NottsRam77

Not a lot 
we don’t have a physical presence that can make it stick
rooney isn’t fit enough for 45 minutes leading effectively by himself never mind 90 
and we have no quarter back who can ping it aka the Thorne roll, u could argue perhaps bielik but .. he ain’t no Thorne 
so that’s plan A out of the window 
I don’t remember him having a plan B 
 

Having checked the Championship league table Serdar Dursun reflects on just missing out on a move to Derby County......

Proofs in the pudding for them as much as us
I expect them to progress well now though,I really do.

Just weird imo. He's a nice guy and all and a hard worker, but he's won an award on the back of scoring a couple of goals against us in a humiliating defeat, and there's a whole thread congratulating him.
In about 30% of the games he played for us he was terrible, another 30% considerably average, 25% good, 15% quite impressive.
That wasn't just because he was played in DM or on the 'wing' (which was not out of position, it's essentially where he played for Norwich when he scored 15 goals) 
His biggest problem wasn't the position he was played, it was his dearth of footballing intelligence. He was, for us, a player who didn't understand his own limitations.
He constantly tried to do things above his level of ability which usually lead to him losing the ball in stupid areas.
Once in a blue moon he'd play a defence splitting pass or something, but that's like pointing out all the times Conor Sammon showed exquisite control - it did actually happen now and then but it was a shock whenever it did rather than an expectation.
Most of the time though he'd play a really stupid pass with hardly any chance of success instead of taking the sensible option.
He often got closed down on the ball and lost it, a lot, not because there were no passes on but because you could see the cogs in his brain ticking slowly along while he dallied on the ball unaware big players around him. Like recent Rooney performances except in reverse, Rooney's body let's him down, Johnson's brain let's him down.
He also cost us plenty of goals by not following his runner at corners, similar to Hendrick in that regard.
Yes he had a bit of a rennaisance under Lampard, largely because he was the only midfielder we had with an ounce of physical presence, but as per the start of this post, for large swathes of his time here he was crap. Nothing to do with the price tag either.
There was genuinely a point where I was sick of the sight of him. I had warmed to him a bit by the end, but it doesn't overwrite all the memories of him being a liability.
A couple of long rangers, in masses of space, against us, and suddenly he's being bigged up as twice the player he is.

So is pretty much every club in the championship lol ... that’s why we’re all here?

So is pretty much every club in the championship lol ... that’s why we’re all here?

It's no different than allowing an owner to inject as much cash as they want

You'd have thought so, but Watford have been doing it even longer (with Udinese), and they still haven't done anything about it

Definitely time to alert Steve Gibson, the Championship's resident FFP vigilante to such obviously dodgy 'workarounds'. Fire up the 'Gibson signal'.........

Forest's foreign players + Nigel Clough = marriage made in heaven 

This is literally the same conversation my best mate had with a bouncer in a club in Bromley in 1997, which went something like this...
Bouncer 'How old are you?'
My mate '25'
Bouncer ' Sorry you can't come in, it's over 25's only'
My mate 'But I am over 25'
Bouncer 'No you're not, You're 25.'
My mate 'It was my birthday six months ago.'
Bouncer 'And?'
My mate 'Well obviously I'm over 25.  I'm 25 and a half'
Bouncer 'Still not over 25'
My mate 'Yes I am.  I've been over 25 everyday since the day after my 25th birthday'
Bouncer 'No. You're 25.'
My mate (pointing at me who the bouncer had let in) 'You've let him in.  He's two weeks younger than me.'
Bouncer (possibly swayed by the fact I'm 6'5") asks me 'Are you over 25?'
Me 'Yes'
Bouncer (back to may mate)  'See.  I've let him in 'cos he's over 25.  You're not.'
 
After five minutes of this I was in absolute stitches.  We never did make it inside the club though.

Interesting you mentioning Bogle and Lowe. The fees for them essentially  equate to what season season ticket sales Would have brought in but didn’t. 
so in a sense what we are spending and doing now represents a “normal budget” in these strange times. 

Surely by offering him a deal the club made it clear they wanted to keep him 
the fact that someone else are in a better Financial position and can offer him a bigger and longer contract doesn’t mean we didn’t want him.
Before u say well we couldn’t have wanted him that much or else we would have offered him what he wanted 
remember we gave him and many many others what they wanted to join us .... and subsequently we can’t now 
Hence why we’re clearly moving in another direction with free signings and loans ... with the odd relatively low fee even having sold circa 10m of young talent 

Surely by offering him a deal the club made it clear they wanted to keep him 
the fact that someone else are in a better Financial position and can offer him a bigger and longer contract doesn’t mean we didn’t want him.
Before u say well we couldn’t have wanted him that much or else we would have offered him what he wanted 
remember we gave him and many many others what they wanted to join us .... and subsequently we can’t now 
Hence why we’re clearly moving in another direction with free signings and loans ... with the odd relatively low fee even having sold circa 10m of young talent 

Surely by offering him a deal the club made it clear they wanted to keep him 
the fact that someone else are in a better Financial position and can offer him a bigger and longer contract doesn’t mean we didn’t want him.
Before u say well we couldn’t have wanted him that much or else we would have offered him what he wanted 
remember we gave him and many many others what they wanted to join us .... and subsequently we can’t now 
Hence why we’re clearly moving in another direction with free signings and loans ... with the odd relatively low fee even having sold circa 10m of young talent 

This hurts! I have got used to being in the Championship, but reading, "The Second Division," sounds so much worse!

Fair comment bud
i wasnt writing Him off because of his age, where he’s come from etc .. Christ I wouldn’t be that naive ... seen too much football to know anyone can Be anything ... as I’m sure have most other Derby fans 
It’s exiting that we’re tying to be creative tbh 

Yep I agree , certainly feels like we are buying with a bit more thought and more imagination, the crux comes down to how well these players have been scouted

Cocu doesn't manage plenty, just us. He doesn't do long ball chasing. My opinion seems quite well backed up on some of the other threads on the main board. 

More than I do of bielik at 8m quid 

Connor Sammon was underrated I agree, can't say he lived up to what we hoped but he put himself about and played key roles in winning games in the first Mac season.

Dear me, you've got a bee in your bonnet haven't you lovey. Throw a strop at me all you like but I'm not in charge of the team or the club - is that too subtle a point for you?
If I was Cocu I'd have prioritised getting ANY hold-up player in.

More than I do of bielik at 8m quid 

I could have quite as easily gone with breman, Augsburg or schalke
Maybe mateta isn’t all that with 3 goals in 18 appearances last term ...
maybe a more experienced hand would do the job more effectively ... by the sounds of it this lad will be quite cheap 
I’m just saying I don’t really trust our scouting department 
they struggle to get it right over here so I’m sceptical they are on it enough to nail one that others in the same country haven’t spotted 
 

I actually disagree with this.
Brentford do have an excellent track record, but they usually sign a very particular profile of player and have a very meticulous and low risk approach.
If they had signed Austin, Davis or Ibe, people would be thinking it’s a departure from the norm, they are breaking their wage structure, and taking big risks that could blow up in their face.
With Dursun and Duncan, you have a point.
But you can’t blame our fans for being sceptical over signings. The recruitment team have failed us to the point of ridicule and beyond.
As a teacher, if the majority of my students were failing their exams or not progressing, I would have to prove myself and earn back people’s trust.
Surely it’s no different for the recruitment team?
If the likes of Jozwiak and Dursun come in and do the business, people will feel more confident in the work they are doing.