Ram@Lincoln

The problem started this season with the rule change for added time being shown to supporters. The old scoreboard clock can only show 2 digits for minutes, not 3 digits. So if 10 or more minutes are added on, which happened with keen referees sticking to new rules, then it goes over the amount the board can display. On a newer screen, they'd just make the text smaller, on this one they cannot.

Most importantly, have they sold out the car park?

How did Barnsley find that Daryl Dike chap from the USA a few years ago on loan. He was brilliant, pretty much single handedly dragged them into the play offs then got sold for big money to West Brom. I don't recall him being that well known or known at all before he went to Barnsley.

From what I see in reports, he cost them around £1.5m, Wycombe said it was a club record sale at the time. Have we got that sort of money as they surely wouldn't want to take a bit hit on him?

Yeah it got moved for TV I believe. Scandalous.

I've always ran a rule of thumb that 30 wins in the league season will get you promoted. Likewise with the goal difference, concede less than a goal a game average and score around the 80 mark and you'll be right about there. Therefore, we need 19 wins out of 27 games, 46 more goals scored and can afford 30 goals conceded (obviously less than be ideal). With 19 wins added to what we have now, even allowing for losses in the other games that's 93 points which gets us promoted 7 out the last 9 seasons.

As you say, any deal for Cashin or any others leaving need to be completed early doors. We can't have anything hanging over us the entire window as that'll be more disruptive than good for us. Allows us to get cracking on the incoming transfers and not disrupt the flow of the team anymore than needed.

Question for those in the academy know, are there any whispers of pro contracts/scholarships being given out/offered any time soon? I was chatting to some folk involved in the Lincoln setup and they're trying to sort everyone out pre Christmas, so anyone not in the plans have all of January to either get sorted/in the shop window on loan, for next season.

Celtic have done excellent there, but I'd assume that was mainly through the manager at the time having extensive first hand knowledge in that market. Definitely one to be explored if given a chance.

Is there the home advantage or not this time round like there was tonight?

The one time my missus comes to an away game and she's subdued to a portaloo. There were no brownie points won that game!

Not the actual rail seats like Liverpool and co have. This seems like a half way house between the two, and a quick solution to avoid any disruption this season. I assume the club will assess the feeling/performance on the practicals of safe standing at PPS, in due course and look to introduce the full fat version in the rail seats.

And despite all of those excellent stats, we're not playing anywhere close to the standard we should be with the players we have. It's ever so frustrating, we're in a very good position overall like you say. It's the "if only", if we play that bit better as we've shown in glimpses this season or back into last season we'd be steamrolling the league. But heyho, Derby never do anything the easy way!

For me, this is the time now before the January window opens to put some of the better ones on the bench every game in December. Give them ten minutes here and there to see if they can handle it in the first team. If they can, it relieves pressure in January over recruitment and we can focus on what's really needed to strengthen the team. I wouldn't want to bloat the squad of senior players who might be blocking the pathway of the younger boys who might be good enough - just unable to show it due to lack of chances.

We have to make sure Nyambe is extended in January as he's been pretty much perfect since signing. Do we actually have a exact expiration date for his current contract in January? Is it the start/end of the month?

You're missing one of the most successful products from the academy, Izale McLeod. 15+ years in the football league, taking him to circa 500 games and 160 odd goals. Add another 50 odd games and 20 goals to that tally for non league. He's the all time record goal scorer at MK Dons too. Compare him to say Jamie Hanson who's currently on loan at Long Eaton from Ilkeston. He's definitely filled out from the skinny boy we had playing for us.

Did we ever get paid for him? Last I saw it was still going through the courts after their two Bob compensation offer.

I deal with quite a few Lincoln players with my job. While we were in admin with the £5k salary cap, I joked to one of their players that came in about joining us for "only" £5k a week. His reply was that £5k was substantially more than most of them are on and they'd all take it despite the uncertainty at the time. They're all on 12/18/24 month contracts anyway, so a 12 month contract on way more money more than makes up for it. £2.5-3k a week, like Mansfield, is probably about in line for Lincoln.

I certainly wasn't trying to discredit Wassall in the slightest. Just for me, looking in from the outside, it seemed to be if you weren't a old friend of Wassall or literally one of his boys ala Ethan (retained much longer than his ability showed), then a position wasn't available. With that, the same could be said about the Southampton heavy team being brought in, but a change is good for all. There's green shoots for sure, let's hope it continues to develop and the first team can benefit.

What's been the biggest change to the previous regime with Wassall? From the outside, it seemed to be jobs for his boys, not necessarily the best for the job. What's Fleming and co doing differently? It's early days but it's obviously working.

Likewise for me. Come the end of January we have Waghorn at 34, Collins at 33. At the end of season, Washington is 32, Mendez Laing is 32, Barkhuizen is 31. Non attackers, Hourihane and Smith will both be 33 come February. Clarke Harris turns 30 in the summer, even if we go up and proves ineffective, the next big team going down to League One will surely be interested so we recoup the outlay or more. Another option could be Niall Ellis, signed for Blackburn in the summer, so far he hasn't started a game and only come on 5 times for 112 minutes of playing time. 24 years old, scored 14 in 45 last season for Plymouth. Others could be Mallik Wilks at Wednesday, hasn't done it for them this season (0 starts, 4 sub appearances of 95 minutes) or last but could just be the wrong club/environment for him like Wilson at Bristol City. Previously scored 19 in 44 in League One for Hull 20/21 season and 14 goals in 48 for Doncaster in League One back in 18/19. Bad couple of years at Wednesday but he's only 24 still, plenty of potential surely.

If it came across I was meaning that and trying to slag off Clowes, then it's crossed wires. Regardless of owner, we've never really sold when at the top value. Look at the deals for Rob Hulse and Kris Commons with GSE, before that Barnes and Nyatanga had big interest we reportedly turned down. Further back the deals for Riggott and Christie, then back again for the likes of Stimac. Still baffles me why we agreed to lose nearly £1m on him. The main reason Brentford and Brighton have made it to the premiership and maintained their positions is through smart investments and knowing when to sell. This has then enabled then the invest in their stadiums, training facilities etc. Steve Mac mk1 had it right in investing in young up and coming players like Thorne, Dawkins and getting the loans of Wisdom, Bamford and Ibe. Just a shame we couldn't make it up then. The waste of money on Butterfield, Jozefzoon, Anya etc is what caused this mess. We need to get back to signing assets that will appreciate in value, the likes of Wilson, Fornah and Nyambe (if he stays) is a good move in that direction. The likes of Washington and Bradley will leave us for no regained value. It'll take time for the rebalance for sure.

Completely this. We have to be sustainable. People were intrigued by Peterborough putting Clarke Harris, Edwards on the transfer list this summer, but that's their policy. Any players out of contract the following summer, who aren't committing to a new deal they try to sell. They announced 9 players on the transfer list, most first team regulars. They then invest that money into the non league and upcoming gems.

That's the Derby way thought? Reject players when they're cheap/free, sign them for big money, then give them away/pay them to leave. We need to learn how to play the market like Brighton, Brentford or Peterborough. Buy low, sell high.

Has the boy that went to Brighton done much these days? Seemed to be highly rated here.