The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Wednesday, January 15

Hey, Hoddlers!

The front page is just a selection of pictures of Érik Lamela, which is a most lovely achievement.

Ramble of the Day

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær is a dreamer, it seems — a measured one, if that’s possible.

He reminds me of the guidance counselors at my high school, who spent most of their time talking to students and their parents and guardians about college. Their jobs were to tell you to be measured dreamers and sometimes, that meant telling students they weren’t going to get into certain schools. At first, though, the job is to give students and company the tools to do some of the categorizing themselves. We were told to separate schools we wanted to apply to into three categories: safety schools, target schools, and reach schools.

The categorization is pretty simple to follow:

• safety schools are the ones you’re basically guaranteed to get into based on their criteria;
• target schools are the ones whose criteria matches your grades and résumé;
• reach schools are the ones that you’re a bit of a long shot to get into, but have a slim chance so you might as well give it a go

Solskjær is clearly stating one of his reach goals, but perhaps United winning the title needs to be in a further category. Feel free to name it and debate it, though I now realize there might be a term for it: a pipe dream!

Regardless, it is a decent way to categorize things, and at least Solskjær’s being realistic enough with his own aspirations. It’s hardly inspiring, though, but that’s not my problem, nor is it necessarily a bad thing. Anyway, I’ve shocked myself by writing something mildly positive about Solskjær, so I think I’ll have to leave it here.

tl;dr: Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s uninspiring goals remind me of high school guidance counselors dealing with students applying to colleges.

Links of the Day

Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov will pay £30m up front for an exclusive option on Everton’s new stadium’s naming rights.

Manchester United canceled a February training camp in either Qatar or the United Arab Emirates amid tensions between the United States and Iran.

Paris-based designer Franck Joubert designed handmade bags from Paris Saint-Germain jerseys.

Transfer roundup: Watford signed Ignacio Pussetto from Udinese

Today’s longer read: Grant Wahl interviews the USWNT’s Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger on tying the knot, representing the LGBTQ+ community, and aiming for another Olympic gold for Sports Illustrated