Cartilage Free Captain

What’s better than the summer transfer window? How about TWO summer transfer windows! According to an article in The Athletic (£), the Premier League has announced the creation of a second, earlier transfer window that will open on June 1 and close on June 10 ahead of the start of the Club World Cup.

The formation of this new “exceptional transfer window” will make it so that Manchester City and Chelsea, the two clubs competing in the competition, to sign players ahead of the tournament. The new window is not restricted to just those two clubs — all Premier League clubs will be able to buy and sell players during the open window.

The window, which was approved by FIFA back in October, will close on June 10, and then reopen six days later on June 16 and remain open until September 1.

What isn’t exactly clear is whether this new window will line up with other international federations’ windows. One would think so otherwise Premier League clubs would only be able to sign free agent players and not players competing in federations whose windows would not yet be open. I presume that they’ve worked all of this out already, but it would be pretty funny (and very on brand for FIFA and the Premier League) if they had not.

So why not just open the transfer window on June 1 and just leave it open until September 1? Well, Premier League rules state that transfer windows can only be open 16 weeks in the year — 12 weeks in the summer, 4 weeks in January. This extra Club World Cup window is unique to that competition, which starts on June 14. That requires the window to close for six days before reopening with the “real” window.

Good morning and welcome to the latest installment of The Orchad Tales, where your hoddler-in-chief documents the life os his orchid, Planty.

Catch up on parts 3-10 here (Again, this is an open request for anyone who can find Parts 1 and 2):

Part III / Part IV / Part V / Part VI / Part VII / Part VIII / Part IX / Part X

The cherry blossoms are blooming. The tidal basin is dotted with white and pink petals, gifts from Japan many years ago. Spring is here and lovely pastels adorn Washington DC.

Inside my apartment, near my east-facing window, the seven violet-colorued flowers on my orchid have fallen off. Another life-span come and gone. These blooms first blossomed in December, with the final one arriving some time after the new year.

They remained resilient in the dark and gloomy winter, brightening each morning that came and went.

Now, the stalk that grew from the orchid bulb is turning from a beautiful green to brown. The energy and effort it spent to carry the blooms have taken their toll.

Now the orchid begins the next stage of its life: rest.

And that’s what I’ll allow it to do. It will rest and once the stalk is ready to fall off I will prune it. There is one additional leaf that appears to be fading, which will also require some more monitoring.

Planty is entering its fourth year in existence, a living token of my time here in DC. Because of it my entire living room arrangement is slightly off-centre, but Planty’s well-being takes precedence over my aesthetic.

The crown of thorns and ponytail palm I bought in October to accompany it remain, although the former is looking in rough shape. And I’ve since replaced two dead Trader Joe’s plants with a new one, placing it slightly closer towards the window.

There is still some space for more plants here. Perhaps that’s what I’ll do. Bring one or two more into the fold while Planty gets its well-deserved rest.

Fitzie’s track of the day: Te Lloré Un Río, by Mana

And now for your links:

Dan KP: “Tottenham facing major Cristian Romero dilemma as new transfer interest emerges”

Football London: “Tottenham’s best 25 players of the last 25 years: 15-11 revealed”

BBC: “‘I won’t let this define me’- [Aidy] Boothroyd on Parkinson’s diagnosis”

Here’s the thing about Tottenham Hotspur collecting super talented teenagers: at what point do you just... stop? After diving into the young end of the pool (ok that’s not a good metaphor, strike that, reverse it, this way please!) last summer, Spurs seemingly can’t help but be linked to even more talented youngsters.

This time it’s Sunderland attacking midfielder Chris Rigg, as reported by regional paper The Northern Echo, who is already considered one of the Black Cats’ best players, and he just turned 17. There’s a lot of reasons to be excited about Rigg — he has 4G+1A in 2500 minutes in the Championship before he can legally order a beer in the pub, for one. He’s been described as “the next best young player after Jude Bellingham” and has “a Roy Kean-esque type of nastiness” (which now that I think about it may not be the compliment they think it is).

When evaluating transfer sources regarding players in lower divisions, I tend to think the smaller, regional newspapers are the ones that really has the goods, so a paper like the Echo makes me take notice. Notably, the Echo says that Rigg’s future might hang on whether Sunderland are able to promote this summer or not; if they fail to make it through, Rigg is more likely to be sold to any number of interested clubs.

But the kid IS good. He’s saucy as hell with the ball at his feet, isn’t afraid to take on a player on the dribble, and has a confidence or even a fearlessness that seems pretty uncommon for a kid his age. He’s thriving at the Championship level against real adults at 17, which is a strong indicator that he’s likely going to take a developmental leap and be good at the top level as well. But the leap from the Championship to the Premier League is HUGE, and not every player successfully makes it. There’s an element of risk associated with the signing of any young player, especially at what could be a large transfer fee.

And to be clear, as talented as he is, I do have some questions about Rigg’s fit at a club like Spurs. His best position is at the 8, and while you can squint and say he could potentially be a rotational option for James Maddison next season in that role, Spurs are buying at least one other central midfielder this summer and I think I’d be a little nervous about entrusting that level of responsibility on a kid that young who’s taking his first step to top level Premier League football. Riggs has the feel of an extremely Brighton signing, or another club that can give him the developmental minutes he needs at the top level to keep growing.

Spurs, by contrast, are possibly ready to let go a number of senior players this summer (notably Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur) and could really use some experienced, proven top level replacements. Riggs doesn’t fit that bill quite yet.

That said, at a certain level, if you are able to get your football club to sign a young talent like “Riggsy,” you kind of go with that, even if you’re not sure exactly how he fits in. Or maybe Spurs would purchase him and loan him out for a year or two. That may be what’s going on here, I don’t really know.

It’s no secret that Southampton’s teenage midfielder Tyler Dibling is of interest to Tottenham Hotspur. He’s young, talented with a high ceiling, and on a team that’s almost certain to be relegated this season (Soton are currently bottom of the table with just nine points).

That’s put Tyler “Dribbling” on the radars of any number of top Premier League clubs, including Spurs, and with Tottenham seemingly trying to hoover up whatever young talent is available after Chelsea get done doing whatever it is they’re doing, he’d fit in very well with the likes of Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, and Mikey Moore.

But Southampton isn’t going to let the crown jewel of their academy go easily. According to John Percy and Matt Law in the Telegraph, Soton are likely to demand in excess of £100m to let Dibling go. Dibling is also being scouted by both Manchester clubs, Bayern Munich, and RB Leipzig.

£100m. That’s a lot of £. Is Tyler “Dribbling” worth a transfer fee that’s in the same category as a teenage Jude Bellingham, Joao Felix, and Kylian Mbappe? I mean, we can have that discussion but based on his current output I’d say probably not, at least now. His potential is huge, but he hasn’t realized it yet. So what gives?

The most likely answer is that Dibling doesn’t have a relegation clause in his current Southampton contract, which would make sense since he’s 19 and signed his current pro contract two years ago. That also suggests that Southampton are holding all the cards here and are likely to want to keep him next season in the Championship, unless they can get a big club to spend stupid money. If they can leverage another year of Dibling to help them get back to the Premier League in 2026-27, they could then sell Dibling for potentially crazy money and finance a transfer window that might help they stay up in the future.

I think it’s pretty unlikely that any interested club, Spurs or otherwise, would offer £100m for Dibling this summer. I do think he could command a pretty good transfer fee, and it’ll be up to Southampton at that point to decide if it’s worth selling him. The £100m fee is almost certainly posturing, and setting a benchmark that’s unlikely to be reached, but it’s also an indicator that Southampton isn’t going to meekly play ball. Get ready for another annoying summer of transfer rumors.

I’ve got some sad news about a guy guaranteed to go down as one of Tottenham Hotspur’s all-time greats. Former Tottenham CB and Belgian international Jan Vertonghen, currently playing at Anderlecht in his home country, has announced that he is hanging up his boots and retiring at the end of the season.

Vertonghen, 37, is widely acknowledged to be one of the best central defenders in Tottenham’s Premier League era, and among the best in its long history. Vertonghen formed an incredible defensive partnership with his international teammate Toby Alderweireld that was considered the best defensive duo in the league. That partnership helped Tottenham make it to the brink of two Premier League titles as well as the Champions League final under Mauricio Pochettino.

A product of Ajax’s academy, Vertonghen broke through in the Eredivisie with Ajax before moving to Spurs in 2012. Since leaving Spurs in 2020, Vertonghen won the Portuguese league title with Benfica before moving home to play for Anderlecht.

Vertonghen is currently Anderlecht captain and has already retired from international duty with Belgium, but admitted that Father Time has caught up to him and it’s time to bring an end to his playing career.

“I have noticed that it is becoming more and more difficult to prepare myself physically for training sessions and matches and to show myself as the player I want to be. Not only towards the fans and my fellow players, but also towards myself. That is why I will be stopping after this season.”

I have a lot of fond memories of that era in Spurs’ history, but watching Vertonghen and Alderweireld play together was a true joy. Alderweireld might have had slightly better defensive tools, but Vertonghen made up for it with a huge heart and obvious fondness for the club and its fans.

Vertonghen has apparently been working on his coaching badges and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he makes a move into management after season’s end. Note to Ange Postecoglou — if you have a spot open in your staff next season, I know a guy you can call.

Thanks for the memories, Super Jan. You’ll always be fully COYS.

Show of hands: Who else here watched Notts County draw 0-0 against Crewe Alexandria on Saturday? Just fitzie?

While the international break gave us all a brief respite from Tottenham Hotspur, there was still plenty of action in the lower levels of the English football pyramid. And you know how much we love the pyramid.

One day all these teams will play an equal number of games and make your hoddler-in-chief’s life signifcantly easier. Today’s not that day, so to hell with the scheduling.

So let’s take a quick look around the other leagues in England:

League One:

The most interesting playoff race thickens with Wrexham in the second automatic spot, but Wycombe still have a game in hand.

I think Wycombe have a tougher run-in with games against Stockport, Leyton Orient and Huddersfield. But hey you never know.

Top six:

Bottom four:

League Two:

For those of you keeping track at home, Notts County’s bid to reach the automatics took a big hit after dropping two points against Crewe Alexandria. Other than that, very little’s changed in the picture since we last checked. Poor Morecambe look like they’re gonna drop.

Top four:

Bottom two:

National League:

Barnet have just about sealed it, holding a 14-point lead with seven fixtures to go. But this is what happens when you win your last five.

York City, Forest Green and Oldham seem most poised to secure one of the playoff spots up for grabs. Gateshead could crash out after losing their last five.

Top one:

Fitzie’s track of the day: Ichizu, by King Gnu

Djed Spence is having a breakthrough season with Tottenham Hotspur this season. Since he broke into the first team this year during Spurs’ injury crisis he has established himself as not only a Premier League-caliber player, but also one of Tottenham’s best players by performance metrics.

It wasn’t always easy. Spence was acquired in 2022 during Antonio Conte’s tenure, and the irascible Italian essentially dismissed Spence’s signing, calling his acquisition “an investment of the club” and that Spence was “a club signing.” Djed made just six appearances for Spurs in the fall of 2022-23 for a total of 47 minutes before being sent out on loan to Rennes that January. Spence spent the following season, the first under Ange Postecoglou, out on loan at Leeds and Genoa before returning and impressing in offseason this summer.

In comments made on Rio Ferdinand’s podcast and printed in the Standard, Spence has said Conte’s comments “shattered his confidence,” stating that despite being brought in as a promising young player fresh off winning promotion with Nottingham Forest, he was made to feel marginalized and unwanted.

“It wasn’t a nice feeling. Especially as I was coming to the club on a high, I was confident, I was buzzing, had just won promotion. Then it was like running into a brick wall. It shattered my confidence a bit, obviously I’m young. It’s not nice to hear.

“I knew it was rubbish at the time. It wasn’t a nice feeling. I was even going into the club like [puffs out cheeks] and, ‘What am I doing?’ I feel like whatever I did, that man [Conte] wasn’t happy about anything. Even if you did the right things, you were like, ‘Did I do the right thing?’ Cos he’s not really a complimenting guy.

“It gets to a point where you don’t really need validation from a coach. You just go, ‘Oh’.

“I probably had one conversation with him.”

Hindsight is always 20/20, and I confess at the time that while I was not overly thrilled with Conte’s comments about Spence, Djed had something of a reputation as an immature player who could be a little difficult to deal with. That said, it was absolutely a dick move by Conte to publicly bin off a new signing and make him feel unwanted. In the pantheon of Spurs Managers Being Jerks Moments during the tenure of my fandom, Conte’s comments about Spence ranks up there alongside Tim Sherwood, who when asked about Erik Lamela’s English, responded with a dismissive “Que?”.

That said, Spence also doesn’t think he necessarily got a fair shake under Big Ange at first either.

“When a new manager comes in you think, ‘Alright, everyone’s going to get a fair chance, he’s going to have a look at everyone’. With me, I don’t think that was really the case. But that’s part of the game of the game of football. Football’s not fair. [Postecoglou] just said basically I need to go out and play and that’s when I ended up going to Leeds.

“Sometimes you might not get a chance that you feel like you deserve. I’ve always known I was good enough. People say, ‘It’s good to see he’s got a second chance and he’s doing well’. I never really got the first chance. This is my first chance and I’m taking it. I’m just happy I worked hard, I stayed consistent and I was ready.”

Now, there’s a big difference between Postecoglou telling him “You need to go and play football somewhere on loan this year” and Conte basically saying “I don’t want or need this guy.” Postecoglou may not have been convinced about Spence’s fit in his team — a perfectly reasonable assumption based on his recent history at the club — but Ange at least gave Spence an opportunity to establish himself and his confidence on loan, which paid off significantly.

Importantly, Djed says that part of the reason it took him this long to get a foothold at Spurs was due to his own actions, saying that he was a little intimidated by the situation and didn’t “express [himself]” enough.

“I think I’ve been a victim of being too humble. Thinking things are just going to happen by not doing nothing and not saying nothing. But sometimes you have to express yourself.

“In my first year at Tottenham, I feel I gave a bit too much respect to the players and the surroundings, because it’s Tottenham. I came from Forest, I’m going to the Premier League, a top-six club, and I thought, ‘Phew, this is big’. I feel I gave them too much respect in regards I didn’t really be myself.

“When I went there, I saw players who were big names like Harry Kane and Sonny [Heung-min Son], and I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. But that was probably my biggest mistake, doing that and not expressing myself how I should have. I’d say this season [that’s changed]. I’ve got no time to waste now. I’ve got to go get it, it’s time.”

This is the first time we’ve really heard Spence’s side of the story, and I’m glad that he spoke up about his own feelings. That doesn’t necessarily negate the earlier reports of him being, at times, a little surly at past clubs and on loan, but does add some very important context to the whole situation. And, more importantly, add significant evidence that Conte was just a raging a-hole. Good riddance.

A few weeks ago we reported on a story that Tottenham Hotspur had started talks to potentially offer midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur a new contract to keep him here past the end of this current deal, which runs to the end of the 2025-26 season. Now, it sounds like the reports of Bentancur’s renewal might have been a little hasty. There’s a new report from Matteo Moretto that suggests Bentancur might be of interest to Atletico Madrid this summer.

The report is in Spanish and doesn’t have a ton of information, and in fact comprises a single paragraph in what looks like a rumor roundup. But it does state that the 27 year old midfielder

One of the footballers that Atlético has recently asked about is the Uruguayan of Tottenham Rodrigo Bentancur. The former Juventus player is 27 and has played 32 games in all competitions in the Spurs jersey this year. At the moment I cannot say that there is a real negotiation between the parties because it is still early, but Atletico has had contacts to test the ground for June.

— Matteo Moretto, Relevo

That’s not a ton to go on, obviously, but it does bring up the possibility that Spurs might opt to push for two central midfielders this summer as they continue their rebuild under Ange Postecoglou. Bentancur’s performances have been um let’s just call it “mixed” this season, and he really hasn’t looked like the same player since returning from a major injury last season. Bentancur is asked to cover a lot of ground in Ange’s system, and he’s shown that either he’s not particularly suited to that role or has had a physical decline that prevents him from excelling there consistently.

But Diego Simeone’s tactics seem like a much better fit for a limited, but still peak age, player. In fact, I can see Lolo doing well in La Liga if he’s playing a simplified game that doesn’t ask so much of him.

Consider this the last post about college basketball until much later this year, at the earliest

Oh, how futile hope is against the impregnable barrier of reality.

On Saturday, your hoddler-in-chief’s St John’s University were knocked out of the NCAAM basketball tournament. Thus crushing fitzie’s hopes and dreams and many Long Islanders’.

Let’s just take a moment though to recognise how tragic the referereeing was in this game: 44!

How is it possible to have a basketball game when there are 44 fouls? A fair amount of them (on both sides) were ridiculous too. I don’t think people tune into March Madness to see Zvonimir Ivisic or Kadary Richmond foul out of the game less than 10 minutes into the second half.

Horrific, Sissokoan refereeing.

That said, you’re not going to win a game when you’re shooting maybe 28%. Or if you’re shooting 9% from 3.

And now St John’s magicial season is over. Rick Pitino heads back to Queens, New York, with a Big East regular season and conference tournament title, but a disappointing R32 exit.

There’s not much to do now that the tournament is pretty much over. I might catch a couple of games here and there, but it hurts to watch the sport right now.

Fitzie’s track of the day: L’éléphant, by Henry Texier

And now for your links:

Jay Harris ($$): “Michel Vorm on Spurs under Pochettino, Vicario’s ‘ridiculous reflexes’ and captain Son”

Guardian ($$): “Scotland relegated in Nations League as Karetsas leads Greece demolition job”

You might or might not remember this, but Tottenham Hotspur sold Harry Kane to Bayern Munich last summer. It was a whole thing. And since that transfer, Kane has unsurprisingly upped his game to become quite possibly the most prolific scorer in world football, with 57 goals in 54 games, a scoring record that could put him in contention for the Ballon d’Or this coming year.

Yeah, he’s still pretty good.

It’s a slow news week what with the international break going on and all, and Kane has been speaking to the media while on England duty, so let’s talk about Harry Kane. In a recent media interview ahead of England’s World Cup qualifying match against Albania later today, Kane says that his move to Bayern has been a positive step in his development, and that moving to Germany has resulted in his “aura” being increased.

Harry Kane, hippie transcendentalist. Here’s the full quote.

“Just being at a club like Bayern Munich has helped push me on even more, confidence-wise and responsibility-wise. I feel like I’ve definitely got better, I’ve improved, and maybe the ‘aura’ of me as a player is a bit more respected than what it has been in the past, because you’re playing in big games, big nights.

“That’s probably what I mean in terms of being respected more worldwide, on the bigger stage. For something like that, you have to win enough team trophies to be considered in that and probably score 40-odd goals, but that is a possibility this season.”

Now, this is a Tottenham blog and the people reading it are mostly Tottenham fans. And yes, there has already been a little grumbling about this quote potentially denigrating Tottenham Hotspur, which developed him through the academy and turned him into a global superstar. So I suppose I can understand fans getting a little grumpy alluding to his current club as superior to his development to his (unnamed) past club.

But honestly, I think he says it quite fairly here. Bayern Munich is one of the biggest and best clubs in world football. It’s the reason Kane wanted to leave in the first place — he wanted to both win trophies (something he ironically has yet to do in his second year at Bayern) and also test himself at the very highest level of the game. He’s done that. He just did it in a way that indirectly annoyed Spurs fans.

Now I can chuckle a bit about his use of the word “aura” which sounds like something a Zoomer teen would say while arranging quartz crystals in their bedroom and not a 30-year old professional footballer. But it’s hard to argue with the fact that since leaving for Germany Kane has upped his game. I don’t know if he’ll win the Ballon d’Or, but I think he’d definitely deserve it. And it still kind of smarts.

Basically it’s this meme (thanks to Frinkiac.com):

God, I’m bored. I hope Spurs do something worth writing about soon.