Jourdan

Derby should have sacked Davies, but not for being an inappropriate manager for the PL, but because he was a sh*t-stirrer who only cared about himself.
I'd rather not be one of those clubs who sacks a manager who's brought them success simply because they think there are "better options out there" (see Birmingham City 2016-2024).

A new direction? ,,, the current direction is Up 
invest a chunk in getting rid of warne and his team and the rest on players to suit a new manager who if he doesn’t cut it we will be entrenched in how he wanted us to play,
polarising ? Liam was polarising , I personally didn’t enjoy his style and where I sit heard far more moaning and groaning during games than under warne 🤷🏻‍♂️

Thank Warne, give him a bonus, and give him a pay-off before a ball has been kicked? All based on a feeling? 
What sense would there be in that?
I don’t dispute we will be operating a bigger budget if we go up. However surely we will still need to spend and use our resources wisely? 
If we are looking to improve the squad and ensure we are competitive, surely every penny counts? Surely it would make more sense to invest everything we can in the team? Bear in mind, we’d not just be paying off Warne but also any staff that came in to be part of his team.
Why would you advocate for a change upon promotion? The only way it would make sense to me is if working relationships behind the scenes were irreparably damaged and there is no evidence of that, to my knowledge.
I don’t understand why you assume the style of play is destined to be terrible. Maybe I am wrong but I figure it will be determined by the players Warne and the club can attract. Surely Warne will be trying to get better players who can do what he wants more effectively. Perhaps these better players will be more well rounded and able to play in more than one way.
We have played good football at times under Warne and usually it has been built around the better players we have had. If we sign 3-4 players with the ability of a Bird or the flair and vision of a McGoldrick, why can’t we go up and play a brand of football that is pleasing to the manager and the fans?

Thank Warne, give him a bonus, and give him a pay-off before a ball has been kicked? All based on a feeling? 
What sense would there be in that?
I don’t dispute we will be operating a bigger budget if we go up. However surely we will still need to spend and use our resources wisely? 
If we are looking to improve the squad and ensure we are competitive, surely every penny counts? Surely it would make more sense to invest everything we can in the team? Bear in mind, we’d not just be paying off Warne but also any staff that came in to be part of his team.
Why would you advocate for a change upon promotion? The only way it would make sense to me is if working relationships behind the scenes were irreparably damaged and there is no evidence of that, to my knowledge.
I don’t understand why you assume the style of play is destined to be terrible. Maybe I am wrong but I figure it will be determined by the players Warne and the club can attract. Surely Warne will be trying to get better players who can do what he wants more effectively. Perhaps these better players will be more well rounded and able to play in more than one way.
We have played good football at times under Warne and usually it has been built around the better players we have had. If we sign 3-4 players with the ability of a Bird or the flair and vision of a McGoldrick, why can’t we go up and play a brand of football that is pleasing to the manager and the fans?

Thank Warne, give him a bonus, and give him a pay-off before a ball has been kicked? All based on a feeling? 
What sense would there be in that?
I don’t dispute we will be operating a bigger budget if we go up. However surely we will still need to spend and use our resources wisely? 
If we are looking to improve the squad and ensure we are competitive, surely every penny counts? Surely it would make more sense to invest everything we can in the team? Bear in mind, we’d not just be paying off Warne but also any staff that came in to be part of his team.
Why would you advocate for a change upon promotion? The only way it would make sense to me is if working relationships behind the scenes were irreparably damaged and there is no evidence of that, to my knowledge.
I don’t understand why you assume the style of play is destined to be terrible. Maybe I am wrong but I figure it will be determined by the players Warne and the club can attract. Surely Warne will be trying to get better players who can do what he wants more effectively. Perhaps these better players will be more well rounded and able to play in more than one way.
We have played good football at times under Warne and usually it has been built around the better players we have had. If we sign 3-4 players with the ability of a Bird or the flair and vision of a McGoldrick, why can’t we go up and play a brand of football that is pleasing to the manager and the fans?

But surely you need to meet the short term goals to be able to meet the longer term ones? 🤔

I'm assuming that you are expecting Clowes to fund this pay off of his employee that will have just met his goal?
Hopefully, Clowes will realise the money will be better spent on funding the squad for next season.

Highest number of points in a season for us,2nd as we stand with the highest goal difference....I'll take pragmatic over "playing nice stuff" to keep on winning....and he seems to know what he's doing,so I'll leave him to it 
 

True, maybe it was an inaccurate word for me to use 🤔 It was just my interpretation of some of the posts I’ve read of late (and most of the season) that seem keen to look beyond finding some joy in this present moment to offer concerns about the future. 

Warne's last relegation 'disaster' was with a Rotherham team with one of the lowest incomes in the Championship at the time, living on crowds of around 9,000. Further to this not only was money not given to him to strengthen the team, they actually made a profit on player sales of nearly £2m, which contributed to an overall profit of nearly £3m. This was after a promotion season when they again made a profit on player sales, nearly £1m on that occasion.
Warne hasn't had any financial backing from his club in the past and has been working under restrictions for the last 2 seasons at Derby. On the one hand, you can defend him by saying that he hasn't had any financial backing in the past, but on the other hand you can question his experience in actually spending money on players.
When comparing our spending potential next season, if we were to gain promotion, you need to consider what situation other 'non parachute payment' teams are in. Assuming that most of them have been loss making, they may be under pressure to balance the books, whereas we have a cleanish slate.
 

Sometimes a manager comes into a club and doesn’t like a player, or doesn’t play to their strengths, or the player themselves isn’t settled or quite right or ready for that league at that time or isn’t fit etc etc. Just because they didn’t play at their previous clubs doesn’t mean they can’t succeed for us, players progress and develop as much as decline and falter.
Catastrophising our prospects next season before we’ve even got the job done this season always seems odd to me. I recommend living in the moment and enjoying the ride of these last 2 games, then we can get on with worrying about what happens next 😁 

Have Liverpool won a game since you predicted they would win the treble?
And now as soon as you jump ship to Arsenal they blow it as well 😂
Let me guess, you predict Man City will win it now?
Please please please do us a favour and predict Bolton or Peterborough to go up in 2nd place 🙏 

*Lumps on City to win at Spurs

This aged well. 

Really interesting. Stevenage was the major low point of the season, the point where most of us thought we need a change of direction as otherwise we’re going to be stuck here for years. The response from the staff and the players has been immense and we’re now on the cusp of promotion. That to me says we have bottle, resilience and clearly a group of players who are playing for their manager, and/or have the self motivation to not accept our performances at that time being good enough and actually do something to change it.
Next season is next season. There will be a turnover of players we will have a bigger budget and I think next season will be the time we can truly say this is Warne’s team. He’s proven he’s the right man for now whether he’s the right man for the future jury is out.

Find it really strange that people try to predict what we will do next season without even knowing what personnel we will have.

I think the time to have this discussion is over the summer. The time to be worried is mid-August if we haven't bought anyone in.
Imagine what we would say about Forest Fans if they were in this position talking about next season.

What’s the qualifier for the phrase “blind-faithers”? What is served by making generalised comments about other members of the fan base?
Some people are able to take this season as it is, see we’ve won more than we’ve lost, scored lots of goals, conceded the equal lowest number of goals in the league and put ourselves within touching distance of automatic promotion, is their “blind faith” being repaid? People called for patience citing things like the need for the team to gel, Warne and his staff’s previous experience of promotion at this level being an advantage, the quality available in our squad telling in time…is that “blind faith”? 
Some people have concerns about what will happen next season, should they be labelled “wrist slashers” for thinking only the worst will happen? Or should it be acknowledged that there could be grounds for those concerns based on our inconsistency at times this season, the need for further recruitment, the manager’s previous record at the level above etc?
 
It’s all opinions, some of which have been proven correct some of which have been disproved so far this season. Generalising labels at any section of the fan base just seems unnecessary to me. 

I'm not so sure about that. The way most teams set up to play us, the midfield area tends to be compressed so that playing through the opposition requires near flawless 1/2 touch football and strikers with pace off the mark. I'm not convinced that we've had the right players to play that way, particularly with injuries to Bird, JJ and Gayle for long periods. If you've got any evidence to back up that claim, I'd be interested to see it.
I think it's more likely that if we'd not shown rare defensive flaws at key times in certain games (Wigan, Portsmouth, Charlton, Wycombe, Peterborough & Shrewsbury at home, Northampton, Cheltenham, Barnsley and Shrewsbury away, for example) and took even a small % of the great chances that we've missed, we'd be anything between 10 and 20 points better off, but that would be expecting L1 players to be as consistent as elite players.

Thought I would wait till Monday to post , let the trolling and the negative pushing die down,
It was a game I was nervy about given the importance and our lifelong propensity to shoot ourselves in the foot but warne picked a team he thought would win it including Bradley who let’s be honest was going to cause a bit of a scream up for some fans ,,,, hey presto , shock horror we came out ,showed no nerves and went at it and it felt comfortable apart from the start of the second half where we didn’t seem at it and it’s the kind of point where we lose a goal at 2 up and the jitters kick in but no we got the third eventually and a great day was had by all , especially when I saw the other scores , in the hunt for autos and thumped by 5 at home ,,,,, jeez ,
had a lovely day with my nephew who was waist height to me when I first took him to derby but now its reversed and I’m waist height to him 😂

There’s nothing to be fearful about in the Championship and I can’t believe this narrative is already being pushed.
The jump in quality really isn’t that significant, outside of the usual teams we see every year that are leaning on parachute payments to keep their squads together. Even then these teams are nothing close to infallible, especially in one off games.
A third of promoted teams from League 1 in the past five years have not only gone up and consolidated their position but they have competed at the right end of the Championship table, in some cases getting promoted or mightily close.
The teams that usually go up and find their way back to League 1 are the ones without the resources or infrastructure to hold their own.
We are only going to end up like Rotherham, Wycombe, Barnsley, Blackpool, Peterborough and others if we show a serious lack of ambition financially or there is a lack of synergy and effective strategy behind the scenes.
If Clowes, Pearce, Thomas, Hale and Warne are all working well and pulling in the same direction, why is it beyond us to build a competitive squad for the Championship, one that could finish 15-18th in year one, for instance?
No-one stands still and neither will we. Everyone resets. Teams get better. Teams get worse. Managers change. Managers improve. Managers decline.
There are so many variables at play, why would we be fearful now when we can work towards a stronger position over the summer? Such needless negativity when nothing is set in stone.
 

There’s nothing to be fearful about in the Championship and I can’t believe this narrative is already being pushed.
The jump in quality really isn’t that significant, outside of the usual teams we see every year that are leaning on parachute payments to keep their squads together. Even then these teams are nothing close to infallible, especially in one off games.
A third of promoted teams from League 1 in the past five years have not only gone up and consolidated their position but they have competed at the right end of the Championship table, in some cases getting promoted or mightily close.
The teams that usually go up and find their way back to League 1 are the ones without the resources or infrastructure to hold their own.
We are only going to end up like Rotherham, Wycombe, Barnsley, Blackpool, Peterborough and others if we show a serious lack of ambition financially or there is a lack of synergy and effective strategy behind the scenes.
If Clowes, Pearce, Thomas, Hale and Warne are all working well and pulling in the same direction, why is it beyond us to build a competitive squad for the Championship, one that could finish 15-18th in year one, for instance?
No-one stands still and neither will we. Everyone resets. Teams get better. Teams get worse. Managers change. Managers improve. Managers decline.
There are so many variables at play, why would we be fearful now when we can work towards a stronger position over the summer? Such needless negativity when nothing is set in stone.
 

There’s nothing to be fearful about in the Championship and I can’t believe this narrative is already being pushed.
The jump in quality really isn’t that significant, outside of the usual teams we see every year that are leaning on parachute payments to keep their squads together. Even then these teams are nothing close to infallible, especially in one off games.
A third of promoted teams from League 1 in the past five years have not only gone up and consolidated their position but they have competed at the right end of the Championship table, in some cases getting promoted or mightily close.
The teams that usually go up and find their way back to League 1 are the ones without the resources or infrastructure to hold their own.
We are only going to end up like Rotherham, Wycombe, Barnsley, Blackpool, Peterborough and others if we show a serious lack of ambition financially or there is a lack of synergy and effective strategy behind the scenes.
If Clowes, Pearce, Thomas, Hale and Warne are all working well and pulling in the same direction, why is it beyond us to build a competitive squad for the Championship, one that could finish 15-18th in year one, for instance?
No-one stands still and neither will we. Everyone resets. Teams get better. Teams get worse. Managers change. Managers improve. Managers decline.
There are so many variables at play, why would we be fearful now when we can work towards a stronger position over the summer? Such needless negativity when nothing is set in stone.
 

There’s nothing to be fearful about in the Championship and I can’t believe this narrative is already being pushed.
The jump in quality really isn’t that significant, outside of the usual teams we see every year that are leaning on parachute payments to keep their squads together. Even then these teams are nothing close to infallible, especially in one off games.
A third of promoted teams from League 1 in the past five years have not only gone up and consolidated their position but they have competed at the right end of the Championship table, in some cases getting promoted or mightily close.
The teams that usually go up and find their way back to League 1 are the ones without the resources or infrastructure to hold their own.
We are only going to end up like Rotherham, Wycombe, Barnsley, Blackpool, Peterborough and others if we show a serious lack of ambition financially or there is a lack of synergy and effective strategy behind the scenes.
If Clowes, Pearce, Thomas, Hale and Warne are all working well and pulling in the same direction, why is it beyond us to build a competitive squad for the Championship, one that could finish 15-18th in year one, for instance?
No-one stands still and neither will we. Everyone resets. Teams get better. Teams get worse. Managers change. Managers improve. Managers decline.
There are so many variables at play, why would we be fearful now when we can work towards a stronger position over the summer? Such needless negativity when nothing is set in stone.