Rousseau

Yes, he doesn't scout players himself, but he absolutely does have a huge say in the specific individuals we sign. I agree that a replacement for Scoulding is key a piece of recruitment this season.

He sets the player profile, identifies the players types, the targets, he's in charge of the scouts... etc. Look up Begiristain and Monchi - two of the best DoFs around. They are very much responsible for the players that come into the club. The manager should have very little to do with it - he'll have an input, certainly, but it's the DoF that is ultimately responsible for player recruitment.

He has scouts, as I said, but the DoF is very much involved with scouting. He is also a negotiator, but that is a simplistic description of his role.

That is his role. Well--not scouting directly - he's got scouts for that - but he is in charge of recruitment.

It would be good to move Aribo on. I'd take ~£10M.

I'm disappointed that there hasn't been any significant movement thus far - in or out.

I am a big fan of Kamara, but he doesn't quite have a position in GvB's team. Even so, we need to be selling our assets once they've been developed. He could play a similar role to the recently departed Yves Bissouma.

I like Mayo. I really think he should be involved in the first-team squad. That's a good loan, though.

I think it was a mistake to renew McGregor's contract.

I don't think so - he's just breaking through. Promising talent by all accounts. Spurs, surely? Antonio 'the godfather' Conte vs David 'the ginger nut' Moyes?

Blackpool do have a young striker who recently came out as gay, becoming the UK's only male professional footballer to be publicly out at the time, and the first since Justin Fashanu in 1990.

Done!

Killie are back too...

I've got the fear. They're difficult fixtures. Away to them, Pittodrie, Tynecastle, Easter Rd, Livingston in the first round of fixtures. Then, of course, that gets repeated pre-split. Does that help us post-split? VAR gets introduced when we return from the World Cup break (17th Dec).

Is that not fake? There was a tweet from Romano (?) with this link that was fake.

I very much enjoyed that. I have never rated Southgate. I think they were lucky in the WC and even the Euros to a large extent by easy (home) draws. The only notable result was the win against Germany, but even then, Germany were not great at that stage. The only thing I can say for him is that he created a cohesive unit; it seemed like they were all together. His tactics are so poor. He reminds me of Scotland's Clarke: it's negative, defensive football, based on organisation. To be fair, it will get you so far, but then there are better teams that will show you up.

You can also look at it this way: we've shat it in the league, but still get a shot at the CL because of our good European performances.

Agreed, but I don't think it can be; he's too highly rated.

By all accounts, Archer is a highly talented young player. I don't really want us to be signing other teams' youngsters on loan, though.