Ghost of Clough

I dont see Iverson as a number 1. He was rather average when at Preston a couple of years back, and pretty poor at Stoke.

This would make sense if the rumour of Vickers leaving is also true. He'll also help with integrating any Danish (and Dutch to a lesser extent) players to the club.

16 minutes ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

To be fair, @SECornerRAM only really posts when they have a bit of info: Bradley and Bird being out injured, revealing the kit supplier will be Puma as far back as Feb. The only real one they got wrong was James Collins initially being out "for the season" which was quickly revised to "8-10 weeks" (more or less the same thing) - it was actually 6 weeks, and we all know Collins is superhuman

42 minutes ago, Ambitious said:

A good move for him and any championship player to be fair - no team without parachute payments is in a better position. 

Other than Boro and Bristol City having a higher wage bill in the last set of accounts. There's also West Brom, who still had parachute payments in their last released set of accounts, so it's difficult to judge how much they've since reduced their wage bill.

On 16/05/2024 at 06:43, Carnero said:

Surely moving Nelson to the centre of the back 3 is a valid option (with Bradley as the cover/alternate), in which case a more mobile right sided centre back could be signed to compete with Nyambe/Rooney.

In resposne to this and an identicla post by @Shuff264... It's something I would certainly consider, with Nyambe being the main RCB option, but I don't think Warne will. We only played Rooney at RCB when we also had Mendez-Laing at RWB - it was essentially a back 4.

22 hours ago, MadAmster said:

My take on the Dutch players mentioned by Ghost of Clough...

Matty Ryan would be a good shout as keeper, however, although he's "out of contract", AZ have qualified for Europe again and I reckon they'll make the lad an offer

Syb van Ottele has been a regular for Heerenveen this season. Reasonable defender but less capable than Nels/Cash and comfortable on the ball, possibly not physical enough for the SBC. 22 years old and 6'1"

Shawn Adewoye has been a regular for RKC Waalwijk this season but not physical enough for the SBC. Results this coming weekend could see RKC in the relegation playoffs. 23 years old and 5'11". 

Deroy Duarte has been a regular for Fortuna Sittard this season but, imo, isn't good enough for the SBC despite being a Cape Verde international. Results this coming weekend could see RKC in the relegation playoffs. 24 years old and 5'10".

Lazaros Lamprou has been a regular for Excelsior this season but, imo, isn't good enough for the SBC despite 8 goals and 5 assists this season. He'd be up against better defenders most weeks. Results this coming weekend could see Excelsior in the relegation playoffs. 26 years old and 6'0".

Reasonable assessments, but I would still argue they are some of the more likely options if we were signing any free agents from the Netherlands. I don't consider potenitally being in a relegation spot an indicator of a bad player. In the past, we've signed a few players relegated from the Championship when we were competing in and around the Playoffs.

I wouldn't expect any CB sigining to be a regular starter. Someone like Adewoye could be a starter against the less physical sides (such as Swansea), whilst usign Bradley against the more direct sides (such as Millwall)

I would certainly expect a better signing that Lamprou on the wings. Unfortunately, I couldn't identify many better wingers who would be likely to join us on a free. This'll most likely be a position we pay a fee for or find someone on loan.

7 hours ago, Ambitious said:

The wage bill in 22/23 was £17.2m - not £8.8m. I think the club were being coy in how it was reported and misrepresented some wages from first team spending as ‘academy’. 

Sunderland ran a bigger operation on a smaller wage budget than we did (for example). Unless Pearce is on absolute mind and the Groundstaff are the best paid in the world - I’m not buying the first team wage budget published via local news outlets. If it is then we seriously need to look at where and how we are spending money.

Youre correct with £17.2m for the wage bill. The accounts also stated a SCMP of 42.0% on a turnover of £20.4m (£8.6m). Some people chose to interpret that to mean whatever they wanted. I dont think that's coy... it's just people not understanding what they read. Dom Dietrich oddly reported it as £7.3m (36%) for first team players.

The £8.6m figure doesn’t even include all first team players. For the avoidance of doubt, any player aged 21 or younger as of the start of the annual year of which the season starts (ie 7 months prior to the first game of the season) is excluded from the SCMP figure. So too is the share of wages received for players out on loan (Bielik). I believe it also excludes pension and NI costs.

16 minutes ago, Dean (hick) Saunders said:

Do we know his route to Derby?

Dont think he was with us from a nipper was he, which means we scouted/recruited him?

Originally from the Nottingham area and joined us at a very young age.

27 minutes ago, DCFC1388 said:

Jay Stansfield on loan would be decent. Won supporters player, players player & young player for Birmingham this season

Fulham manager has already said he'll be part of their first team next season

1 hour ago, nogbad van 50 said:

Johansson from Rotherham ?

Josh Knight-out of contract at Peterborough or Chris Forino of Wycombe? 

If the £900k figure is to be believed, I think we can get better value for money elsewhere.

Josh Knight ain't good enough in the air to get in a Warne side. With Cashin and Nelson as the sided CBs, any new signing would have to be a dominant CB. Knight is a 'ball playing' CB.

I think Forino is more of a Warne type CB, but I believe he has only played onnthe right of a back 3. Probably needs another season at L1 level before stepping up a division too

2 hours ago, Gabby'sThighs said:

Fine. Good. Never wanted him anyway.

(Can you imagine choosing to go to Rotherham so you can work with Steve Evans?)

This is actually the 2nd time he has been signed by Steve Evans at Rotherham

2 hours ago, Srg said:

How much have you seen of these exotic names?

Karweina for example was pretty unremarkable in the third tier of German football before signing into the Austrian top flight, where he’s a roughly 1 in 4 striker. Now I have never seen him play, but I have watched 2 games from that league live, and it’s not great. What makes you think he could step up at 25?

Sometimes you just have to take a chance on a player. It seems like it's finally clicked for Karweina, who has 13 goals and 7 assists in 29 games this season. Overall, I don't think there's much difference in quality between the Austrian Bundesliga and the SPL, so I don't think it's too unreasonable to expect some players from Austria being capable of playing in the Championship.

To be honest, I was scraping the barrel a bit with a couple of my suggestions, but my intention was to limit the suggestions to only free agents (plus Adams and a couple of loan options)

Some people still haven't clocked onto Simmo making rumours up yet?

GK
Replacement for Wildsmith IF he doesn't sign a new deal
Possible options: Chris Walton (Ipswich), Matt Ryan (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands)

CB
Cashin and Nelson to remain as starters. I think we'll stick with 3 at the back next season so would prefer a new starter in the middle of our defence - an upgrade on Bradley. Nyambe, Bradley, and Forsyth (assuming his contract is extended) acting as cover. Rooney loaned out.
Possible options: Cameron Burgess (Ipswich), Filip Helander (Odense, Denmark), Syb van Ottele (Heerenveen, Netherlands), Shawn Adewoye (Waalwijk, Netherlands), Hasan Kuruçay (Braunschweig, Germany)

RWB
Ward and Wilson to have 6 months to prove they can step up and remain injury free. Review in January

LWB
One of the tough decisions to make. We have Elder who had a horrid season with injuries, Sibley (if he extends his deal) who is still learning the role, and Forsyth (if he stays). Depending on budget, I would be looking at a new signing, but could leave it until January
Possible options: Sam McCallum (Norwich), Marc Nielsen (Hvidovre , Denmark)

CM
With Adams, Smith and Bird leaving this summer, our end of season midfield 3 needs completely replacing. If Hourihane has triggered an extension and we keep Thompson, it means those two plus Fornah our our backup mids. I could see us loaning out one of those younger players and siging a 4th CM this summer
Possible options: Will Vaulks (Sheff Weds), Freddie Potts (West Ham), Joe Williams (Bristol City), Alan Browne (Preston), Ebou Adams (Cardiff), Connor Barron (Aberdeen), Herbie Kane (Barnsley), Deroy Duarte (Fortuna, Netherlands), Robin Fellhauer (Elversberg, Germany)

W
If formations this season are anything to go by, we'll need players who can fit into a 3412 and a 3421. Logically, that means players who can play out wide. We already have Mendez-Laing and Blackett-Taylor under contract, with rumours of Barkhuizen triggering an extension. 1 new signing who can also play central will be needed.
Possible options: Chris Willock (QPR), Lazaros Lamprou (Excelsior, Netherlands)

CF
John-Jules, Gayle and Waghorn out, with Collins hopefully signing a new deal and Brown being drafted into the first team. Two new CFs needed. I'm undecided if it would be best to offload Washington to free up some budget for other positions, or keep him as a fringe player.
Possible options: Harry Leonard (Blackburn), John McAtee (Luton), Sam Gallagher (Blackburn), Tyrese Campbell (Stoke), Sinan Karweina (Klagenfurt, Austria)

18 minutes ago, YouRams said:

Can't imagine he'd be on a crazy wage if it was under our restrictions? Agree sadly with Waggy and Foz too injury prone.

Hourihane would have most likely been one of our top 3 earners over the past couple of seasons, with most estimates putting him at (or above) the £10k pw mark - pretty high for someone who would be 6th choice CM at best next season.

If the wages were reasonable, I could see the likes of Forsyth, Hourihane and Barkhuizen being useful backup options. Good pros to have around the rest of the team, including U21s, but they'll also be content with their roles meaning they miss out on the matchday squad most weeks.

19 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

This is an article in a Peterborough newspaper quoting the Football Ground Guide that took statistics from the 72 on twitter from December 28th after 11 games.

Talk about lazy journalism, we took over 5,000 to Barnsley in February 🙄

Only 7 Championship games where an away club took more than the official 4495 supporters we took to Barnsley. The top 3 were all at Blackburn, the others at Preston.

Our final average wasn't far off that 2200+ half season figure. There were a lot of 1000 days to offset Barnsley

1 hour ago, Kernow said:

A loan to a top L2 club would be better than a lower L1 club. We know how some teams set up against the “bigger” teams in the league. If he’s loaned out it needs to be somewhere that he will score plenty of goals to carry his confidence and development forwards.

I don’t see why we couldn’t use him in a way that Luton have used someone like Joe Taylor. He went to a decent L2 side, scored goals, went to a decent L1 side for the second half of the season and scored even more. He probably wouldn’t have got the Lincoln move without the first half of the season at Colchester (not one of the better teams I know). He’s arguably ready for their first team now back in the Championship next season.

MK Dons have used Max Dean well this season, his loan is up so there would be a spot to fill for Brown. I think somewhere like that would really suit him.

Max Dean is currently contracted to MK Dons (not on loan), but I expect him to be sold this summer

10 goals and 7 assists in 22 games is good going, especially when he only got 140 mins in his first 9 league games. Overall, he averaged better than 1 goal involvement every 70 minutes on the pitch (playing approx 1150 mins total)

U21 sides are invited in order of how their first teams placed in the previous season. 16 are invited and our first team was ranked 25th (only Reading were lower). We won't get the chance to accept or reject any invite.

7 hours ago, DCFC1388 said:

So you say you would keep Wildsmith as well as sign Johansson even though we have Vickers? That would be pretty much 3 1st choice GKs, no point in that at all.

For a top 6 side, I would expect Wildsmith to be 2nd choice and Vickers 3rd.

Saying that, I wouldn't expect us go into our 1st season in the Championship with someone like Vickers as 3rd choice. We would be better off using those funds for outfield positions. Vickers remaining as 2nd GK.

1 hour ago, CapeTownRams said:

We seem to have become obsessed with signing players in the 22-28 age group and with good sell-on credentials…

All well and good, but to me the priority is getting players in who can keep us up/make us competitive and maybe in the second season make a run for promotion…

30 year olds will work just fine- if we go up we build again….

Jim Smith took us up and competitive with some older players…

Champo emphasizes more skill/composure than outright athleticism for 90 mins unlike L1….

The only players to have scored more than 12 goals outside of the 22-28 group this season were: Vardy (18), and Keane (13). Both older than 28.

Only 4 other players outside of 22-28 range scored double figures. One 20 year old and three who're 21.

I think it's fair to say you want the bulk of your squad to be in the 22-28 range, especially main forwards.

Just now, plymouthram said:

Please Mr Warne, don't send him out on loan next season, save the club some money and put him in the 1st team squad.

I too think he should be in our Championship squad next season. However, I can understand a loan to L1 with a recall option, depending on who we can sign for the first team. At least it would give the club's staff some confidence in whether he could step up to the Championship for the 2nd half of the season.

10 minutes ago, Jubbs said:

Goal, assist and winning penalty at Wembley to win Gateshead their first ever FA Trophy. Not a bad day for Brown!

On a side note, not sure why he was so late in the pecking order lol

Played the full game so must have been suffering from a bit of fatigue?

As things stand...

Luton winning and Burnley drawing

.

U18s currently beating Liverpool 1-0 in the final game of the season. 30 mins played.

Wheeldon scored in the 10th minute, assisted by Gough.

A win means we'll finish 4th.

1 hour ago, IlsonDerby said:

Leave the ‘think we’ll get Ebou’ or ‘reckon Barkhuizen will extend’ suggestions for the transfers and retained list thread. This is just if the season started today, what would your team be? 
 

Obviously it’ll change as we announce new contracts and signings but interesting to see just how far ‘off it’ we are currently and whether the transfers address what we think are our weak links. 
 

I’ll start - sticking with Paul Hoddle Warnes 3 at the back. 
 

                   Vickers 

       Nyambe Nelson Cash 

Ward   Fornah   Fapetu    Elder 

       NML Washington CBT 

 

Think it’s clear that we need to be bulk buying central midfielders and forwards 😂

Rooney comes in for Fapetu. I would also put DBrown in the 11 instead of Washington.

Bradley and Wilson are the only other 1st team players contracted. Good arguments could be made to include them in the 11.