A tiny fan in a white shirt stands in an empty stadium stand beside an enormous packed suitcase and oversized travel plug.

Match ReportThe High Road Herald

Fowler Tips Spurs For Europe, So Season Ticket Holder Arrives At Stadium With Passport And Travel Adaptor

Desmond Parry · Chief Football Correspondent18 October · Reading time: one pint

Robbie Fowler told the We'll Have a Look podcast he expects Tottenham to qualify for Europe, while Spurs sit 20th on three points, winless after six games and due at home to Coventry tonight.

A Tottenham man arrived at the stadium on Monday morning with a wheeled suitcase, a passport and a plug adaptor, having read that Robbie Fowler expects Spurs to qualify for Europe.

Fowler made the prediction on the We'll Have a Look podcast, saying he believes the pre-season work will begin to show. Tottenham are currently 20th, on three points, and have not yet won a game this season.

The man has taken the prediction at face value and the table as a minor administrative delay. He was unable to say which Thursday he is packing for.

I'm not saying it's tomorrow. I'm saying it's best not to be doing this in a rush.

Opta's supercomputer, which projects a 16th place finish and gives Spurs a 0.03 per cent chance of Champions League qualification, was put to him. He said the figure was encouraging, and that nobody had ever told him it was zero.

Alan Shearer has separately warned of a relegation battle should Spurs fail to beat Coventry. The man has accounted for this by dividing the suitcase into two separate compartments, one for each outcome, and has labelled neither.

The Herald understands the contents include a phrasebook, a flask, and a sandwich wrapped for a long coach transfer. The fixture against Coventry kicks off at 8pm tonight.

The suitcase is currently beside the turnstile, and he has gone to find a chair.

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Faceless players in white and grey kits huddle around a tiny meeting table with a gavel on a pitch beneath a giant clock showing midday.

Paper TalkThe High Road Herald

Group Chat Minutes Spurs And Manchester United Interest In Beljo And Adjourns Until Lunchtime

Philippa Crane · Media Editor18 October · Reading time: one pint

Manchester United and Tottenham are reportedly keen on Dinamo Zagreb striker Dion Beljo, according to reports from Spain, with the club said to want between €20m and €25m. The chat has seven members, two of whom have muted it.

A WhatsApp group of seven Tottenham supporters has taken a formal position on the reported interest of Manchester United and Spurs in Dinamo Zagreb striker Dion Beljo, after a Spanish report was posted to it at 7.52am on a moving bus.

The position, which the chat's longest-serving member described as provisional but firm, was reached at 8.06am following a short debate conducted almost entirely in single words.

The report states that the 24-year-old has attracted interest from several European clubs, with both Premier League sides among those monitoring his progress. It adds that neither side has confirmed a formal bid, a line the chat read aloud twice, in the sense that two members typed "read it".

Right. Everyone's seen the link. I'm not saying anything until someone tells me what the fee is.

The fee was supplied at 8.09am by a different member, who noted that Dinamo Zagreb are reportedly seeking between €20m and €25m, having already rejected a €20m proposal last summer. The chat received this with a thumbs-up, a second thumbs-up, and a photograph of a sandwich.

Proceedings were briefly delayed by the observation that Real Betis, Newcastle United and AC Milan are also reportedly in the race, and by a member who wished it recorded that he had not been asked about Real Betis.

The motion to keep an eye on it was carried six votes to nil, with one member abstaining on the grounds that he was getting off at Seven Sisters.

The chat will reconvene once somebody has checked the contract, which the report says runs until 2030.

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