DuncanRG

I wouldn't undervalue his love of the long ball - when we've been under the kosh and other players look like they're about to pass us into trouble it's normally him who bails us out. There's been a couple of occasions this season where a spell of pressure for the opposition has been calmed by a Hooiveld hoof which Lambert's taken down well. I think he's been okay for us this season. He was very unlucky early on with the own goals and fouls, and that drop in confidence did affect his performance but he's done fine since winning his place back.

Spurs L 3-1 Sunderland D 1-1 Stoke W 1-0

Oh my bad, didn't realise you meant influencing their decision to sign. It seems that can play a factor for some players when signing for clubs like Liverpool, where the history is that great regardless of the current team's success. Not true for City though, no

Arsene Wenger. He temporarily possesses the consciousness of our young players (or their fathers) and convinces them that they want to sign for Arsenal. That's his trick.

Yes! Always rated him and enjoyed watching him play. It's a shame he didn't make an impression at Arsenal. I'd give him a go - how are Sociedad's finances? If they're among the debt-ridden clubs in Spain we might be able to get him for a tidy price.

What a phenomenal band they are. They're going to be huge very, very soon

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Wonderfully accessible and engaging look at the two 'systems' of thought; active, conscious thinking (eg when you're facing a maths problem) and unconscious 'invisible' thinking (eg looking at a maths problem and deciding that you need to think about it). Full of examples and studies - sometimes he'll describe the way we react to something on a page and you can actually feel yourself doing it. I've never read a psychology book in my life but I'm really enjoying it and it's changing the way I think already. Highly recommended! I also bought Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk and Hopes & Prospects by Chomsky yesterday, looking forward to getting into them.

High hopes for the 2024 World Cup with Luke Shaw at the peak of his career!

There's nothing out of the ordinary there, since Southend's season is over now ...which presumably means that he doesn't have to be recalled anyway? I imagine he'll feature at the weekend but probably on the bench.

I think safe standing plays a big part. I hope it's implemented in England, but you wouldn't put it past our clubs to build the terraces and then charge the same as normal.

I'll bet Kompany does, he's a good character who really buys into the club.

Celtic do very well to hold onto their top players - loads of clubs including us have gone in for Hooper over the last three or four windows and been told to stuff it. A lot of their players seem to love the club and fans. I'm not entirely sure where those players would fit in but I'd absolutely take all three. Wanyama is a class, class act.

The two aren't that dissimilar - the change being talked about for England is focussing on technical skill and movement rather than physical power and that's what Spain and Germany both do already. That said the Germans seem to have more power and pace. The wheels were put in motion for the 'German revolution', as you put it, after Euro 2000 when they were knocked out in the groups - it's just taken this long for the generation of better-trained players to come through and the 2010 WC seemed to mark that arrival.