Banksy

The FA Youth Cup third round tie against Man Utd is provisionally arranged to be played at Old Trafford on Tuesday 19th December.

Phew......Derby win 10-9 on penalties. Thank goodness.

Full time. Gone to penalties.

1-1 latest score. Staveley's goal from a free kick: COYR we can beat these...they're from Step 6.

Minutes too for Banks with Oguntulu and Eames on the bench. They only got minutes as subs the Youth Cup game at Bolton.

Good to see them giving Evans some minutes after three games sitting on the bench at Barwell.

I agree with that. I think the same about Jack Thompson too. Did you miss him out or does it not apply to him?

Neither do I with the exception of Brown and Weston. I just couldn't take seriously your expectations of some of the others.

I know that Matt Hamshaw and Andy Warrington were taking a direct interest before this to be fair. Back in October the academy coaches had considered putting Jack Thompson into the U21 side. Discussions surrounded as to whether or not he was ready to step up at 16. Hamshaw and Warrington watched him in the U18 team and said they wanted to see him in the U21s because they thought he was ready and so he was put in. A friend of mine watched the game on the TV stream last night and he says that Bradley Johnson commented that having Thompson in goal is almost like having an extra defender because he is so good with the ball at his feet and the defence use him in passing out from the back. In fairness to Warne and his staff this is the first time they have been at a club with an academy. Using the available resources at the right time may be a learning curve for them. The interviews I have seen with Matt Hale, Craig Fleming, Bucko and Danny Maye are very encouraging for me and I think we may be seeing positive signs of a closer bonding between the first team and academy coaches. I hope so because it can only be for the greater good of the club.

David Clowes and the first-team coaches sat together near to where I was sitting. They also attended the previous tie at Mansfield. Matt Hamshaw and Andy Warrington watched the last 70 minutes of the U21 game against Arsenal on Friday. It's a very recent phenomenon and good to see. None of them joined Nigel Clough on the bench at the U21 game at Mansfield early in the month. Maybe it's not just a coincidence that this has come about since @Ghost of Clough and @Bald Eagle's Barmy Army raised their concerns. I hope so because it's very positive to think that those running the club will take notice of what they see as valid fan opinions.

I was bored to tears last week with the lack of football to watch and except for the two England games there was hardly anything of much interest on TV. Now, I've been to the game yesterday, I'm going to the Youth Cup game at Bolton tomorrow and then Port Vale on Tuesday. My wife asked me if I've got a day off this week and I had a slip of the tongue and said Wednesday . I've just realised the U21 have a Derbyshire Cup game on Wednesday at Staveley MW.....Oops. That one is going to have to hit my pocket....... quick trip to the florists for a bouquet in the morning and that should fix it. She loves her flowers as much as I love the Rams and my wife of course. I think the job's a good 'un. 😉😂🐏🐏.

No clubs publicise internal discussions. Why should they? It's where issues get thrashed out. This is a rebuild of the whole club and a work in progress. It's the end product that matters. If anyone involved can't buy into it, there's always someone waiting in the wings. The head coach is directly accountable to the owner, not the fans. Thank goodness.

Not worrying about this. It's almost the identical story to when Jack Thompson was offered his contract. Then it was Chelsea, City and Spurs; always top six clubs that are suddenly interested. Agents feeding desperate journalists a story knowing they'll print it and it gives publicity for the client. I think the need for a pathway is recognised within the club and it will be defined. That's how Hale worked at Southampton. He and Fleming and the other academy coaches have not come here to be messed about. The academy as a resource is vital to the club and we simply have to make best use of it. I'm sure Warne will come to realise that very soon if he doesn't already.

I can't be getting too excited or worried about this speculation. This is not the first time we've been here with newspaper gossip about top six clubs coming after our youngsters as soon as the club has offered them a professional contract in the past couple of years when it's turned out to be nothing more than their agent feeding journalists bogus information merely for publicity purposes.; it's always the very biggest clubs mentioned, not Brighton, Southampton, Villa, Leicester etc. I don't know if that is the case with Allen and Nixon but few of us would pay Nicko for information and it has exactly the same whiff of what went before.

Danny Maye's preview of the 2nd round FA Youth Cup tie away to Bolton Wanderers at the Toughsheet Community Stadium tomorrow night. https://fb.watch/oz9FjLssut/ Let's hope it's Toughsheet for the Trotters and not the Young Rams 🐏🐏🐏.

Derby have already offered him a professional contract for when he turns 17 which means that if a club comes in now then we can demand a transfer fee.

The City Council brought this to an end when they lost contact with Rooney when he moved back to the USA. What relevance does it have for us now? Do you not think we have much bigger issues to address here and now in Derby? Rooney is history for us. Most of us are very much focused on our current head coach for one reason or another. Leave the Birmingham fans to fret about Rooney for as long as he remains there and let us concentrate on Derby County matters.

Lost 1-2. Arsenal hit winner in 90+2. Deflected shot from inside penalty area.

I do not believe that Warne is deliberately and wantonly defying the owner at all. I posted yesterday that I think that Warne is proving to be a one-tricky pony who knows only one way of playing and with those methods he achieved promotion three times with Rotherham (followed notably by two relegations from the Championship). He has not previously managed a club with a Category One academy where the EPPP programme is adopted and the first team play a style of football in line with that taught in the academy. Derby still adopt EPPP as do all PL2 academy teams. We now are the only PL2 club whose first team does not play a style which reflects EPPP; that causes a problem for academy players stepping up and we are failing those youngsters in who we have invested so much. I think simply that Warne's methods are extremely limited and he knows no other way, which makes him a poor fit for Derby County. It's not his fault, he simply knows no better. The academy coaches are good but Warne is not the right coach to further the development of the academy graduates. Other clubs have appointed younger coaches with long experience of academy coaching as head coaches and they are way ahead of Warne; Kieran McKenna has been at Ipswich less than two years and has turned them around from mid-table in Division One to a side on the brink realistically of promotion to the Premier League. There are many other similar examples of coaches outperforming Warne. If you doubt that the rebuilding of the academy was part of David Clowes' intentions and he might not have told that to Paul Warne I simply cannot help you and you will have to take that up with the owner. I find him candid and honest about what he has said about his intentions for the club. Are you confusing him with his predecessor ? I hope not. I have not been privy to any of his conversations. I simply trust his public statements backed by the clear support and investment in the academy. I don't get the misunderstanding about the competitive budget which David Clowes said we had. Is it not competitive? Paul Warne said he had chosen to spend not on transfer fees but on wages which allowed him to bring in more players. I don't find that confusing; it was Paul Warne's choice on he spent the competitive budget. Yes, with what I have witnessed in the past year, I now think that Liam Rosenior would have been the logical appointment. For all I know, the owner may or may not be thinking the same thing. Hindsight is a benefit available to none of us at he time of making crucial decisions. I don't do guessing so I can't help you there. I don't know how much academy football you watch. I have been watching it for eight years whenever the first team aren't playing. This is the first time I have been worried that we are not making the best use of the potential resources. I know that other regular academy attendees who post on here and others who follow it on Rams TV, share the same concerns.

I think you wholly misunderstand David Clowes' position in this. Of course, like all of us he wants promotion, but when he appointed Warne he clearly said that it was a part of a rebuild of the whole club and instant promotion was not an unequivocal condition of the appointment. But he was clear that the academy was vital in the rebuild and he has backed that up with the quality of staff brought in to run it at no small cost. What is being questioned here is Warne's commitment or ability to integrate the academy with the first team; 12 months down the line I think we are the only PL2 club whose first team does not reflect the style of play used in the academy. The owner is a proven businessman and a fan. I would be amazed if he does not share some of the concerns being expressed on here about how the first team can be best served by the academy. I'm sure he will be asking the question as to whether the problem can be rectified with the current management in place or not. Okay, Warne was his choice but if he comes to the conclusion it was the wrong choice I don't think he will be able to afford to let it continue. At some time he will have to decide whether or not to continue the project in its current form or to make a change. I went to Mansfield to see the Youth Cup tie and I was delighted to see the owner with the first-team coaches together watching an academy side because I had not seen that before. I wonder if it had anything to do with their discussions during the Sunday morning meeting after the Stevenage defeat?

The whole post is excellent and I agree with all you say.

Their paths crossed again in Jake's second game for Derby at Don Valley Stadium when Rotherham of Division Two beat us 2-1 in the first round of the League Cup. Rotherham considered it a giant killing because the previous season we'd beaten Man U at home 1-0 and lost the 2nd leg 2-4 in the semi-final of that competition. Warne equalised and then laid on the winner as we watched from the stands which seemed miles from the pitch. But as we know Jake went on to score the famous injury time winner against Forest at Pride Park in the game where Shaun Barker sustained his shocking knee injury. By doing that Bucko instantly became a cult figure here, giving rise to the football genius chant. I think we can safely say now that Paul Warne will not rise to that status at Derby!

Bucko comes across really well on the interview I think. Full of passion, realism, common sense and knowledge. He proved as a player that he had the character and grit to make the maximum use of his own abilities and he probably reached the maximum potential he could possibly achieve before he retired. I think our young players are in good hands while he is around. He seems to have a patriarchal air about him and seems set on bringing those he thinks are ready to the attention of the head coach. I hope Warne knows that he's dealing with a no-nonsense football genius 😆. COYR.

The benefit of hindsight would make everyone of us on this planet much the wiser and the world would be so much a better place. What David Clowes has done for Derby County could not have been bettered by any living man born in this county. The debt we owe him can never be repaid. This column was not available 15 months ago. It was only published yesterday.

Your thoughts align very much with my own which have developed since Warne joined us. I recognise why Warne was chosen; because of his recent successes in gaining promotion from this division. But over the last 12 months I have become increasingly concerned as to whether he will be able to repeat that feat here and now because of how the modern methods have found their way down to Division One and have overtaken his previously tried and trusted methods. Warne has never accumulated in a single season the number of points attained by the three clubs promoted last season; 92 points may well have seen us not promoted last May. He was outstripped by the younger and emerging McKenna and Schumacher at Ipswich and Plymouth in particular. So far this season the same might be said about John Moussinho at Portsmouth and Liam Manning at Oxford (now replaced by Des Buckingham). All four represent the trend in moving to younger coaches rather than those with an previously established reputation. They seem to be breaking the mould of long ball being best to reach the Championship. Warne, by contrast, seems to be a one-trick-pony who knows no other way than what he’s tried before and seems to have little idea of how to change what is not currently going to plan. That brings me to the longer term strategic plan for the club with the rebuild of both the academy and the first team, which presently seems to be going in polar opposite directions. The senior team are stuck with Warne’s style while the academy teams continue to follow the style of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) encompassing a possession and passing game. For me the latter is essential if we are to retain our Category One Academy status because Warne’s methods would simply bring about catastrophe in PL2. The academy managers and coaches recruited for the rebuild seem to have been recruited for their experience and adherence to EPPP in bringing through young professionals to the first-team as has been done here before. It must be remembered that when they reach that stage, their development is still continuing; it is not suddenly complete. But when they get there they have to dismiss much of what they have been taught to fit in with what Paul Warne wants. It must be confusing, even wasteful, for them I feel and I wonder if it is an underlying reason for why Bird, Sibley and Knight have perhaps not performed at the level we came to hope and even expect from them earlier in their careers? Having said all of that, I am now thinking that unfortunately Paul Warne represents a square peg in a round hole at Derby County and he alone does not fit into the overall plan. I am doubtful about his willingness or ability to change. When the first team are not playing I watch the academy sides and my thoughts have become more entrenched since the start of the season. But at the end of the day, I’m not a professional coach but just a mere fan. That, like I expect with many supporters, always leaves room for self-doubt about the strength of our own opinions. However, yesterday when reading the EFL paper, I was warmed to come across an article about the new breed of coaches which is a topic that has recently been mentioned several times on here. In much more depth it addressed the subject under discussion. I have done my best to scan the double-page spread in three sections for anyone interested in reading it.