Cartilage Free Captain

Kia ora.

Last Hoddle for the week - and for me for a while, with Fitzie back next week.

Honestly, I don’t know how he does it - racking my brain for a different topic each day, trying to keep the masses entertained (insert Gladiator gif here). I think of it as the writing equivalent of MC’ing an event; it’s a very specific skillset, pulling a thought out of mid-air, and having the ability to utilize that to grab peoples’ attention.

In terms of that, it’s always good to have some sort of connection to the cultural zeitgest, which... I’m more man who yells at cloud than man of the people. I’d never make it as a politician; I’m not sure I even qualify as a writer!

So this is kind of a stream-of-consciousness Hoddle, getting meta, so to speak - because I’ve run out of things to talk about! You probably know far more about me now than you ever wanted to, so sorry about that - but isn’t that kind of the cool thing about Cartilage Free Captain? A community of people, connecting over a particular passion? Even one that absolutely destroys you as much as Spurs?

I guess that’s been my goal this week, and maybe the goal of the Hoddle in general: we all have a single point of connection - so let’s find some more!

All this to say: it’s been a pleasure chatting with you all this week. It took me back to the days when I was but one of the commentariat, dropping #takes into the comments (seriously, are you still even reading this?) on whether a hot dog is a sandwich, knife vs bat, and who’s the next THE. But it’ll be great to have Fitzie back - his chats are fantastic, and even if he has poor taste in football players (#sorrynotsorry) he does have great taste in music. We’re lucky to have him.

Mā te wā.

Matty’s track of the day: End of the Affair (Live), by Ben Howard

And now for your links:

A look at the remaining work needed for Spurs in the transfer window, from Football London

Dejan Kulusevski and Lucas Bergvall visit the Diary Room: check it out on the club site. There’s even some singing!

It’s a done deal, almost! According to both Fabrizio Romano and Alasdair Gold, Tottenham Hotspur was indeed the club working to bring in 18-year old South Korean winger Yang Min-Hyuk from Gangwon FC. The deal is now agreed apart from part of the medical, and he’ll join Spurs at the end of the K-League season in January 2025.

So this was originally couched as a “loan back” to Gangwon, but I’m not actually sure that’s the case. Instead I think it’s more like the Lucas Bergvall deal in that Yang will just stay on at his current club until the end of the K-League season in November, then join up with Spurs in January, 2025. No loan needed, which means Spurs don’t use up one of their decreasing, and valuable, loan spots for this window.

Writing in Football.London, Gold spoke to South Korean journalist Sungmo Lee about Yang and what he might bring to Tottenham.

“Yang Min-hyuk is the best young player in the K League right now, and most significantly, he’s still a high school student. His talent was so exceptional so his club Gangwon proposed the professional contract to a high school student which was the first ever case in K League’s history.

“He showed great performances in K League this season, winning the ‘young player of the month’ award three times in a row from April to June. He is a great dribbler but also possesses great finishing skills which makes Korean fans hope that he can become the next Son Heung-min, especially if he joins the same club with Son in Tottenham.”

—Sungmo Lee, via Football.London

Sounds pretty good to me! But I wouldn’t expect that Yang will make an instant impact at Spurs when he joins in January. He’s still just 18, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him slot into the U23s to get adapted to life and football in England. I’d guess he’s at least a year or so away from showing up in a first team match or anything. But hey, I’ve been wrong before, so let’s hope I am and he starts kicking butt right away.

Yang will also have the advantage of having a fantastic mentor in Son Heung-Min when he arrives. Sonny’s spoken in the past about how difficult it is to adapt to a new culture when you first leave Korea, especially when you’re young. If there’s one thing we know about Son is that he’s an incredible teammate and friend, and I have no doubt he’ll bend over backwards to help Yang adapt.

There are reports that the transfer fee for Yang is just €4m, which depending on who you ask is either stupid low for a potentially generational Korean talent, or a rather high swing for a foreign player lottery ticket. I lean towards the former, but I’m also an optimist.

It’s a done deal, almost! According to both Fabrizio Romano and Alasdair Gold, Tottenham Hotspur was indeed the club working to bring in 18-year old South Korean winger Yang Min-Hyuk from Gangwon FC. The deal is now agreed apart from part of the medical, and he’ll join Spurs at the end of the K-League season in January 2025.

So this was originally couched as a “loan back” to Gangwon, but I’m not actually sure that’s the case. Instead I think it’s more like the Lucas Bergvall deal in that Yang will just stay on at his current club until the end of the K-League season in November, then join up with Spurs in January, 2025. No loan needed, which means Spurs don’t use up one of their decreasing, and valuable, loan spots for this window.

Writing in Football.London, Gold spoke to South Korean journalist Sungmo Lee about Yang and what he might bring to Tottenham.

“Yang Min-hyuk is the best young player in the K League right now, and most significantly, he’s still a high school student. His talent was so exceptional so his club Gangwon proposed the professional contract to a high school student which was the first ever case in K League’s history.

“He showed great performances in K League this season, winning the ‘young player of the month’ award three times in a row from April to June. He is a great dribbler but also possesses great finishing skills which makes Korean fans hope that he can become the next Son Heung-min, especially if he joins the same club with Son in Tottenham.”

—Sungmo Lee, via Football.London

Sounds pretty good to me! But I wouldn’t expect that Yang will make an instant impact at Spurs when he joins in January. He’s still just 18, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him slot into the U23s to get adapted to life and football in England. I’d guess he’s at least a year or so away from showing up in a first team match or anything. But hey, I’ve been wrong before, so let’s hope I am and he starts kicking butt right away.

Yang will also have the advantage of having a fantastic mentor in Son Heung-Min when he arrives. Sonny’s spoken in the past about how difficult it is to adapt to a new culture when you first leave Korea, especially when you’re young. If there’s one thing we know about Son is that he’s an incredible teammate and friend, and I have no doubt he’ll bend over backwards to help Yang adapt.

There are reports that the transfer fee for Yang is just €4m, which depending on who you ask is either stupid low for a potentially generational Korean talent, or a rather high swing for a foreign player lottery ticket. I lean towards the former, but I’m also an optimist.

Earlier this summer, Tottenham Hotspur and left back Ryan Sessegnon amicably parted ways. It wasn’t exactly a surprise; Sessegnon’s career had been almost completely derailed by persistent injuries over the past two seasons to the point where he had barely played football for more than a year.

It was decided that he needed a fresh start somewhere new where he could hopefully get back to fitness and playing condition. To that end Spurs and Sess mutually terminated his contract and Ryan been training for the past few weeks at Crystal Palace.

But it doesn’t look like he’ll be playing for Palace after all. According to Fabrizio Romano, Sessegnon will re-sign with his former club Fulham, where he and his twin brother Steven came up as youth players.

There’s something romantic about going home, and that feels exactly like what Ryan’s doing here. Fulham is clearly a club where he feels comfortable, as he spent 11 years there as a schoolboy and professional there before moving to Spurs in 2019. He gets to stay in London as well, which along with Palace I’m sure was a big part of his decision-making process.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here — I’m sad that things just didn’t work out for Sessegnon at Tottenham, because I like him a lot. But things just don’t work out sometimes, and Fulham feels like a place where he’ll, ironically, put his past behind him while heading back to the club of his youth. I wish him well.

Earlier this summer, Tottenham Hotspur and left back Ryan Sessegnon amicably parted ways. It wasn’t exactly a surprise; Sessegnon’s career had been almost completely derailed by persistent injuries over the past two seasons to the point where he had barely played football for more than a year.

It was decided that he needed a fresh start somewhere new where he could hopefully get back to fitness and playing condition. To that end Spurs and Sess mutually terminated his contract and Ryan been training for the past few weeks at Crystal Palace.

But it doesn’t look like he’ll be playing for Palace after all. According to Fabrizio Romano, Sessegnon will re-sign with his former club Fulham, where he and his twin brother Steven came up as youth players.

There’s something romantic about going home, and that feels exactly like what Ryan’s doing here. Fulham is clearly a club where he feels comfortable, as he spent 11 years there as a schoolboy and professional there before moving to Spurs in 2019. He gets to stay in London as well, which along with Palace I’m sure was a big part of his decision-making process.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here — I’m sad that things just didn’t work out for Sessegnon at Tottenham, because I like him a lot. But things just don’t work out sometimes, and Fulham feels like a place where he’ll, ironically, put his past behind him while heading back to the club of his youth. I wish him well.

Preseason can be grueling; even more so when your preseason is in 90°F plus temperatures.

From a coaching perspective, it’s the time to build fitness and conditioning for the long season ahead, but also to give opportunities to players to prove themselves. From a club and commercial perspective, it’s a chance to grow the team’s profile around the world.

All these things exist in a delicate balance: matches in far-flung corners of the globe (not that Japan is that) are great from a marketing perspective, but is the volume of travel too much? How hard do you push your players so that they are peaking coming into the season proper? How do you balance ensuring your nailed-on starters are Premier League match-fit versus allowing your youth talent time to shine and possibly break through?

It’s likely this delicate balance that has resulted in the club scheduling an additional behind-closed-doors friendly later today (Thursday evening, Japan time) ahead of the first official friendly of the Asian tour on Saturday against Vissel Kobe, as reported by Alasdair Gold:

There’s not much info on the match, with neither a kick-off time nor opponent mentioned (though it’s likely to be a local club side); but the rationale is that with two official friendlies (plus another behind-closed-doors match against Cambridge United) already under the belt, it’s time for the senior players to start upping their minutes.

That doesn’t mean the youth players will be left out; there’s obviously a tight turnaround leading into the Vissel Kobe match, and it’s the same with the matches following, with the Kobe, K-League All Stars, and Bayern Munich friendlies all scheduled in the space of a week. There’s plenty of minutes to go around. My prediction instead is that we’ll likely see a number of the senior starters go 60 minutes against Vissel Kobe, supplemented with some youth teamers who will play a half each; with then a different set of senior players doing the same against the K-League All Stars side.

I’m all for more football; I just hope that the team don’t overdo it, with a litany of hamstring injuries last season and the sheer exhaustion we saw under Conte the year prior. I’m sure Ange knows what he’s doing.

Kia ora.

I’m a big TV fan. My wife and I watch a fair few shows between us, and one thing that’s become noticeable over the past 5-10 years is how much TV, and how it’s structured, has changed.

The advent of streaming services, better hardware quality, and improvements in CGI has resulted in big, movie-level budgets to deliver a “prestige-level” product; this increase in cost to film has also seen seasons grow shorter, with the desire to binge watch meaning less room for “filler” or “monster-of-the-week” (to use an X-Files term) episodes to pad out a 20+ episode season, with viewers often complaining about the insertion of such breaks from the main plot.

The really big change though has been the wait between seasons.

Gone are the days of surety surrounding the yearly September to May air window for network shows; instead, we sometimes see 2+ year waits as new seasons are prepared. The increased cost means studios are often reluctant to renew shows early without some quantification of show performance; there’s also increased time spent writing, the advent of film actors moving into TV (often meaning scheduling conflicts), and a longer post-production window to get shows looking sharp (as we’ve all come to expect).

This can actively harm shows as well, as long-running plot lines get forgotten, fans disconnect from the show, or people with busy lives start new shows and find they can’t really be bothered picking up another one again; Westworld was somewhat a victim of this (though it had other issues) with huge gaps between seasons.

I’ve honestly forgotten some of the shows on which I’m waiting; Severance Season 2 is a big one, airing early next year; the second season of Andor is another likely releasing around the same time. Stranger Things, Silo, For All Mankind, Fargo, The White Lotus... the list goes on. I guess you could say I’m impatient.

What about you? Do you prefer the longer wait for “higher quality” TV? Is there anything you’ve been waiting a long time to continue watching?

Matty’s track of the day: This Is Why (Live), by Paramore

And now for your links:

Ledley King & Ossie Ardiles have been hanging out in Japan with supporters

A K-League perspective on purported Spurs signing Yang Min-Hyuk’s rise to stardom

A fantastic video from The Extra Inch highlighting the problems with Spurs’ squad and how to potentially fix them (or not)

Kia ora.

I’m a big TV fan. My wife and I watch a fair few shows between us, and one thing that’s become noticeable over the past 5-10 years is how much TV, and how it’s structured, has changed.

The advent of streaming services, better hardware quality, and improvements in CGI has resulted in big, movie-level budgets to deliver a “prestige-level” product; this increase in cost to film has also seen seasons grow shorter, with the desire to binge watch meaning less room for “filler” or “monster-of-the-week” (to use an X-Files term) episodes to pad out a 20+ episode season, with viewers often complaining about the insertion of such breaks from the main plot.

The really big change though has been the wait between seasons.

Gone are the days of surety surrounding the yearly September to May air window for network shows; instead, we sometimes see 2+ year waits as new seasons are prepared. The increased cost means studios are often reluctant to renew shows early without some quantification of show performance; there’s also increased time spent writing, the advent of film actors moving into TV (often meaning scheduling conflicts), and a longer post-production window to get shows looking sharp (as we’ve all come to expect).

This can actively harm shows as well, as long-running plot lines get forgotten, fans disconnect from the show, or people with busy lives start new shows and find they can’t really be bothered picking up another one again; Westworld was somewhat a victim of this (though it had other issues) with huge gaps between seasons.

I’ve honestly forgotten some of the shows on which I’m waiting; Severance Season 2 is a big one, airing early next year; the second season of Andor is another likely releasing around the same time. Stranger Things, Silo, For All Mankind, Fargo, The White Lotus... the list goes on. I guess you could say I’m impatient.

What about you? Do you prefer the longer wait for “higher quality” TV? Is there anything you’ve been waiting a long time to continue watching?

Matty’s track of the day: This Is Why (Live), by Paramore

And now for your links:

Ledley King & Ossie Ardiles have been hanging out in Japan with supporters

A K-League perspective on purported Spurs signing Yang Min-Hyuk’s rise to stardom

A fantastic video from The Extra Inch highlighting the problems with Spurs’ squad and how to potentially fix them (or not)

If you’re a fan of Tottenham Hotspur Women, want to be, or just like English women’s football in general, then you’re going to like what I’m about to write. Beginning this upcoming season in 2024-25, the Barclay’s Women’s Super League will begin broadcasting all non-televised WSL matches on YouTube, rather than on its proprietary streaming service FA Player!

The announcement was made in a couple of throw-away lines at the bottom of a press release announcing the new fixtures for the 2024-25 season, but the news is abundantly welcome! The WSL now has its own dedicated YouTube channel and, similar to what it did on the FA Player in past seasons, promises to stream all WSL matches there that aren’t televised in the United Kingdom. YouTube will also host full match replays for viewers who can’t tune into the matches live, as well as highlight packages and behind-the-scenes content via a new partnership with DAZN, all free of charge.

According to sportindustry.biz, Sky Sports will broadcast as many as 44 WSL matches in the UK next season, with BBC broadcasting at least 22 matches. Those not selected for TV coverage will be streamed on YouTube. For viewers in the United States, those televised matches are typically streamed via Paramount+, and there are suggestions that Paramount will be broadcasting more matches this upcoming season than in years past.

The Women’s FA Cup competition is notably NOT included in this deal; all FA Cup matches this coming season will continue to be streamed on the FA Player.

This is good stuff. It should be acknowledged that the FA Player has filled a real hole over the past few years for fans who had no other real option to watch Spurs Women (or any other WSL team) play, but there have been significant headaches. The production value on FA Player streams was pretty sub-standard, and since the FA Player app is a standalone for mobile devices and not optimized for TV, it required casting a low-quality feed to your streaming box of choice in order to watch on television. I can’t tell you how many times the feed has crapped out on me while I was watching FA Player games in years past.

But this is excellent news. Moving to YouTube will make it easier for fans to find, and watch, WSL matches this coming season and will hopefully continue to boost women’s soccer in the UK.

Kia ora.

This is going to be a bit more of a rushed Hoddle, the reason being I’m writing this while in a work meeting.

Oh, the joy of meetings.

Meetings are great when it allows you to engage with your colleagues, build a rapport, and have a level of connection that depending on your day-to-day role, you may sorely miss. They’re also good if there is a purpose or a function, in that you can expect to come out of said meeting with takeaways or actions with which to proceed.

And speaking of takeaways, having them catered is always a bonus.

Unfortunately, meetings are often not great.

I recently shifted to a new role in which I find myself in 6+ hours of meetings on certain days, which is brutal when you also need to... well, get work done. A lot of meetings or calls are remote, so I can work away on things on my PC while trying to keep one ear open.

The worst meetings though are the ones where you are unlikely to have any actions come your way, but you need to actively listen just in case. I’ve mentioned before that I work in IT; to be more specific, I work closely with data, and so I find myself in a lot of calls, meetings, and groups where changes and updates to data are being discussed. This means I need to be always listening because there could be flow-on impacts to my team (and therefore the whole business).

Consequently, I am sometimes sitting in a meeting for a couple of hours, actively listening - only to have zero input or takeaways. It is not fun.

Do you have any meetings you wish you could just not go to? Does your job even have meetings? Or maybe you dream of a job that has lots of meetings? Trust me, you shouldn’t.

Matty’s track of the day: Over the Hillside, by The Blue Nile

And now for your links:

Robert Vilahamn talks to the club about his plans for the future after signing a contract extension

Alasdair Gold’s takeaways from Spurs’ first training session in Tokyo