Jourdan

27 minutes ago, sage said:

I wonder what Mr Clough would say about that.

GK hasn't seemed like a high priority position this season, but they are far more likely to be tested next season.

It all depends on who we can get in. If we can get someone significantly better but they cost £6k more a week, then so be it. 

The same Clough who built his Derby side around a trusted core that progressed together and the same Clough who then took some of those same trusted players to Leeds and Forest?

I don’t dispute he will be tested more. You could make the same argument for the entire squad, mind you. Even our player of the year could be replaced by that logic.

The reality is that we need a starting point to build a competitive squad and logically our most consistent and best performing players - Wildsmith, Cashin, Nelson, NML, Collins - should (and hopefully will) be the foundations of that. Most promoted teams that do well have a high performing core group that they stick with and put their faith behind.

Warne would be brave, bordering on crazy, to deviate from that, especially given the importance he places on team chemistry, team spirit and the psychology of the group.

Do we really want to rip up the squad and have to wait weeks and months for it to gel? Surely we want to make important tweaks that give us a boost but maintain a sense of continuity?

Wildsmith is one to keep, in my opinion. Anything else would seem counter-intuitive.

He’s been part of a strong defence and kept twenty clean sheets. He’s been first choice for us for the past two years. He deserves a shot at being a Championship regular. Crucially too he won’t demand the same wages as keepers like Rodak and Ryan with higher level experience.

OK, yes, upgrade on players when you can. But in our position we’ll need to prioritise where money is spent and goalkeeper would not be a top priority.

Surely if we can extend Wildsmith’s deal and spend funds elsewhere, it makes the most sense?

I don’t think we have to be ruthless. We have to be sensible and strike a balance.

At the end of the day, Warne’s success has been achieved through good man management and building a good club culture.

If we decide to be ‘ruthless’ we’ll be left with almost no-one and having to rebuild the team from scratch as well as the good atmosphere in the dressing room and good team spirit and understanding amongst the players.

That shouldn’t be underestimated. Warne won’t want a team of strangers lining up together on the opening day.

Just now, NottsRam77 said:

People will get bogged down with individuals, when we have to think about the team as a whole.

We don’t necessarily need 11 outstanding individuals to prosper, but we do need individuals that complement the players around them and make the sum of the parts that much better.

As mentioned before, look at the current Ipswich squad. On an individual basis, very few of them if any would have been considered a top Championship player last summer and probably still aren’t now.

However with good coaching and man-management, as a unit, they look fantastic and have carried confidence and momentum through into this season and they are very much deserving of their place in the promotion picture.

The beauty of next season is everyone starts on zero and if we start our preparations today, we have a head start on over a third of the division.

Guys, concentrate on the play-off push.

Who cares who was right and who was wrong?

Clowes is a smart businessperson. A new deal will come but only when Warne has exceeded expectations. Say it’s this time next year and we are comfortably safe.

Warne has two years to run on his current deal, so surely you just let things play out.

Dealing with the manager’s future would be a needless distraction at this point. It should be a case of all eyes and all minds on building the best possible playing squad we can.

Just now, ram59 said:

Can we afford Haaland though?🙄

Who mentioned Haaland? Who mentioned spending millions?

We could look overseas, we could use the PL loan market, we could pick up some free transfers that complement the existing players in the squad.

Never say never.

4 minutes ago, DRBee said:

that is setting Warne up for a fall. With the right recruitment it may be that we are midtable at best, given the limitations on funding ( due to the need not to do a Mel Morris) . 

It’s only my personal opinion that the potential is there for us to surprise.

I am not saying this should be the expectation. I think almost everyone will accept 12th-21st as a landing point.

However the Championship is a very unusual league and there is always scope for one team to catch fire and surprise everyone, even teams with modest budgets have done so out of nowhere in the past.

Why can’t it be us?

If we get recruitment right, Warne will take us into the play-offs next season.

Let’s see where each win takes us.

We’ll have enough pundits and experts consigning us to relegation as it is.

The Championship is always very difficult to predict and always full of surprises.

If Warne, Thomas, Hale and the backroom staff work well together and have a productive summer, we could be the surprise package, carry momentum from this season into next, and get into the play-offs.

The first signing will set the tone.

If we go up, surely recruitment would have to be considered a success as we will have completed a key objective? Being overly critical of recruitment seems harsh when no club gets every move right.

Warne, Thomas and the club have made mistakes, there’s no denying that. The signings of John Jules and Embleton were always a huge risk and never looked likely to pay off, for example.

But on the whole, they have got plenty right. Adams, Wilson and Nelson have become important first team players and each of them is playing a key role in a promotion push. Gayle and Nyambe have shown their class and surely would have contributed more if not for injuries.

Even signings that have clearly not lived up to expectations have still contributed across the season to a winning team. Ward, Bradley, Waghorn, Washington and Elder have all played a role and contributed to the team earning important results at one time or another.

There are even signings that have disappointed so far - CBT and Fornah - who may benefit from a clean slate in pre season with the hope of there being more to come.

I think League 1 will be a difficult market for us to shop in.

There are players impressing in this league currently (such as Maghoma at Bolton and Dembélé at Blackpool) who are only on loan and we’ll be competing with other Championship clubs for further loan moves if they become available. 

Then there are players at clubs who have been competing for promotion, players who have established themselves as top players at League 1 level but not yet proven themselves in the Championship.

Brannagan is one name that has cropped up a lot. If we were interested in such a player, surely Oxford would want serious money for him? £1 million, maybe more? Can we afford that?

Azeez is another one. He’s seemingly out of contract in the summer with Reading. But how much compensation would that require?

I think we will have to get creative.

As previously said, the midfield will need rebuilding as a priority.

It’ll be interesting to see how we approach it. Will we offer Smith a new deal given recent form? Will we offer new deals to Sibley, Thompson and Robinson? Will we integrate Allen and Fapetu into the first team? Will we have significant funds to invest?

Until we know that, it’s hard to know what steps we will take and what’s achievable.

However it wouldn’t surprise me to see us push for Adams on a permanent deal and sign someone such as Matthew James or Romaine Sawyers on a free to give us some control and balance in midfield.

Derby 2-1 Carlisle

NML

I can’t believe ‘the best footballing side in the division’ have rested 6-7 players and effectively given up on automatic promotion when it’s still a mathematical possibility.

Saturday can’t come soon enough. I am driving my wife crazy…

Me: I have something to tell you.

Wife: What is it?

Me: It’s important. It’s big. It’s life changing.

Wife: Tell me.

Me: Promise me you won’t be angry or upset.

Wife: OK. Tell me.

Me: Are you sure?

Wife: You’ve lost your job?

Me: No.

Wife: You want a divorce?

Me: No.

Wife: You’ve been having an affair?

Me: No.

Wife: Well, what is it?

Me: RAMS ARE GOING UP, OLE OLE! 🎵

😂

Wildsmith

Wilson - Nelson - Cashin - Sibley

Adams - Bird - Smith

NML - Collins - CBT

All set here in sunny Cornwall, ready for some Sonny Bradley heroics.

4 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

Parading a promotion trophy sounds like the basis for a lot of p*ss-taking...

It could be a good warm up for the following year when Warne masterminds promotion to the PL.

2 hours ago, Mucker1884 said:

1.  Ain't nobody gonna be returning to their seats in time for a well spectated lap of honour.
2.  Ain't nobody gonna be seeing any form of a trophy being lifted at Pride Park Stadium within the next 12 months at the very least... unless we get our hands back on the BCT next season!

Why not? The club has a loud enough PA system to get messages across to the fans. Also the LED boards…

Teams who finish second in League 1 get a ‘promotion trophy’.

2 minutes ago, Carnero said:

Personally I think a pitch invasion for reclaiming our normal place in the Championship would be a bit tinpot.

Letting the players celebrate together and then having a lap of honour is a far classier move than invading the pitch and swarming the players, including opposition players who are left in a pretty vulnerable position in the majority of these over-glorified pitch invasions.

The club just have to be prepared for it and allow it in a controlled way.

I think it’s fine to let the fans invade the pitch and soak in the moment, before returning to their seats so the players can do their lap of honour and celebrate and lift the trophy with fans who have stayed behind.

The club should just encourage fans to do it in a respectful way, being respectful to players, coaches, officials, and visiting fans.

To warn people of criminal proceedings strikes me as mean-spirited.

The fans have been on the PP pitch before. Southampton and Brighton at home in the play-offs, and during the victory parade after Wembley in 2007, for instance.

If it’s done in the right spirit, it’s a natural way to celebrate and release those emotions.

I don’t think there’ll be a pitch invasion at Cambridge.

You can imagine though that there will be some kind of overspill if we score, especially in front of our own fans. Similar to the scenes at Port Vale.

If we go into the Carlisle game needing a result and we get one, I am 99% sure there will be a pitch invasion. 

Is it the right thing to do? Personally I think it depends on how you behave yourself. If people do it respectfully, I think it can be a joyous moment and let’s face it, these moments are few and far between.

I certainly fondly remember dancing on the pitch in the rain after Southampton at home in the play-offs singing Que Sera Que Sera.

1 hour ago, Foreveram said:

As of this morning Cambridge only had 360 tickets left, all in the South Habbin stand next to us.

Obviously don’t want to be out sung.😀

They should have given us a bigger allocation really.

Cambridge 1-1 Derby

Mendez Laing