TuffLuff

No need for that language!!

It was a speech that displayed his weakness. 
In the lead up, Russian media had been expecting a big announcement/declaration about ramping up the war........none came. 
The only bit of "red meat" so to speak was his declaration that Russia was leaving the New Start Nuclear Treaty. But I'm almost sure he had already declared this, last summer?
It was very thin gruel, all he had was "its all the wests fault" and a few desperate "successes" of the Russian economy, that isn't struggling (honest). My favourite part was the declaration that grain exports are at record highs! Yeah that's down to all the Ukrainian grain you stole and sold off as your own. 
It was the speech of a man who is running out of room to manoeuvre. 
On the believing the West started the War, I'm absolutely certain he does. His conversations with Macron sound bonkers. He's a follower of Alexander Dugin, the guy who's daughter was blown up in a car bomb meant for him in Moscow last summer.
Dugin has some very warped ideas and is very much a Russian imperialist. Putin seems fully invested in this ideology.
Ironically I've had some very strange chat's with people here that believe the same. Everything is the West/NATO/USA's fault and they will absolutely not listen to criticism of Russia, even when you bring up genocide. 
I mean sure the West/NATO/USA have things you can absolutely condemn them for. But to ignore Russian atrocities is beyond the pale!
 
 

Patrick Bamford 

Patrick Bamford 

Patrick Bamford 

Saw a Sun clickbait article saying about how Benito Carbone was unrecognisable today because he’s cut his hair short. If you want a look I did find this guardian article that’s actually a lot more interesting and in depth about his career with some nice pictures of how he looks today. 
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2022/oct/23/benito-carbone-sheffield-wednesday-aston-villa-bradford
But anyway I’m kinda using this to have a jump off for what I would guess would be an ‘unpopular derby opinion’ (where has that thread gone? It was one of the more fun threads that would pop up every once in a while)….
Carbone was a better fit than Kinkladze for us at the time because he was a more rounded player and hard working. Kinkladze had class but could often go missing in games, which in a struggling side was far from ideal.

My observations from watching the last two games 
1) much like last season our lack of January transfer business might bugger our season up. I know a lot would like a goal scorer or an attacking player, but I think the player we’ve not replaced is James Chester. Not that he’s an outstanding player but he’s a steady head with a bit of nous. Whilst Smith and the defence are generally playing well maybe we do lack that player who can fill a gap for a few games.
2) teams are now playing deeper against us and we don’t have an answer right now. How I’d describe our play is like ‘bad 5 a side’, in that you put the ball out wide to a player in space but positionally can’t do anything because we aren’t moving defenders around we are just passing into space. Therefore we have a lot of crosses that were quite aimless. This changed slightly with Sibley and Barkhuizen in fairness. Personally I think we need to play through the middle more and get Knight in and around the box.
3) I wouldn’t be too obsessed with an unbeaten run at the minute as it’s more about finding a pattern of play to counter how the opposition is now setting up. To me, we have 16 games left, therefore we have 6 to  just keep up with the pack and work out a plan B or C and see where we are at. If those above start creating a real gap then I don’t think we have to squad depth to keep up, and I think play offs are most likely now, but realistically you’ve got to expect that those above will have a drop in form between now and the end of the season and we need to be in a position to take advantage 

Today I've had surgery to remove a load of metalwork from my leg that's been holding it together since my car accident a few years ago(see what do you drive thread for pictures...). I have to say the NHS nurses, doctors, anesthetists and everyone I've come across have been absolutely fantastic 
This is absolutely a service we can't afford to lose. Please do everything in your power to support them..use your votes when the time comes

It's not really surprising in some cases. Our MP is incredibly thick and will do anything for a photo op with a rich person.

 
 

Talking to other fans, I think it’s fair to say Frank and most of the Chelsea players from that era are seen a bit marmite. Great players, maybe a bit under rated in truth, but they all had bit of arrogance but not enough character to get away with it (aside Drogba maybe).
I think also if you look at Terry and Lampard especially, their attitudes have always been ‘nothing else matters but Chelsea’ and it’s always followed them around. Did England matter as much, and how much did that Chelsea clique disrupt the ‘golden generation’? No matter what job he gets now, like with Derby and Everton, it’s about proving he’s good enough for the one job he wants.
From a Derby perspective, I think there’s a few things to consider. Firstly in hindsight, he was a bad appointment. Not from the memories of the season itself, they take some beating, but MM needed promotion that season to keep away any FFP judgements from the EFL (even just in the short term) and to rebalance his own chequebook. To do this he appointed a rookie manager, one with contacts but still a rookie, and that was because Harry Redknapp got hold of Morris’ ear at the opportune time. The other thing is once his season was over then what would’ve happened if he stayed? Presumably MM would’ve started making cutbacks, so that chequebook wouldn’t stretch as far. It’s hard to say, but we couldn’t invest to improve what we had in Lampard’s season so I think it would have been more of a slog without those moments of brilliance. 
Secondly, I don’t think Lampard really took to the area and fans, unlike Jody Morris who did. That’s fine, some players and managers come here and embrace it and others don’t, but I don’t think he envisioned calling Derby home for a few seasons to learn his trade. It’s similar to my point about the Chelsea players I guess, but living here isn’t that big city lifestyle that you have in that London and if you’re a Londoner you probably like it down there. I don’t get it personally, but each to their own. 

Decent move for him tbh, that he gets mid table championship interest says everything you need to know.

I always had a huge amount of time for Billy Sharp. He has been an incredible goalscorer over the entire course of his career and one of those players you hate to play against but would love to sign.
I had no issue with his comments about Derby following the insults hurled at him by some elements of our crowd. Although it was sad seeing as he singled our fans out for their support following the death of his son all those years ago.
But he just seems like he has a massive chip on his shoulder these days. His moaning about Wrexham was bizarre, not showing SUFC enough respect? 
Just seems a really odd response.
Wrexham NEED to get out of the National League, they are far too good for that league, and I would expect them to quickly go up to League 1 if they manage to go up this year.

Might be an interesting couple of days…

Decent move for him tbh, that he gets mid table championship interest says everything you need to know.

Decent move for him tbh, that he gets mid table championship interest says everything you need to know.

Right. That is soooo funny. 
Don't know why so many Derby fans (really) feel the need to diss one of our best strikers in recent memory. 
Edit - no wonder we weren't looking! Championship wages. ?

Ive probably said this before, but I used to have a bit of info about how the Forest academy worked from a mate who was in it for a good number of years. Had a long chat with him about it and the comparison with a club like Derby’s at that time (this was maybe 3-4 years ago).
How he saw it, and I’m not saying he’s right or wrong, but when you are at a cat 1 academy (or atleast a highly regarded academy) they had is a system in place that had been going for 20 years and was pretty regimented and they know it works. Which is important in that it takes years and years for an academy to get to that stage. The other big thing was that they learnt a multiple of positions and had to be ready to play any position because they could be playing anywhere in an academy game. Now I’m sure this happens at every academy and isn’t too mind blowing as a concept, but he said this was really important because you had to be ‘ready’ to play any position. In simple terms, you had to be an ‘athlete’ essentially. You couldn’t just be technically gifted or a runner, you needed a bit of everything.
This made me think back to the Hughes, Bennett, Hendrick era when looking back they were all players who were quite regimented in a style and position before they were even ready for professional football.  Something like that is, presumably, only going to reduce a market value because you are buying a limited player. What I think at that time is that we although they looked good prospects we were only bringing players through with one or two key attributes rather than 3,4,5. In hindsight Hughes should have been worth a lot more than Burke, but my guess is Burke had a more rounded education at that time. What’s interesting is with Knight, Bird and Sibley and what happens when they are eventually sold. All now are starting to flourish even though it’s taken a couple of seasons to really get going but they are more rounded players than what we once had.
The other thing he never really admitted but kinda alluded to is that they essentially have one player in each age category that they ear mark for the first team and they are the bread ticket for the academy. Everyone else, despite some having a lot of potential get released and end up at the very bottom of football and it’s too demoralising for a lot of them and they go do something else. So what I mean is, to get the one player worth millions they have to invest and get a lot of players through their system to find a bit of a diamond in the rough. 
Whether that’s all accurate I don’t know (this chat was in a pub a few years back!) and I’m sure there’s other bits to it. I do think it’s interesting and i think it suggests that our academy was so close to being a real success before administration. 
 
 

You know you’re getting old when you come online and start talking about your Ninja air fryer.
We have one as well, it’s great.