ClaphamFox

And a left back and a centre back. And a half-decent defensive midfielder.

So during his childhood in Vicenza, his father was saying to him, “My child, one day you’ll be defending corners at the King Power stadium alongside Wout Faes - and you need to be ready for it…”

I’m trying to convince myself that the team selection yesterday was a message to the board that we desperately need new players. Why else would he play Ndidi AND Choudhury while leaving Alves on the bench and dropping Golding from the squad when we’re so short on creativity? Why else leave Mavididi and Ricardo out? There’s no way he’s actually considering starting with Choidhury and Kristiansen against Spurs….

If we are back in for him, it must have been before Daka got injured - or that is one seriously well-connected journalist….

It seems the players either do not understand what Cooper wants them to do, or they do understand it but simply don’t believe in it and therefore aren’t motivated to break sweat.

He did. Unfortunately now he only wants Lens.

Being loudly booed at home after a battering would have been even worse for morale.

Replacing a manager who was loved by the players is a much tougher gig than replacing a manager who was hated. The hangover from Maresca’s departure shows no sign of lifting.

As discussed above, I think all athletes should be tested. In particular, as Khelif has been banned from competing by another body after being tested, I’m surprised she was allowed to compete without the IOC conducting its own test. Fair enough, but I think that’s an extraordinary amount of trust to place in the IOC. It will be interesting to see what happens next - Khelif is currently banned from IBA competitions and may struggle to have any kind of career after the Olympics unless further tests are taken and the truth is finally established. I’m curious to see how that plays out.

But the IOC, by its own admission, hasn’t tested Khelif. So you’re making a conscious choice to take the word of an organisation that hasn’t bothered testing the athlete over one that has. I find that a surprising stance.

A biological male with a difference in sex development - eg, with testes that remain in the body and therefore give the external impression of being female, but who have XY chromosomes and go through male puberty.

I agree that every participant should be tested in the interests of fairness. I think the IBA can’t reveal the specific details of its test without Khelif’s consent. I agree that there are enough doubts about the IBA to not take its results as the final word on this matter. Hence why I think further tests are required. Let’s establish the truth and end this argument once and for all.

The IOC should have conducted a gender eligibility test to verify whether the one undertaken by the IBA was accurate or not.

There is a strong possibility that Khelif is a biological male with a DSD. By refusing to even consider that possibility and conduct the appropriate tests to determine whether it is true or not, the IOC has utterly failed to uphold the integrity of the women’s boxing competition at these games.

Vardy first kicked a ball in the Premier League when he was 27. He’d also had one decent season in the Championship (in which he scored 11 goals less than Szmodics did last season). Some players develop later than others. You talk as if every single signing needs to be made with a view to recouping the transfer fee, but that is clearly untrue - clubs pay big money for 28-year-olds all the time. Many players are just hitting their prime at that age. If you get 3-4 decent seasons out of them, you’ve recouped your investment in terms of results irrespective of whether you can sell them on. Szmodics would significantly improve us in an area of the pitch that we desperately require improvement and £15m would be a decent price for him. However it sounds like he’ll be joining Ipswich instead. I suspect he’ll do well for them and score a lot of goals, possibly keeping them in the process. Meanwhile it looks like we’ll be starting the season with Patson Daka up front…

Weeks.

Tom Collomose, who broke the Buonanotte story, reckons we’re after 3-4 more players in addition to Buonanotte. I reckon at least one of them will be another central attacking midfielder.

We are not skint. However we are restricted in what we can spend because of PSR. We’re also likely struggling to sign players because of the looming points deduction. We were always going to be making liberal use of the loan market this summer.

If we get relegated, no. If we stay up, probably yes. But it seems Brighton rate him too highly to give us that option.

In the transfer window that opened after Cooper was sacked. Turner continued to play until Sels was bought on 1 February. Cooper never had the option of playing Sels. He had the choice of two poor keepers and was picking the least bad one of the two. How do you know Forest wouldn’t have signed a new keeper in that transfer window if Cooper was still in charge? Maybe he’d already told them to target one…

We will. Some of them will be loans, but 3-4 more seems right.

Are you suggesting that even if Alves were the better option, Cooper would be obliged to pick an inferior loan option instead? If so, you’re being a bit silly.

He’s only got a year left on his contract.

Our first Argentine!