The Scarlet Pimpernel

Altogether now
EBOU!

Any minute now surely.

Our approach since the takeover has been incredibly short-term from a first team point of view. Clowes hired Warne on his ability to get teams out of league one, nothing more, and got rid of a very promising coach to facilitate that move. 
I understand that some of the transfers have needed to be short-term, but if we aren’t promoted this season then I would endeavour him reconsider his own approach. 
I’m in no doubt we would be in a much better shape, in almost every single aspect, had we gone with Rosenior - who was already well respected within the building, recruited really well despite strict budgets and had shown a lot of promise. The move isn’t unsurprising for a new owner of a club, who went for the CV of a manager who had ‘been there and done it’ over a guy who had a lot of promise.
For the record, I don’t blame him and I (with a lot of people) could see the logic but in hindsight I don’t think it was right. We don’t get to see what happens behind the scenes but I think this Mark Thomas has also been a big waste of money, or at least isn’t having an impact, because the recruitment has been poor. We’ve probably made Sonny Bradley the highest paid player in the division and dropped him after a couple of games - a long list of them with injury records have unsurprisingly spent the season injured. It’s a massive mess, whether that’s down to Thomas or Warne, I’m not sure, but certainly no creative approach has been taken. We almost exclusively signed players with Championship experience in the summer, deciding on paying out bigger wages for players on the downswing of their careers, over properly researching and scouting players on the upswing of their career. 
You also have a coaching staff who aren’t really recognised with coaching players, so maybe the short-term, experienced professional approach we take is because we can’t trust these guys to coach up players in the first place? I don’t know. Either way you look at it, I don’t think it’s a setup for a successful football club. 

I’m actually ashamed of our pitch in this modern era. 

It needs sorting, looks absolutely dreadful at the moment. Not that we actually play on the grass anyway, so it’s not affecting our performances - but it’s pretty embarrassing for a club of our stature to have a pitch in that state.
Groundsmen need to sort it out, and funds need to be in place to make it happen. We’re a professional outfit, not a Sunday league pub team.

People need to get over it. He will have made mistakes, but it's clear to me he also has regrets. Despite that, and still getting abused by fans, he has stuck by the club to make amends. Quantuma felt he was worth keeping around. Clowes has made the decision to keep him as his CEO. Move on.

I think it's interesting that although in interview after the Lincoln game players were saying words to the effect that they had a frank exchange of views nothing really changed apart from they were worse at Reading. 
Also am I the only one that gets aggravated hearing players in pre-match interviews saying " we know what we've got in the dressing room" meaning they think they're good. Don't say it, show it...... 

I think it's interesting that although in interview after the Lincoln game players were saying words to the effect that they had a frank exchange of views nothing really changed apart from they were worse at Reading. 
Also am I the only one that gets aggravated hearing players in pre-match interviews saying " we know what we've got in the dressing room" meaning they think they're good. Don't say it, show it...... 

I think it's interesting that although in interview after the Lincoln game players were saying words to the effect that they had a frank exchange of views nothing really changed apart from they were worse at Reading. 
Also am I the only one that gets aggravated hearing players in pre-match interviews saying " we know what we've got in the dressing room" meaning they think they're good. Don't say it, show it...... 

I think Conner is a very good captain and a very good footballer 

Don’t think anyone wants him sacked, but many (like me) remain unconvinced. 
He’s got the opportunity to make us all look like idiots by getting us promoted and progressively improving Derby into an established Premier League side in time. That’s ultimately the job. I’d be delighted to be wrong. 

Can you do Saturday’s pre match team talk please?

I appreciate Warne get's a lot of stick... and at times like this it's difficult to argue against... But there's a particular trait I like... have always liked... in a player.  And that's passion!
Not for the shirt, per sé.  Not for the badge specifically.  But for their craft.
There's a distinct lack of that right now, and it seemed to be massively magnified last night.
Masses of mistakes last night, and yet I don't recall one single hint of a player reacting in a frustrated "must do better" kind of way.  No kicking hoardings.  No thumping the ground.  No heavenwards screaming out in frustration.  No bollockings from team mates.  No fist pumping encouragement.
Even young Cashin was doing this a few weeks back... and it was truly wonderful to witness... but that seems to have gone now (And no, I'm not singling him out intentionally.  No effing way!)  
All we got last night was meek acknowledgements of apology.  Lots of stooped shoulders! A half-raised hand of patheticism. (*Looks like I just made that word up, but it's staying in!  Fuckem!) 
If I was the cynical sort (I'm not!), I'd be wondering if they actually cared!
 
Now... I hasten to add... My support of DCFC is currently going through a similar phase.  I can laugh it off.  I can shrug my shoulders.  I can slouch back in my NE Corner seat and not bother singing.  (I won't boo, but my silence alone should be deafening to the players!)  I can almost appear to those that don't know me as though I don't care.  That's not the case, but I certainly don't care as much nowadays as I have done in the past.  Of course I've lost SOME of my passion.  But that comes with age.  That comes with having "Been there before... numerous times".  In essence, I've "got an excuse".
These players don't have that excuse.  They are the now.  They are as close to being in their prime as they're likely to be.  They should care.  They ought to care.  They should be taking pride in their craft.  They should feel the passion.

They ain't clocking in at Royces at 07:40 every morning, to stare at the same old computerised CNC milling machine hour after hour.  They ain't driving the same old dirty bus around the same old dirty streets of Derby day in, day out.  They ain't staring at spreadsheets shift after shift.  Those guys and gals are (arguably) entitled to "plod on".
These guys are craftsmen.  They are entertainers.  They are professional athletes. They have either been gifted with a talent, or indeed they have worked bloody hard to hone themselves that talent. 
So where is their pride?  Where is their passion?  Why are they letting their peers down?  Why are they letting the supporters down?  Why are they LETTING THEMSELVES DOWN? WTF does it look like they don't care?
I just can't get my head around that.

Problem is we haven’t got enough players who can pull a rabbit out of the hat when the chips are down. 
 
Hopefully CBT will add a bit of sparkle. But who do we bring in from the bench to strengthen us? Sibley’s had more chances than hot dinners, we’ve got no strikers and Fornah looks average league 1 at best. 

Last night was pretty embarrassing. How can we not muster one good chance in 90 minutes against Reading?

Thank goodness for that, think your post may have ran into 3 or 4 pages based on the referee's performance last night 😂

That depends on which highlights you watched. The first was our 5-2 win over Lincoln earlier in the season in the Central League Cup. The 2nd was yesterday's 4-2 loss in the Central League 

Also Houihane was poor because he was poor. Bird was poor because of himself not because of Houihane because I know that’s usually the narrative!

The team are not coached to have any control. Another midfielder will not help if Warne continues to employ the tactics he wants us to play football.
I say football. It’s pinball. Players must be being encouraged to move it as forward as quickly as possible, taking no more than 3 touches. Chaotic, gas out type football.
I thought we might go up with our squad automatically, even with him in charge. I am beginning to think not.

other than a top wage for the rest of the season,stupid gamble given that he hasn't shown any reason on the pitch to warrant keeping him

Dreadful performance. I don’t even know where to start, so won’t bother, but I will say I feel for the fans that went tonight. 
The last few weeks have been rotten to watch, performances have been really bad. Too much emphasis on results, rather than performances have seemingly led us down the wrong path. Standards need to be so much better than they currently are.
I’m still very much concerned that the people currently employed by the club don’t have the necessary skillset to achieve long-term. The recruitment and coaching is miles off where it needs to be, for me. I have no doubt that even if we did get promoted this season, we would be in for a long season next year which is a niggling thought that I can’t shake. 
Obviously nothing I can do to change the decisions the club make so I’ll continue to support (and moan) as it plays out. I hope I’m wrong, honestly, because I want success for Clowes and I’d like Derby to be seen as a relevant football team on the national stage again. 

I genuinely can't stand this football, I do not enjoy watching this team at all. When we are winning you kind of stomach it but as soon as the form drops off it's full on suicide watch stuff. How can you be that bad as a team? Do they even train together?