Gabby'sThighs

I did exactly the same last night and his stats are pretty bad. He's been dining out on those fruitful seasons with Aberdeen for a while now! He's best off staying in League One.

Aye, that money saved could be crucial come January. We need something in the tank in case of injuries.

Warne said in his end of season interview he was off to scout games in Denmark & Holland. Anyone know who he's after?

I feel bad for the fans but they'll be fine. The club have the resources to bounce back up. But their owners are clowns, so another relegation is not out of the question! Also, any decent Brum players we can get on the cheap??

"I'd release Smith, Wildsmith, Waghorn, Hourihane and Gayle." I'm being pedantic but, isn't releasing someone getting rid? I'm not against signing a better 'keeper, I guess I'm just a little irritated (I'm sleep-deprived) with a few vocal posters who have decided Wildsmith (L1 Golden Glove winner) is crap and are very sure that there are better options just waiting around to join Derby! Christian Walton or Marek Rodák could well be an upgrade, who knows. Neither of them played this season, and that's typical of the free agent goalkeepers. Do they even want to sign up? Is a new goalie a good use of limited resources? They'd certainly be good signings if Wildsmith decided to leave. It's just my opinion, but I think we should keep arguably one of our best 4-5 performers over the last 2 seasons.

Don't forget, he did a couple of bad kicks from hand against Cambridge, so we'd best get rid....🙄

Sums up my thoughts. He was good Feb-April (after Adams came in) but he'd been average-to-crap August to November, apart from his immense performance against Blackpool. This is just reminding me that Ebou made everyone else better..... "You're just too good to be true Can't take my eyes off Ebou..."

Elder isn't a bad fullback, but he's struggled with injury (out for 20 league games) and has limited ability as a wingback. Don't know if I'd count him as a 'miss' but definitely not a hit. Hopefully he has an injury-free run. Or, more hopefully, we can swap him for Harrison Burrows.

that's a shout. CM, bags of experience, 344 Championship appearances, captain at Preston. he could take the armband straight away...

There is a lot of dross, definitely, that's the nature of the free transfer market. I think there are plenty there who have done well enough, and players with 100-200 Championship appearances are probably going to be good enough to keep us up (as part of a decent squad). There are definitely some young gems in L1 & L2 but not many who'll come without a transfer fee. Randall & Aasgard are absolutely the type of player we should go for but I doubt we can afford them. Maybe we could get them later. Mark Harris has come up a lot but his stats aren't great. He scored 9 league goals in 3 Championship seasons 2020-2023, underwhelmed in L2 & NL, then got 13 league goals in 39 L1 games this season, plus we'd have to pay for him. At 25, he has potential.

Trawling through Transfermarkt has been my favourite past-time for the last few weeks! I know it's only been 2 days but I'm impatient already... Judging by past performance, I assume Derby's recruitment team have players lined up already, but we'll be waiting for promotions, relegations, play-offs, retention lists, and the slow grind of hundreds of negotiations before the deals start rolling in. Free Transfer Squad GK - Christian Walton/Cameron Dawson LB - Harrison Burrows/Max Lowe RB - Ben Johnson/Jayden Bogle CB - Josh Knight/Axel Tuanzebe/Paddy McNair (Nathaniel Phillips contracted until 2025 but could be got for nothing from Liverpool, I reckon) DM - Nathaniel Chalobah/Dominic Ball/Joe Morrell/Bosun Lawal (loan) CM/AM - Callum O'Hare/Gary Gardner/Stuart Armstrong/Herbie Kane/Josh Windass W - Tyrhys Dolan/Chris Willock FW - Jonson C-H/Daniel Jebbison/Devante Cole/Oli McBurnie/Danny Welbeck I'm also slightly obsessed by Josh Onomah not signing for anyone.....since last July....why?

I agree. his leadership & experience are vital for the scrap next season. he should get a one year deal if he wants it.

I'm sad to see Birdy go. Can't help thinking he's made a terrible decision to go to bloody Bristol City....

Currently on holiday in Pontrhdyfen, trying to work out where to watch the game. Do I risk a football pub in Neath or Port Talbot, or rely on the WiFi in our cottage? Christ, I'm nervous about the game...I need a walk and a pint. COYR!

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