ClaphamFox

Not sure I really agree with this. The loan signing of Buonanotte was an inspired piece of business. Ayew is looking to be an astute purchase - he's already rescued a couple of games for us and clearly has a role to play. I also think Skipp will turn out to be an important player for us. The jury is out on Okoli and Bobby DCR hasn't exactly set the world alight, but he was on a free anyway. Edouard looks like a complete waste of time, but he was only brought in to make up the numbers when we failed to sign another striker. So while it's fair to say we didn't strengthen enough, I'm not sure that all the players that came in were as bad as you imply.

Unfortunately, 'proven' PL players tend to be quite expensive and most of them probably wouldn't want to join us anyway unless they're winding down their careers (see: Ayew and Bobby De-Cordova Reid) or have fallen down the pecking order at their existing clubs (see: Winks and Skipp). So any signing we make is going to carry an element of risk, and any club making signings in January usually pays over the odds.

That's the least they deserved. I agree that buying any used car is a risk. When I find a car that looks promising, I always read the reviews of the dealer offering it. The pattern is invariably the same: lots of five stars reviews from people with suspicious names like 'Ron S' who are effusive in their praise but are quite vague and also use the same phrases over and over again, then a handful of very detailed one-star reviews from people with full names who've had absolutely terrible experiences. Anyway, thanks to you, @Izzy and @jgtuk for your comments. I've decided against buying the category S car as it would always be on my mind and I don't want that anxiety, especially with two kids in the back seat. Interestingly, the dealer hasn't responded to my very polite enquiry for more information about the damage and repair work. Another red flag.

Because?

How old was the mini? That's sickening...

Has anybody bought a repaired category S car? We need a new car and I found what seemed to be bargain earlier.. I wondered why it was around £5k cheaper than I'd expect for its make/model/year/mileage, then I saw that it was a category S but has been 'fully repaired' (according to the dealer anyway) and just passed its MOT. I can't decide whether it's a bargain I should explore or just too much of a risk. Interested in anybody else's experiences...

Rob Tanner claimed today that we are planning to spend money in January on players that will go straight into the starting eleven. Given that bargains are very hard to come by in January, I assume this means we plan to spend big. I do hope our scouts have done their jobs properly...

Saturday will tell us a lot in this regard. Before the Man United game, the strongest argument you could make for Cooper was that the team seemed motivated enough to play well for 45mins of every game, including a few stirring second half comebacks. The spirit was clearly there, if not the quality, consistence or the tactical coherence. Then we went to Man Utd and went down without a whimper in a pathetic display. Was that a one-off or have the players just stopped listening to Cooper? We'll know more about the answer to this question on Saturday afternoon.

He was never likely to be sacked after a wholly expected loss at Man Utd. Unfortunately he’s not likely to be sacked after an expected loss against Chelsea this weekend either. However if we don’t win at least a couple of the games before Christmas, I think that will be it.

Wout Faes was given 2/10 for his performance for Belgium in their 1-0 loss against Israel by Belgian publication Walfoot. Their assessment of his performance was as follows: "Absolutely catastrophic. We know that Wout Faes is, at best, a decent defender, from whom we should not ask the moon. The problem will always have been to make him the boss of the defense while he multiplies the blunders match after match, without ever departing from his totally misplaced arrogance. Let's hope that his role changes for the next campaign or it will be impossible to move up a level." Well at least he's consistent for club and country, I suppose.

It's not faith. Getting relegated brings a significant amount of jeopardy, and in our case the jeopardy is significantly greater because the EFL cannot wait to get its teeth into us for our perceived 'escape' from a points deduction for 2020-23. The people who run our club will understand the potential implications of going down. They will not regard relegation as just a blip as part of a long-term plan. They will also be mindful of what happened when they let Rodgers stay for too long. The only way Cooper stays will be if it looks like he's going to keep us up. The moment that changes, he's gone.

The club is not planning on returning to the Championship any time soon and if it looks like Cooper is taking us there, he will be sacked.

You have to say that’s impressive. Incredible what they can do these days…

I've said it before, but I'll be amazed if he's still manager at the end of the season. In fact I'll be very surprised if he's still here in January. It just has all the hallmarks of a situation that is just not going to work out. The question is how many more losses will it take for the board to act? I reckon three...

I've been to Curacao. It's ok but nothing special. Aruba is nicer if you want a beach holiday in that part of the world. I actually came very close to drowning in Curacao (I genuinely thought my number was up), although to be fair that was my own stupid fault, not the place's.

Suspended.

Bentacur banned for seven games for making racist remark about his teammate Son Heung-min... https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/tottenhams-bentancur-suspended-for-seven-games-over-alleged-racist-remark-about-teammate-son-heung-min/ar-AA1uhymp?ocid=BingNewsVerp

Very rarely. His entire approach is built around trying to get people to subscribe to his patreon account. To do that, he needs to publish a regular amount of gossip on a wide range of teams. Inevitably, most of the gossip he posts is speculative at best, and downright fiction at worst. With regards to Cooper, there are perhaps 3-4 people who know what the club's current thoughts are on how long he's got, and none of those people speak to the media. And even if they did, Alan Nixon would come way down the list of people they'd be willing to speak to.

I’m usually as glass half-full as anybody and am often genuinely optimistic ahead of games that everybody else thinks we’ll lose, but I just can’t see past a comfortable Chelsea win for this one.

Who says we shouldn’t be looking at anybody high profile?

I just can’t see Cooper outwitting Maresca, and that would still be the case if Cooper had their squad and Maresca was still managing us.

This is exactly it

I don't think the club ever expected a points deduction.

I doubt this is true. We have eight games before January. Do you seriously think he'll still be in his job if we lose the first four of those? I think losing the next three will do it. The more pertinent question is what happens if we continue to stumble along without an identity or even coherent tactics, but pick up just about enough points to stay roughly on a point-per-game. Will the board stick or twist in that scenario? I'd hope that the memories of 2022/23 would be enough for them to pull the trigger, but I wouldn't bet my house on it.

To come and completely trash his legacy? No thanks.