Spurs Men on Lockdown

Bringing a new meaning to the "team in crisis" catchphrase

There's a Women's match to look forward to on Sunday (finally!), but we're going to be Spursless for the foreseeable future on the Men's side after an outbreak of COVID cases amongst the players and coaching staff. Thursday's ECL match against Rennes was... postponed? possibly forfeited? It remains to be seen whether UEFA will allow the fixture to be rescheduled, maybe even outside of the official deadline for all group stage matches to be played, thanks to Renne's upcoming winter break.

The biggest concern is obviously for the players' and club staff's health, but it's also a bad situation from a sporting perspective. We were just getting into a good run of form that is now being stymied, and all of these matches that are being postponed (so far, just Rennes in the ECL and Brighton in the PL, officially) will have to be crammed into an already busy fixture schedule--causing concern for muscle fatigue injuries down the line. The one player who will benefit from this pause in play is Romero, who would have missed these games if they'd been played as scheduled. Unfortunately, he's rumored to be one of the players who tested positive, so he could be dealing with some negative symptoms outside of his current injury.

Hopefully, nobody on the squad will have severe symptoms. I hope they were all vaccinated, but I have learned from being a Bayern Munich fan that it's not always the ones you would expect that are unvaccinated... and COVID can cause longer-than-expected injury spells when complications like lung infections occur, as in the cases of Joshua Kimmich and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. Even last season in the Premier League I can remember a case of a Chelsea player, Kai Havertz, being out for a long time after his COVID infection and taking quite a while to get back to full fitness. It's definitely not a virus to take lightly, whether you're vaccinated or not.

I suspect that a few of the players who did test positive this time around will be out a little longer than their medically-mandated quarantine period because it will take them some time to get back to match fitness. So:  the Leicester match (if it is not postponed) and the Liverpool match are probably going to have some less-than-ideal lineups. The important League Cup quarter-final against West Ham is also just around the corner, and the schedule doesn't really let up until the winter break all the way at the end of January. There's never a good time for the team to experience a COVID outbreak, but this is probably the worst time possible.

Spurs Women back in action this weekend

At least we have something to look forward to since the Women's team is finally back from the international break.

We have two league matches and one FA Cup match coming up in this next competitive window. First up is an away WSL match at Aston Villa. We currently have a four-point advantage over Aston Villa thanks to earning an additional win and draw each. They're one of four teams tied on 10 points, but their goal difference leaves a lot to be desired, having let in 15 goals and scored just 5. Perhaps this is a bad spot to bring this up, but I read an interesting article on Villa's keeper Hannah Hampton, who can't judge distance because of a lack of depth perception, but has managed to become a WSL goalkeeper despite her disability, and has also been called up to the Lionesses. Pretty cool! Aston Villa also have former Tottenham player Gemma Davison, though she hasn't been a starter for the Villans.

Despite this being a much better season on the whole than last year's campaign, we haven't actually won a WSL match since October 3. We earned two very important draws since then, but still! It's time to get back on a winning streak. This will be our first game without Kit Graham's services, so it'll be interesting to see who steps up to make up for Graham's lost goals. But on that note...

A very tasty transfer rumor popped up on Twitter yesterday.

Reader, I audibly shrieked when I heard about this. The universe may have punished us with Kit Graham's injury, but all would be forgiven if this move happened. Of course, it would likely only be a short-term loan between NWSL seasons (as far as I've heard Mewis isn't looking to leave the Houston Dash). Plenty of NWSL players do these short stints in international leagues to keep in fitness during the off-season (I was still half-hoping Alex Morgan would come back for another loan spell). And it would make sense for Mewis to want to come to the WSL since her girlfriend (Sam Kerr, vanquisher of pitch invaders) plays for Chelsea. The Chelsea team who just beat Arsenal in the FA Cup, by the way. Arsenal are having a very bad week--they were also thrashed by Barcelona in the Champion's League. Anyway, Mewis could definitely help us score some goals and hopefully clinch a Champions League qualification spot. Fingers crossed that the transfer actually happens!

I'm obviously having trouble keeping things on-topic (read:  not trashing Arsenal), so let me wrap this up with a fun fact:

...and the lovely team photo that was just shared.

Enjoy your weekend! Stay safe!

COYS