenged, she wants detail, and she has the personality to step into demanding environments and keep growing. She will add real value to our goalkeeping department, not only through her quality and potential, but through the standards she brings every day.

“We believe Selma has a very high ceiling, and our role is to give her the support, challenge and environment to keep developing all parts of her game. Having worked with her before, I know exactly the character, humility and drive she will bring to Tottenham. She is a top talent, but more importantly she has the mindset to maximise that talent, and we are delighted she has chosen this club for the next step in her career.”

”I’m so happy and I can feel the trust from the Club. When I joined 18 months ago, my expectations were to fight for my place in the team and to wear this shirt every week.

”It’s been a real journey to get here and a nice story already, and I’m looking forward to what lies ahead over the next months and years.

“Everyone around the Club feels that we can have a successful season and I want to contribute to that. We want to give the fans what they want and what this Club deserves.”

Brace yourselves, everyone -- we got ourselves a bomba! David Ornstein, writing for the Athletic, is reporting that Tottenham Hotspur have reached an agreement with West Ham United to sign midfielder Mateus Fernandes. The transfer fee agreement is reportedly £85m.

Fernandes has emerged as one of Tottenham’s highest priority targets in this summer’s transfer window, and with this bid it sounds like they’ve got their man. Ornstein reports that Spurs’ bid eclipses what Manchester United, the other club seriously interested in signing Fernandes, is willing to spend, and they have conceded defeat. The player wants to join Spurs and has agreed to do so.

This is, quite frankly, massive. Fernandes is a young player at 21 years old, but brings not only excellence in the press and midfield creativity but also improved midfield passing from deep positions. He will become Tottenham’s fifth signing already this summer, joining free agent acquisitions Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson, and Martin Dubravka, along with Netherlands international Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton.

Spurs are also still working on signing Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United.

The Chronicle has a new transfer rumor out that suggests that, fresh on the heels of their £114m signing of Elliot Anderson, Manchester City are entering the race for Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali, despite Tottenham Hotspur’s long term interest in the player and £80m rejected bid.

Manchester City have joined the battle to sign Sandro Tonali with Enzo Maresca eager to hit the ground running as new boss.

The FA Cup and Carabao Cup winners have retained an interest in the Toon midfielder, with sources close to Tonali’s management team describing Man City as genuine candidates to lure him from Tyneside. Spurs had an £80million bid rejected by Newcastle this month with the Magpies wanting a fee closer to £100m for his services.

Notably there isn’t anything specific in here -- how much City are willing to bid, whether Newcastle would be more amenable to a City approach for Tonali, etc. It’s light on details but does mention a source very well connected to Tonali. It also suggests City are not done with their summer spending despite spending a six figure amount on Anderson last week. It also suggests the possibility that Tonali’s interest in leaving Newcastle for Spurs is softer than a down pillow, and that he’d rather go to a mega-rich club like City than the club that finished 17th twice in two seasons.

This could be a number of things. It could be factual if taken at face value, signaling that Spurs might be forced to pivot to different targets. It might be Newcastle signalling that Spurs need to get off their asses and make a respectable bid for Tonali so they can close the deal, and using potential interest from City as a stalking horse. It could be completely fake. We don’t know, and there’s not enough info to make a firm conclusion.

In my opinion, I think Tonali would probably prefer to go to City than to Spurs, if the club puts a good bid in that’s a little closer to Newcastle’s £100m valuation of the player. That’s more or less Occam’s Razor at work -- it takes a rare top level player to prefer to move to the rebuilding team than the one that challenges for Premier League titles every season. And I could be very wrong here! But I am starting to think that the combination of big clubs vying for Tonali’s signature and the player hoping to cash in for a big summer move at a different club will probably result in Spurs missing out. As I’ve said before, I’m actually okay with that option, as there are better fits for Spurs’ needs in the midfield market that would cost that price or less. But it would be a pretty significant blow for Tottenham’s hopes for a “big swing” in the midfield market this summer.

Tottenham expect some players to be sold this summer, but are determined to retain the core of their squad. Lucas Bergvall, the Sweden international, has expressed a desire to leave amid concerns over game-time but the stance is that he is not for sale. De Zerbi and Lange are both understood to have held talks with the midfielder to assure him of his part in the club’s future. Bergvall also signed a new contract up to 2031 in April.

There is also an intention to be more decisive, and strike quickly and ruthlessly in the transfer market. Four signings have already arrived, with £52m centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke, former Liverpool captain Andy Robertson, Marco Senesi and Martin Dubravka signed before the end of June. De Zerbi wants at least two more signings, with a centre-midfielder and wingers understood to be the priorities.

Manchester City’s Savinho is admired by the recruitment team. The plan is to sign “oven-ready” players with Premier League experience who will not require any time for adaptation.

...

While De Zerbi will provide his input on signings, the responsibility of recruitment will largely fall on Lange and his staff. De Zerbi is comfortable working within a structure similar to former club Brighton.

Lange was given a more hands-on role in October and has become more prominent since Fabio Paratici’s exit earlier this year. He has overseen a revamp of the medical and sports science departments this summer.

Tottenham’s owners, the Lewis family, recently injected another £100m into the club and have their sights set on a top-four finish. Former executive chairman Daniel Levy stepped down last September after 25 years in the role, and the Lewis family want to alter the perception of the club. Levy was known as a tough negotiator who only wanted the best deals for Tottenham. However, that stance often frustrated rival clubs to an extent that transfers became fractious affairs and, sometimes, abandoned.

Take their £60m pursuit of Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White last summer as a perfect example. Gibbs-White’s previous contract included a release clause but Levy’s attempts to alter the payment structure infuriated Forest, whose owner Evangelos Marinakis was already livid with what he perceived to be an illegal approach. Within the space of a week, the deal was completely off.

Tottenham now want to operate far more quickly and that is the clear message from the club’s owners down to the football department.

Happy Tuesday, Hoddlers! This is the last substitute Hoddle before Fitzie makes his glorious return. It’s been fun putting out late Hoddles for you over the past week, I hope you have also enjoyed my lateness.

It’s HOT. I know this isn’t new for anyone in Europe right now, what with the massive heatwave going on there on a continent that isn’t really built for that kind of heat. But it’s the same in my neck of the woods. The Midwestern United States is starting what looks like will be a week-long stretch of hot and humid weather. Today’s high was 93º F (34º C). Tomorrow will be 96º (37º C) and with heat indexes up into the 110º realm.

Thankfully our country was founded with the guiding principles of freedom, independence, and air conditioning. I live in an old house without central A/C but we have a few portable units that is providing relief, and thankfully I work in an office and outdoors.

But we have other ways of beating the heat as well. My college-age daughter took a trip to the store today and came home with the perfect hot weather setup for our back yard.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but it’s the inflatable palm tree that really makes it. It might be hot, but filling a portable kiddie pool with cold hose water can really make the difference between a miserable late afternoon and a refreshing way to beat the heat.

A few of our neighbors have in-ground pools and those have usually been kid magnets in hot summer weather, but you don’t always want to knock on your neighbors’ doors, towels in hand, asking for a dip in their pool. So this is the next best thing. I look forward to spending parts of the evenings this week sitting with my lower body in that pool, sipping a mocktail and flipping the bird to global warming.

Before the pool, I was also known to spend some time in the hammock in the shade, a bowl of ice cubes in my lap and a fan just behind them, blowing cool, refreshing air onto my face.

Is it still hot where you are? What are you doing to beat the heat? Remember to stay hydrated!

Song of the Day: “Come and Play in the Milky Way” (Stereolab)

Tottenham news and links

Bad Bunny performed a sold-out show at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, and Adele was having the time of her life. (Yahoo)

A harrowing long-form read about the Argentina youth soccer system and how it can perpetuate abuse on impoverished kids who are trying to make it big in Argentinan footy. (ESPN)

Former Spurs Women star Kit Graham has signed a two year contract at Leicester City, where she spent last season on loan. (BBC)

Arsenal are interested in Tottenham target Alex Scott, but Bournemouth are refusing to sell. (BBC)

Tottenham Hotspur Women confirmed the signing of 27-year-old midfielder Victoria Pelova on a free transfer. Pelova was most recently at Arsenal, where she shone before an ACL injury derailed her career in June, 2024.

I remain confused and annoyed that Spurs continue to sign central players when we have such a dearth of talent on the wings, but I’m pretty excited about Pelova. She arrived at Arsenal from Ajax in 2023, and I remember absolutely seething with jealousy at the time. Over the years, Pelova has played all over midfield, and occasionally as a midfielder and a fullback. She’s been lauded for her work rate, positioning, ball carrying and passing (so like… everything?), but by her own admission, she loves registering assists the most. Off the pitch, she’s a competitive chess player and has a master’s degree in applied math. Isn’t that neat?

But Pelova missed most of the 2024-25 season with her ACL tear, and she hasn’t really managed to find her feet again since returning. With ACL injuries, it’s anyone’s guess whether players will ever come back the same, but it does happen. I’m happy for us to take a swing on a player of Pelova’s potential quality, especially since we have plenty of other cover in midfield in case it doesn’t work out. This could also help stabilize midfield going forward should we lose our other midfielders to age or bigger sharks in the water.

Obviously, something like this would be unthinkable on the men’s side. But on the women’s side, it’s a well trodden path – we took Mana Iwabuchi and Viki Schnaderbeck on loan, and a number of our players did stints in the Arsenal academy (and some even appeared for the first team!) before coming to Tottenham. Given the comparative size and quality of Arsenal’s academy to almost any other team, this is kind of unavoidable. That said, there’s still a little bit of spiciness to this transfer. It’s my sincere hope that we can nurture Pelova’s undeniable talent more than Arsenal could.

All this to say, though — English clubs aren’t stupid. It’s not like they’re selling off their players cheap just because they’re buying new ones. Take Bergvall, for example — a Tottenham player who might get less playing time given all the signings Tottenham are making, so he’s working with his agents to leave. And you might think: “Oh, I’ll just go in, maybe take him on loan, offer 30, offer 35, and they’ll let him go.”

But no. Napoli, who are among the most interested clubs — especially in Italy — and who’ve made moves to find out more, were thinking maybe 40 million euros tops to get him. Instead, Tottenham turned down 50 million in recent days from an English club — likely Nottingham Forest — and I don’t think they’ll go below that threshold.