The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Friday, September 3

Hi, everyone!

I found another weird trophy! I present to you tennis player Ilya Ivashka with the men’s singles trophy at the Winston-Salem Open.

Ramble of the Day

The FA WSL season gets underway this weekend, so naturally I have one more batch of kit rankings! Overall, it was a job well done by kit manufacturers and clubs because there is not a single kit that is truly offensive of the group. The lowest ranked kits are definitely not the best, but it is worth noting that we’ve all seen worse.

It’s also worth mentioning that there is a lot of overlap between the Premier League and WSL, more so than the men’s and women’s Olympic tournaments that I did kit rankings for this year. There are a few clubs that have WSL teams but not Premier League teams, but none of their kits were able to crack the top three. As a result, I figured being repetitive wouldn’t be worth it. I will, though, do three things:

1. Congratulate Tottenham, Chelsea, and Arsenal for creating such great kits that they ranked as the top three amongst Premier League and WSL teams.
2. Link to the Premier League kit rankings because I already explained myself once.
3. Drop another picture of the Spurs away kit because the best kit does deserve the spotlight, and it might the only time this season Spurs’ men’s or women’s team finishes first. (I know the men’s team is top of the Premier League table, but I will take Nuno Espírito Santo’s advice and disregard that.)

The clubs with the worst Premier League kits don’t have WSL teams this season, so they survive a second round of complaints. They were clearly serving as a buffer for some other underwhelming kits in the Premier League, now fully exposed amongst WSL teams.

3. West Ham’s home kit

I am completely aware that there aren’t a lot of original spins on the claret kit with blue sleeves, but I don’t think desaturating the colors is the answer here. It’s an insignificant design in every sense.

2. Brighton’s away kit

I have no problem in certain contexts, but I think it is one of those colors that’s hard to style if it’s used for an item of clothing. I don’t think black shorts will break up the color in the shirt or socks in a way that complements that shade of green, so it just gives off toothpaste vibes to me.

1. Birmingham City’s away kit

The only teams allowed to get away with kits that look like the IKEA uniform are the Sweden national teams, which Birmingham City is not. I cannot, in good faith, approve of this kit.

tl;dr: I ranked the FA WSL kits for this season, and Tottenham’s aways are top once again.

Stay informed, read this: Jessica Testa on the short-lived surge of Black representation on the cover of fashion’s biggest magazines for The New York Times

Links of the Day

Switzerland’s Granit Xhaka tested positive for COVID-19.

Hungary supporters directed racist chants at England’s Raheem Sterling and Jude Bellingham.

Ireland’s FA will pay its men’s and women’s national team players equally.

The Washington Spirit hired Ben Olsen as the club’s president.

France’s Kylian Mbappé will miss the team’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers with a calf injury.

Transfers: Manchester City signed Filippa Angeldahl from BK Häcken; Aston Villa signed Emily Gielnik from Vittsjö; Birmingham signed Arabella Suttie from Chelsea

A longer read: Andrew Das on the resurgence of El Salvador’s men’s team, and the supporter who helped the federation scout players for The New York Times