Ghost of Clough

We've looked a lot fitter than them so far, so I would back us to go on and win this.

Beautiful header! A well deserved equaliser

1 minute ago, SaintRam said:

I dno if people say it as a shtick or not, is Kayden Jackson *actually* not a striker? 

Definitely doesn't seem to have the instincts, I thought it was being said banterfully lol

He started off his career as a CF, but has found himself on the wing more in recent seasons. 

Really good this half. Just missing a CF

4 minutes ago, Sparkle said:

If we don’t start Collins when we have no established centre forward then why did we re sign him - serious question 

I don’t see our current midfield scoring many goals and not particularly able to get their heads up with the ball to pass it either

our forward line might be quick but the football is nowhere near them 

The plan is to have a mobile CF who can press (Yates, or a new signing). Collins was re-signed to be 3rd choice CF to give us something a bit different. In Yates' (and a new signing)'s absence, Warne sees Jackson as a better option for the press.

11 minutes ago, IlsonDerby said:

These are some of the relegation favourites as well haha. Could be a long long season. 
 

 

Come on Derby 

Blackburn will be mistable with Eustace.

We've started with too many players who would only be regular starters in a L1 side.

There are some promising signs, and after 4 or 5 signings this month I still back us to be among the group of midtsble sides.

Nice play from Goudmijn to find Jackson

2 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

I don't want appeasing.  I'm stating the glaring obvious.  We have about 6 wide players and 3 forwards, one of them was given a one year deal as a backup. That's fine.  The other back up is terminally injured.  The one who should be starting will get maybe 10 goals and can't play. We seem to be adding analysts and recruitment personnel galore to try and find some players outside the norm as we don't have a budget that will be any larger or will be around the same as 8-10 clubs.  What have they been doing.   It's not hard really Rasiak Bisgaard, Wanchope, Christie, Willems, Idiakez  etc etc.  Not enough has been done.

Maybe judge them after their first transfer window has closed?

1 hour ago, Eoghan1884 said:

A perfect player for us would be Andy Irving (24), been involved with West Ham this pre season since signing for them last year and returning to Austria on loan. He’s a Scottish player who came through at hearts before moving to Austria and playing for Austria Klagenfurt. He’s 24 and I can’t see him being involved in West Ham’s squad as they’ve a lot of options. He’s got 16 goals and 11 assists in his 64 games for Klagenfurt. Hes an all action midfielder who’s a great ball carrier and dribbler with good output from midfield.  

He probably would be the perfect signing. However, he's been given a squad number so is unlikely to be leaving this summer.

50 minutes ago, DCFC1388 said:

DET confirming today that we wanted Willum Willumsson who ended up joining  Birmingham for 2.5m.

He is an Icelandic attacking mid, so maybe it was him we wanted not the lad who went to Preston....or maybe it was both!

I'd want a more complete midfielder for £2.5m (Transfermarkt have it at £3.5m). He doesn't really excel in many areas you'd want him to.

Compared with CM/AMs:


Compared with AMs and wingers:

11 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

How does Mo Bobat data markers work when it comes to Warne's 'how good a chap is he' criteria? Criminal record, CCJs, social media preferences?

The statistical analysis will help create a shortlist. That shortlist will then be reviewed based on finances and 'good chap' attributes.

6 hours ago, Eoghan1884 said:

 

The short answer is yes, but for us recently it’s been slightly different as we’re rebuilding the academy after admin. Last year we signed Riley Moloney, Dajaune Brown on pro deals aswell as getting in a lot of new signings for the 21’s most notably Tony Weston and Bartley. We also have a very talented u18 group coming through so want to ensure we keep as much of them as possible. So it is more than we’re use to in recent times and it’s actually a sign of us getting back to normal on the academy. The main reason it does look so different is we’re signing less external players for the 21s and promoting more internally. 

Almost all U22 players are on pro deals. They're on scholarships typically for 2 years in the U18s, and then get offered pro terms when stepping up to the U21s. The 7 players listed have all completed their scholarships and I'm surprised it's been announced this late.

Some of the high performing scholars get offered pro deals earlier. Kei Robinson got his towards the end of last season. JThompson, Allen, and McAndrew all signed their pro deals when they turned 17.

1 minute ago, Papahet said:

Surely we aren't done on permanent signings (?)

Quite a few good freebies available I'd have here eg Norwood, Egan, Connolly...

Norwood is apparently training with Stockport. I'd sign him as an experienced squad option, but he may want more regular gane time or a move closer to home (Burnley).

Egan was linked with Forest and Everton at the start of the window. I can't imagine him fitting within our wage structure.

Connolly is a bit of a bad egg. He'd be an improvement on what we currently have, but I think we need to get a better all-round forward.

1 minute ago, Animal is a Ram said:

 

https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2024/08/ramstv-202425-season-streaming-details

It's a real shame that Sky won't let teams boost their own finances by streaming over the top of the Sky coverage.

Booking a few holidays in now...

Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain will be very easy for most people to get to. Flights to Austria, Greece, Poland, Singapore and Switzerland are often available too.

1 hour ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

Unsold markets must mean countries that don't entertain Sky Sports I would imagine.

https://ramstv.dcfc.co.uk/videos/faqs

Domestic (UK, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man) - no longer available
Overseas/International - fixtures not shown by Sky
Unsold - For when game has been selected for live broadcast. List to be disclosed before the season starts. Previously known as the 'dark market regions'. The list of countries varies slightly each season

1 hour ago, roboto said:

Not trying to argue with your stats at all, but how should we factor in quality of opponent and quality of players they’re up against (other prem strikers for Osula in this case) in the chosen charts?

Last season, Osula was playing against premier league defenders in a poor Sheffield United team. Delap was playing against Champ defenders in a more competitive team.

Is there a way we can factor in these variables or weight some of the figures to give a fairer comparison?

Simply put, as you go up the leagues your stats get worse (better opposition, so harder to do stuff)

You can see the differnce for Osula between L1 and PL. You can even compare a L1 Osula to a Championship Delap - where one of them contributed a lot more defensively, better in the air, a better dribbler, created more chances for teammates, and took on more shots. The one thing Osula has over Delap is getting high xG shots off (as you'd expect from a poacher).

21 minutes ago, Carnero said:

Millwall will be very much in a relegation battle I would think, especially if Langstaff fails to make the step up.

They were 13th last season but finished very strongly. 8 wins out of 13 under Harris (averaging 2 points per game). I expect them to have another midtable finish

17 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Zetterstrom will obviously play in the European game tomorrow night. With Jacob Rinne seemingly not having signed officially yet, I'm expecting our boy will also play on Thursday 15th, and then sign for us in the days following. I don't see how Rinne could be registered for this round of European matches. I hope whatever happens, Djurgården get knocked out so that excuse for this rather farcical situation doesn't continue.

I think Rinne only needs to be registered before midnight

7 minutes ago, RamLad1884 said:

Think above seems right except Collins in for Barks and Fozzy for elder. 
 

That way we effectively play 3-3-3 when attacking with Wilson acting as the spare man and runner to link the team up. 

Collins won't be starting. There's a reason the only pre-season games he did start were against Matlock and Shrewsbury. There's also a reason Warne 'experimented' in the final two pre-season games with Mendez-Laing and Jackson upfront in one, and Barkhuizen making it a front 3 in the other.

2 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

I think you’re right, though that front line doesn’t scream goals to me. 
Probably okay in League One but not strong enough long term in the Championship.

It's certainly not a front 3 you'd like to see starting very often, but they'll do a job until we sign our targets.

Sounds like Ward will miss the game whilst Adams and Nyambe may make the squad due to missing a few days of training. I'll be surprised if the starting 11 isn't:

Vickers
Wilson   Nelson   Cashin   Elder
Ozoh
Goudmijn   Osborn
Barkhuizen   Jackson   Mendez-Laing

3 minutes ago, Carnero said:

Portsmouth were outpointed by us for the back half of last season, drew with us in both games and have lost 2 of their better players who were on loan in Robertson & Kamara. You could argue that they've weakened rather than strengthened as thing stand. They should definitely be on our target list to finish above.

Kamara will be a big miss, but Robertson missed half the season due to injury. There other loanes (Anjorin and Peart-Harris) were fringe players so won't be missed. They may have replaced Kamara with Sorensen - a winger with 27 goals and 19 assists last season (albeit in the Danish 3rd division). Josh Murphy, Matt Ritchie, and Sam Silvera will also add depth on the wings. They also signed Moxon and Lang last January, essentialyl replacing Robertson.

The other regulars to have moved on are Rafferty (replaced with Barnsley's Williams), Raggett (replaced last season by the injory prone Tom McIntyre?), and Sparkes (signed Jacob Farrell to compete with the defensively weak Ogilvie).

Overall, I would say they're about on par with last season, but have replaced a few of there 30+ players with younger players. They probably feel they have enough to avoid relegation, but have a young squad with potential who will bounce back up if they do go down. Without knowing which positions they still plan to strengthen and assuming we'll be signing 4 or 5 new starters, like you, I would definitely back us to finish above Portsmouth.

I also expect Oxford and Plymouth to be in the bottom 6. Sunderland, Watford, Blackburn, Cardiff and Swansea all had poor 2nd halves to the season.
   - Sunderland have had a change of manager have added a few good players, so should improve. 
   - Watford should have enoguh quality to achieve midtable and will chop through enough managers to achieve their goals anyway.
   - I fancy Eustace to get the most out of Blackburn's squad
Leaving Cardiff and Swansea as the other main bottom 6 contenders. Stoke and Millwall probably won't be far off.

10 hours ago, Bris Vegas said:

In fairness, Jessy Lingaard was crap on loan with us and a few years later he was scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup final for Man Utd and accumulating caps for England.

It wouldn't be the first time a player looks dog on loan and then improves massively elsewhere. 

The Osula one strikes me of just a club seeing potential. 

But FFP is a mess, always has been. 

I don't see how anyone can watch Osula over the past 2 seasons and think "there's a potential PL star forward". There was a reason he was limited to just 489 minutes in the league in 22/23, and only 784 for an exceptionally poor Sheff U side last season - scoring just 2 goals across those 39 games. 8 career goals, with 3 against Torquay and 2 against Gillingham also helps tell the story on his ability.

In League 1, he showed himself to be an above average finisher, average dribbler, and slightly below average for creating chances for others.

In the PL, he unspurprisingly found himself to compare badly against other forwards for finishing and creativity.

If you compare him with Delap, who just transferred to Ipswich for a simlar fee, you see what £15m of potential should get you.

8 minutes ago, Ambitious said:

Difficult to know for certain until the accounts are released but wouldn’t be surprised if our figures are comparable with: Millwall, Huddersfield, Preston, Cardiff, Sheffield Wednesday, Swansea and most certainly more than Plymouth and Rotherham. It will in all likelihood be a bottom 6 budget, but with the additional income I do anticipate we increase proportionally - I suspect there is more from us to come in the window. I would be surprised if not, anyway. 

For 24/25, I imagine Oxford, Plymouth and Portsmouth won't be too far off our total wage bill in L1 (23/24). Last season Rotherham would have been lower than us, woth Huddersfield a fraction higher.

I can't see any others being below £20m. There will probably be about 8 other teams in the £20-25m range though. It's this range in which I reckon we'll fall in to for this coming season.

There's very little between a top half total club wage budget (10th is about £26.5m) and a bottom 6 budget (£22.5m)

Bialkowski would be my pick as a backup keeper. Even though he is 37, I'm amazed he hasn't been snapped up already. He'd be a fantastic role model for the younger keepers too - I'm sure we could offer him a similar coaching role to the one Loach had.