Cartilage Free Captain

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.

Good morning, hoddlers - fitzie is currently travelling and unable to provide you football links today, but please enjoy the ones below about suede

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How are Suede still this good?

While their Britpop rivals like Oasis might be embracing a tour de force across the northern hemisphere, Brett Anderson’s outfit has released a 10th studio album that speaks to the decaying human existence.

This is Suede, baby.

Suede recently released its latest album Disintegration, continuing a run of strong studio work since the band’s reunion in 2013. Yes, the core motifs of the band remain, but this is an evolved version of Suede that is dealing with a new stage in the bandmembers’ lives.

It invokes dark things like medication obsession. And it deals with things about modern life, Anderson says in his lyrics - like paranoia and anxiety - in a society that seems to be furhter and further excommunicated from the other.

Roaring guitar licks carry lead singer Brett Anderson’s lyrics to great effect, making this experiment a greater artistic achievement than others in the Britpop scene back in the day,.

I wish Suede would tour in the US again. I don’t think it’s likely, and I did look at tour dates in the UK and Europe thinking I could take a short trip to see them there.

They’re one of my favourite bands - this post-punk, post-modern darkness that sinks into the darkness eyes-open, eyes-shut.

Why would you want Oasis or Blur or Pulp or The Verve when you’ve got Suede?

This record is a triumph. I recommend everyone listens to it. This band has something to say.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Disintegrate, by Suede

And now for your links:

Los Angeles Times: “Suede started Britpop before Oasis, but the band refuses to stay there. ‘We are anti-nostalgia.’”

The Guardian: “Suede: Antidepressants review – edgy post-punk proves reunited Britpoppers remain on the up”

Uncut: “‘It’s a very sensual song’ – Suede on the making of “The Drowners”“

Tottenham Hotspur Women played out a scoreless draw against Aston Villa. Spurs were unable to convert their spells of dominance into shots (or, dare I say, goals), but they got the job done and secured the extra point on penalties.

Let me take a moment to remind you of the atypical league cup format. In the group stages, three points are awarded to the winner and zero to the loser of each match. But in the case of a draw at the end of 90, each team gets a point. Then, the match goes straight to penalties, and the winner of the penalties takes home an extra point. Our groupmates for the Women’s League Cup are Aston Villa (WSL), Birmingham City (WSL2) and Bristol City (WSL2). So going into this match, it felt pretty crucial to take home two or three points against our only WSL opposition.

I was curious to see how we’d bounce back after the unfortunate 5-1 defeat to Manchester City, and looking forward to seeing what kind of rotation Martin Ho would bring for a midweek game, albeit one against equal strength opposition. Ho’s starting lineup didn’t include a huge amount of rotation, but he did give folks a good bit of rest through substitutions (more on that later) so I can’t complain. We saw Lize Kop in goal (though I wonder if we might see Eleanor Heeps in later games), the now-familiar lineup of Nildén, Hunt, Koga and Rybrink across the back, Eveliina Summanen and Maite Oroz in the double pivot, Olga Ahtinen as the 10-ish player with Jess Naz and Olga Ahtinen on the wings, and Tinka Tandberg up top.

Despite nearly conceding in the opening minutes of the game, Spurs started relatively strong. I was glad to see the squad looking confident pressing, carrying the ball and passing after the heavy defeat at the weekend. But the team just couldn’t convert that first half dominance into chances. All of the front four took shots from far outside the box when they could’ve passed to unmarked feet in dangerous areas instead.

Ho made three changes at half time – likely planned ones for rotation purposes. Drew Spence, Lenna Gunning-Williams and Beth England came in for Maite Oroz, Jess Naz and Olga Ahtinen. This did unfortunately mean our passing took a bit of a hit, and Villa started gaining more of a stronghold in the game. Olivia Holdt came in for Tinka Tandberg in the 61st minute, and Charli Grant replaced Josefine Rybrink in the 76th, but this didn’t really have much of an impact on the game. Villa went down to ten players for the final ten minutes of the game (which was, in my opinion, a pretty dubious decision. Maritz’s tackle wasn’t great but it wasn’t that bad), but Spurs were unable to capitalize on the personnel advantage, and it finished all square.

The resulting penalty shootout ended up being pretty fun. Lenna Gunning-Williams’ early miss made for a bit of tension, but Lize Kop saved penalties from Miri Taylor and Georgia Mullet (not to mention converting her own – love a GK penalty) to secure the extra point. I’m not sure who decided to send a real youngster up to take the first penalty, she looked nervous as hell, but hey, it all worked out in the end!

Some thoughts

Mostly I was glad to see the team bounce back from the City game. I don’t actually think Aston Villa played very well (especially in the first half), and I’m frustrated we didn’t manage to make better chances up top. That said, it was hardly evidence of some kind of collapse or return to worse form. I still saw a lot of the positives we’ve been seeing throughout the opening stages of the season.

Martin Ho struck a good balance between strength and rotation. I wish we could rest the back line a little bit more, but that’s not his fault – recall we are missing three defenders in Molly Bartrip, Ash Neville, and Ella Morris. Four if you count Amy Turner, who is still on our books. If you think about it, this makes Martin’s early signs of defensive organization all the more promising, given he hasn’t necessarily had all tools at his disposal.

I do think we gave up a little too much in this game. A team with more attacking confidence than Villa would’ve punished us for it. At least Clare Hunt didn’t two-foot Rachel Daly. I’ll call that an improvement. Elsewhere in the defense, Toko Koga continued to shine. She is not the fastest player, but boy, oh boy does she make up for it with positioning and timing. I saw her losing ground on a Villa player dribbling down the wing, only for Toko to suddenly come up with the ball and dribble out unbothered when the Villa player tried to turn toward goal. She’s so good at football, and I’m so happy she plays for my team.

The attack. What to say about the attack? I’ll start with the positives. We got actual shots on goal from counterattacks in this match. Did they go in? No. But this is a massive improvement over past games, and if I had to hang my hat on anything I’d say this is evidence that maybe some decision making is starting to come together. I also noticed we actually had players making runs into the box during this game. Unfortunately, none of the attackers seemed to want to pass the ball to those players, which was extremely frustrating. But it was a start, and I’ll be keeping an eye on that in future games.

On a separate and upsetting note, we learned immediately after the game that Jess Naz received racist DMs on Instagram in the aftermath of the City game. That’s awful and despicable, and we stand with Jess 100%.

Looking Ahead

Spurs pick back up league play against Leicester on Sunday, September 28th. Leicester have had a mixed start to the season, narrowly beating Liverpool, but losing to United and Chelsea. They also blew out Ipswich Town in the cup, which is mostly notable because former Tottenham players Rosella Ayane and Asmita Ale both scored. It’s not clear what we should expect from this game. With London City Lionesses grabbing their first points against Everton, the WSL midtable is really heating up. Personally, I think it’d be cool if we could grab as many early wins as it takes to ensure we’re not the ones who have to think about that relegation playoff game in the spring. Here’s hoping we find our scoring (and assisting) boots and put a few goals away. COYS.

There is a Fleetwood Mac demo track of Sara out there that begins with Stevie Nicks saying these lines: “I wanna be a star. I don’t wanna be a cleaning lady.”

Last week Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham re-released their self-titled track for the first time since its original publish more than half a century ago. I bought the record on Friday, and here are my two takeaways from it:

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were destined for stardom. Fleetwood Mac was the vehicle that got them there.

Buckingham Nicks oozes with the brilliant songwriting that Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham employed during their association with the band, its offshoots and their solo careers. This folk rock is chalk full of the angst of love and its implosion from which Rumours would eventually be borne.

What’s also clear from this is how much these two artists benefited from their soon-to-be bandmates John McVie, Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

I like to look at Crystal when I say that because it appeared on both Buckingham Nicks in 1973 and the self-titled Fleetwood Mac two years later - how ironic was it that the Bob Welch-let Mac released Heroes Are Hard to Find in 1974.

Nicks penned Crystal at what seems to be the age of around 25, when the concept of love can feel like such a high-stakes game, but it also shows her maturity of a writer. Buckingham takes the lead vocals on this, interestingly enough, which adds a degree of tenderness that perhaps Nicks’ raspier voice doesn’t offer.

(Let’s also not forget that Nicks wrote Landslide at a similar age)

But here’s what makes the Fleetwood Mac version superior: Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood. McVie’s keyboard added so many layers of texture to this track, and her outro added to a longing tenderness that the Buckingham Nicks version doesn’t. And Fleetwood’s drum-fills also carry a momentum that the 1973 version doesn’t have.

Both are remarkable, though. And I feel are both worthy of falling in love into.

(I’d also like to say I wrote this before realising Waddy Wachtel was also on guitar in this album.)

The rest of these tracks - Crying in the Night, Without a Leg to Stand On, Lola, Frozen Love - can all be treated as supreme demo versions of a future Fleetwood Mac song. But, from a musical anthropological perspective, it’s remarkable to see 40% of the band that would conquer the world through Rumours.

As some of us know, while Buckingham and Nicks were recording this record at Sound City in California, Fleetwood Mac were recording just down the hall. Mick Fleetwood heard a recording of Frozen Love and later invited Buckingham to join the band. But Buckingham had a condition - he and Stevie Nicks were a package deal.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Crystal, by Buckingham Nicks

And now for your links:

The Guardian: “Tottenham Women ‘disgusted’ by racist abuse on social media of Jessica Naz”

BBC: “‘I’m done being quiet’ - Naz condemns racist abuse”

Jay Harris ($$): “Destiny Udogie and Djed Spence are giving Spurs a selection dilemma”

Alasdair Gold: “Thomas Frank makes it clear what Mathys Tel and Luca Williams-Barnett must do now at Tottenham”

If you were hoping for another comfortable home match for Tottenham Hotspur against a lower league opponent, then you’ll likely be disappointed with the results of the Carabao Cup Fourth Round draw, which just finished. Tottenham were drawn away to Newcastle, with the match taking place the week of October 27.

Away to Newcastle isn’t an easy fixture to be sure, but there were some giants left in the draw, including Manchester City, Liverpool, and Arsenal — Spurs managed to avoid all three. Spurs also avoided what could be the most #narrative banana-peel tie of all — a trip away to Wrexham; that honor was given to League One side Cardiff.

That said, with Grimsby Town, Swansea, and Wycombe still in the competition, the draw certainly could’ve gone better. Newcastle will be a tricky team to beat, and a lot may come down to how seriously they (or Spurs) take the fixture and if one or both teams decide to rotate. It’s probably the toughest draw in this round of the Carabao Cup, unfortunately.

Elsewhere, Arsenal drew Brighton at home, Liverpool are home to Crystal Palace, and Manchester City travel to Swansea. The full draw is below.

Tottenham Hotspur notched a couple of early goals, got some key players a good rest, and fostered a club debut for one of their academy stars on Wednesday evening at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as they defeated League One side Doncaster Rovers in the Carabao Cup. Tottenham had goals from Joao Palinha and Brennan Johnson along with an own goal from Rovers’ Jay McGrath en route to the next round of the competition.

This match added a little extra spice because of Tottenham’s youth players. Three Spurs youngsters — Ju’nai Byfeld, Luca Williams-Barnett, and Tynan Thompson — all started on the bench for Spurs, while Damola Ajayi, who is on loan at Doncaster from Spurs this season, was given permission to play against his former club; Doncaster started him in midfield. Williams-Barnett did make his debut, coming on as a late substitute and earning his Legacy Number.

Tottenham were up two goals inside 15 minutes after a lovely overhead strike from Palhinha and an own goal by Rovers’ Jay McGrath. All signs pointed towards goals galore, with Brennan Johnson in particular putting in some tasty balls from the right flank, but instead the match mostly devolved into a sludge-fest. Lucas Bergvall had one in the back of the net at the end of regular time that was called back for offside, but Bergvall sprung Johnson in injury time for a breakaway goal right at the death. The final score was 3-0.

Vintage football it was not, but Tottenham did manage to avoid a major struggle against a lower-league club in a domestic cup competition, something that, it has to be said, was not a given. Here are my takeaways from Wednesday’s match.

Match reactions

Doncaster’s head coach looks a lot like Kaleb from Clarkson’s Farm. This is a very important observation.

My word that Palhinha goal was something special. Great reaction to see the ball coming and dink a little overhead kick into the net. Great finish, great move. Just great. Didn’t know he had THAT in his locker.

I’m just a simple soccer blogger but going up 2-0 inside 15 minutes seems good. Yes, the second was an own goal but let’s not minimize the delivery from Wilson Odobert, which was also wonderful.

Speaking of deliveries, as the Cartilage Free Captain Brennan Johnson Agenda-Haver (tm) I want to say that in this match Brennan put four fantastic balls in on a plate, none of which were converted but all of which should’ve been. I expected Johnson to crash the box at the back post as per usual, and instead he played (well!) as a traditional right winger until he got on the end of Bergvall’s late through ball. He had a really nice match.

Doncaster were clearly outmatched, but give them credit - they really went for it. They had a number of decent looks going forward, especially on the counter. Olusanya in particular looked dangerous; Doncaster didn’t have the horses to really hang with Spurs, but they gave it their best shot and I applaud them for it. And this was their rotated lineup!

Damola Ajayi also didn’t look especially overawed by the occasion and had a couple of nice moments in possession.

Spurs looked unusually open against a rotated League One side. Danso and Palhinha are no Romero and Van de Ven, but they were both perfectly cromulent, if a touch slow at times.

And right after I typed that, Kinsky made a fantastic stop to deflect a shot off the post and out. He continues to deserve more minutes, and I hope he’s able to get them.

It was fun watching Archie Gray play, and really well, in midfield, doing things that we know he should be able to do, against lower league opposition. Maybe this is his level right now and I’d like to see those skills scale up to higher level opposition, but let’s call a spade a spade — great match from Archie tonight.

Pretty obvious how and why Kevin Danso won the Long Throws Tryout from this summer. He can really rifle them in.

Mathys Tel, man. I dunno. He looks like he should have the tools and obviously he’s young enough that he needs more games like this to find his footing, but his whiff inside two minutes on what would be an obvious goal is almost unforgivable as a striker, he did it AGAIN in the second half, and he had virtually no chemistry with Wilson Odobert. I want to believe in him, but he’s not giving me much to cling to.

Andy Madley, whoof. Declined to give what would’ve been a borderline penalty in the first half, declined an obvious yellow after Tel was tripped in transition, and then gave a super weak high boot on Danso that wasn’t even a foul. The state of officiating in the UK is appalling; conjecture in the chat was that officials are now so used to using VAR as a crutch that they don’t know what to do once they no longer have it.

Pedro Porro looked exhausted midway through the second half, and it’s no wonder — he’s started every single match in every competition this season. I really thought this was the opportunity to get him a rest, but with Ben Davies out injured… I guess not. But he can’t keep doing this, his legs will fall off.

It’s worth noting that Spurs played pretty poorly throughout the whole of the second half. I realize most of these players haven’t played with each other much (if at all) but it was not an inspiring performance. Good thing we were already up 2-0 early or this could’ve been a lot more nervy.

So, so happy to see a club debut for 16-year old Luca Williams-Barnett, who has been tearing it up at the U18 and U21 levels this season. He showed some glimpses of that raw talent in this one as well. I’m just sad Spurs were so ass in the second half we didn’t get debuts for Byfeld and Thompson as well.