duncanjwitham

You see a lot of football fans who like to watch the game but seem to have no actual understanding of it at all. The kind of person that would say things like "Bradley Johnson is great, let's sign him", "Clough should never have sold Shackell", "We haven't had a decent right back since Wisdom left", "Blackman is top of the scoring charts, let's buy him", "Wayne Rooney is still a great player", "Nigel Pearson did a great job at Leicester, he'd be great here too".  It honestly feels like we're being run by one of those types.

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You see a lot of football fans who like to watch the game but seem to have no actual understanding of it at all. The kind of person that would say things like "Bradley Johnson is great, let's sign him", "Clough should never have sold Shackell", "We haven't had a decent right back since Wisdom left", "Blackman is top of the scoring charts, let's buy him", "Wayne Rooney is still a great player", "Nigel Pearson did a great job at Leicester, he'd be great here too".  It honestly feels like we're being run by one of those types.

You see a lot of football fans who like to watch the game but seem to have no actual understanding of it at all. The kind of person that would say things like "Bradley Johnson is great, let's sign him", "Clough should never have sold Shackell", "We haven't had a decent right back since Wisdom left", "Blackman is top of the scoring charts, let's buy him", "Wayne Rooney is still a great player", "Nigel Pearson did a great job at Leicester, he'd be great here too".  It honestly feels like we're being run by one of those types.

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You see a lot of football fans who like to watch the game but seem to have no actual understanding of it at all. The kind of person that would say things like "Bradley Johnson is great, let's sign him", "Clough should never have sold Shackell", "We haven't had a decent right back since Wisdom left", "Blackman is top of the scoring charts, let's buy him", "Wayne Rooney is still a great player", "Nigel Pearson did a great job at Leicester, he'd be great here too".  It honestly feels like we're being run by one of those types.

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

You ever seen the photos that North Korea release from time to time? Everyone's smiling in those too. Just saying... ?

That's the big thing for me.  He's the only midfielder we have that actually does that.  Shinnie is always out of position because he's gone off chasing the ball (not saying that's a bad thing necessarily, sometimes you want a player like that), and Bird has a really bad habit of hiding from the ball - so when our centre halves have it, he's stood stationary with 2 attackers between him and the ball, instead of busting a gut to get into space.
I actually think we weren't that bad a team in the final third last season when we got the ball there, the problem was we really struggled to get decent ball into the them.  Too many moves breaking down because of a lack of passing options in midfield or because we took too long to progress the ball.  Bielik just solved that problem in one player.

99% sure he's just bumping up the capacity on the forum server, for when he posts and the entire Derby fanbase all log on at the same time.

Try scrolling up. When I did it on my desktop, when it hit the credit card details screen, it was scrolled halfway down a massive white space below the payment form.  It was obvious to me because I had scrollbars, if you're on a iPhone or something that hides scrollbars you might miss it.

The only explanation I can think of, is that while he really wants a team full of academy lads, he genuinely has no idea how to actually make it happen. The Scott Malone signing just epitomised the whole thing for me.  We had 2 promising youngsters who were on the verge of the first team (Lowe and Buchanan) and an aging, injury-prone Forsyth.  If we genuinely didn't think Lowe or Buchanan were quite ready yet, or we wanted some more reliable experienced cover there (in case Forsyth got injured again), then either get a loan in or sign someone like Byrne (relatively cheap, shortish contract etc). What you don't do is spend £3.5m and prem wages on a very average player who's not going to improve the team and just sit there burning wages and blocking the academy lads.  
The problem isn't directly down the recruitment, the managers, the academy lads themselves etc, it's a lack of vision (and the nous to implement it) from the very top.  If we genuinely wanted a team full of academy lads it should be club policy to not sign old players on big money/long contracts, to not sign expensive players where we have academy lads on the verge of breaking through, to not appoint managers that only want a team full of experienced players and so on.  You can't just throw money at the academy and expect it to work.
Mel's whole "I'm not a boss who says no" schtick (in regards to managers wanting signings) just reminds of a parent who can't say no to their child wanting sweets.  It's literally your job to say no.  Tell the manager he can't have that new left back because he already has 2 promising ones coming through. And if the manager doesn't like it, get a different manager who does.

Not to mention he's the one that allowed the wage bill to be run up, which is the major reason it's costing him so much money.

The only explanation I can think of, is that while he really wants a team full of academy lads, he genuinely has no idea how to actually make it happen. The Scott Malone signing just epitomised the whole thing for me.  We had 2 promising youngsters who were on the verge of the first team (Lowe and Buchanan) and an aging, injury-prone Forsyth.  If we genuinely didn't think Lowe or Buchanan were quite ready yet, or we wanted some more reliable experienced cover there (in case Forsyth got injured again), then either get a loan in or sign someone like Byrne (relatively cheap, shortish contract etc). What you don't do is spend £3.5m and prem wages on a very average player who's not going to improve the team and just sit there burning wages and blocking the academy lads.  
The problem isn't directly down the recruitment, the managers, the academy lads themselves etc, it's a lack of vision (and the nous to implement it) from the very top.  If we genuinely wanted a team full of academy lads it should be club policy to not sign old players on big money/long contracts, to not sign expensive players where we have academy lads on the verge of breaking through, to not appoint managers that only want a team full of experienced players and so on.  You can't just throw money at the academy and expect it to work.
Mel's whole "I'm not a boss who says no" schtick (in regards to managers wanting signings) just reminds of a parent who can't say no to their child wanting sweets.  It's literally your job to say no.  Tell the manager he can't have that new left back because he already has 2 promising ones coming through. And if the manager doesn't like it, get a different manager who does.