A tiny supporter in a white shirt sits on a stool beside a huge stopwatch outside the closed gates of an empty stadium.

Match ReportThe High Road Herald

Kinsky Resilience Piece Says Look Past Seventeen Minutes, So Supporter Waits Eighteen Minutes Outside Stadium

Desmond Parry · Chief Football Correspondent17 October · Reading time: one pint

An opinion piece on a Spurs fan site says Antonin Kinsky's response to being substituted after 17 minutes at Atletico Madrid matters more than the 17 minutes themselves, and the supporter has been at the gate since half past nine.

A Tottenham supporter has spent the morning outside a closed stadium declining to react to anything for eighteen minutes, following an opinion piece that asked readers to look beyond one difficult spell of seventeen.

The article, published on a Spurs fan site, recalls Antonin Kinsky's night at the Metropolitano in March, when he was replaced by Guglielmo Vicario after 17 minutes of a 5-2 Champions League defeat. It argues that what followed matters more.

The man read the final paragraph twice at the bus stop. It invites supporters to consider "how he handled what came next". He took this as an instruction, and as a matter of procedure.

Seventeen is the bad bit. So I give everything eighteen and see what comes next.

Since arriving at the gate he has withheld comment on a passing bus, a delivery driver and a gull, each for the full interval, which he times on a watch he describes as reliable. The Herald observed him not reacting to a crisp packet for the whole of its journey across the forecourt.

The piece goes on to note that Kinsky stepped in at Sunderland, made saves against Wolves, Leeds and Everton, signed a new contract in June and played all 90 minutes for the Czech Republic against Spain this month, a 3-1 defeat. The man says he is currently at Sunderland and will reach the Czech Republic after lunch.

A passer-by asked him the time at ten past eleven. He said she would have it in eighteen minutes, and she did not wait.

At the time of going to press he had still not formed a view on the 3-1.

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A tiny fan in a white shirt sits alone on a giant empty sofa with a pint, while three huge boots queue ahead towards a distant archway.

TransfersThe High Road Herald

Three Clubs Ahead Of Spurs On Antonio Nusa, So Group Chat Is Silent Until Archway

Barry Napier · Transfer Correspondent17 October · Reading time: one pint

Football Insider says Arsenal, Aston Villa and Newcastle United are ahead of Tottenham in the race for RB Leipzig winger Antonio Nusa, whom its source prices at at least £60m, and the chat has been quiet for eleven stops.

A group chat of six Tottenham supporters convened a formal session on the upper deck of a London bus on Friday morning to consider a report that three Premier League clubs have overtaken Spurs in the race for Antonio Nusa.

The report, published by Football Insider, says Arsenal, Aston Villa and Newcastle United are plotting January moves for the Leipzig winger and does not name Tottenham among the leading contenders. It is understood the chat was alerted by a link posted without comment at 7:42am.

The chair, a man in a rain jacket in the front seat, called the meeting to order by typing the word "right". He was seconded by a member who sent a single question mark, which the chair ruled was in order.

Members noted that Nusa has four goals and three assists in eight games, and the figure was read aloud twice. The report also cites an industry source who says it will take at least £60m, a sum the chat agreed was a lot of money, in the absence of a competing view.

I'm not saying we should have done more in the summer. I'm saying somebody should have asked the group.

A motion to "keep an eye on it" was carried without dissent, though the member who proposed it later asked which eye. A second motion, to note that the report expects Spurs to prioritise a number nine, was carried after one member typed "number nine" in capitals, three times, and then left the chat for four minutes.

The session then entered what the minutes describe as a period of reflection, lasting eleven stops, during which the only message sent was a photograph of the bus's own handrail.

The bus reached Archway at 8:19am and the chat was reconvened by a photograph of a pigeon.

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