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Said elsewhere but my suspicion is he is going to be our new Perez i.e. sometimes irritating as **** and will divide opinion but works hard and occasionally pulls off something tidy, just for free rather than £30m/£16m/whatever it was we decided we paid. Something about the way he moves around the pitch and a couple of the little flicks he did, like in the build up to the chance Vardy had saved, gave me very vivid flashbacks to our sweet Spanish prince.

His cross just before the second goal is exactly what we've been in need of for years by the way. It's been ages since we had a dominant aerial presence to aim at and yet, for example, Chilwell would routinely clip up shit floaters that 99% of the time the likes of Vardy, Iheanacho or Daka have no chance of scoring from. Deliveries fizzed across the face of goal at that sort of height cannot be fun to defend. Having just watched the replay he also wins us the ball back in the first place by fighting off Johnson who admittedly is one of the few professional athletes I think I might be able to fight off, the little gimp.

I take it people are bit happier about "developing other teams' players for them" when they play like that?

Yeah I don't believe it's laziness either, he's just chronically off the pace in a way that I don't think any amount of coaching or exposure to the league can fix

He's not the sort who's going to be rinsing people for pace or breaking into the box to threaten the goal but he's got a very decent cross on him and a good engine too with some big tackles and blocks thrown in to boot. Looked like he enjoyed that second half and for all that it apparently rubbed the Spice Boys up the wrong way I think his attitude is precisely the sort you want around for a relegation battle.

Bad: First half was SO shit and basically everything I was fearing for the season under Cooper. We looked like we were embarrassed to even be on the same pitch as them. Soumare as usual looked like he was experiencing the game at about 80% speed, not having for a second he's a better option in midfield than Ricardo, Alves or possibly even Hamza. Hopefully Skipp and another new signing bump him further down the pecking order and he ****s off somewhere. I wasn't as disappointed by Reid as some but he reminded me an awful lot of Perez i.e. works hard and the occasional nice touch but potentially very frustrating. Thankfully Bentancur seemed OK but it felt like the injury, understandably, completely killed the game for a good while just when we'd sorted ourselves out. Good: Second half immeasurably better, particularly after the goal. Given how one-sided the first half was I think it speaks volumes that by full time we were probably good value for the point. If Vardy had put that chance away on his left foot it would have been a sublime goal up there with any we scored under Enzo or Rodgers. Reminded me of Stoke away in 14/15 where the first half we were crap and then when Cambiasso came on everyone suddenly looked like they believed they could compete. Everyone's level went up but particularly impressed by Hermansen and Buonanotte (all game), Kristiansen, Winks and Vestergaard, special mention to Fatawu for the assist. Mavididi and McAteer got well involved off the bench but it did feel a lot like we were lacking options to bring on and try to capitalise on our momentum which hopefully changes over the next couple of weeks. Overall far more optimistic than I was beforehand (and than I would be if the game had played out the other way round) but it is so important we get some good business done before the window closes.

Oh god not ****ing Richarlison

Two class balls in from Kristiansen and Fatawu

What a pragmatic half of football

I suspect that is going to be our approach for the vast majority of games this season

Always rated them

He's not really my sort of player at all but he's definitely an improvement on Soumare and Hamza, possibly also Wilf especially on the ball. I just seriously hope after getting him and Okoli for about £30m we have left ourselves room to spend at least a similar amount on a couple of attacking players otherwise we have got our priorities very wrong imo

Fell through because he failed his medical which for a player who'll turn 30 in a couple of months might be a bit of a concern depending on what exactly the problem was. It wouldn't be a free - he's still got a year left at West Ham and I assume, having gone there from Chelsea and then accepting a deal from Saudi Arabia, he probably wants the sort of wage we can't really afford. He is also a bellend. Apart from that I'm all for it

Dismantled the club hahaha **** me. No matter what he does with the rest of his career I reckon his greatest achievement will always be managing to make so many Leicester fans so upset over the course of a single season during which he won the league

I didn't say I thought he would be a good signing for the Premier League so I'm not surprised it's beyond you, it's also beyond me. There are people on this forum who watch Leicester every week and have been doing so for decades but it doesn't mean that their opinion on Leicester players becomes objective fact. You could have been born in the centre circle at Home Park and yet I would still feel quite comfortable in my position that 27 goals+assists for one of the worst teams in the division is probably not the record of someone who is "cack bar a couple of decent games", unless all 27 came in those two games. And yes, apologies to anyone coming into this thread expecting news about Fotis Ioannidis.

Mate honestly don't worry about it. My nose and ears (and brain) are ****ed so I can sympathise with not being able to sleep, it's a pain in the arse. I do a lot of whining but only when I think there is something worth whining about, and if I think something is positive I will be positive about it - I was right behind Enzo for instance and I thought the level of negativity about his style/philosophy/whatever was absurd. I wish I could be more optimistic about the season and the future in general, and I do hope that over the next couple of weeks we see stuff on and off the pitch to inspire that optimism. Fingers crossed Steve and the boys can defy my expectations and give Spurs a good seeing to for you and your little one.

Thanks mate I was really hoping you'd give me your blessing. After all, if I think Skipp isn't a very good signing and there's not enough creativity or goals in the team, the natural conclusion would be to change which team I support

I must have missed that

Midfield three of Winks, Skipp and Ndidi = goals and creativity galore. Not sure why we're looking at strikers actually because literally anyone could score a bucket load with those three supplying the ammunition. £20m+ sounds a VERY reasonable fee for someone of his extravagant talent and I think the fact we've managed to negotiate it down to such a bargain price point reflects very well on the Club and, more importantly, its Director of Football. I am so excited for the new season!

4th top for goals + assists in the league behind three players who are now playing in the Premier League, for a team who finished a point above the relegation zone, suggests to me he can't really have been that cack

I'm sure they'll cost about a tenner a pop but currywurst and butter chicken naan bread sounds banging and 0% Guinness is very nice

Guido Rodriguez a 30-year-old academy graduate then I take it

It's also probably the only way we might get to see Ricardo

I would probably do likewise. He is a better player and though I'm not enormously enthusiastic about BDR, I've got more faith in his ability to do a job on the left in the Premier League than I have in Cannon down the middle. It's also not like Mavididi has never played as a striker in his life or we'd be doing something totally weird like crowbarring a full back in up front.

Well it's definitely better than the other two. Obviously would be quite a bit better with a less crap sponsor and also imo with the shorts in that navy colour