The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Friday, August 21

Hoddler-in-chief’s note: Today’s track of the day, like every Track of the Day this week since Tuesday (Wildflowers, Danger Zone, Fool in the Rain), is dedicated to my friend Richard, who passed away this week at age 31. He was a really sweet, funny and sincere person. I loved him very much, and I miss him deeply.

Let us savour every second of football this weekend in his memory.

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can you believe that? the premier league is finally here!

tottenham are entering the season with a new manager, some new players and a new captain. the rest of the gang will have plenty of football stories for you to comment on in the next 36 or so hours before kickoff, but let’s start the hype-building right now.

tottenham hotspur begin their campaign on saturday at 5.30pm local time / 12.30pm et/ 9.30am pst. so get your beverages (adult or soft or caffeinated), your foods (wings or chips or sausage or pancakes) and your shirts ready for the season.

fitzie will be running it back again with his kyle walker shirt from the 2016-17 season. there’s no topping that for me, even if i have a few others in my closet the spurple this year might be a contender, but i’ve said that before and I still wear the walker kit. i can’t believe it’s getting close to retro now.

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football is a brilliant sport, and remarkable in its ability to bring us together. whether it’s watching games on the weekday or weekends, or sitting on the couch playing fifa (a video game your hoddler-in-chief is inept at playing).

maybe He lines up as liverpool’s 14-15 squad, and i choose spurs 14-15 (of course i do). and of course He always beats me because i keep two-footing His players. and then we’d laugh a lot after i’d go down to 9 men and still force my players to sprint the entire pitch. most times He’d win, sometimes we’d draw. i might’ve won once.

it’s these memories that we hold closest to us, These People who mean dearest to us, the people we love. it doesn’t really matter they hold the same scarf as us or wear rival colours or if He pronounces leicester as “lie-chester” (don’t hold it against Him).

sometimes the beauty of the game is the spirit of the game itself, and the people we get to experience it with. maybe it feels trite at the time, only to develop into a core memory we remember years later in our lives. and we talk about it on the phone one night and laugh, remembering the sweet moments of our lives, which i’ll carry with me wherever i go.

And We keep These People In Our Hearts, we Carry Them Wherever We Go (i carry it in my heart).

And That’s Beautiful.

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we’re excited for this season. it’s been a whole five days since i last watched a football match (cardiff vs wrexham), and even longer since i saw the tottenham boys lace up their boots.

get hyped, come on you spurs,

And Enjoy Every Sandwich.

Fitzie’s track of the day (dedicated in loving memory to Richard):Ripple, by the Grateful Dead

And now for your links:

The Athletic ($$): “Spurs rising star Luca Williams-Barnett: A 17-year-old No 10 with an eye for a wonder goal”

BBC: “The Premier League’s new plan to end corner chaos”

The Independent: “The big question facing Serie A after decline and upheaval”