DuncanRG

Would Long be his sort of signing?

It's the mark of great support that they pipe up when the going's tough. We don't have great support, but I can understand why not given how the last two seasons have panned out.

We have a better record for buying early than most teams. It’s frustrating in the meantime but that’s the truth.

He was comparing us to Liverpool, not the league in general.

One thing I’d like to commend him for saying is that it’s far too early to judge whether keeping Van Dijk was the right decision. We can see that it’s affected the first half of this season, but if it stops other clubs tapping up our players over the long term then that can be viewed as a success. Provided we don’t get relegated, of course!

Nothing too surprising in there. People will project their pre-existing attitudes onto what he’s said, and as someone who respects and trusts the board I think it was perfectly fine. I’m glad to have an explanation (if incomplete) for the mental frailty we’ve shown this season. That’s been the most worrying thing by far.

And the same applies to Gao

If he wants games in a World Cup year then we're as good an (English) option as any. Going from Liverpool to Everton is unlikely and after that we're much of a muchness, really. Doesn't really suit Leicester's style and probably wouldn't go in for Burnley's siege mentality. Maybe not long term, but what we need right now is cutting edge and quickly. My big fear is that he'd show up, score in the first few weeks, then get injured and put us back to square one.

John Cross (one of the best connected Arsenal journalists) has us going for Walcott in tomorrow's Mirror.

Oh it's fair enough, especially if we're looking to play three at the back more often, which a signing like Sessegnon would back up. I'm mostly surprised because we've opted to keep Gardos around and presumably see Bednarek getting into the squad at some point.

Sturridge, Sessegnon and Alfie Mawson on our list, according to Jeremy Wilson. Sessegnon would be a real coup. Genuinely surprised we're after another centre half.

Choosing Liverpool shows that he's interested in more than money, which I like. He's clearly excellent.

We do have Reed saying on the record that Pellegrino was hired to play exciting attacking football

Glad to get a good fee, get it early and especially glad to hear we’re reinvesting it all. We’ll see in time what impact the saga was having on team spirit.

He’s dropped off, just like everyone else. He showed he could lead when he played alongside Stephens last season, but the mistakes are coming out now.

He’s presided over a huge rise and then a decline.

Pellegrino said in the last press conference that he wanted to keep him.

Where did you see that?

Absolutely furious that our fans are booing him. Nasty and counterproductive for a player who lacks all sorts of things but not commitment. (Not that we should be booing *anyone* in a Saints shirt)

Is there any evidence of this?

I don’t think it’s helpful to treat racism as a binary, as if everything is either monstrous or absolutely fine. Many things are complex and feed into stereotypes (for example) but can’t be compared to bona fide racial abuse. We should question and criticise these things regardless, and not make excuses for them.

Haven't seen the film but Apu is quite clearly a racist caricature, regardless of who's playing him. As far as I'm concerned skin colour is a no-go area unless you're dressing as some fictional race, Avatar or whatever, but particularly blackface given it was used as a tool of racist oppression within living memory. I'm not sure that debate has changed much for decades. The thornier area is costumes, wearing native American headdresses and what have you. For me it largely depends on the importance of the symbol to the people who created it. I can see why marginalised people (like native Americans) don't want to be seen as quirky costume characters while their real lives are made worse through politics.

In the context of the article I think it means Guardiola's spoken to City executives, rather than them to us.

That’s exactly it, where you draw the line. The thing is there’s been a well defined line on blackface for decades. Cultural appropriation is a lot more nuanced and I don’t know how I feel about it.

It would be quite easy to put out a suitable statement without saying he was popular. It just happens to be true.