James

If by very limited you mean 8 years as a doctor at an elite level football club and previously working for the FA, yes very limited football experience. Obviously that is still quite a small period of time in the career of a doctor but to say he is very inexperienced in football is wrong. The club also works very closely with the Nuffield (where Dr. Catterson is also a consultant) so they won't be short on second or third opinions if required. Clearly I don't have the scientific data or knowledge of the medical conditions but as an outsider looking it it looks very bad. Firstly there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of footballers doing in their ACL after coming back from a foot injury. Crumpy gave one example. Then Aarons on return from a foot injury does his ACL, as an outsider with that anecdotal knowledge it looks like he was signed off when he wasn't ready and if that was the case that is a serious error. Take a step back and think about the long term effects for a sec. Aarons career is now on a knifes edge. We may have to spend millions on a winger, and if Aarons never fully recovers it will again cost us millions on lost potential. It was therefore an error that was extremely bad for this football club. We may be an elite club but we have had a tin pot back room for years. This is not an environment to develop good experience he may as well only have one years experience. Work for England youth does not count as the role does not require managing the players over a fifty game season. Nuffield can not offer that either. I'm not saying we bin Catterson but we can't rely on someone like that to work on their own and do a great job. We need a doctor with a good track record and 15-20 years of experience working in professional contact sport.

How do you define 'very limited'? He's been here for nearly 8 years and according to his website which doesn't suggest 'very limited' experience in football. With exception to working with us, none of those roles consist of managing a large group of players over a 50-game season. Our medical department has been so poorly run for eight years that I do not count this as good experience either. We need someone else who can offer a lot more thorough experience in working in the kind of setup Rafa prefers and then eventually by working with this new doctor over a period of time he will have the experience to lead. Anyway the stakes of the sport are to high to rely on the word of one doctor, we need two.

As I said a few posts up I've seen ACL's follow a fair few foot injuries with footballers in the past I suppose if you can't twist or flex a foot then the knees are going to do a fair amount of the twisting and take the strain. Obviously I don't have the data in front of me but questions need to be asked on whether Aarons was truly ready to return to training. Whilst Rafa has put much more faith and responsibility in Dr Paul Catterson his experience in football is very limited and if we could bring in a second more experienced doctor to work alongside him and give a second opinion I think it would be highly preferable.

Then see in the 45 mins if it is worth keeping him on for 90. Because a football manager knows more than a doctor.

Seen it a few times when people have done in their ACL when about to recover from foot injuries. Injury after injury takes its toll and the ACL is the killer. Given his position, attributes and standing within the game the impacts of an ACL means his career is on a knifes edge.

Would be a damn site better than Mitro and Gayle in the prem This. People are delusional and way overhyping our players if they think mitrovic Perez and gayle are enough for the premiership. We seen last season they are not and whilst I like gayle what's to say he would dare any better in the premiership than any of the other championship top scorers who struggled in the premiership Gayle has a very competent goal per game record in the PL and yet was simply ignored by Pardew. He will be absolutely fine when called upon. Although if we found an even better striker I wouldn't complain but I think at least for the next 2.5 years at least Gayle will be very important. Mitrovic and Perez are very young and lacked a lot of confidence last time. I've noticed Mitrovic has a real Spring now and this could be the season he needs to come back to the Premier League much better than before - and he wasn't as bad last time as some make out.

I've never got the hatred for the 17 mins applause. Two fans who never missed a game dying in the attempt to see a friendly on the other side of the world. It is an applause that encapsulates the relationship between this club and its fans and should live on for the rest of time. Also nothing wrong with the Speed applause this weekend, first time his two most prominent clubs play each other since his death, fittingly at almost the 5 year anniversary.

I'd be very surprised but also very pleased were we to sign Sturridge next season. Whilst we are rebuilding we are not in any sort of position to sign that perfect player. I would trust Rafa and his coaches To use their existing injury management policies to get the most games possible out of Sturridge, plus Gayle and Mitrovic will make excellent alternatives for any PL club aspiring for top 8 which I think is where we are headed next two seasons.

Also right now it looks likely we will get promoted with a good buffer. In that basis there is no point signing someone who will retire at the end of the season when we have half a year for Rafa to use match experience to get other players up to PL speed. It won't happen.

With Liverpool having a genuine shot at the league he will probably spend the whole of January in his car parked outside Anfield just in case. Then sign for West Brom on 1 Feb.

2-0 Belgium

5 down, 5 to go... 9 down, 1 to go. Belgium fucking better beat Estonia!

5 down, 5 to go...

Have 70 quid from last week's winnings on a10-fold this weekend at 4/1 as a lot of David vs Goliath internationals. Probably the three riskiest games were today, France N.Ireland Slovenia all got through unscathed. The rest of the games are really small odds, the highest is Netherlands away at Luxembourg at 1/7

Was appointed as Swindon Director of Football yesterday

Me, I hope!

Guilty....work plus pregnant wife equals almost no spare time

Has anything been identified yet on how this has come about seven whole weeks after the event? I'm wondering if Lambert has anything to do with it (spotting it watching back old tapes of their season so far)

Presumably a Muslim or Arabic related slur rather than Morrocon specifically.

Got many replies? None. But I like to imagine Freddy Shepherd reading them and saying 'who the fuck is ibrahima bakayoko?'

Before forums existed but after the NUFC website was set up their used to be a contact us formso when I was 12 I would be sending the club suggestions on who they should sign or who should play the next match every day.

How much did we get for Luque, Emre and Solano?

You have got to love the Freddy Shepherd days where we all had the optimism to create itemised and fully priced out shopping lists.

You are asking for a lot to be honest!

In 10-15 years when Rafa retires as our most successful PL manager, I would like him to be replaced by Klopp.