Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man

He'd be pretty useful on my save right now as well. I started as La Serena in the Chilean second tier, with the motivation being that it should be pretty enjoyable and not too difficult to develop younger players and bring them into the first team.

Whilst @KeiranShikari's description above is excellent, I think the simplest way to describe it is that he basically runs the academy. I believe he has played a massive role in bringing through academy products into the first team in the last few years, which seem to have increased in terms of both quality and quantity. On Football Manager, he is rated as one best Heads of Youth Development on the game, so he is clearly highly rated both inside and outside the club. He leaves pretty big shoes to fill in a very important role. Not sure where he's going, but maybe he has attracted interest from bigger clubs or wants a more senior role elsewhere?

I was thinking the same. Must be a slow news day.

Window-to-window loans cannot end or be terminated outside the transfer window, so he cannot play for us until the transfer window opens, which is after the season finishes.

I think it's probably the case for all positions that the ones who are truly elite will be able to survive with the best, but those are not quite there will struggle. As a result, the best 50 or so will benefit as they are playing regularly in the Premier League, so the influx of overseas talent has been good for these players because they play against the world's best every week and they are at the level themselves. For anyone outside this elite bracket, they've been eased out. As a result, we've got a stronger elite group but a smaller pool to choose from. With goalkeepers, because it's the most specialised position, it becomes more noticeable like you said.

Domestically, there aren't really any for me. I like to see King's Lynn do well as they're local, but that's about it. Maybe if I had to choose one at a push I'd go Port Vale, as I lived up that way for a few years and went to Vale Park a couple of times. I also had a mammoth Football Manager save with them on FM14 where I became the most successful manager of all time, but I wouldn't be arsed if they got relegated from League One this season. Overseas, I've mentioned on here a few times that I'm also a Lecce fan. I had a season ticket for a few years when I lived out there and I still watch the vast majority of their games. I think I've only missed about six this season.

Actually, you were wrong. The influx of players from overseas has raised the standards at both Premier League and youth level. England are performing consistently better at both youth and senior level than they ever have before, possibly aside from the 1966 World Cup win which was a bit of a one-off, and it's because the players from abroad have made England's top division and academy system arguably the strongest in the world. English players are playing against the best in the world from the age of 16 now so the best ones will only get better.

Indeed, I wouldn't have expected him to be one of the best in the division in this metric. Similar for Nuñez; he's bang average here which isn't bad considering it is most definitely not his best asset.

I don't know a huge amount about Knapper, because he doesn't speak publicly very often and he's extremely guarded when he does, unlike his predecessor. However, I think that if the managerial position was vacant when he arrived and Wagner applied, he wouldn't have been at the top of Knapper's shortlist. Also, I don't think that Wagner and Knapper have completely seen eye to eye on transfer dealings thus far. The possibility of Wagner choosing to leave and waive his right to payoff is basically nil though, as this hardly ever happens nowadays, so ultimately it comes down to whether Knapper wants to continue working with Wagner. Results have been excellent since Knapper arrived and Wagner is doing a very good job, probably enough to keep him in the role next season regardless of which division we're playing in, but it still wouldn't surprise me if there were a mutual termination in the summer whether we get promoted or not.

He has played 4,360 minutes for us over 115 games in all competitions (99 league, 16 cup) according to Transfermarkt. That works out at 38 minutes per appearance, or 48 full matches. He has scored 17 goals, which is one every 256 minutes, or one goal every 2.85 matches based on 90-minute appearances.

Not really a fair comparison; most of those 99 matches were ten minute cameos off the bench and quite a few were when he was 18 or 19. A more fair comparison is this season. At Celtic, most of his appearances have been from the bench, and his league record is seven goals in 455 minutes. Whilst here, most of his appearances were from the bench as well, scoring six in 1,275 minutes. His goals-per-minute record at Celtic is sensational, but Idah did seem like he was always a bigger threat from the bench when he played here this season. And when playing for a team that is far stronger than all bar one of their opponents and against teams who are lower than Championship standard (again, bar one), it stands to reason that his goalscoring record is going to improve. But still, seven goals in 455 is some going by anyone's standards.

Even if Spalletti had stayed, they wouldn't have replicated it. The official reason for him leaving was a petty disagreement with the president, which was undoubtedly a factor as they're both stubborn old men, but I believe that Spalletti knew deep down that he couldn't repeat the feat and it was always going to be an impossible job this season for whoever took over, as it has proved. They're already on their third coach of the season and they'll change again in the summer. Obviously it's not like a Leicester or a Kaiserslautern, and not even a Montpellier or a Stuttgart. But they had never won the Bundesliga before despite being there or thereabouts a few times over the past two or three decades, so the comparison with Napoli is probably the best one. I can't see Leverkusen struggling the way Napoli have though; they seem to have more stability about them.

I voted for Kenny too. I went for him last season when Sara edged it (I think Sara really benefitted from the timing, because voting closed even earlier last season and it coincided with the end of his purple patch), and it would be a toss up between the two of them again for me, but I chose Kenny because him and Sara probably deserve one each between this season and last.

Always good to see a different team win the title and break the streak of the dominant force. Apparently one of the key factors in Alonso agreeing to stay on next season was the promise that no key players would be sold, so it will be interesting to see how the title defence goes. History has shown that teams who unexpectedly win, or come close to winning, the league generally find it extremely tough to replicate, but this Leverkusen side does look pretty well equipped to have a good go.

We only want fifth if Southampton can overtake one of the sides above them, in this form!

Shows what we know.

I'm not 100% sure because I wasn't paying full attention, but I think they said on Radio Norfolk that his wife is about to give birth. They said it about someone, I think it was Fassnacht.

I suspect you're probably right. Indeed. It's often said that the factor which has the biggest impact on league position is the wage bill. Wage bill and agent fees I'd imagine are also very closely linked. If you don't pay the agents, you won't attract the best players. Surely the trick is working with the agents, rather than seeing them as the enemy and going against them.

About a fortnight ago, there was a real possibility that a team could get 100 points and still not get automatic promotion. Now it's looking like anyone who hits 95 will be fine.

As many have said, massive credit to Eddie for the work he has done over the years. I dread to think how many hundreds, probably thousands, of hours he has put into this. For my tip this week, I'll go for Napoli. They showed signs of resurgence last week and Frosinone are in poor form, so home win at 4/11. I'm pessimistic for our game as our away form isn't great. Osmajic scored a hat trick in the week, so Osmajic anytime scorer at 5/2.

The EFL says it was related to a number of payments, totalling 550 days overdue.

This isn't for overspending; it's for not paying transfer installments on time by the looks of things. Of course, that could've been related to cashflow problems caused by overspending, but Sheffield United claim it was because other clubs were late paying them.

I'd say that's a good reason NOT to give it. Deciding such a huge game on something like this would be a farce, although admittedly Arsenal/Gabriel would only have themselves to blame if it had been given.

The problem is that Leeds and Leicester are also doing a sterling job of bottling it at the same time.

Not only did the three sides chasing automatic promotion all fail to win, but they all failed to even score this midweek. You'd have got long odds on that yesterday afternoon.