Ram@Lincoln

It will be for him if he gets sacked and gets a massive payoff!

We need the 3 points to get back on track with 2 points per game following yesterday's disappointment. Both Bolton and Portsmouth are currently tracking above the 2 point marker, so we need to catch up.

An hour long sit down interview with Stephen Pearce with Radio Derby. If the preview clip is anything to go by, he'll be ducking most questions it seems. Hopefully not though!

Not sure if it was a club, radio or paper interview but there's an interview with Warne saying that Bird is back for free.

Definitely the type we should be looking at. A quality player that's about to start his peak years and on a free transfer, perfect! Being a Derby supporter is a great bonus for sure. He'd be a good value asset on the books and an ideal replacement for the holes left by Knight and Bird. Top shout there.

I really do hope that we give some match experience to the younger boys over the next few months. Even if it's just being involved in the match day squad, like Brown had for the last month or so. Then building up to 10-15 minutes here and there when we're in firm control of games.

He definitely seemed more focussed and occupied by his coaching than anything with Derby.

Yeah obviously agree with those examples, but here, the song was wrote with a home verse and an away verse for this reason. It's not just a generic football chant of "insert opposition/rival's name here”, it's our club anthem. Surely not too hard to leave a couple extra lines?

My biggest bugbear with Steve Bloomer's Watching isn't to do with the song, but with the supporters. The only verse that's sang is the home verse, be that home or away. It frustrates me greatly that we don't sing the away verse when playing away, it's always the home verse that's sang away. The lyrics just don't make sense, do people actually listen to what they're singing?

Other analyst's names of note; Pete Shuttleworth, Rooney took him with him to D.C. United. https://www.dcunited.com/news/d-c-united-appoint-pete-shuttleworth-as-assistant-coach Ben Warner, Rosenior took him to Hull as a "coach analyst". https://www.wearehullcity.co.uk/news/2022/november/warner-joins-coaching-staff/ Joe Carnall, Rowett brought him from Birmingham then took him to Stoke and then Millwall. https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/birmingham-city-analyst-joe-carnall-12741163.amp There's been a strong analysis department for awhile. Billy Davies was very keen on player and game analysis from what we hear from Darren Robinson on Radio Derby. I've also been told by a friend who worked at the club years ago under GSE, that they were very keen on player metrics and play by play analysis. GSE had plenty of experience from the various US sports teams they owned/involved with. This is another thing they invested heavily in at Moor Farm. Rams TV did an excellent insight into the analysis department 6 years ago. The two junior staff interviewed on this, Tom Green is now senior analyst at Manchester United and Sam Thacker is now first team analyst at Tottenham. Joe Carnall is back at Birmingham as chief scout.

Back to New Zealand as a director of football. https://www.friendsoffootballnz.com/2023/12/08/top-analyst-to-return-to-new-zealand-for-director-of-football-role-at-papamoa/

Having met him with family when he was a young boy, all I can say is that James is a lovely lad. He's a huge Derby supporter along with his family. He's put a lot of effort and sacrifice into making forging his career in football so far, and to get what would be a dream job is great to see. Sure he's joined from Rotherham but don't let that discredit his talents in the role. He's now back home with his club. Hopefully James sticks around longer than his predecessor who only joined last January from Rotherham. Carl Edwards has now packed his bags and left for New Zealand. https://www.friendsoffootballnz.com/2023/12/08/top-analyst-to-return-to-new-zealand-for-director-of-football-role-at-papamoa/

The problem here is that Warne has absolutely shot himself in the foot with his comments at the fans Q&A. He admitted his mistakes in not recruiting sufficiently last January, surely he would've took heed and remembered that? Sure, we haven't got the resources to spend the big bucks on someone. But we desperately needed a first team striker in to provide competition and cover for Collins. As said, that Georgie Kelly has gone permanently to Carlisle, Burton have signed a handful of strikers there was free scoring Chris Martin available on a free. There's been plenty of options out there who have gone to clubs who get a fraction of our gates so surely have even less available budget It's so frustrating, let's hope that Waghorn and Washington are back and firing sharpish.

Charlie Wyke to Rotherham and Georgie Kelly to Carlisle. Either of them I would've liked as competition for Collins. That Kelly has been linked with us throughout Warne's time with us, Rotherham fans seem rather sad he's left. Doesn't score many but hasn't had many minutes to be fair, they all love his work rate and desire. Missed out on one there, surely cheap enough, available and has previous with Warne.

When looking at Peterborough and Derby's announcements for Mason Clark and Bird, the tone difference between each PR statement is night and day. Peterborough are presenting it rather positive, there's a quote from the owner explaining the deal, the positives and excitement in retaining the player on loan. We have a rather defeatist statement, defined by the headline tweet announcing it - though. Communication between the club hierarchy, external media and supporters has been utterly dire. Only recently Warne was hyping up Bird saying how much he'd cost to buy, was it £100m to Saudi or something daft? Now he's at Bristol City, as mid table of a Championship team as you can get. For Bird, as previously said, it's a great move - he joins a pal in Jason Knight and a club proven at developing and selling on young talent for big fees. At Derby, he's leaving a club seemingly stuck in the mud a little and a manager reluctant to play youth. Saying that, I really hope now this allows Robinson, Fapetu and co a chance to get first team minutes so they can develop for prominent roles next season.

Great to see Ed Dawes back in the mix again for RD.

I hadn't seen any injury records my bad, just remember his name from many a year playing against them. I'm sure he scored a late winner against us one time around. For £75k, I'd be taking the risk. Then all the others in their squad that should be available for a pittance.

The Reading fire sale is well underway. They're flogging Tom McIntyre to Portsmouth for just £75k, someone who I'd really like at Derby. Good age at 25, experience in the Championship with 100 odd games. https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/sport/24083056.reading-fc-defender-verge-portsmouth-move-cut-deal/ As already said there's that Knibbs there, obviously Savage junior. Why aren't we looking at shopping there? We had Carson and Byrne off Wigan in their time of need. Plenty had our pants down during the admin year. Time to return all the love.

Both teams have 10 points from the last 18 available. 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats. Both have a goal difference of +2. Cheltenham have only conceded 5 to our 9. We have the 5th worst defence in the league over the last 6 games, they have the 2nd best defence. This most likely isn't going to be the walk over a lot of folk are expecting. It might only be little old Cheltenham, but on paper, they are as good, if not better in recent weeks than Derby.

They've been drawn against Angola who finished top of their group, this game is Saturday 27th Jan at 5pm. If they get knocked out, which looks likely with Angola's apparent strength, he should be available for Charlton. So only misses the Cheltenham game on Saturday now. His return can't come sooner enough!

Some of the goals against were completely our own doing, losing the ball at ease in dangerous areas. Seems like they've taken tips from the first team there. Just looked him up, free transfer at the end of his contract. Young age, high performing in the Irish league like you say, why on earth didn't we look at him? He's a cheap gamble to make like Weston.

Warne confirms we're only signing one more player, a striker. But then suggests some players don't want to be here so can leave for others to come in.

I watched them a couple of times in September as a guest of a club sponsor, they were incredibly impressive. Tika taka football as the kids say. They went from goalkeeper at the back right through to the striker to tap home in probably 100 passes. Similar to the Yeovil goal of ours from the Steve Mac days. I don't know how they're getting on now with a new manager, but if it's anything similar, the striker just needs to stand in the box and wait for the quality service into him to finish. Brown should do well there.

At a guess it's officially a free transfer at the end of the loan, not him going out of contract and signing for us or a pre contract if that's against the rules. Or perhaps, signing on loan then pre contract is allowed as the player is already registered to you. Whatever it is, the EFL have obviously permitted it so it's all fine.

Bet those numpties down at Wycombe are having a right blow up with this deal structure!