Cartilage Free Captain

Good morning and welcome to a mini recap from Day 1 of March Madness. Really, this is just a post to write about St John’s basketball. This hoddle has unofficially become a St John’s hoddle.

We’re now on Day 2 of March Madness, the second day of the annual college basketball tournament. Is there no better way to spend the day then back-to-back-to-back-to-back college ball games?

Of course, we start with your hoddler-in-chief’s St John’s University (2 seed), who overcame a slow start to take down 5-seed Omaha 83-53.

I’m happy St John’s survived and advanced, but there are a couple worries. Chief among those were too many fouls in the first half and a slow start.

But St John’s also always come out swining in the second half. Thursday night was no different, outscoring Omaha 50-25.

Big East player of the year RJ Luis Jr led the team with 22 points and 8 rebounds.

What awaits St John’s in the second round? Ten-seed Arkansas and John Calipari, setting up a hell of a match between two legendary college coaches. Tip off is Saturday.

Elsewhere, we got two nice upsets with #11 Drake taking down #6 Mizzou in the West region and #12 McNeese holding off the ACC’s #5 Clemson in the Midwest.

Let’s take a look at the rest of the scores:

South Region:

West Region:

East Region:

Midwest Region:

Fitzie’s track of the day: Oh Well, by HAIM

And now for your links:

Dan KP: “Tottenham: The key issues Ange Postecoglou must address before Eintracht Frankfurt showdown”

The Athletic ($$): “Mason Melia, Michael Noonan, Christopher Atherton: Is something happening with Irish boys?”

BBC: “England captain Kane feels he is ‘taken for granted’”

Happy Thursday, y’all. Most of you are probably glued to your screens (or the iPads under your desks) watching the first round of the NCAA tournament, and fair enough — it’s the international break and that means little to no actual news or matches to talk about for the next week and a half.

So why not a transfer rumor from a dubious source? Well, I got you fam. There’s an article out in AfricaFoot that Tottenham Hotspur have made an approach to Wolves for 23-year old Algerian fullback Rayan Aït-Nouri.

Now look, I don’t really know how to evaluate the efficacy of transfer rumors that originate in [checks notes] AfricaFoot. It certainly isn’t up there with The Guardian or BBC. That said, I quite like Rayan Aït-Nouri, think he’s a good player, would be open to seeing this happen, and it’s a slow news week so damn the torpedoes, we’re writing it up!

You might have heard this, but Tottenham are in the market for a dribbly left back to complement Destiny Udogie and Djed Spence, and Aït-Nouri would fit the bill pretty dang well. The Algerian international is one of Wolves’ best players, his skill set leads me to think that he’d do well in an inverted fullback system, and his dribbling ability could pair well with Son Heung-Min or Wilson Odobert on the left flank. He’s not the best at progressive passing, but he retains the ball very well and is not afraid to take on players in possession. He’s the definition of a complete fullback and at age 23 he’s in that sweet spot where he’s a quality player who still likely hasn’t hit his ceiling.

AfricaFoot says Spurs are the “most likely” (whatever that means) club to sign Aït-Nouri, but he’s attracting interest from Liverpool and (lol) West Ham. There’s no info on how much his transfer fee would be, but my guess is “stupid high.” He’s a real talent.

Is this a cromulent rumor? Look man, don’t ask me that right now. It’s a rumor about a good player linked to Tottenham Hotspur, and after this season I’ll take all the positive vibes I can get. And he’d be a pretty fantastic get, if you ask me.

Tottenham Hotspur is a club, as currently constructed, that is built for the future. Technical Director Johan Lange spent the past summer identifying and acquiring a host of young talent that, with luck, will develop into the next great Spurs first team players. And according to one list, they’ve done a pretty important job in finding those young talents.

Each year, Goal.com releases their NXGN list of what they consider the top 50 young players (aka “wonder-kids”) in world football. These are young players, usually teenagers, who have impressed for their clubs at a young age and are poised to potentially break out as future first team players. If you’re a Football Manager guy, this is a list of young players you might want to target for your teams. If you’re just a “youf-watcher” it’s also extremely interesting and possibly a glimpse of who might be the next stars in world football before they’re stars.

Tottenham Hotspur have five players on this list:

Yang Min-hyeok — #43

Luka Vuskovic — #26

Mikey Moore — #22

Lucas Bergvall — #16

Archie Gray — #13

To no one’s surprise, Barcelona’s young superstar Lamine Yamal heads up the list, but there are also names on it that Spurs have been linked to in current and past transfer windows, including Southampton’s Tyler Dibling, Brighton’s Stefanos Tzimas, and Olympiacos’ Charalampos Kostoulas.

Now, Spurs having five players on this list doesn’t mean that every one of them are going to end up as world-beaters. It only takes a quick google to find past versions of this list that include names that completely flamed out or plateaued under the top level of the game. That’s pretty par for the course when it comes to youth development — it’s a crap-shoot and excellence at youth football doesn’t always directly translate to excellence at senior level.

But holy smokes, it sure is nice to be recognized, isn’t it? Tottenham having five young players on that list is further reinforcement that Spurs are looking to build the NEXT great Tottenham squad even as they continue to transition and improve the current squad. And there’s many, many reasons to be excited about every one of those five players.

Tottenham Hotspur will almost certainly be in the market for a new central midfielder or two this summer, with special attention paid to a player who excels in the No. 6 role — a defensive mid who plays in the deepest midfield position. Spurs have already taken a step towards one signing in January when, as a condition of Giovani Lo Celo’s return to Betis, Tottenham received a purchase option of €25m with a right of first refusal for American-born midfielder Johnny Cardoso.

We wrote about Cardoso at the time, noting that reports also suggested if Spurs pass up the chance to sign him this summer, they’ll maintain a sell-on clause, something that at the time seemed very weird for a player Spurs don’t technically own.

There hasn’t been much news since, though now there’s a report from a couple days ago in Releveo that suggests Betis are already “resigned” to losing Johnny this summer, even if it’s not Spurs, and are preparing for life without him next season. Spurs are still the most likely option due to the purchase clause, and notes that Betis rejected a €18m bid from Wolverhampton Wanderers last January, along with other unknown clubs in England and Italy.

Interestingly, the report also states that despite the agreement with Spurs, Betis also gave Cardoso a new improved contract, just in case, to tempt him to either stay at Betis or push his value up even higher. Here’s the relevant paragraph, run through the Google machine:

However, the verdiblanco club awarded Johnny Cardoso with a contract improvement last January. The Betis wanted to recognize both the performance and the commitment exhibited by the midfielder, who had a low salary in the face of the importance he has acquired in the team. The leaders also wanted to keep a card under their sleeve in case the Tottenham did not finally exercise the purchase option, so it could raise a possible sale or even opt for the footballer to continue for another season.

I still think the most likely scenario is that Spurs opt to purchase Johnny this summer when his purchase clause kicks in — he’s been a little up and down this season at Betis but has also shown to have the potential to be a very good #6. But we won’t know until Spurs reach the end of the season and decide how they want to approach the transfer market this summer.

We’ve been waiting a long time for HAIM to release new music. Now, we’ve got it.

The sisters triumvirate released their newest single Relationships last week. It’s not the sound I typically associate with HAIM. The band adopts a more pop/R&B approach as opposed to that sultry SoCal soft rock sound.

As a song, it’s relatively forward: It’s about relationships.

More than that, it’s about a lot of unanswered questions surrounding their relationships after they end.

“Don’t they end up all the same

When there’s no one left to blame?”

“There’s a question.

Baby, how can I explain

When an innocent mistake

Turns into seventeen days? [Expletive] relationships”

And there’s another.

The song doesn’t quite serve to answer these questions, but instead chooses to sit in it. Which ya know, typically happens at the end of such things.

But what luck is it that HAIM released a new song right when the weather is turning, when spring is sprining. Few artists feel like warm weather and sun more than HAIM. and of course they deliver again with Relationships.

Is an album coming up next?

Fitzie’s track of the days: Relationships, by HAIM (NSFW for naughty words)

And now for your links:

Jay Harris ($$): “Analysing Archie Gray’s first start in midfield: A glimpse into Tottenham’s future?”

Alasdair Gold: “Eight players who have signed for Tottenham but haven’t played for the club yet”

The international break is here, like it or not, and that means a bunch of Tottenham Hotspur’s players are now off with their countries’ national teams. Which players? Well, that’s what this article is about.

A total of 14 Tottenham players were called up by their countries. Strangely, this Tottenham social media post only mentions 12 of them. The two omitted are in bold at the bottom of the list.

Son Heung-Min (South Korea)

Yves Bissouma (Mali)

Lucas Bergvall (Sweden)

Cuti Romero (Argentina)

Dominic Solankie (England)

Pedro Porro (Spain)

Brennan Johnson (Wales)

Ben Davies (Wales)

Rodrigo Bentancur (Uruguay)

Pape Matar Sarr (Senegal)

Guglielmo Vicario (Italy)

Destiny Udogie (Italy)

Yang Min-hyeok (South Korea)

Jamie Donley (Northern Ireland)

Why the official graphic omitted these two senior guys out on loan is beyond me, but I feel it’s important that they be included as well.

In addition to the senior call-ups, a number of Spurs’ youth and fringe players were called up to international U21 teams as well:

Dane Scarlett (England U21)

Archie Gray (England U21)

Mikey Moore (England U19)

Wilson Odobert (France U21)

Mathys Tel (France U21)

That’s a lot of Hotspurs away from training, and doesn’t include players recovering from injury like Dejan Kulusevski and Micky van de Ven! And actually, Van de Ven’s absence from the Netherlands senior team is weird; there’s a recent interview where Dutch manager Ronald Koeman addresses his absence, but it’s all in (duh) Dutch and I haven’t found a good translation yet.

At any rate, we’ll at least have a viewing interest in a few of the international matches over the next two weeks, should anyone decide to watch them.

I’ve managed to do almost 11 seasons worth of player ratings theme with precious few retreads, which is, if I do say so myself, a pretty remarkable achievement. But this is one of those themes I’ve repeated the most often — the phone-it-in themeless theme for when you just don’t have time or the energy to come up with something clever.

Look, the match sucked. The 2-0 loss to Fulham wasn’t one of our poorest performances this season — we’ve played much worse — but I’d argue it put a fine point on our player quality as opposed to Postecoglou’s much-debated tactics.

But whatever, I’m stumped for a theme this week and it’s a very busy day and y’all need your platform with which to argue with each other, so we’ll just phone it in this week ahead of a two week international break. Whatever.

No Tottenham players in this category.

Cuti Romero (Community — 3.0): Starting to work his way back into fitness and showing just how important he is to the way this team plays. Spurs dropped off significantly when he was subbed out.

Lucas Bergvall (Community — 3.5): Quite clearly Spurs’ best midfielder in this match. Showed some urgency with the ball, made a few teenage mistakes, but also should’ve earned a penalty after being taken down in the box.

Guglielmo Vicario (Community — 3.0): Well beaten for both goals but not much he could do about either. Had some good stops otherwise and didn’t make any major mistakes.

Djed Spence (Community — 3.0): Not as influential going forward but defended well.

Dominic Solanke (Community — 2.5): Squandered a couple of decent headed chances but generally got into good positions despite not a lot of service.

Son Heung-Min (Community — 3.0): Halftime sub and added some urgency as well as a couple of chance, but missed a couple of runs. Still only looks like a 60-90 min player every week at this point.

Ange Postecoglou (Community — 1.5): Gets yelled at when he doesn’t rotate, and then gets yelled at when he does rotate. This match feels less like a tactical error and more reinforcement of the idea that Spurs are only really decent when they have their best players in; looked good for much of the second half and then farted away two goals after subbing out Cuti. Should be a wake-up call for Lange and their summer recruitment efforts.

Destiny Udogie (Community — 2.0): Has not looked the same since coming back from his injury. Not very impactful in this one and made a few stupid defensive mistakes.

Archie Gray (Community — 2.5): Surprisingly semi-cromulent in a rare midfield start, but fell off a cliff when pushed back to CB late in the match. It’s not really his fault — he’s a teenager and not a CB — but let’s not pretend he’s been good there. He hasn’t been.

Mathys Tel (Community — 2.5): I actually feel a little bad about putting him this low as he was trying and showed some glimpses of ability, especially in the second half. Still not sure I’d pay his release clause to make his loan permanent at this stage.

James Maddison (Community — 2.5): Created a couple of chances but his influence waned as the match went on.

Ben Davies (Community — 2.5): Awful game. Manhandled for the second goal and looked second best in a lot of defensive situations.

Rodrigo Bentancur (Community — 2.0): Really poor again in midfield, especially when paired with Bissouma. He is not showing enough quality to keep him this summer in my opinion.

Yves Bissouma (Community — 1.5): Gotta wonder at this point if Bissouma has more or less given up with this team or with his own performances. Awful passing, awful positioning, hooked at halftime... again. Can’t see him as a starter anymore except out of necessity.

Brennan Johnson (Community — 1.5): Was he even on the pitch? Could’ve fooled me.

Wilson Odobert (Community — 2.0): Put into the match as a game changer, but instead directly contributed to Fulham’s first goal. Not like that, Wilson!

No Tottenham players were as bad as a theme-less one-star rating.

Tom Carroll Memorial Non-Rating:

The English football rumour mill grinds fast and grinds fine. This isn’t a surprise to anyone who has spent any time around this blog or reading the copious amount of transfer rumor mill articles that pop up like mushrooms from now until the end of summer, or whenever a particular head coach is on the hot seat.

And yes, you know where I’m going with this. Our new best friend in the media, Matt Law, writes with John Percy about the rumors swirling around Ange Postecoglou’s future, and suggests that both Bournemouth manager Adoni Iraola and Fulham’s Marco Silva are “leading candidates” to succeed Ange Postecoglou if he is let go.

And that’s the first thing I want to identify here — the “if he is let go” is doing an awful amount of work in this article, because everything coming out of Tottenham Hotspur publicly and through briefing suggests that the club are still backing Ange Postecoglou considering the context of the massive injury crisis and poor luck this season.

Now, you can interpret this in two ways — first, that this is the media spinning news stories out of speculation for the sake of discussion, and that imagining Ange gone has a lot more to do with projection (and maybe wishes) than anything grounded in reality. In fact, the Telegraph even kind of admits that, stating:

“There has been no suggestion from Tottenham that Postecoglou would be sacked if Spurs were to fail to win the Europa League or were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Eintracht Frankfurt.”

— Telegraph

LOL. Right then. That’s sorted, I guess.

But on the other hand, you can also make the argument, also without much evidence, that this is the club working through third parties about the possibility that Postecoglou could either be let go or decide to walk at some point if Spurs don’t win the Europa League.

The question of whether Ange is or is not actually on the hot seat is, at this point, a rather boring one. The real interest here are the tidbits that Iraola and Silva are potentially of interest to Spurs. Iraola in particular, as Percy and Law write that sources close to the Bournemouth manager say he’d be interested in taking over the Tottenham project should a change be made. That’s interesting, and it’s the first time we’ve gotten any kind of background info that a coach actually wants the job (something that was in dispute during Spurs’ last two coaching changes).

The Silva rumors, by contrast, seem to be based more on the suggestion that he and Fulham are set to part ways due to various reasons, and not any direct contact or suggestions of interest in taking the Spurs job. That one’s a bit more nebulous.

Now, say what you want about Iraola and Silva. Both have been mooted by pundits and supporters as possibilities should Ange be let go. Iraola in particular has been a popular choice since he has done very good things with the Cherries and plays an offensive style not that dissimilar to Ange-ball. But there are also whispered questions as to whether his high pressure style could scale from a club like Bournemouth to a club that wants to eventually challenge for titles. Maybe it would, maybe it would not. But he’d be an interesting hire.

Fans who only read headlines will, of course, overreact to both the spurious and interesting parts of this article. I’m still not convinced that Postecoglou won’t survive this season even if Spurs crash out of the Europa League in the coming weeks. But at bare minimum it does at least appear that the club is keeping their options open, even if the cards remain close to the club’s vest.

A brief hoddler-in-chief’s note: Fitzie would like to give a big thanks to Menno and MattyFlatt for doing a superb job filling in whilst Fitzie was away last week. Their help is greatly appreciated! Now, on with the hoddle:

———

THE BEAST OF THE EAST IS BACK !!!!!!!!

After 25 years, St John’s University are Big East Champions again. First by winning the regular season as the outright conference champions, and then winning the Big East tournament in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

What I find more remarkable than their defense (third-best in the country) is St John’s ability to claw back huge deficits. First was a 15-point hole against Marquette in the semifinal game, and then an eight-point hole against Creighton in the Big East title game. St John’s beat Creighton by 16.

They’ve got a hell of a team led by RJ Luis Jr, Big East player of the year. As well as Kadary Richmond, Zuby Ejofor and Aaron Scott.

And who could neglect Rick Pitino, the legendary coach who turned this hapless programme around in two seasons?

And what a fitting moment it is for St John’s, whose monolithic coach Lou Carnesecca died in November.

The NCAA committee awarded St John’s the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the annual US college basketball championship.

The Johnnies are in a tough region too with Florida, UConn, Arkansas, Texas Tech, Maryland and a sneaky Colorado State team. OF COURSE I have St John’s winning it.

What about the rest of the field? Let’s take a quick look:

South:

This tournament is all about the SEC, but who advanes out of it? Overall top seed Auburn are the clear favourites here, but what about A&M? Then there’s Big Ten champs Michigan who I think are under-seeded at 5.

East:

Can Duke go far without Cooper Flag? I don’t see too many teams in here capable of punishing them except for maybe Alabama.

Midwest:

THis one looks more fun and I’m looking forward to a potential Houston-Gonzaga matchup in the second round. Clemson are an interesting wild card, too. I’m not too sold on either SEC teams here (Kentucky and Tennessee).

Fitzie’s Final Four:

St John’s > Auburn

Duke > Clemson

Fitzie’s championship game: St John’s > Duke

Lol of course I’m going with St John’s! New York’s team is back!

Fitzie’s track of the day: New York Groove, by Ace Frehly

And now for your links:

Dan KP: “Insipid Tottenham defeat highlights Europa League problem”

The Athletic: “Tel struggles and is Europe only thing keeping Postecoglou safe?”

The Guardian: “Hapless Spurs suffer again as Sessegnon has Fulham dreaming of European place”

ESPN: “Dele Alli sent off on Como debut in first match for 748 days”

So I’ll be honest, I haven’t watched this match as I was heading back from a men’s weekend with some good friends in a remote part of the Lake Michigan lakeshore with terrible cell coverage. So I don’t have any takes, but that won’t stop me from being disappointed with losing to Fulham. And since I’m now home I can get this article up for you to inform me just how bad things were.

It’s time to rate the players.

Rate the players from 1⁄2 to 5 stars. If the player doesn’t deserve a rating due to minutes played, DO NOT RANK. I will round the stars up/down to the nearest half-star for the player ratings later this week.