Gabby'sThighs

Christian Walton GK Ipswich Harrison Burrows LB Peterborough Josh Knight CB Peterborough Nathaniel Chalobah DM WBA Joe Morrell? DM Portsmouth Jodi Jones RW Notts County (contract up June 2025) Chris Willock LW QPR Davis Keillor-Dunn AM Mansfield (contract up June 2025) Jonson Clarke-Harris - needs no intro Shorrock & Dipepa from Port Vale, good young attackers, bags of potential. Max Lowe, Jayden Bogle.............? There are tons of young Prem players due to be released, but I suspect Warne wants more experience for the first team. A big squad is vital, and the Championship bottom six teams are full of old duffers, if that's any indication of what we should be aiming for. Hourihane, Waghorn, Washington, Bradley, Elder out. Collins, Smith, Barks, and Fozzy I'm in two minds about. too much change can break up what's been built.

The sooner the European Super League happens, the better. Maybe we'd get a competitive league, and winning the FA Cup or League Cup might mean something. Or the value of the whole EFL would crumble without the 'Big Six'... Money ruins everything...I wish I had more of it.

What I like about the two penalties is Brown timed his runs well and stayed onside. Some players in the first team need some lessons from him... Also, he had the pace to get to the ball and the nous to take the contact and go down. Send him on loan to Notts County season to train with David McGoldrick!

Those ones with Joe Swash and the woman with the big teeth where they pretend to cook.

That's Peterborough out of contention then. All eyes on Bolton's midweek game, but they should beat Shrewsbury. Win at Cambridge, who are pretty much safe, and we could go up. Carlisle are down, so will Simmo give us an easy ride on the final day?

It's a tough one. The way I see it, I can only think of four or five games this season where we rolled over the opposition, and there have been plenty where we just haven't turned up, we've let crap teams back into the game, or we've just scraped a last-minute winner. Yes, Derby are second, but it doesn't really feel like the performances warrant being up there, just that we have better players than most other teams. You can certainly blame the players for individual poor choices and errors (Wildsmith's charging out, or CBT's terrible miss, for example) but there have been so many occasions where the line-up has been wrong, Hourihane & Bradley have been shoe-horned into the XI, players are out of position, we've been set up timidly against weak opposition, substitutions are bang-on one week then bizarre the next, we persisted with 2 CMs when it clearly wasn't working, youth players have been totally ignored, we've signed crocks, and some players (Collins, NML) have been run into the ground from lack of rotation. On top of that, the players are obviously being coached to pump cross after cross into the box, and it's a style of football which is dire to watch most of the time. However, I was recently reminded by a mate who is a Sunderland fan that they had 6 seasons in L1. Portsmouth have spent 11 seasons out of the Championship, Ipswich were down for 5(?) seasons and got pumped up by new investors, Bolton have been here since 2019/20. It could be worse, and League One is difficult to get out of. My hope is that we go up this season and PW gets the boot asap. (I realise this will sound stupid). He may well get us up but he is not the future. If we dip out of the autos, it won't feel like we've made any progress, especially with the huge rebuild and turnover of players needed, Knight & Bird leaving, Cashin possibly going, etc.

I think if we'd had Ebou, or someone like him, from day one, we'd be top. He's worth turning two draws into wins and two defeats into draws.

Last night was a crap performance, we had 3 good chances to score and didn't even get them on target. CBT's miss is truly painful to watch. Shout-out to Wildsmith though, a great save late on and a John Terry/Phil Jones-style floor header to finish. I thought we really missed Ward on the right. Wilson was only effective once Hourihane came on to pack the midfield. It's funny how many different players have been key at different points this season. I still don't get the doom and gloom though. We knew it was going to be a tough match and I wasn't expecting a win, tbh. Plus, both Bolton & Peterborough are in patchy form and have some tough games coming up. On Saturday, Peterborough have Oxford away, Bolton have Portsmouth at home, and both could easily drop points. Orient is a must-win, same as before.

You'd have to think a middle-tier Prem club would take him for nothing - Fulham, Brentford, Brighton, even West Ham. Palace would be daft to let him go really, cos they are rubbish. As an aside, that Daniel Jebbison mentioned on the list is a 20-year-old striker at Sheff Utd and happens to be from Derby. Well, born in Canada, moved to Derby as a boy. Someone page Paul Warne.

If the goal is just to avoid relegation, quite a few of the squad are good enough but I think a lot depends on good recruitment across the squad. Well effectively need a new midfield I think we'll have another mixed bag summer of free transfers as we just don't have the budget for big transfer fees. Wildsmith, Nyambe/Wilson/Ward, Cashin, Nelson, Forsyth/Elder/Sibley is a backline which could keep us up - we need another CB and LB/LWB though. We'll see if Forsyth stays, wouldn't surprise me if he did but impractical for him to be first choice. NML, CBT, Barks, are good enough. Gayle is good enough. Collins...he's been great this season but I don't know if his skill set will work in the Champ. Washington - I'm still in two minds about him, given how fractured a season he's had. We can reasonably assume Hourihane, Waghorn, and Smith will be off, we'll see about Gayle & Collins, Bird is gone, Ebou is almost certainly gone, Wildsmith may go, Bradley should be pushed out asap. Interestingly, I've just noticed this Insta post from Korey Smith on a channel called lifeafterfootballofficial...can't say I really understand Instagram though: https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterfootballofficial/p/C5YQeRMgBF6/?img_index=1

CBT's got more and more effective in the last few games, which is great to see. I think the wet surface held him back against Pompey, plus the crack fox incident. He stepped up when Nat had a quiet night. Great feet, good pace, and is willing to run at defenders, who didn't quite know what to do with him. Add some more tracking & closing down into that package, he could be a very good player for Derby. With NML, Ward, Wilson, and maybe Sibley and Barks next season, then we'll have multiple good options on the wings (depending on formation, obvs).

Wildsmith is 4th best goalie for the total number of clean sheets, 3rd for cleansheet % (amongst 1st choice 'keepers), and we have conceded the 3rd-fewest goals overall. The goalie's first job is to stop goals going in, and he is one of the best in the league at doing that. He will occasionally let in 30 yard screamers, yes.

Still convinced about 2nd place. The players will have had 8 days to rest & prep for post-FA Trophy final Wycombe on the 10th whereas Bolton have to win away to Bristol Rovers on the 6th, then beat Portsmouth on the 13th. That schedule difference is crucial right now. Two defeats and they're out of contention. Peterborough have 2 games to make up, plus the final. They're going to be knackered. We finish with Cambridge and Carlisle, the former may well be safe and have nothing to play for, the latter may have been relegated already. So many little things have fallen in our favour.

Good result, getting a draw at Fratton Park is excellent. It feels a bit like points dropped after going ahead twice but we just need to fend off Bolton, Peterborough, and Barnsley, at this stage. Four to go... COYR.