ALC Fox

The man hates winning the ball if he can't stick one on someone. Probably sees a loose ball, lets it run on to an opposition player, then wallop! Gerrimin.

I'm left-handed but eat with the fork in my left and knife in my right, I can't imagine doing it any other way. Though when preparing food I use a kitchen knife with my left, as you'd expect. Don't know if that's weird or not

Pretty sure he was being highly rated last season. Bit of a turbulent time for them in the end so no surprise if some of their more fancied players were a bit hot and cold. I'd like to see us take a chance on him.

Farage, Yaxley, Fox, Wootton, Grimes, etc. They're just doing Russia and China's jobs for them aren't they. Sowing division, resulting in the weakening of our democracy. It's so, so sad. That's without mentioning the very real effects it will be having on ordinary people in this country. Horrible times.

Can't wait to see what Mavididi can do in the Prem.

That's about where I'm at tbh. Reid or Ayew but not both. As we already have Reid, bringing in Ayew as well would shift the balance a bit. Having them both on the pitch at the same time has the air of relegation about it. I'm just hoping there's a credible Soulé-esque rumour to be revealed this window.

Yeah that is also an issue

If Alan Nixon is right about this one it's almost as bad as signing Ayew himself. Stars aligning for all the wrong reasons. Fingers crossed there's nothing to it. Or, if it happens, Ayew proves everybody wrong. I'm not totally averse to signing a forward player who is more of a foil for the actual goalscorers in the side, but I'm struggling to see a positive to this one.

Just a reminder, Alan Nixon is as close as a human being can possibly be to a spambot. Take with a truck load of salt.

Alan Nixon is pure sh!t. Compare his three-word tweets and private Patreon subscription to proper journalists who write informed articles and break actual transfer news like David Ornstein. Night and fvcking day.

If he's good enough, he's old enough. Don't mind it at all. We'll need energy and creativity in the side and with Mavididi, Fatawu, Golding, Alves and Doak, we'd have good options to try and change a game.

Maddison was excellent for us overall, I think. The relegation wasn't his doing. He did a lot and still got 3 of his 10 goals and 5 of his 9 assists after his injury at apparently the point when he 'downed tools'. Sometimes feel like people just didn't like the confident side of him and so fixate on the few bad performances when, actually, the entire club itself was rotten that season.

Yeah that's definitely plausible as well

On this, in friendlies the score doesn't really matter. So, to cut Cooper a bit of slack do you think he was trying out combinations for when we have to be less creative and be more compact and workman-like to frustrate teams instead of being open and susceptible to getting battered by the elite teams in the league?

Essentially just offer him a new contract and then send him out on loan. He's shown he has promise. If he's not going to sign then we don't have much choice than to try and sell him I guess.

I thought he showed a good touch and ability to turn on the ball and get forward on Tuesday. It was a good run and lovely little finish from him as well. I get the feeling he's one of those players who people will continually underestimate but will quietly keep making the step up in quality. He never looks standout but he does a lot of basics pretty well. I think he could be a decent squad player this season if he can stay fit. If the manager can't guarantee him time though, he needs a loan. I think he'll come on leaps and bounds with a full season under his belt.

From Northampton Town to literally a city in the Amazon rainforest. Can't imagine which one is nicer! Best of luck to him.

Surely signing a player from a big club who never made it properly there is almost contingent on what type of bloke he is as much as it is about their ability? And the same applies if the player is coming from a much smaller club and sees the move as their transfer to the big time? If a player is hungry to prove themselves and play football, then they give themselves the best chance to succeed? If coming from a bigger club and they're despondent and not motivated, then things won't work out. If they're coming from a smaller club and spending loads of their money frivolously, enjoying the bigger spotlight on them and aren't really focused on the football, things won't work out for them either. Nelson has done pretty well for his loan clubs, which is a good sign, but I guess we don't know how a permanent move (to all intents and purposes with it rumoured to be a loan with obligation) would affect him. But we know he gets on well with Cooper, which should help him. I guess we'd just have to rely on the scouting team doing their due diligence on what he's like as a bloke, as is the case with all signings.

I think Cooper's tactics are getting a little bit of a bad rap on here at times. We've only seen two games (one proper one), he doesn't have all his players available because of the Euros and we're clearly working on signings behind the scenes. Anything after Enzo was always going to feel like we were going backwards, reverting to something more familiar than the radical approach Enzo adopted from day one of his reign. But is Enzo's approach all that radical anymore? Arteta stopped inverting his full-backs, instead preferring Kiwior or Tomiyasu to Zinchenko. Guardiola stopped doing it with Stones out for long periods and Lewis rarely picked. Will that system be as successful in the Premier League as it was for us in the Championship? It's horses for courses, I think. We're in for a real battle. We're probably not going to be secure and looking at European places in March. We have points deduction(s) to contend with and a squad that hasn't felt entirely 'complete' for a while, especially with needing to sell to satisfy FFP and with a relatively high turnover of managers. Cooper needs to stabilise the team. Defending as a 4-4-2 and attacking as a 4-2-3-1 seems about right for where we're at. 3-5-2 might be what he'll go for in some games as we hang on for points. It isn't going to be pretty at times. But I don't think it would have been 100% of the time under Maresca either, precisely because we're now in a better division and the way Enzo wanted to play might not have been quite as successful with the players we have. But from the Shrewsbury game I liked the way we moved the ball through the thirds AND mixed it up with long balls. I like Mavididi's position, I think he can be really effective there. I do want to see Fatawu on the right rather than the left, though. And our defending is a bit ropey at present. But Cooper will get these lads fighting for every point.

Wouldn't mind this at all. He needs a home, a place to thrive. He also gets on really well with Cooper, which is a plus right now (not so much if Cooper doesn't last long of course). He would give us options and would challenge Mavididi, Fatawu and McAteer straight away, which is what we need. Wanya needs a loan or permanent move for me. McAteer perhaps another loan as well to really get some proper game time. I'd like to keep Alves around and get him involved. I thought he and Golding linked up well last night. But maybe it would be better for his development if he went out to a Championship side looking to play decent football. But if Nelson were to come I like the following as options for the three behind the striker: Mavididi, Fatawu, R. Nelson, Golding, De Cordova-Reid, (McAteer), (Alves)

Mad that if they did he'd be going there as second choice. The keeper they had on loan last season has gone there permanently now and looks decent.

Trevoh Chalobah has been left out of Chelsea's tour of the USA. I know we've signed Okoli already but I feel Chalobah would improve our options at CB, even if only on loan initially. Could allow us to send Nelson on loan to get a proper season under his belt.

It looked to me like Okoli didn't quite trust his left foot. I'm not sure I'm ready for that in PL. Hopefully it's just a case of him needing to get up to speed.

Alves running things

Excited to see what Alves and Golding can do