ClaphamFox

I think some people underestimate the impact that booing a particular player has on the rest of the team. He’s their teammate and, for many of them, a friend. There is no way that booing a player is going to improve the morale of the squad, especially when that player is just about to take the field as a sub. And when that happens in the first game of a new season when a fresh start would usually be expected , it’s only going to create a division between the team and the fans. Which is not what we want at all.

The EFL cannot give us a points deduction. The EPL has charged us and an independent commission will determine the punishment. It won’t be double figures, let alone 30.

Presumably following which we use Macquarie Bank to turn into an up front payment to us…

Man Utd have spent years and countless millions trying and failing to rid themselves of the toxic culture up there. Once it sets in, it can be very difficult to remove.

Gone where? If you know which club is buying him, spill the beans!!

Most likely neither will leave.

“In the coming days.” Other clubs are working to their own timetables with two weeks of the transfer window left - Spurs won’t care less that BEK’s release clause expires tomorrow. As things stand I’ll be very surprised if any club activates it, which will mean he either stays or we sell him for a higher price.

Yes, that’s a safe assumption. But there only seem to be vague rumours, nothing that suggests anything is imminent, and the clock is ticking…

On what basis?

It would be a massive gamble if you really wanted him. There’s far more chance we’ll put the price up than bring it down.

I’d love to know what they thought they could get him for….

Maybe they’re waiting to see how we do this season and if it looks like we might get promoted they’ll drag it out long enough to punish us when we’re back in the PL…

Well they’d better get a move on if the rumours of the 15 August expiry on BEK’s release clause are true as the price is likely to rise sharply after this Friday.

We haven’t sold any of the key players you mention. People are reacting to rumours of other clubs being interested in our players as if we’ve actually sold those players and haven’t replaced them. It’s bizarre. Years ago Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse did this sketch called ‘The Self-Righteous Brothers’ in which two middle-aged blokes would sit in a pub conjuring up entirely hypothetical scenarios involving celebrities behaving badly and then work themselves up into a rage about it, thereby getting into a complete state about something that hadn’t even happened. I’m somehow reminded of that sketch whenever a transfer window comes around.

Our squad is bloated and needs reducing. We’ve sold two players who were unlikely to be in the starting 11 and for whom we already have a strong replacement. How is that ‘selling our souls’?

I don’t like Faes at all, but booing a Leicester player as he comes on as sub in a tightly-balanced match is self-defeating and moronic. It’s obviously not going to help the team, so why do it? Anybody doing it is basically saying that their ‘right’ to express their disdain for a certain player is more important to them than the outcome of the game. I find that incomprehensible, especially in the first game of a new season in which we really need the fans and the team to be on the same side. Cifuentes is going to pick whoever he thinks is best able to deliver what he wants. If he decides that Faes is one of his best CBs, will people carry on booing him every time he plays? Is that kind of toxicity going to help us win matches and get out of this division? I’d love to hear the reasoning of anybody who thinks it will.

Hello Jon.

Hard-fought but ultimately deserved 2-0 win incoming.

A 0-5 loss would rankle, I can’t deny it.

Nice! Where in the Cotswolds?

Your entire argument is built upon a logical fallacy. Being mediocre does not cause a team to become good again. Teams that have been shit for years may sometimes revive their fortunes with new ownership, an injection of cash or a lucky break, but these are generally the exception rather than the rule. If being mediocre for five years was a strong predictor of good times ahead, the PL would be constantly refreshed with new clubs returning from years in the wilderness. But we know that the opposite is the case: the gap between the successful clubs and the rest is getting wider and it is getting harder to break into the elite. Five years of mediocrity would be more likely to result in a decade of mediocrity, then two decades, than result in some remarkable resurgence. And as for sterile fanbases, that is simply something that happens when fans become used to success. Go to the Emirates, Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge or the Etihad: thousand upon thousands of passive fans who seldom get excited because they expect success.Yes, the momentum of clubs on their way back up after years of struggling can generate a good atmosphere, but it fades once that momentum is lost. Forest generated a very good atmosphere in their first season back in the PL, but it dropped off a lot the following season. What do you think the atmosphere at the Ricoh would be like if Coventry got promoted and stayed up for five years? Probably worse than ours was last year. Do you actually believe we could slip into mediocrity for half a decade, with a declining fanbase and revenue, then one day click our fingers and say, “Well that was a nice break. Let’s go back up now!” Don’t be daft.

Each season of mediocrity would set us back further and make it harder for us to catch up. The likes of Brighton, Fulham, Bournemouth and Forest would become beyond our reach. There is no conceivable way that an extended period of being shit would ‘do us some good’.

This is a bizarre take. Coady was one of the deadwood and we have enough centre halves anyway, so we don’t need to replace him. Ndidi is past his best and would not have been a regular starter under Cifuentes, and we’ve done very well to get £9m for him (assuming it goes through) given that he could easily have gone for free last summer. Hermansen was always likely to leave and although Stolarczyk isn’t quite as good he’s not far off and will do us perfectly well in the Championship. You make it sound as if the departures have significantly weakened the squad but that is plainly ludicrous: we’re probably slightly weaker in the goalkeeper position but other than that we’re as we were, except with a trimmer squad and a bit of money to spend. The reason your opinion will likely be unpopular is that it’s completely daft and with no basis in reality.

I don’t think our case is being handled through the fast-track process. I’m pretty sure the BBC got that wrong.

No date. May not hear until the second half of the season.