Tottenham don’t want to be known as ‘Tottenham’.
No, that’s not a joke, and it’s left talkSPORT host and long-suffering Spurs fan Reshmin Chowdhury quite bewildered.
The club have written to broadcasters requesting they are only referred as ‘Tottenham Hotspur' or ‘Spurs’ going forward.
It comes amid a low-key rebrand from the north London club, who have dropped the words ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ from their official club crest, which - as seen on their shirts - is now just a cockerel standing on a ball.
Spurs have revealed an array of new logos and text fonts, where the word ‘Tottenham’ is actually never used on its own. Anywhere.
Instead ‘Spurs’ is the most-used name for the club, with crests not featuring any words at all and instead using their founding year of 1882 and LDN.
Cross-capital rivals West Ham have had the ‘London’ treatment already, with many Hammers fans complaining their historic club identify has been sacrificed in favour of marketing.
Tottenham Hotspur have perhaps taken that on board, with their N17 postcode and 'NORTH LDN' featuring in the new-look branding, as well as an old-school THFC monogram.
And in fairness to them, in a world where ‘United’ and City’ are regular sights in the world of football club suffixes, 'there is only one Hotspur’ (as written in the new branding guidelines).
It's been a club policy for years not to refer to themselves only as 'Tottenham' , but have they perhaps taken it a bit too far by demanding nobody else calls them 'Tottenham' anymore, either?
The change has already been spotted on TV broadcasts, where Ange Postecoglou was referred to as 'Tottenham Hotspur head coach' on-screen after a recent match. League tables also now include 'Hotspur' or just read 'Spurs'.
There is a point to be made that some clubs aren't called their city's name. You wouldn't merely say 'Nottingham' or 'Aston' when referring to Forest and Villa - that would be weird, right?
On the other hand, Tottenham Hotspur don't have the same issues multi-club cities have in Manchester or Sheffield, and there is no problem with dropping the 'United' from Newcastle and Leeds and the 'City' from Leicester - we all know who they are.
There is only one 'Tottenham', too - so what's the point?
Lifelong supporter Reshmin doesn’t get it, and also thinks the timing of the request while the team languishes 13th in the Premier League table is quite crass.
England legend Stuart Pearce even branded the bizarre request ‘Donald Trump-esque’.
“Tottenham Hotspur have contacted broadcasters this month requesting that the club are primarily known as ‘Tottenham Hotspur’, with ‘Spurs’ being the preferred short version,” Reshmin said on talkSPORT GameDay.
“So the club have basically requested that they're not referred to as ‘Tottenham’. I'm just shocked by this one.
“I think big clubs in general are considering moving their branding away from a geographical location and having the football club itself as their brand, as opposed to where they've come from.
“But given where Spurs are in the table, how bad things have been and the doom and gloom around the club at the moment, I think it's pretty ridiculous that they're not focusing their energies elsewhere and that they take the time to to send an email to broadcasters to say, ‘oh, we really want to be called Tottenham Hotspur’.
“I think they should focus on actually getting it right on the on the pitch and working their way further up the table so that they can be considered a big club that plays in Europe regularly, regularly at the highest level, rather than trying to move away from what is the the identity of the club.
“Tottenham is the area. Tottenham is Tottenham Hotspur. It's a club. It's a community. It's a culture.
“And I find it very, very strange personally that the club have made this effort to just even compose this email and send this out.”
Pearce added: “It sounds very Trump-esque. Throw something out there that is going to attract the attention of whoever. Divert from the actual, real issue. That's how it seems.
“It seems a really strange one. You identify the football club as you do. Sometimes you call them ‘Spurs’, sometimes ‘Tottenham’, sometimes ‘Tottenham Hotspur’. It's just synonymous. It's what they are.”
Reshmin replied as only a Tottenham Hotspur fan would: “It's who we are, mate!
“I completely agree. What absolute nonsense.
“Honestly, focus your time elsewhere by trying to become a big club and return to that status rather than flipping sending an email to broadcasters saying we don't want to be known as ‘Tottenham’, just ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ or ‘Spurs’.
“Right, rant over.”
Sorry Tottenham - the jury is out on this one.