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I think it’s a good thing that someone from a relatively normal background who went to a comprehensive school can go to one of the top universities in the world.

He's scored 20 goals in a season twice in his career. The last time he did that was six years ago. He's 34 in a couple of weeks. I don't particularly mind this signing if we're bringing in another striker who will play more games than Ings, but I'd be surprised if he started regularly and scored more than 8-10 goals.

When we signed Kevin Phillips we already had Vardy, Nugent and Chris Wood. You just know this will be the only striker we sign and we'll be otherwise reliant on Evans and Hutchinson.

Agreed on both counts. Only way this closed shop approach to selection ends is if Key and Baz go. I find it sad the way Hameed has been written off, he's not even 30 yet.

Stokes' departure leaves a huge gap both in terms of his role in the team and as a leader. Let's face it, there is no like-for-like replacement. With only a year to go until a home Ashes there isn't much time to get selection right. For the balance of the team I would like to see Rehan come in as a bowling allrounder for home series, which would then allow us to play four quicks. Captaincy is a big dilemma - the only options in the current squad are Root (who doesn't want it and wasn't very good at it last time) and Brook (who doesn't seem like captain material right now). This would be a very un-England thing to do so it won't happen, but there is a case for Hameed to come in as a specialist captain and opener. Something like this looks more balanced to me than the team we put out at the Oval: Hameed Duckett Gay/Bethell Root Brook Smith/Foulkes/Rew Rehan Atkinson Robinson Carse/Tongue Archer

Almost spat my tea out when the commentator said something about Ayew "putting himself about, in typical style".

Have you read Killing Thatcher? Milkman by Anna Burns is a great novel set in 1980s Northern Ireland. I also really recommend Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe if you’ve not read that yet. I’ve not read his latest yet, looking forward to once it comes out in paperback.

Loved Piranesi. Found it baffling at times but found myself thinking about it lots after. Need to go back and re-read at some point.

About 15 years. It’s changed a lot even in that time. A huge amount of development in the city centre. Apparently there were about 500 people living in the city centre in 1990 and now there are around 100,000. It’s got its problems like any city but you can feel the buzz around the place, it’s very vibrant.

I live in Manchester. Burnham has done a good job as mayor particularly with improving the buses. But a lot of the improvement was well underway by the time he became mayor.

There are very tight restrictions on what the media can report on election day itself. Not sure what media you read/watch/listen to but I’ve heard pretty much nothing else but debates about Andy Burnham in the last few weeks!

He’s still the mayor. So if he doesn’t win tonight he’ll just carry on being mayor, presumably until 2028. He only has to resign as mayor if he becomes an MP.

I had the pleasure of meeting The Major Oak at a charity do once. It was surprisingly down to earth, and VERY funny.

An online fans forum isn’t a great barometer of toxicity amongst supporters in my view. As with the wider internet, users using pseudonyms will feel free to express their frustrations, vent their anger and use language they wouldn’t use in public. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more toxicity in the stands to be honest, given the level of mismanagement we’ve seen in the last 5 years. I can’t think of too many other clubs of our size who’d have responded with such passivity to points deductions, 3 relegations in 4 seasons, consistently poor recruitment, lack of communication etc. Look at how Everton fans protested a couple of seasons ago. And look at how we forced changes in the boardroom through protests in the 90s. Most our supporters these days seem happy to accept whatever Aiawatt and King Power serve up.

"I think you must have either your head in the clouds, or been away on holiday, or reporting on a different team, because if you don’t know the answer to that question . . your question is absolutely unbelievable, the fact you do not understand where I am coming from. If you don’t know the answer to that question then I think you are an ostrich. Your head must be in the sand. Is your head in the sand? Are you flexible enough to get your head in the sand? My suspicion would be no. I can, you can’t. You can’t. Listen you have been here often enough and for you to ask that question, you are either being very, very silly or you are being absolutely stupid, one of the two because for you to ask that question, I am sorry son, you are daft. You are wrong. No, you are wrong. You have been in here, I know you have so don’t give that crap with me, please don’t give that crap with me. I will smile at you because I can afford to smile at you. Now do you want to ask a different question or do you want to ask it differently. Come on, ask it. Ask it or are you not capable?"

My main issue with it is that it's a way for government to look like they're doing something about the problem while putting off the harder things that would actually deal with the problem: Stop making government announcements on X Classify social media companies as publishers Enforce regulatory standards and levy huge fines on companies who break them Work with international bodies to develop a worldwide system of social media regulation (challenging while this US administration are in power, but they won't be there forever)

Think you've misread my post. There are two proposals announced today: 1. Ban social media for under 16s 2. Prevent 16 and 17 year olds from using social media after 8.30pm The first appears unworkable to me, even if you agree with the objectives. There is emerging evidence from Australia that children and teenagers are simply working around the ban with VPNs, fooling facial age ID checks etc. The second seems completely illiberal to me because 16 year olds are classed as adults by the state in terms of their (soon to be) voting rights, ability to join the armed forces, freedom to consent etc. I don't think anyone sensible would argue that the outcomes you're describing aren't bad for children and young people, and bad for society. The question is how best to address these challenges effectively.

Not a parent so no particular skin in this game but the under 16s social media ban looks unworkable (kids will find a workaround through VPNs etc) and the 16 and 17 year old evening watershed is straightforwardly illiberal - if you're old enough to vote (as 16 year olds soon will be), join the army and get your leg over then you're old enough to decide what you watch and when on the internet. All this just seems like a distraction from the harder job of properly regulating social media companies, treating them as the publishers that they are and making them responsible for the harmful content that as far as I can tell is poisoning the minds of pensioners as much if not more than teenagers.

Nigel Cabourn, menswear legend, has died at the age of 77. https://www.drapersonline.com/news/nigel-cabourn-dies-aged-77

Brussell may have noted how long it took the club to get staff in for RvN and Cifuentes and doesn't want to take the risk of joining without at least a core team.

Clough at Forest perhaps the obvious one. And before anyone asks, no I'm not comparing Brussell to Brian Clough.

Not sure he does work that hard to be honest. He runs around a lot, sure. But that's largely because his positioning and passing is so poor that he's often two steps behind the play. Has he worked hard to improve his technical game? No Has he worked hard to improve his fitness? No Has he worked to eradicate the errors that litter his performances? No He's 28 and has only played 200-odd games. Compare that to Harvey Barnes who is a similar age and made his debut the same season, and is at nearly 400 appearances now. There's a player who worked on and developed his game and has the right mentality to play at the top level. For a player who looked so good at academy level he's been incredibly disappointing and has been here waaaaaaay too long.

Wow, his voice still sounds so good!

Hamer Amartey Benalouane Morgan Wasilewski St Ledger Moore Konchesky Schlupp Fuchs Ulloa

Thought I'd have a quick check of how many responses similar surveys from other clubs received. First few results I found: Spurs got 5,202 in 2025: https://thstofficial.com/supporterssurvey2025/ Portsmouth got 1,126 in 2026: https://pompeytrust.com/news/psts-2026-supporter-survey-results Forest got 189 in 2024: https://nffctrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/NFST-Survey-results.pdf.pagespeed.ce.t0pfM57CSs.pdf So 4,400 looks like a very decent response.