Ghost of Clough

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.

I live in the hope that we had a list of players with all being options depending on our situation and how many choose to go elsewhere. I'd be gobsmacked if anyone in power at the club sat there and thought: "today is the day Sheff Weds decide to cave in and let us have one of their players on loan, after playing us for foolsall the other times we tried to get someone off them".. If Gregory was our 4th choice target, we would have still been talking to them in case our 3 preferred options fell through. On days like today, you need to have every option on standby.

If Blackburn sign that forward they're after, could Harry Leonard become available?He's rarely featured since they signed an Icelandic forward, so will have even less game time after today. He's scored 3 and assisted 2 in his 834 league minutes this season. Scored 10 and assisted 4 in his 15 U21 appearances last season too. Similarly, Reyes Cleary could be on the way out of West Brom. He's out of contract at the end of the season, seemingly frozen out of the squad (due to not signing an extension). West Brom have also signed Callum Marshall, so there's no chance of Cleary getting minutes. 16 goals and 3 assists in his 12 U21 games last season and still only 19. There are a few decent wingers from U21 sides with conrtacts expiring in the summer. I'd be tempted to get any of them in early if possible: Amario Cozier-Duberry (Arsenal, RW, 18) - 7 goals and 2 assists in 13 U21 games Charles Sagoe Jr (Arsenal, LW, 19) - 3 goals and 10 assists in 17 U21 games Omari Forson (Man Utd, RW, 19) - 7 goals and 2 assists in 10 U21 games

There's currently only 1 player I could speak to and friends of my family know a couple others, but that's as close to being #ITK as I'll ever be.

By forgetting all the useful stuff I need to remember for work and whatever my wife told me last night 😅

Since we sold him during admin, we would have sold him for the best up front fee we could get. I doubt there will be a sell-on. However, we will be entitled to a modest 1% of any fee due to FIFA's Solidarity Contribution scheme - essenitally 0.5% for every season at the club before the end of the season a player turns 23 (0.25% per season between the ages of 12 and 15). This only applies when a player transfers from one country to another.

There's a 'Championship Pot' and a 'League 1 Pot' depending on the outcome at the end of the season. Some targets may even appear in both pots

He's still managed to score 7 goal contributions against top 8 sides (I expect to see Blackpool in the top 6 by the end of the season). He played for 484 minutes against the top 8 so far, so has averaged a very impressive 69 minutes per goal/assist against the top sides.