Gabby'sThighs

Now that it’s near a done deal that Barnsley are staying down, I’d love any of Kane, Connel, Phillips or Williams from them. 

Their pitch invasion wasn't quite as good as ours, it has to be said
 

For the Danish league I looked at teams who win the ball high up and are slightly more direct to think of who Warne could be going to watch. Hvidovre and Viborg rank 4th and 5th in that metric and played eachother yesterday. I wonder if Warne and his staff were there to watch. 
 
A stand out player for me after looking at the squads is Anosike Ementa. He has 10 goals and 4 assists in 31 games this season. Hes 22 years old and stands at 6 foot 6. He has 2 years left on his contract but I don’t think would cost crazy money. 
 
He works very hard and to show that he beats Collins for both possession won in the final 3rd per 90 and interceptions per 90. 
He also has only missed 5 big chances all season which would tell me he’s decent at finishing aswell. His chance creation is also high for a striker. Cant see why Warne wouldn’t love him.
EDIT: After some more digging he’s linked to some Belgian clubs and can apparently leave for between 1 and 2 million and is actually listed at 6 foot 7 and a 1/2

Probably been mentioned but Stoke have released Tyresse Campbell

Paddy McNair available on a free.
29 years old, primarily a CB, but can also play RB, DM & CM. Might be too expensive wage wise, he’s played 200+ Championship games so that kind of experience is probably going to be quite sought after.

Why? 
 
He is a good player. Injuries meant he never got a clear run at it but I never saw anything to suggest he wasn’t up to it. He had one shakey moment in one of the earlier matches but since then every sub appearance he was solid. It was only the excellent form of Sibley keeping him out by the end. 
 
I certainly think the back 5 is the area we need to mess with least. The 6 in front need some real reinforcements.

"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.

I would agree with those who feel the majority of this squad needs to be retained into next season. The biggest mistake promoted teams can make is to destroy the fabric of the side that has achieved success - quality of course needs to be added but the DNA/character of the dressing room is not easily built, its that intangible that can drag out vital results & I feel will be necessary for a tough upcoming season. I also believe Warne will need a big squad to compete given the physical demands he places on players. With that in mind;
Release
Waghorn, Hourihane. I also would not offer John-Jules a contract
1 year deals
Forsyth, Korey Smith, Barkhuizen, Gayle, Collins
2 year deals
Wildsmith, Sibley, Thompson
I've noticed many would release Forsyth, Gayle & Smith but I would retain all 3. Firstly, Forsyth is an extremely useful utility player & makeshift CB - he is not easily replaced at all. I saw enough of Dwight Gayle to realise that he still retains plenty of quality & movement and the way he meshed with Mendez-Laing & Barkhuizen gave me confidence he could be a gamechanger still at Championship level. Given we're likely to be playing on the counter attack against better quality opposition, Gayle seems ideally suited to how we'd be looking to play. Lastly, we have a massive hole in midfield with Bird, Adams & likely Hourihane leaving - Korey Smith is a steady option to keep some continuity there, the lad can play & of course has significant Championship experience.
Keeping this squad would enable us to target resources at the 4/5 quality players we need to improve the overall standard of the first team without wasting time looking for squad depth because we'll already have it. Primary focus for me will be for first team starters down the spine of our team - in central midfield (enforcer & conductor), two centre forwards & one centre half. 
Evolution not revolution.

"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.

"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....🙄

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?

"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.

"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.

"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.

"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.

£30m or get lost
 
#bemoreB4

Wildsmith made a couple of big blunders this season but aside from that has been very good. I would retain him and work more on his distribution. Even if we happen to bring someone in better, he'd make a great 2nd choice if he still wants to stick around. 

I really don't get this thing with Wildsmith. He's not the perfect keeper by any means, but he has just kept 20 clean sheets in a season. Yes, a lot of that is down to the players in front of him, but he still made some very important saves to keep the score at nil. Many seem to remember more his mistakes rather than his saves. If we were looking to sign a keeper who had just kept 20 clean sheets in a season in the league below us then most people would be all over it.

Need to remember you have 9 subs, not 7 in the Championship,  so there should still be room in a 20 man matchday squad for the younger players, whilst keeping the good characters that will be able to so a job when required.
 
Also, can everyone mentioning Hourihane just stop, he said ages ago he was hanging his boots up for a coaching role at Villa, and even if he wasn't, he's become very much a bit part player in the last 10 games!

Some people will just have to learn to live with the disappointment of realising that they won't get everything they want. I don't think that, after what we've been through in the last 5 years, any fan should retain any illusion that we will be spending substantial fees on any players, unless we first raise the funds through transfers. I don't think the club should make any statement about what money is available either.

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..."

Release: Loach, Smith, Hourihane, Waghorn.
I am comfortable with keeping Smith in the squad for a year if that's the way we choose to go, but I do think we're in danger of letting recency bias override what was a pretty average season for him up the last 6 games or so.
Transfer list/available for loan: Elder, Fornah, Washington
Keep: the rest 

I've just been told by a Huddersfield fan that there was talk of Sorba Thomas joining us and agreeing to terms last week. Not one I believe and haven't seen a single person mention it elsewhere, but thought I'd note it here in case it happens and I get ITK credibility. 

I second that. Listened to it this morning and thought there was some good, honest discussion on the season and also what we might need and face as challenges moving forward. Some balance in their chat about what went well and what could/will need to be better.