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Set piece coach being confirmed is great news, particularly one as well regarded as Hughes appears to be. If he was a Brentford target as reported then I think that bodes well as they seem to take that sort of stuff very seriously.

I literally did not say it's OK, I said that's why people do it. If you want to invent and dismiss arguments I haven't made then by all means crack on, I was merely trying to explain to someone from a country where it is far easier to legally access sports why it is that we get so many people asking for streams.

As I believe I've explained to you previously, people ask for illegal streams because in this country even if you spend thousands of pounds annually on TV subscriptions there is no legal way to watch the vast majority of games unless you physically attend them, not because they are immoral thieves

I would imagine so yes, best of luck to them

Yes? I know you love to play the contrarian but nobody has suggested otherwise I don't think. It was stated that Bournemouth's owner has improved them and those are some examples...

Got another year left at Forest according to the Telegraph

While I can understand that point of view, I think it's easy for him to say as someone in charge of Real Madrid. It's fine telling Modric, Kroos, Vini Jr., Bellingham etc. just go out there and express yourselves lads, or for him to eschew a defined tactical identity in favour of being more flexible/adaptable, because they are supremely gifted and intelligent footballers who can do basically anything. Most teams and players I think benefit from having a clear plan to follow, and I've also heard it argued (can't remember who it was, mind) that this is why although Ancelotti is obviously a phenomenal manager, he has had relatively little success domestically compared to other managers because his methods apply better to knockout tournaments than they do to league campaigns.

I will be intrigued to see what's going to happen with Ricardo and Winks, who I think you could make a reasonable case for being two of our best players but who thrived last season in pretty specialised roles as part of a team that dominated possession every week. If we do end up in a 3-4-3 or similar then that strikes me as being bad news for both of them because I'm not convinced Ricardo is physically capable of getting up and down the flank these days (and maybe Justin isn't either) and similarly, is Winks mobile or athletic enough for a midfield two given we're likely to be without the ball most of the time? I could see the two of them in midfield together with someone more combative - whether that's a new signing along the lines of Florentino Luis or we can get Wilf to sign up and return to his old ball-winning ways - but then you're either sacking the wingers off or it's a back four. The former I think is obviously a bad idea considering we've got Mavididi, Fatawu and now also Reid, and if the latter then not only would the Okoli signing seem a bit unnecessary, you also have to wonder where that leaves Vestergaard and Coady who I think would really struggle unless in the middle of a three. **** knows.

On pitch - highest ever top-flight points total and joint-second best league finish (pretty remarkable given they went nine winless at the start of the season and didn't win a game until late October) while playing very good football, Iraola a manager of the season nominee and has signed a new contract, invested in promising young talents like Kerkez, Scott and Zabarnyi, if they lose someone like Solanke or Kerkez they will make a huge profit in the process Off pitch - new training ground in development ready for use early next year, plans for a new stadium with potentially double the capacity of the current one, academy upgraded to Cat 2 status

Yeah there are some very average players who've managed double figures over the last few seasons - Solanke, Mateta, Wood, Jackson, Hwang, Morris, Adebayo, Rodrigo, Almiron, Awoniyi, Pukki, Antonio, Dennis. It certainly shouldn't be beyond either our current strikers to match that sort of output or our recruitment team to find someone who can within our budget.

You can't seriously be telling me you're not keen to see us complete more great value deals for players who Know The League like Perez, Vestergaard and Ward

Because they need to make profit on players to avoid FFP sanctions

If the club is as intent on alienating its fans as it appears then we could do much worse than signing a proper homophobe like Mohamed. Kurt Zouma is available as well to take care of the animal lovers, maybe Joey Barton to join the coaching staff

But unless Steve Cooper has arrived armed with a tactical plan that will enable us to create a third wing, we don't need more decent first team wingers, we need capable backup for Mavididi and (presumably) Fatawu. If you don't rate McAteer then presumably you would agree with that. As you point out there is going to be a very limited budget and so here is a capable backup option signed for no transfer fee. What is the difference between us going out and spending on first team players then picking up backups for little to no money vs. doing it the other way round? Now you understand he's not a striker I can't really see what the objection is.

Portugal are ****ing grim. An obscene amount of creative attacking talent and yet they're limited to slinging crosses at that big immobile dosser because if they don't he'll cry

Not really, no. At the moment if one or both of those are injured then we're looking at McAteer, who you've said you wouldn't even have in the squad, and Marcal, who has a handful of cup and Championship games to his name - besides which, if you want the ability to adapt formations depending on who we've got available, why wouldn't you want a player with a very good injury record who can play four or five positions to a decent standard? We need to strengthen in quite a lot of areas if we have any ambition whatsoever of being competitive, and if we operate under the assumption that we also need to spent as little as we reasonably can in the process, deals like this make sense. He only ever signed one contract for Fulham which was when they were in the Championship so even accounting for promotion rises and such I think it's pretty improbable he's going to be on mega bucks.

He didn't play a single game down the middle for them last season

He's OK. Fingers crossed the fact he's turned down Fulham for us is reflective of a desire for a new challenge rather than us having made a stupid offer. My suspicion is he ends up playing right wing back.

Well yeah but the guy asked if he was fast and I'm just pointing out that being faster than Coady and Vestergaard is not the same as being fast

That is no great achievement

If it is going to be 3-4-3 then the midfield is in even more desperate need of reinforcements than it already is.

Keep. He arrived as a relatively inexperienced player making a big step up into a team where literally nobody was playing well and in Barnes had a player in front of him who couldn't be much less interested in defending. If we were being linked with a 21-year-old left back who had just spent the season as first choice in a team who qualified for the Champions League, we would be buzzing. Our other left back options are Justin who is made of Quavers and Thomas who is miles off being a top flight athlete.

That's a terrific counter-argument mate fair play

He was out on loan for about a month and a half. How could working every day with a tight-knit group of players operating at the very peak of their ability, learning from Fuchs and other vastly experienced defenders like Huth, Morgan, and Wasilewski, training against Mahrez and Vardy not be valuable experience for a teenager?

I do have depression and though the doctor didn't say as much I'm fairly certain it's due in large part to watching Danny Ward become, then somehow remain, our first choice goalkeeper