Match week 19+20
A week in which Tottenham are starting to show some of their potential, but with the games coming thick and fast there's also been a lot of scrutiny. And a lot of footballs for xmas gifts.
There is absolutely no football happening in Sweden at this time of the year, which always makes me so frustrated. That means they don’t even plough the pitches (because no teams have practice). So I’ve taken my frustrations out on the ice rink with my ice skates and my hockey stick, which is also really fun.
The games keep on coming thick and fast in the English Premier League. Most other leagues have paused for a winter break, albeit a small one. Even the Scottish Premier League (which is the league I’m working on) have taken an earlier break of three weeks following a lot of COVID-related controversy. St Mirren wanted their game against Celtic postponed as they struggled with a lot of COVID-cases in their squad (but they were denied and ended up drawing 0-0), and in the latest round, Dundee FC requested to have their fixture against Aberdeen postponed as they scraped together a starting eleven and a four-man bench consisting of the assistant coach, two goalkeepers and a 17-year-old. Striker Alex Jakubiak playing against medical advice as he had just returned from injury and another player, whose partner birthed their second child just a few days prior, went home to said child after that game. This situation is very complex and contentious obviously, as we see mirrored in wider society but, especially when we get to the football pitch, we sometimes tend to forget that at the end of the day, it’s just a game, and the health and safety of footballers should go before results.
Not everyone sees it like this however, with people like Simon Jordan (a business man who apparently used to own Crystal Palace) who went on a rant on TalkSport about how players who were complaining about the amount of fixtures in the Premier League should really just be thankful, cause '“if it wasn’t for football half of you would be working at McDonalds!” Lol, hot take. This is not the first, nor will it be the last time, that the congested xmas fixture list is the centre of an antagonistic debate, but I do sincerely hope that the current situation and everything that’s unfolded following the Premier League’s appalling way of dealing with it, will have some effect on future scheduling, because it’s not sustainable (pandemic or not.)
The fixtures are rolling on, however, and someone who’s on a roll is my beloved Tottenham Hotspur.
HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL, FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOUR FOOTBALL TEAM AGAIN?
Even during the darkest period of the year I feel revitalised, as this team and their current form lights me up inside.
I know it’s early. I know we do not want to take anything out in advance because football (and Tottenham in particular) has a way of punishing that, but right now I don’t care. This is the kind of energy that I want to go into 2022 with, and as if I needed any more proof of the effects that my football fandom has on my mood and my life, it’s as if I can (genuinely) see the sunrise after a really long dark night. let’s be honest, being a Spurs fan has never been easy but the last few years have been especially tough for many of us, I think because we had such an exciting time under Mauricio Pochettino and everything that happened there towards the end, the way he had to leave, has taken the wind out of the team. So to see Harry Kane score, to see Lucas Moura galloping down the pitch and into the box, to literally fly up and get his head on that ball (despite his smaller build) (#thanksJESUS), to see the likes of Harry Winks and Dele Alli have a renaissance moment under Antonio Conte, is nothing short of a small miracle.
Moving on to a different type of renaissance-moment, that of the acknowledgement of women in football and their experiences, to be exact. Everton, as the first Premier League, have teamed up with #HerGameToo in an effort to contribute to the work around sexism in football. It was actually at Goodison Park that the famous football game featuring Dick, Kerr Ladies took place on Boxing Day 1920, attracting a crowd of over 53 000 people. HerGameToo is a campaign that started on social media and quickly gained recognition online, and their work mainly consists of focusing on creating awareness, regular content-making championing women in football, and community building. I’m looking forward to seeing what this collaboration is going to consist of, and what can come of it. Everton also have an ‘All Together Now’ initiative running that they launched in December 2018, which features a gorgeous warm-up shirt, different schemes and awareness-building around inequality in football.
December is, if anything, the most stressful time of the year, as many people have expectations for the holidays that include a lot of planning, food having to be made, gifts being purchased. Try to fit in following a football team on top of that … It could make anyone feel real frazzled. It is a nice and heartwarming time too, however, once you find that place to take a really long and big breath out. One thing that made me smile (and brought a tear to my eye, not gonna lie) was scrolling through the Cathkin Blazes group chat (the football team that I coach in Glasgow) on Christmas Eve as folks were sharing all the football-related things they had gotten for xmas. There were so many who were excited as they had received their first football - what might be perceived as a trifle by some, but the way I see it they were given these footballs by people in their lives because they’ve shown such a big interest for it, and that really warms my heart. Getting to witness people fall in love with football, or further cementing their football interest, within this lovely space that we have all created together, has been such a privilege and continues to be ♡ more football to come in 2022!