A season ticket holder seen from behind sits across from a row of five empty wooden stools, inspecting one with a magnifying glass in an empty stadium.

TransfersThe High Road Herald

Spurs Striker Shortlist Names Mateta, So Season Ticket Holder Sets Out Five Stools And Interviews Them

Barry Napier · Transfer Correspondent15 October · Reading time: one pint

TEAMtalk reports that Roberto De Zerbi has drawn up a five-man striker shortlist for January that includes Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta, who is 29 and has one Premier League appearance this season.

A Tottenham season ticket holder arrived at the stadium forecourt on Thursday morning carrying five folding stools, after TEAMtalk reported that Roberto De Zerbi has created a shortlist of five strikers ahead of the January transfer window.

The Herald understands the stools were placed in a row roughly four feet apart, the man having first paced out the distance to leave room, in his words, for a handshake.

Only one name on the list has been reported. It is Jean-Philippe Mateta of Crystal Palace, who is 29, has made one Premier League appearance this season and is in the final ten months of his contract at Selhurst Park.

The man gave all of this to the first stool, then moved to the second and added that Mateta has scored 42 Premier League goals across three seasons, a figure he read from his phone and repeated for the benefit of the third.

I've got one name and five seats. I'm not going to guess the other four. It would be disrespectful. I'll just sit on each of them in turn.

By midday four of the stools were still empty and the fifth was occupied by a flask. A passing pigeon was understood to have stood on the fourth for some time without being asked for its view.

The man said he would continue the process until the shortlist is complete, or until the stools are collected on Friday, whichever comes first.

He has so far made no offer.

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A tiny supporter in a white shirt stands alone before a gigantic turnstile and an oversized blank calendar page in an empty stadium concourse.

Match ReportThe High Road Herald

Spurs Black History Month Tribute Sends Supporter To Stadium For Coventry Day, Four Days Early

Desmond Parry · Chief Football Correspondent15 October · Reading time: one pint

Tottenham opened a Black History Month exhibition with Show Racism the Red Card on Thursday, with icons to be introduced on the pitch before Coventry City on Monday, October 19, and a supporter has been at the gates since breakfast.

A Tottenham man arrived at the stadium gates at ten past eight on Thursday morning to attend a pitchside tribute that is scheduled for Monday.

The tribute forms part of the club's Black History Month programme, run with Show Racism the Red Card, which honours the first eleven Black players in the men's team alongside early women's pioneers. The exhibition opens on Thursday, October 15, and can be viewed on official stadium tours. Chris Hughton and Garth Crooks are among the names honoured. The pitchside introductions come before Coventry City on October 19.

The man has read all of this. He has, by his own account, read it twice, and has formed the view that the safest course is to be present for the whole of it.

It says Thursday, and it says icons on the pitch. I'm not being the bloke who turned up for the Monday and missed the lead-in.

The Herald asked whether the tribute might be expected to begin nearer Monday. He said the Monday is the climax, and that no one is suggesting the days between are not also part of the build.

The stadium is closed to the public until the first tour, and the forecourt was otherwise occupied on Thursday by a pigeon, a man with a hose, and a thermos of one litre. The man confirmed he had made provision for the weekend, and that Sunday's soup is in the car.

He has since moved from the gate to the tour desk, where he has booked a place on Thursday's tour, a place on Friday's tour, and, as a precaution, a place on Monday's.

He has asked whether the stool counts as a seat.

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