LeePhilpottsBaldSpot

Never seen him play but this is Port Vale's form (in League Two). WDLLDDLDDL Justin needs a spell out of the team but he's a decent player. I also suspect he'd be a lot stronger with a better centre back next to him (like the impact Robert Huth had on everyone who played with him.

Forward for a full back because we're chasing a point

A friend of a friend won an "all access tour" thing of the Chelsea training ground. When he met Fofana and told him he's a Leicester supporter, apparently his face lit up and he said how much he loved his time at the club. Can't begrudge him the big move. Would be like us staying loyal to St Etienne when Marseille made an offer. That and he probably knew his body was made of biscuits and the short career of a footballer would likely be even shorter for him.

Seems too early to be able to make predictions like this. Our run in is decent; Wolves (a) Southampton (h) Forest (a) Ipswich (h) Bournemouth (a) Keep within touching distance going into the last five and we have a chance.

3 year contract is pretty standard. Any longer could be reckless, especially for a player joining after some injuries.

Sorry if this has been covered or I've missed something like him leaving (!), but is Daniel Iversen not available?

As somebody who has previously written off the likes of Jamie Vardy, Gerry Taggart and Steve Claridge after slow starts, give him some time. I know we want instant returns (especially when we're crap and have been financially handcuffed), and admittedly he's not don't anything to justify the transfer fee so far... but sometimes these things take a little while. And I'd give him a break for today. The midfield is crippled with absences and I doubt many would excel in a midfield two with Hamza away at Newcastle.

Embarrassingly, I wrote him off twice at Leicester. Didn't think he was good enough in his first season in the Championship. Didn't think he was good enough in his first season in the Prem. I don't know what I'm talking about A good lesson to not prematurely write people off. My mates still remind me of my Vardy criticisms to this day... and it's hard not to blame them!

I genuinely haven't. In fact my first games were the opposite... my dad would take us to the turnstiles when they were opening for fans to leave. We'd sneak in to watch the last few minutes! Ever since I've always thought of being inside a stadium as a treat, and even when the result is beyond conclusion I've never left before the final whistle.

He's a decent player but I'd rather just keep Buonanotte for the season if you can't loan more than one player from a team.

Clearly he's in rotten form but tbh I can't see any other options. Choudhury as RB in a back 4 would be a disaster in the Premier League. Maybe wing backs with McAteer or DeCordova-Reed as RWB? But both would probably be just as bad Probably best to just stick with Justin and try to support him through this bad spell...

Mads Justin Vestegaard Coady* Thomas Winks Skipp Ayew Buonanotte Mavididi Daka * Okoli if fit

Winks is a good player and has never done anything on the pitch to suggest he's not fully committed. Exactly the sort of player RvN should be building his team around!

Sorry, but Wout Faes has never been "imperious". We conceded six in his debut and he was scoring farcical double own goals before Christmas. We had a decent run of games near to his start, but he deserves being called imperious as much as Ward, Thomas or Amartey. Lots of long haired players have been loved by our fans (Soyuncu, Savage, Worthington). Lots of short haired haired players have been criticised (Low, Lewis, Bennett). The variable is their performance on the pitch, not their hairstyle! The things Faes is good at should be add-ons after getting the basics of defending right. Until he can do that (and I've seen no evidence he ever will), I don't want him in our starting XI.

By that logic, Luke Thomas' FA Cup win and 5th placed Prem finish make him the club's second best ever left back. (Both are rubbish!)

Excited by this appointment! Might be rubbish but has a real glamour about it. Let's get behind him!

Did you take that from my twitter? Same picture as well

Especially after we just gave a League One-level manager a chance... Challinor does seem to be a good manager tbf - but that's the sort of step-up you'd only give somebody with a full summer and pre-season (and even then, probably a Championship team first). Midway through a struggling Prem season you need somebody who has experienced top flight pressure and can command respect from the start. Ruud van Nistelrooy spent 15 years at the very top as a player, 10 years as a coach and now a couple of years as a manager. Even forgetting their careers, winning the Dutch cup and being assistant manager for World Cup semi finalists is better preparation for joining a Premier league team mid-season than winning the Conference and League Two.

Yep I'd imagine that's what it is, plus the usual legal stuff. Didn't all the coaching staff leave with Cooper? Club website only lists three active coaches Ben Dawson First Team Coach Andrew Hughes First Team Set Piece Coach Danny Alcock Goalkeeping Coach

Lots of failures for sure, but Laurent Blanc, Michael Carrick and Mark Robins have done OK. Obviously a bygone era and they're laughing stocks now, but Mark Hughes and Steve Bruce both spent about 15 years managing at various teams in the top flight.

I've wondered if Cooper had a break clause after 15 games. Or maybe as bad as they were, it might not have been match performances that got Cooper the boot. (Alternatively, we're a shambles with no strategy or plan... probably the most likely option!).

Tbf they probably thought we were heading for a 15 point deduction and a transfer embargo. In those circumstances, it makes sense to bring in a worse, cheaper option. Hopefully we hired him with plenty of release clauses in case we wriggled out of the punishment...

Oscar Garcia left Leuvren two days before Cooper got sacked...

1. Ranieri 2. Pearson 3. Rodgers 4. Maresca 5. Puel 6. Sven 7. Shakespeare 8. Smith 9. Sousa 10. Cooper Edit: actually I'll put Rodgers ahead of Maresca. Ended terribly but won us the Cup tbf

Sorry if this has already been covered! Have any players posted anything on social media? Could be they've been asked not to and they'll all just post similar messages in a few days. But you'd have thought somebody would have posted something by now... unless they all hated him!