Number 6

Good record of working with youth, and would be very good to see some of our promising youth who were on the fringes last season start to get game time. Particularly useful when we can't go on a shopping spree. Likes to work with a smaller squad. Again works with transfer constraints. Has recently kept a team up who were fancied for relegation. So appropriate experience. Created a siege mentality at Forest - I feel like this squad need a bit of steel and resolve added. Look at hoe they handled the run-in versus how we did: we took 9 points under Smith, they took 11 at the same time, which included a win against Arsenal, a win against Brighton, and a draw against Chelsea.

I have similar reservations on the quality of them too at this level. A high number of average players in this position doesn't seem like a great situation to be in!

They were even "pleased" the announce the ticket price hike...but not this weirdly!

Why would they carry on paying him if he entered into another role?

Looks like we're continuing to collect CBs. Don't mind the signing but with Vestergaard's contract we have a lot of options there already. Would be ok if some were being offloaded.

I don't think it's a disaster appointment and probably reflects our current position and situation, but the leaked info of Potter being close and then this quick pivot feels like a real slap in the face. He's going to be up against it to get people on side, hope that means we're aggressive and attacking in our play early doors.

Yeh but they fling round money willy nilly. Makes more sense for him to be tested in the Prem with us and if the signs were promising they'd just buy him in Jan or next summer. They won't care that it would cost more then.

I think with Potter at Brighton it became a running joke that they'd win on xG but not on actual goals. I'd be intrigued to see what he could do with a natural finisher like Vardy in the side. Think he offers a good balance of stability and similar philosophy to Enzo too.

I love the guy, but he's not near the level needed to tempt Chelsea yet.

The potential permanent contract would have all been agreed within the loan + obligation. The conditions being met on the obligation would just be the start of everything automatically completing. He can't say no because he's already said yes, though I guess in theory he could try and force a move elsewhere via an LCFC sale. All seems highly unlikely though. Far more likely it's all gonna happen and they've just not announced it yet.

Don't see the need for this given Enzo left and we have people like Coady, Nelson, and Souttar who haven't been utilised. Guess it was offered prior to Enzo leaving though and so can't be too harsh on the club. The length of the contract is a bit odd and looks like we haven't learnt lessons to me, but I guess you've got to weigh up what the cost of a 1+1 or a straight 3 is. Whole contract cost is the most relevant.

This does emphasize what people want and why some of the touted names for our job are seen as a disappointment...they're not the exciting unknown. We shouldn't credit Brighton for an appointment they haven't made and could turn out to be shit!

The Ipswich quote is interesting here too: The upside is that blatant cheats who throw themselves about will be punished. Yes I thought that would happen too, but it hasn't. Just means someone goes to a screen, says yes there was some tiny contact, and gives the foul anyway.

Not arsed about style if we can stay up tbh.

People definitely using appearance to make Cooper seem worse. He might look like he's just come off a long shift attempting to stop Frodo throw the ring into the fires of Mount Doom but his football record is decent and I like his record of bringing youth through. Wouldn't be my first choice but not a disaster by any stretch. If the past tells us anything it's that we'll go a bit more left field though.

PL socials saying how the inverted full-back system may help Reece James did make me laugh.

Really disappointed in the sense that the club took a bold move last season with the hire. If we'd known he'd go running off to Chelsea 12 months later then we could have avoided the hire altogether. Made us some money though I guess. Get the new man in quickly now and let's get at it. Fire in the belly. Would love to beat them at the KP this season.

Assume they have a decent contingent at the Euros? Makes implementing the new style slightly trickier, and may take longer than it did with us. A slow start would really not go down well given the club mood as he's joining.

Think Norwich have already had very similar. Was the year they outrageously released 3 kits which were all yellow and green.

It's a good job I can't travel back in time to the younger me who absolutely despised him when he was at United 😂. Would be an exciting appointment.

Don't hate him, just don't think he's good enough.

Vestergaard's new contract should be put in the shredder before he signs it. He was a maybe with Enzo here, for me he's a definite no without Enzo.

That Telegraph range is pretty hilarious. Might as well have been even safer and said it'll be anywhere between 0 and 40 points.

Ah cool, makes sense. Potentially a likely punishment if/when we do breach/get relegated then. With that being the case I'm less convinced we'll fire sell before June deadlines.

Surely that's true for any single punishment, but are we due two punishments this year? Second one would be much smaller due to large overlap but I guess it could creep above 9 on this basis?