ALC Fox

Duran, Rogers and Torres all out for Villa. Obviously they're still heavy favourites but those absences could knock them out of their stride a bit.

It's taken him a while to really hit his straps in his career but he's clearly found a home in English football. He didn't have the best start to this season after a stellar campaign last year, but he's got back to business and when Middlesbrough do well so does he, it seems. We're not fishing in the market of finished products. There's going to be an element of risk with every signing. We need a proper back-up to Vardy now. Daka and Edouard aren't it, so I'm happy to take the risk on someone who's currently in good form. I'm confident he's better than Cannon right now. The two of them will be decent options next season if we go down, but if we stay up we may need to strengthen again in that area.

It's very short-sighted of the club not to consider that loads of kids have siblings. It seems the club are actively trying to lose fans rather than gain or retain them.

Our saving grace here could be that the conventional opinion is that Tonali and Guimaraes are finding it difficult to play in the same side. Difficult for Skipp and Choudhury to come in but if they can strike up a partnership and ping the ball up to the four more attack-minded players, we could find a bit of joy.

He's saying so many of the right things. He doesn't even need to after the first two games, either. Having a good crop of young players is really exciting, so seeing them potentially get opportunities is brilliant. Pragmatically speaking, it also puts them in the shop window. If they do OK, there will be interest in them, either to go on loan to help them develop or for a permanent transfer that boosts our ability to recruit. In a perfect world, there might be a few PL quality players in there who will stay and give us great options as we challenge again.

Still feel someone like Jacob Murphy should be a massive inspiration for him. Not an extraordinarily flair player, doesn't show off, but has worked his way up to being a very useful player for a side who can be really good on their day. Consistency is key for him because McAteer does have a knack of getting into good positions and often doing the basics well.

Seeing him celebrating the equaliser with pure fire in his belly completes the redemption arc for me. G'wan Bouba!

Ruud has a track record of improving players, including youngsters. If RVN actually gives Alves a chance and he does well, AND we stay up this season, van Nistelrooy will be a very popular man here.

Glad he's back home. Hope he progresses well as a coach.

"So it's one hand on your hip, good, then your other arm out like this. I'm a little teapot, short and... Bobby, why on earth are you using your leg?!"

I for one CANNOT WAIT to see every bugger in Wetherspoons in their new roll necks that they got for Christmas

He's got charisma. That should hopefully give the players a lift in the short term. I'm expecting a ding-dong battle against Brentford. He won the Dutch cup and finished second with PSV. Some might say that's about par for the course. But we've seen other teams besides them, Feyenoord and Ajax do well in that league before so it's still an achievement. What's unknown about him is if he can translate the limited success he's had into the medium or long term. Do we actually need to worry about that? Probably not right now. If vibes keep us up and he gets poached then job done.

That was Roger Schmidt

Oh my imagine if we pump Brentford at the weekend, it'll be absolute lift-off!

Based on absolutely nothing at all I think it's going to be Igor Tudor.

RIP Nev. Such fond memories of listening to his commentary. He really brought the game to life for those of us who couldn't get to the games every week.

Step forward, Sir William of Alves

That article reads as though the company as a whole is being declared bankrupt but the sums involved aren't huge for a company that has supposedly given the club it's most lucrative sponsorship deal. Of course, it looked dodgy from the outset and there is a theory that this was just a way for the owners to pour their own money in via a third party. But if that isn't the case, and the company is bigger than the article suggests, is it actually the company as a whole or just a subsidiary of it that is being made bankrupt? I know companies register themselves in foreign countries for all sorts of purposes so seeing them being made bankrupt by a court in Curaçao isn't particularly surprising, but it's the relatively small amounts of money being quoted that feels off to me.

Interesting one re KDH. Him leaving to satisfy PSR and then barely play for Chelsea, coupled with us resetting the number of games in which we have named academy graduates in the matchday squad, really does stick in the craw. Add those things to Chelsea pinching our manager, who was supposed to represent a major reset in how the club plays football, which was to affect both recruitment of new players and how the academy trains it's up-and-coming stars. At the moment, it feels like last season was a blip and we're acting like any other club scrapping around desperate to stay in the Promised Land. Contrast that to the description of the club during the 2015/16 season. How revolutionary we were at recruiting not just players of the right ability but also the right personality. And how players with drastically different personalities complemented one another, protected each other on and off the pitch, and loved training and playing games together. Then you consider the events that the club used to hold where knowledge was shared between clubs (e.g. on groundskeeping). If you've read Soccernomics, you may be aware of the theory that clubs on the continent are historically more successful because it was just easier, geographically, for ideas to be shared and proliferated widely. With hindsight, these attitudes that were previously prevalent at the club were clearly spearheaded by Pearson, Shakespeare and Walsh. The opportunity to lay down the foundations for success beyond that period has been missed by the club. Puel did an admirable job in reducing the average age of the squad and lifting us away from a position where we'd be consistently fighting relegation. Then Rodgers was the right guy at the right time to take us to the next level - but the wrong guy at trying to sustain that (keeping our better players instead of selling and reinvesting, leading to money not being brought in at a time when purse strings had been tightening because of COVID, and then identifying substandard squad fillers). I think, maybe, that the owners are perhaps too invested in whatever management team they appoint. When it goes right, it looks great. But forward planning in order to mitigate the appointment of a bad coach or one who just doesn't work out is non-existent. Brighton is an example of where that forward planning is going very, very right.

A loan with an option to buy should we stay up would be absolutely sensational for this kid.

An excellent moment for the goal. A key contribution and showed signs that he can produce moments of real quality. But, it's consistency that's key. If he can keep making real contributions when he gets the chance then he'll force his way in and then who knows? But that's still a long way off. One swallow doesn't make a summer. That's where we're at with Soumare, I think. But he should be absolutely buzzing with that moment. If he can use it as motivation to kick on then it would be one hell of a comeback. We definitely have room for a player who can do what he did but on a regular basis.

Don't know how we keep managing to scrape points here and there. It really isn't pretty. The saving grace is that Cooper is getting the results just about. But if there's a better manager willing to take the job I'd still make the switch. We've a tough run coming up so let's see how we get on over the next few. It's turning into a long old season, that's for sure.

Nice to see these guys doing bits after a little indifferent spell for the youth teams. The talent is there.

Talking of roundabouts. The one at Fosse Park near the McDonald's. Every single time, cars going straight on cut into the right-hand lane instead of following their lane around the roundabout. Makes turning right there annoying at best.

A loan move back in January would be great for us.