The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Thursday, March 5
· Yahoo Sports
Good morning everyone and welcome to the latest edition of the EFL Championship Roundup, where hoddle headquarters takes a look at all things in the second tier of English football. I know I’m a couple days late to this one but now is as important time as any to look at the Championship – for all we know Spurs could very well play in it next year.
Just a few weeks ago it seemed there was a lot of congestion in the race for the playoffs. Not anymore.
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The top six have firmly cemented themselves in the latter stages of the competition. Even with 13 games remaining, it’s hard to see which clubs could challenge them for a chance at promotion.
The one club that seems at risk of falling behind is Hull City, who’ve lost three of five. And even though Millwall have a minor history of flubbing it late in the season, this time seems different with Alex Beil at the helm. Automatic promotion isn’t even out of the picture for them.
So where do the chasers stand? Let’s take a quick look:
- Southampton: Four points back and in the best form among the pack so far. It’s not as if they’ve been up against great competition though – Wednesday, QPR, Charlton, Leicester, Watford, Stoke, Portsmouth and Sheffield United). So that doesn’t tell us a whole lot about Saints, but we’re about to. An incoming stretch of Ipswich, Soton and Derby will probably determine if Southampton will be in the playoffs.
- Derby County: Good on Derby for righting the ship after getting relegated to League One last season, but if they want to play Spurs in 2026 it’s more likely going to be in the Championship than the PL. They’ve got an impressive win against Boro this season but not much else.
- Watford: They haven’t been super consistent, and they only have one player who’s scored 10 goals or more this season. I think you need a lot more than that to be competitive. Aside from their last two matches, they’ve got a pretty soft run-in so I imagine they’ll be hanging around the playoff position for a few more weeks.
- Bristol City: Seven points back and some pretty mixed form after a promising start to the seaosn. It’s not going to be happening for Bristol City, but I wanted to keep this list at a nice four.
EFL Championship top six:
- Coventry (71 Pts, +34 GD, 35 MP)
- Boro (66 Pts, +19 GD, 35 MP)
- Ipswich (63 Pts, +26 GD, 34 MP)
- Millwall (62 Pts, +7 GD, 35 MP)
- Hull City (60 Pts, +7 GD, 35 MP)
- Wrexham (57 Pts, +9 GD, 35 MP)
Bottom three:
- Leicester City (34 Pts, -9 GD, 35 M))
- Oxford United (32 Pts, -16 GD, 35 MP)
- Wednesday (-7 Pts, -50 GD, 35 MP)
Fitzie’s track of the day: Plas, by Cluster
And now for your links:
Jack P-B ($$): “Tottenham face multiple challenges in their new sporting director search. What is their strategy?”
Alasdair Gold: “’Next question! We’re not in a bar’ – Igor Tudor hits out when asked about Tottenham problem”
BBC: “Summerville proves he could be West Ham’s saviour”