ClaphamFox

I suspect Skipp will play instead of Ndidi. Otherwise I reckon this will be it.

It should have been a red. He was very lucky there was no VAR.

Then a bit later on: "I don't like your methods, Kaminski - but by God you get the job done.."

Neither of which had anything to do with Cooper. Anyway, in Vardy's case it was a no-brainer - he'll score goals for us this season. Vestergaard was offered a contract when we thought Maresca was staying and may not have been otherwise, but I think he'll still be of use given that we're likely to be defending deep in a lot of games this season.

It's incredible, isn't it? We've signed two players over 30 and suddenly we're 'stockpiling' them. The large majority of the signings we've made, and the players we've been linked with, have been youngsters. There are definitely other reasons to be sceptical about Cooper, but this perception that he's determined to load the team with ageing carthorses is plain daft.

10am Brussels time is 9am here. That flight gets into Manchester at 10.20am UK time. Can anybody get up there to greet him off the plane with a sign which says, "Would you honestly not prefer Roma?"

Vestergaard, Kristiansen, Buonanotte and Vardy were also left out of the squad last night, yet they'll all very likely start alongside Hermansen on Saturday. I don't think we're even in for the Luton keeper.

Joking aside, I actually recognise him! He’s a midfielder for Boreham Wood. His name’s Bob Kaminski.

We are not spending £10m on a keeper who will ultimately be third choice after Hermansen and Stolarcyzyk. So either: a) one of those two is leaving; or b) this rumour is nonsense. I'm betting on the latter.

Unless he's been told the name Kaminski and jumped to the wrong conclusion...

I suspect it isn't. A journalist - Nixon or whoever - has been told the surname and jumped to the wrong conclusion, and has embroidered the rest of the story around that original misunderstanding. He might even have realised his mistake by now but is too embarrassed to admit it, and is hoping the rumour just dies a natural death and people forget about it.

I'd prefer to think it's the latter. If the club genuinely believed that Cooper was the best man for the job, I can live with that even though I personally disagree with it. But if it turned out that the club actually believed Corberan was a better fit but decided to go for a cheaper option instead, I'd find that very hard to stomach.

Is it possible that the increased focus on mental health in schools is having some unintended negative impacts? Young people these days seem far more aware of their mental health, and able to discuss it in a much more articulate way, than was typical when I was a teenager in the 1990s. Yet this greater focus on emotional wellbeing in schools, and in society more widely, doesn't seem to be helping matters much. Is there something about the way we're teaching this stuff that actually makes people more anxious rather than less? Are we subconsciously sending a message that people are inherently fragile rather than helping them become more emotionally resilient and deal with difficult situations? I don't know - it just seems odd to me that there has never been such focus on mental health, yet people's mental health just seems to be getting worse and worse.

What's going on here? https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/27/nhs-referrals-for-anxiety-in-children-more-than-double-pre-covid-levels-england

Corberan always seemed the obvious choice to me - even more so than Potter. If the reports suggesting that Corberan was our first choice but we passed on him because he'd have cost £4m in compensation were correct, then you have to question our long-term planning.

It seems the player's determination to force the move has compelled Genk to act. If he ends up throwing his toys out of the pram to force an £80m move from us to Chelsea in two years' time, having helped to establish us back in the PL in the meantime, I won't complain. Well, not much.

Alves will be on the bench and will come on in the 82nd minute.

Or calculated. If the club has rebuffed his request for a move, leaking the story to the press is probably his last throw of the dice…

No, I’m not one sadly mate.

Well if you can recommend a quality striker who has proven himself over more than one season in a top league, and who is both: a) affordable; and b) willing to join us, I’m sure the club will be all ears.

Sean, is that you? 😂

We also seem to be in the market for a CB…

Or maybe they already realise that Okoli isn’t what they’d hoped and are panicking…

You sure about that?