Ram@Lincoln

1 hour ago, Rich3478 said:

I think is an absolute no brainer if is possible. Have several players out of contract at end of season, we can then look past the over 30s who are not great.

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. 

3 hours ago, David said:

This isn't quite the same though is it.

His trial was under a different owner, manager, coaches, academy staff the lot.

If we did go on to sign him now, spending the money would be of no fault of the current owner or staff.

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. 

1 minute ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

I completely agree, but we're a million miles away from being able to do that with our current setup. We need a complete restructuring of the club IMO, as we're currently being run like something from the 90s.

Of course, the most important thing is that we're being run as sustainably as possible, and I have complete faith in Clowes on this. But if we're going to progress, we need to modernise. There were some positive noises around this at the recent fans forum, so fingers crossed.

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.

2 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Williams went to Chelsea in the January we were in administration, but he was a regular part of the matchday squad at that point.
The players who went to Man Utd were Scanlon, Sharpe and Kaba, but they all moved on months before we entered admin.

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

2 minutes ago, BaianoPOTY98 said:

Yes but your buying a Ford with the previous service history of been very good, but your then offered an Aston Martin on the cheap, which has a chequered service history so do you take the risk? Derby did.

Great analogy. Absolutely not. It'll be high expense, riddled with many problems that you can't see. It's cheap for a reason. I'll take the reliable Ford knowing it'll get me to work and back, not sat with the bonnet up on the side of the motorway looking like a fool.

1 minute ago, YorkshireRam said:

They're also likely the reasons they were available to loan at this level, and not higher...

TJJ without his injury record would be on-loan a league or 2 above, he's extremely highly-rated, the only downside being his inability to stay fit for extended periods. Similarly, Embleton is well-rated in the league above, Sunderland still want him in and around their first team. He came here to build up fitness and unfortunately got injured, it happens.

They were risks (one still has time to come good), but I think they were very much 'bonus' signings where we accepted the risk of exactly this happening, for the potential reward of a luxury player at this level. I don't think we were ignorant to their fitness records.

Totally agree there that they wouldn't have been available if their records were better. However, we aren't in a position to gamble good money on players with very dodgy injury records. If we had the loose change after completing the squad then fair enough. We all seem to agree that we're missing a reliable and clinical striker, Embleton and John Jules are neither, like you say they are bonus signings.

It's like taking the car to fill up on fuel, forgetting the petrol and just coming out with a kitkat from below the checkout. It's a bonus buy, but not actually the thing we need.

5 hours ago, Magicman said:

Yes but my point is we bring players in on loan who were previously injured for ages then get injured again with us .

It's almost like the recruitment analysts don't actually look at the previous history of the player.

If I'm buying a car, I'm wanting to know about the service history, has it been a write off at any time, any known mechanical faults or manufacturer recalls. You then build up a image of the cars reliability to your needs and circumstance. If there's loads of advisories on the MOT and failed multiple times with recurring problems then I'm staying well clear.

John Jules has barely played at any of his loans and always picked up long term injuries. Embleton hadn't played in 18 months or whatever it was. If they were cars, there's no chance I'm going anywhere near them.

2 hours ago, bucktwo said:

Radio derby only ask pre agreed questions . The club won't want this issue discussed whilst there is adverse noise in the fan base ..  more bad news could turn the atmosphere even more toxic. 

A few wins is what's needed in November,  then the pill of losing Bird & Cashin will be sweeter when we get "affordable replacements"  

Out of interest who do you think may come in with an acceptable bid for Sibley ? He has hardly set the team on fire for a good while now . 

If played centrally behind a striker he produces the goods. One of the few players who actually looks to take on a player and isn't afraid to shoot from range. I'm not saying a large fee will come in for him, but if a club could pick him up for £250k or similar, I'd say that's a very astute transfer for them for a player still with high potential.

Due to the management at the club, he will never flourish here or get the support needed to enable this. It will be asset protection. We need to nuture our young players, look at Morgan Whitaker. He was bombed out then flourished when given the chance and a set up that caters to his strengths. Likewise with Jakobsen at Preston and Archie Brown in Belgium via Switzerland. 

I'm surprised RD haven't already asked Warne if Bird, Cashin or Sibley have a year's option on their current contracts similar to Knight this summer.

It seems we're all resigned to them leaving for free/compensation if not sold in January. 

Players wise for January, that Baker Richardson yesterday for Crewe seemed to give our backline many problems. From a basic eye he seems to be in a similar playing mould to Clarke Harris. 

Are we definite that there isn't any extension options on Cashin, Bird and anyone else's expiring contracts?

We had confirmation from Warne on RD around this time on Knight's extension to retain his value. 

4 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Throughout his time at Rotherham, he slowly stopped signing younger players. So much so, that not a single league minute was given to players under 21 when they were last promoted in 21/22. There's also a reason why our only loanees so far this season are 22 and 24.

Would we want more young kids like Springett, White and Osula? They showed they couldn't hack it in the league last season against the better teams, or any at all The better loans will be those on their 2nd or 3rd loan out, so naturally will be older.

Look back to the wonder loans Lampard brought in, Wilson and Tomori were both on their third loans - Mount on his second after playing a star role at Vitesse who finished 6th in the Dutch top league and in the Europa League play offs. Even disputedly our best ever loan signing Leon Osman was on his 2nd loan when he came to us. Jordon Ibe was a second loan, Bamford was a third loan. Wisdom was a first loan but had played 22 times already for Liverpool, majority in the Premiership so was well versed. 

We need players who will make a difference to the squad, if we're just signing kids to sit on the bench and not play ala Springett then that seat might aswell be taken by one of our own.

1 hour ago, Monty said:

Good point - he’s made an immediate impact with two consecutive home wins and seven goals 

Then there's Dave Challinor at Stockport, top of the table, nearly took them up to league one last season, following promotion from the conference. Across his career, managed 686 games with a 53.6% win ratio.

He was interviewed at Charlton in August so should be willing to come if we want him. Sure he isn't a glamour name but that shouldn't be the metric.

Last season, Stockport were 4 points off automatics, had the highest goal difference (+28, 2nd best defence, 3rd best attack). Won the conference the season previous with 94 points, 6 over Hollywood FC, and a +49 goal difference.

Formation wise, he's a 4312 guy at Stockport, previously 352 at Hartlepool and Fylde. Therefore, we should already have the players to fit into these styles. 

Currently on a 11 game winning win, including beating Hollywood FC 5-0. 

Perhaps in years gone by, you needed to give a new manager extended time to make a change but nowadays it's pretty quick. Even for us looking at the likes of McClaren you see an immediate upturn in style and performance. If we look at changes for Portsmouth and Oxford, Mousinho got the job 20th Jan and has got a average points of 1.98 over 42 games and only 5 losses. Manning took over at Oxford on 13th March, has points average of 1.59 overall, but 2.07 after the summer transfer window.

We've now missed out on Mike Williamson from Gateshead who's just gone to MK Dons, he played excellent Barcelona style total football at Gateshead. Then there's Luke Williams at Notts County, both young up and coming managers who play good attractive football.  

If we do sack off Warne, is that including all the people he's brought into the club? Warne got his head fitness coach and team from Rotherham via Lincoln, his head analyst and team from Rotherham, the recruitment guy and his team from Oxford. Then there's Warne and his three coaches. There's probably best part of a dozen staff, if not more there. 

Then with that, did Warne have a big say on the academy appointments? Could that be impacted? 

I'm right on the fence at the moment but I'm starting very quickly to fall into the Warne out side. 

11 hours ago, Dom Brady said:

True Grant in goal for them, Lee Grant's lad, signed from us as a young teenager when his dad joined Man United. 

1 hour ago, Ghost of Clough said:

That's excluding a few who had a good impact at youth level too - French, Foster, Minkley, Dixon, McDonald, Archie Brown, and Wilson.

Another one to add to the list of players that leave us for nothing and go on to good things. Joined Genk this summer for €4m from the Swiss team. Did we get anything for him? Guessing not much as it was end of contract and a foreign move. How many more like him, that Riis Jakobsen at Preston etc have we missed out on?

https://www.transfermarkt.com/archie-brown/transfers/spieler/581329

Like we all knew that Cheltenham would score, we all know that McGoldrick will score tomorrow against us. I've not been following them that closely but he seems to be scoring and assisting plenty, but Notts do seem to be conceding many. I can unfortunately see them getting the upper hand, though I hope not for the sake of our large travelling support.

Any indication of how many Notts have sold? With it being local I guess a good amount, but with the competition - I'd guess not much like we saw vs Lincoln?

Top two starting to pull away now, they won't drop many points against teams like this. Sure, Portsmouth did but they are also top and unbeaten. A quarter of the season done, I fear it's starting to slip away from us.

Located where I am, my radio picks up several different football commentaries, there's some terrible waffle on many a local station. Some barely talk and sound like they're commentating on snooker or cricket, others mention the game probably once a blue moon. It's a horrendous listen. 

Whilst anything is obviously subjective, the job Ed does is for me very good indeed. He balances the actual game commentary with a Derby supporters angle. If I can't get to a game, I want to feel that I'm at the game. With Ed and any of the pundits, I do feel that I'm at the game with the excitement, the groans, moans and everything in between.

Sure, there's the odd occasion that I don't agree with some conversations, but that's natural, it's an opinion lead sport. Just look at the lineups given by posters here pre match, different selections, formations and tactics. That's football.

1 hour ago, B4ev6is said:

Radio derby was bearly on today just local scores and stuff like that.

21 minutes ago, winktheram said:

Rubbish. Full commentary with Dom. 

And Fletch doing the anchor.

Exactly this...or at least it was the regular full programme that I listened to. We won't let facts get in the way though. 

How fit is the new chap? Think I saw someone mention he'd been playing international football in recent weeks?

2 minutes ago, BaianoPOTY98 said:

Can anyone tell me what the formation was today? I thought it was 5 at the back (because we never got forward) but a mate sat at the side of me didn’t agree cos he asked what position was Elder he played just in front of Forsyth? Do the players no what formation there playing I’m not so sure??

Seemed to be 4-4-2 until the goal.

Wildsmith

Smith Nelson Cashin Forsyth

Mendez Fornah Hourihane Elder

Waghorn Washington

Changed to 3-5-2 after we scored.

The Pompey goal was onside.