Ghost of Clough

Hourihane been in acres of space on the edge of the box a couple of times as we broke forward but the ball got stuck out wide

A clear pull on Bradley, which should have been a penalty Lovely dribble from Bird but should have done better with the shot.

Charlton looking good since the break. I think we need to swap Hourihane for Thompson to help us press more effectively.

It's £90k per year between ages 12 and 21 for Cat 1 clubs.

So in this hypothetical scenario, was Warne deliberately using 4 at the back to get worse results than "his way", or does he know that 4 at the back is better than "his way" which is why we kept playing 4 at the back?

Released in January. I'm surprised our Yorkshire scouts have missed Lys Mousset. Hasn't played much since leaving Sheff Utd in 2022 due to an achilles injury, but still only 27. Struggled in the PL, but scored 3 in 7 (320 mins) in the Championship. He would score for fun at this level.

I did laugh at "don't bring in players to replace your better ones, no point" when we finished 7th last season and 3 of most used 11 moved on in the summer.

Our midfield for next season: Xavi, Yaya, and Zidane

Not too surpised by those moves. Jeffcott always seemed to be loan cover whilst Moloney adapts to U21 football and having barely played at U18 level over the previous 2 seasons due to injuries. He also mised the first couple months of this season. Gough will be stepping up full time next season (as well as covering LW), with Gill hoping to get some experience at that level too. I expect the extensions for Oseni and Nunn are an indication of both being released at the end of the season. They'll be 21 and 22 respectively at the setart of next season and are nowhere near our first team. Bartley, Bardell, Radcliffe, Bates, Gibson-Hammond, Nto and Weston are all 20 or over so should be looking at men's football soon. I wouldn't expect any to be in our first team squad next season, so all should be pushing for loans tbh. DRobinson too, in the hope he can mimic Thompsons trajectory since this time last season.

Rotherham don't have a cat 1 academy but neither do Peterborough. Only 1 of those clubs conssitently recruits yougner players. Warne had 6 years at Rotherham. How much time does a manager need to show they're willing to sign youngsters with potential? Our academy wasn't "ravaged". There's only 6 players who would have been part of our U18 or U21 squads during Warne term as manager than have been poached. Only 1 of those would currently be deserving of a place in our first team squad. All others who moved on would have been first team squad members before Warne was appointed. I haven't said the fansbase will be happy with choosing youth over promotion. I have however said we would be more understanding of the journey if youth were used should we fail to win promotion versus failing with older players on the decline. The remit of the manager is to use all the tools at his disposal. The academy is a tool which should be used. We've had this same argument before, but I'll repeat it anyway. Part of a youngsters journey into men's football (particularly for L1 and Championship Cat 1 clubs) is by playing in their own club's first team prior to oing out on loan.

I don't know what point you;re trying to make here. I was also critical of our signings in the past. I even gave an example earlier today when we had Forsyth, Malone, Olsson and Cole all contracted on permanent deals when we had Lowe on the fringes and Buchanan only 1 season away from his club debut. At one point we owned Evans, Johnson, Bryson, Butterfield, Holmes, Thorne, Ledley and Huddlestone (as well as loaning in Mount and King in) - we knew we had Bird, Knight and Sibley coming through, as well as Elsnik who was at least a level above them all at that moment in time. The circustances were also different, particularly under Cocu and Rooney, when the number of players we could sign was limited - only 5 in 21/22, and had a wage limit roughly a third of what we can now spend, whilst balancing it against only 7 outfielders over the age of 23. It ddin't make sense to sign more players aroudn the 20 year mark when that wasn't what our squad needed. The other major factor during this period was the number of youths coming through which negated the need to sign young players from other clubs. This isn't something you can credit to Rotherham.

Potentially, if the Rotherham chairman classes instant relegation from the Championship as success.

This Saturday we'll be blessed by seeing [in Warne's own words] "the strongest bench in League 1 history". Sounds like everyone is fit apart from our trio of CFs (Wash, Wag and JJ)

If we exclude our U18/21 signings: 22/23: 19 yeo Rooney 19 yo Oduroh who was given limited game time by Rosenior, then binned off by Warne 21/22: None signed 20/21: 22 yo winger - cost £4m, sold for £2m 19/20: 21 yo Bielik - cost £8m, sold for up to £1m 18/19: None signed 17/18: None signed 16/17: None signed Up until 2019, MM gambled on the experienced route. Some players such as Lawrence and Holmes just missed the age cut off. Whilst the plan was for any signigns aged 21 or youngesr to come throguh the U18/21/23 squads first - Hutchinson, Plange, Ebiowei (all excluded from my list)

Blackburn when waiting for McGuire to sign for them? Could have been Harry Leonard (who hasn't played much recently) or Niall Ennis who decided to join Stoke late yesterday.

Not just forwards, but this is the full list of January loans in League 1 (bold = players I think would have improved us). GK: Louie Moulden, Jamie Cumming, Craig MacGillivray CB: Caleb Taylor, Elkan Baggott, Sean Grehan, Andy Smith, Jack Shepherd, Elijah Campbell, Rhys Williams, Kacper Lopata, Zane Monlouis, Charlie Goode, Nigel Lonwijk LB: Hayden Coulson, Nathanael Ogbeta, Tolaji Bola, Harry Boyes, Imari Samuels, Nesta Guinness-Walker, Luke Chambers, Saxon Earley RB: Calvin Ramsay, James Gibbons DM/CM/AM: George Byers, Brandon Aguilera, Harry Vaughan, Tyreeq Bakinson, Lewis Fiorini, Luke Harris, Ryan Woods, Gavin Kilkenny, Conor McGrandles, Jay Matete, Myles Peart-Harris, Jensen Weir, Dan Gore, Jack Hinchy, Chem Campbell RW: Jonathan Leko, Michael Olakigbe LW: Jack Diamond, Tony Springett, Alex Mighten CF: Freddie Ladapo, Joe Hugill, Ola-Adebomi, Kyle Hudlin, Antwoine Hackford, Macauley Bonne, Joe Nuttall, Mo Eisa, Daniel Adu-Adjei, Khayon Edwards, Joe Taylor, Tyler Burey, Vadine Oliver, Charlie Kelman, Gideon Kodua

Which is understandable if they were being left out of the first team squads so they could play in the U21 games. However, more often than not they're left on the bench for when we go "3 or 4 up". Except the times we have been 3-0 up they've still been left on the bench. They also go unused in the cups. DRobinson - 4 cup games on the bench and not used and left out completely for 3 cup squads. Left on the bench for Carlisle (2-0) and Barnsley (3-0). DBrown - last minute sub in 1 cup game, 17 mins in another, but an unused sub in 5. Left on the bench when we were hoping to get more than a point against Lincoln (we only used 2 subs) Fans are typically more patient when youngsters are put in the team. Warne could even use it as a reason why he needs more time. Stickign with his expereiecned players it's all or nothing -fail and he's sacked. If he introduced the likes of DRobinson and DBrown into the team he could point to that and say 1 more season and this squad will have improved and be enough to take us up.

The process used for this season will need to be overhaulled. 12 summer signings and a further 2 in January, of which only 3 are likely to be regular starters is absolutely shocking (Nelson, Nyambe, Blackett-Taylor). This is also after the squad failed to place top last season, losing 3 of our first 11 (Roberts, Knight and McGoldrick) and not even having a right back in the entire squad. It's summarised by having no long term vision. That's in terms of: a) bringing in younger players who will either maintain their current standards for longer, or have room for improvement; or b) planning how the players will fit into the team. Warne put a clear focus on older and more experience players, based on the rationale of higher wages equates to better players. If more budget is put towards the wages, we'll end up with a stronger squad of players. Warne also had no plan on how to fit the players into the team. This is demonstrated by early summer recruitment being with 3421 in mind, which quickly changed to 352, and then alternating between 442 and 4231 during the season so far. We signed a LB (Elder) to play as a wing back, but also signed Nyambe (RB) after already signing 2 wing backs. He also signed a slow CB who cannot play in a high line and is uncomfortable on the ball under pressure. We've basically got through from October with only 1 fully fit forward whowas 2nd choice last season and failed to improve on in the summer AND January. The style of play our CF targets prefer also varied. Summer targets like Harris, Rhodes and Sharp all have different strengths and weaknesses. Similar with January targets such as Smith, Gregory, Mubama, Ennis. It's just a scattergun approach all round. Most of these targets compromise on the high intensity press Warne wants to implement too.

Because it's part of his job. Why do you think Clowes is still spending millions to fund the academy? No one other than the manager can make the decision on playing our academy players or not. If they aren't gmaking the step up to the first team then Clowes is wasting millions every year.

He is, but he isn't a 'youngster'.

a) Would it impact who or how many players the next manager could sign? Even without a change in manager, we currnetly need to sign at least 10 first team players (or extend current deals). That's already a sizeable amount of wages freed up for the summer. Our budget would still be bigger than most promotion rivals - it just has to be used more effeciently (ie. don't risk a big chunk of it on several injury prone players). b) The cycle was hiring the wrong managers. MM flipped between defensive managers to attacking ones, to possesion based ones. Some wanted players to suit a deep defensive line, others wanted to play a high line. The mess the club ended up in would have been fine with a clear plan in place and showed restraint in the transfer market. MM wanted to develop players through the academy, but he was also too impatient and would often have 3 first team players on permanent deals when we also had a U21/23 player on the fringes.

A player who turns 23 in 12 days time and Arsenal will be releasing at the end of the season?

There's a permananet pot, a loan pot, and a sack the manager pot. The first 2 pots were agreed with the EFL and cannot be exceeded. The EFL don't care about the third pot.

That's not really the point though is it? I've argued Warne has a histroy of choosing older players and failing to get reasonable money in on a consistent basis for the players he did sign. Peterborough, with a similar budget somehow manage to sign younger players and sell them for large amounts. If Peterborough can do it, then we should be able to too. The problem here is a manager unwilling to focus on youth - whether signing or bringing through from the academy. Peterbrough don't just sign forwards to sell on for big bucks. They've also started bringing through players from their own academy - Edwards, Burrows and Jade-Jones are starting every week. One of them is a LB and another a CB.

Peterborough manage it with a similar budget to Rotherham