Ghost of Clough

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

Then you look at Peterborough's squad. Only 6 squad members are over the age of 24. Only 1 of those is a regualr starter, 2 others are squad players, and the others are backup options. From what I can see Warne also only managed to sell 4 players for over £500k when Rotherham manager - Ward (£1.6m to Cardiff), Ajayi (£1.5m to West Brom), Vaulks (£3m to Cardiff), Crooks (£1m to Boro).

Exactly. If Thompson had been given opportunities last season, we wouldn't have needed to sign White last January. It may have been a factor in not needing to use up some of the budget on Fornah in the summer too. Same applies for Robinson. I( think back to Cashin's introduction to the first team. Honestly, I wouldn't have put him above L2 standard at the time, which is where I feel Brown is at now. Would Warne have started him, when we still had Davies, Forsyth and Bielik as the other options at CB? Would have have given Plange his debut when we still had Jozwiak and Stearman on the bench? Would he have played Williams at LWB and Forsyth CB and leave Stearman on the bench? Put simply, Warne's mentality is wrong for this club. Wilson's the youngest player he's permanently signed for us and he's 23. Out of his Rotherham signings who joined at a younger age, 22/23: None used. A 21 yo keeper played 45 mins under the following manager and has been a free agent since the summer 21/22: None used, but signed a keeper who has since retired 20/21: 20 yo keeper who has been a regular starter 19/20: 20 yo LB who featured for 622 mins in all competitions over 2 seasons before being moved on 19 yo LW who got 176 mins 22 year old Ogbene who was as squad player in his first season, then got just 606 mins in the Championship the following season before being a regualr starter in L1 aged 24. 21 year old Olusunde who was as squad player for 2 years and has only set foot on a football field 3 times since. 18/19: None signed 17/18: 22 yo CM who got 1832 mins in all competitions over 2 seasons before being moved on 20 yo CB who got 180 mins before being shipped out to non-league sides. 22 yo winger who got 242 in all competitions over 2 seasons before being moved on 16/17: 19 yo LB who got 1756 mins in all competitions over 2 seasons before being moved on That's only 1 succesful young signing!!!

He's not ITK. He just occasionally pretends to be for some odd reason. This time it's just his opinion

It's not Brown's technical or physcial abilities which are stopping him from being L1 ready. The groundwork should have been laid for him months ago, which could have been the difference between him being ready to step up to start the odd game for us in the league now. Waghorn and Washington have both been out since October and there was a 4 week gap between John-Jules making his first appearance since September. We sort of did... he got 45 minutes playing with Collins in the Wolves U21 game when he would have been better paired with a creative player - even Weston, Allen or Wheeldon would have been a better choice (instead of Collins) to see what he was actually capable of. He then got 15 minutes as a late sub (again paired with Collins) against Northampton and only 1 minute since - he didn't even get a run out in the other EFL Trophy games since then. That was the 3-0 win over Fleetwood and the dysmal dispaly against Bradford. If he was given more game time to ease him into life as a Derby first team player, we would have been able to make a fairer judgement on if he's capable of playing a few games for us this month or not. It's not as if John-Jules has done much of note since his last goal (he played in 10 games since)

He also hasn't played since last season and is made of glass. By the time he's fit enough to play, our other forwards will be back in the team anyway.

We entered January with Collins, John-Jules and Brown as CF options and ended it woth just 1 of them available

Weston's a #10 who has recently played on the wing to allow Wheeldon (who only just stepped up from the U18s) to lead the line

Aleksandar Prijovic who we sold 13 years ago. Free agent since September. Florian Kamberi scored 4 in 23 for Sheff Weds a couple of years ago in L1. Dwight Gayle who hasn't scored more than 4 in a season for half a decade. Connor Wickham who makes George Thorne look like he's made out titanium. Also hasn't played since last season.

Dwight Gayle now available on a free 😅

A L2 loan wouldn't have given us the possibility of recalling, despite that being his current ability level

3 weeks to go before we can recall him. Washington and Waghorn should be back by then so I can't see Warne recalling him and actually playing him

Collins also has to avoid picking up 2 yellows over the next 8 games or he's suspended for 2 games...

Mendez-Laing at CF (usually with astrike partner) has just 1 assist in his 6 starts at CF. Last season he averaged 1 every 3 games overall, whislt this season he's averaging 1 in 2. Moving his away from the wing would hurt the team overall

Martin has 11 goals from 30 shots this season. In his last season for us he had 11 from 38 shots

Must be true. Ruddy is injured

Perhaps he's been nudged out the door?

Based on our summer targets, Warne doesn't mind what type of forward we get in, as long as it's someone. From Mark Harris, to Alfie May, Matt Godden, Jordon Rhodes, Billy Sharp, etc... all different.