Cartilage Free Captain

Photo by Visionhaus/ A Premier League tie, but a decent looking one. The draw for the third round of the FA Cup was held before today’s Premier League games, which is always exciting, and Tottenham Hotspur have a decently favorable draw for Ange Postecoglou’s first major English cup run. Spurs were drawn home to Burnley, with the match taking place on January 6. We will host Burnley in the third round of the #EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/IKzG2Nh5UZ— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) December 3, 2023 In the early rounds of the domestic cups you often want...

Photo by Stu Forster/ LOL...LMAO HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA It’s time to rate the players. Rate the players from 1⁄2 to 5 stars. If the player doesn’t...

Photo by Stu Forster/ Game of ebbs and flows in Manchester No matter where the fixtures lie in the season, when Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are playing it is a game that is must watch. Sunday’s contest proved once more, as a six-goal thriller not only snapped Spurs three-game losing streak but once more proved that Pep Guardiola can’t figure out his bogey team With circumstances plaguing Spurs with injuries/suspensions during the three-game losing streak, the Lilywhites got on the board first. The side that was once deemed the Harry Kane team by Pep...

Photo by Nigel French/Sportsphoto/Allstar via We built this City on rock and roll (football). It’s been a challenging past month for Tottenham Hotspur. After flying high at the top of the table, things have all come crashing back to Earth with three defeats on the trot and a multitude of injuries and suspensions, the latest being Rodrigo Bentancur after Matty Cash decided to moonlight as a debt collector and attempt to break some kneecaps. Unfortunately, the fixture list isn’t offering any respite, with an extremely tough away trip to Manchester City the next...

Photo by Stu Forster/ A slate of not-Spurs for your viewing pleasure! Heeeeeeeey kids! It’s Saturday, the first of such days in December of 2023. That means 2023 is close to being over, and the football just might be played with snow on the ground! But maybe not. At any rate we have a full slate of matches for you to whet your football appetite until Tottenham travel to Manchester City tomorrow. We have no early match today in the Premier League, but we do have an Late Late Match — Newcastle vs. Manchester United will be played under the lights at St. James’...

Photo by Khalid Alhaj/MB Media/ There’s blood on the ground, so Spurs are thin on the ground. Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Tottenham Hotspur are currently in an injury crisis. Reinforcements are thin on the ground, and the club is at the point where there are not enough players in the senior squad to put together a matchday side. With that said, even before the spate of recent injuries, the attacking line has been an area identified for upgrade. Across the front three, Spurs have in their ranks players such as Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison, whose effort...

Photo by Joe Prior/Visionhaus via You’d think reporters would stop asking. And yet! Ange Postecoglou was especially verbose in today’s press conference ahead of Sunday’s match against Manchester City at the Etihad. There’s almost too much information to cover, and so you really should just go read the full transcript of the presser, it’s full of good stuff. But I want to just focus on one extended answer he gave to a reporter’s question today. That question essentially boiled down to “Hey Ange, are you SURE you shouldn’t adjust your high-octane tactics...

Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/ The injury news: still not great! We’re two days away from Tottenham Hotspur’s trip to the Etihad to face defending Premier League champions Manchester City. That’s always a daunting match, Tottenham’s recent wins over City notwithstanding. And if Spurs are going to get another hilarious win over Pep Guardiola under their belts they’ll need to do it with the same depleted squad that narrowly lost at home to Aston Villa last weekend. Spurs posted a video on social media this morning of Ange Postecoglou giving an update on...

Photo by Visionhaus/ It has been a rough stretch for Spurs that will likely last at least another week. Tell anyone before the season that Tottenham Hotspur was going to to have a three- (and possibly soon four-) match losing streak at some point and few would have batted an eye. That would be normal after any change up top, and especially so given the amount of turnover in the squad as well. With that stretch marred by injuries and suspensions, it becomes even more explainable. Yet, perhaps Spurs are a slight victim of their own success. A blistering start to the year...

Photo by Julian Finney/ A jolly look at the month ahead good morning good morning ! December started on November 24, but let’s pretend for a minute it starts today. Because, according to the Gregorian calendar, it does. And this is a tough month. Let’s be real, it’s gonna be a toughie. At least it’s the holiday season. Tottenham Hotspur men: Call ‘em the band of misfit toys, because Ange Postecoglou is going to need lots of tape to put this team together. Spurs outcast Gio Lo Celso appears to have played his way into the squad after an incalculable amount of...

Photo by Ryan Pierse/ The thinnest of silver linings in a dark injury cloud. The injury-related storm clouds hovering over Tottenham Hotspur are thick and dark right now, and that doesn’t feel great. But if you look close, there’s the teensiest sliver of light that’s poking through — Spurs tweeted today photos of Brazilian striker Richarlison continuing his rehabilitation out on the Hotspur Way grass. Richy stepping up his rehab ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/KskYvLV0ME— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) November 30, 2023 Richy is one of the Spurs injury...

Photo by Andrew Redington/ Your EFL Championship roundup good morning !! It might be weird saying this, but things are looking pretty straightfoward in the Championship so far. The top four have more or less cemented themselves. Southampton haven’t lost a game since September. So it looks like we’ll be seeing a long, long race for the final two spots in the top six (of course with the major caveat that any of the top four can crash). Perhaps the club most intriguing right now is West Bromwich Albion. He was a high-profile addition to the league upon joining the...

Photo by Steph Chambers/ Hey, a good thing! Maybe? The news about Tottenham Hotspur is pretty bleak right now, so let’s talk about something else. Like officiating! That’s always a pleasant conversation that everyone agrees about and will never, ever go sideways, right? But this might actually be a good thing. According to the BBC, the IFAB (International Football Association Board) is recommending expanding trials of penalty boxes (“sin-bins”) to professional football leagues in the UK starting next season. The idea is this: certain challenges and situations...

Photo by Nigel French/Sportsphoto/Allstar via It’s not nice to wish injury upon opposition players. But we can wish other things! We’re all mad at Matty Cash. Let’s get that out of the way first. And we should be! Cash, Aston Villa’s current resident goon, put in a horrible late tackle on Rodrigo Bentancur in Tottenham’s match against Villa on Monday. That tackle was not only late, it was cynical, high, and dirty against a player who had only recently come back from a nine month injury absence with a torn ACL. He got a yellow card. It wasn’t...

Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/ Rereading Gatsby good morning !! Your impressionable hoddler-in-chief finished reading Reading Lolita in Tehran on Monday (truly a great piece of literature). In that book, the author discusses each chapter within the context of an author (like Jane Austen) or a novel, like The Great Gatsby or Lolita (by Vladimir Nabokov). Here’s the thing - F Scott Fitzgerald is my favourite author. But I haven’t read Gatsby in years. After reading the book, and reading how she believes we should interpret fiction, I became steadfast in my resolve...