hypochondriac

Plus it's a right back. Even someone vaguely competent who can attack a bit is going to be better than Sugawara and Bree and it's not like it's the most important position on the pitch. This guy has quite a bit of Prem experience and championship experience!

Not a chance Stephens isn't starting.

Genuinely at a bit of a loss as to why someone would consider this a poor signing.

What sort of signing would you call it then? The reason Brentford were prepared to let him go is the same reason that man city were prepared to let THB go or West ham were prepared to let Downes go - because they are established Premier league teams and are thus much better than us and have established Premier league players in most positions.

Anyone know roughly how much we paid for this signing?

Let's agree to disagree. I already said we can quibble over the extent of it.

I'm not sure anyone has argued that there are not other factors at play.

Pretty rich given that you frequently fail to answer questions posed to you on a number of threads.

National insurance and minimum wage increases have undoubtedly pushed up food price inflation. The retail industry has highlighted the fact that tighter business costs have been passed onto consumers particularly on groceries. The rise in real wages and investment in public services are politically popular but contribute to this so called sticky inflation - particularly in services. Labour-market reforms aren't the sole driver of inflation but their impact on cost-push pressures are clear and has contributed to the inflationary rise. Clearly.

Supposedly fiscal policy has had no clear impact on the divergence.

The media team are milking this one and it's pretty funny I have to say. Fair play for keeping it under the radar.

I disagree that fiscal policy doesn't have a clear impact on levels of inflation much higher than comparable neighbours. We can quibble over what extent it's had an impact but it clearly has had one.

I never said that fiscal policies were the sole cause of the difference but it clearly had an impact.

Great news.

Why unnecessary? If we fail to go up we have a really decent championship right back for a number of years. If we do go up we have reasonable prem backup. It's not like he's 32.

If we've got money and wages to spend who wants to spaff it all on a right back? Keep our powder dry for a couple of top signings at the other end of the pitch. Solid and unspectacular is exactly what we need in this league for the rb position.

He's not good enough for an established Premier league side who finished mid table last season. Even if we got promoted that wouldn't be where we were aiming anyway. What player were you thinking we would get? I would say a player with many Premier league games under his belt who has played a substantial amount of games for a Premier league mid table side is about the best we could get at the moment.

The only issues I had with Stephens and his contract was that he was old and already proven not to be good enough in the prem. Neither of these things apply to this signing.

He played 20 times for them the season they finished 9th in the prem.

Why? Sounds like a really decent championship signing and only 26. If we get promotion I'd presume he becomes backup which is a role he's done successfully for Brentford as they survived in the prem. I can't see what there is not to like.

Or Fraser.

Based on what? Who were you expecting us to sign?

How many games did Bree play successfully in the premier league?

Is your position that the government's financial policies have no impact on inflation being more than double that of our European neighbours?

Brentford fans on their forum seem to think he is good enough for the prem (not a surprise given he's played there over 100 times) and originally thought he would sign for one of the newly promoted teams.