Ghost of Clough

2 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Waghorn and Forsyth out for “the foreseeable” with calf injuries.

Ward injured and unavailable for Burton.

Wilson nursing a hip problem could be unavailable.

Washington due back next month.

Rooney still out.

Possibly thin on the ground for Monday 😳

That would take us to 8 absentees! (Nyambe and Smith are the others)
If all of those players are out, I would go with this...

Wildsmith

Nelson   Bradley   Cashin

Barkhuizen   Bird   Hourihane   Sibley   Elder

Collins   Mendez-Laing

Subs: Vickers, Bartley, Cox, DRobinson, Thompson, John-Jules, DBrown

I imagine we'll see Wilson in the squad, but the bench will still be very youthful

10 minutes ago, YorkshireRam said:

Nope, and this is why I've pointed out before that I doubt this is Warne's ideal transfer strategy; brought in to oversee a complete rebuild and hasn't been allowed to buy a player yet...

This would all be fine, except for all the comments in summer about having one of the best budgets in the league. I still can't work out why we'd say something like that when what we've seen is that clubs like Charlton can seemingly outbid us for players...

Club board members, players, managers will all have a vague idea of where there club's wage bill compares with other clubs. It doesn't take much effort to guess at the top 5 in the league this season being Charlton, Bolton, Portsmouth, Oxford and ourselves. Clowes saying we have a budget which he thinks is good enough to get out of this league isn't going to make an agent think they can get an extra £2k a week of of us.

6 minutes ago, Kernow said:

If players like CBT end up being out of reach because of finances then I would find it concerning. Obviously he could easily end up being announced in the next few ways, but it’s not great to hear a manager being downbeat about additions that might make the difference between getting out of this league or not.

I don’t want it look like I’m calling for money to be thrown at getting out of this division recklessly. I’m not, we’ve been there & got the t-shirt. But if we aren’t financially in a position to pip other teams to signings in this league, then it comes down quality of recruitment, which I wouldn’t be overly confident about yet.

Clubs at this level are all in the same boat. It's a couple players on frees or loans unless they can sell/release players to give themselves more wiggle room.

3 minutes ago, Kernow said:

 

Spent a few years coaching in the US - assistant to Tampa Bay Rowdies in 2018, Fort Lauderdal in 2020, then Inter Miami in 2022. Been with Michael Duff at Barnsley and Swansea for the last season and a half (before being sacked).

It's hard to say how he'll adapt to Burton's squad. If anything like Duff, he'll want to go with a 352 and a high press

3 minutes ago, Kernow said:

It is concerning if we don’t have any money at all to spend, if the restrictions are gone. Our income as a club should greatly exceed almost everyone in this league, and we haven’t had the chance to overspend for a few years now.

Would it be concerning? We may earn more than others clubs, but Clowes may have made the decision to run us more sustainably. For example, Charlton have averaged losses of £7.5m since they were relegated from the Championship. Clubs such as Oxford have also taken this season to push the boat out in an attempt to get promoted too.

Just now, Nuwtfly said:

Are there any remaining restrictions that could be/would be hampering our ability to be able to sign players at this point?

It is very concerning to hear that we essentially don't have any money to spend. Why is this the case, at this point, if there are no further restrictions?

Have we spent a fee on any player since David Clowes bought the club?

The restriction is the budget which Clowes set and the EFL signed off. 

It could be that we had a bit of wiggle room to sign players, but Warne was hoping to sell one or two players to give him a larger pot of money to use on new signings (we were planning to sell Cashin in the summer) but results since the last window have changed those plans so we no longer want to sell those players. This means a tighter than planned budget.

Let's say we had 5% of our budget left in reserve, that'll only be enough to pay for the wages of 2 top L1 players (each on £10k pw) or just one if a small £250k fee is involved. If we had £1m+ spare in the seasonal budget, then the next question would have been "why didn't we use it to strengthen further in the summer?"

This isn't just a Derby problem. All L1 clubs will have tight budgets this month unless they receive fees for players.

We have been told that no fee was paid (upfront) for any players in the summer. However, we will pay fees for Fornah, Wilson and Washington depending on clauses (promotion, sell-ons, etc)

36 minutes ago, Rich84 said:

After Tuesday, I'm surprised at the suggested line ups having Sibley starting.....

We'd struggle to field an XI if we picked the team based on the Bradford game

9 hours ago, Eoghan1884 said:

Charlton fans reckon Blackett Taylor is gone after their chairman did an interview today which can be watched on YouTube. 

This came from the club's live Youtube Fan Forum. He was talking about making sensible business decision to cut losses and sell players at the right time (ie. not letting players leave for free at the end of contracts). Also referred to a discussion they had with supporters - if players don't want to sign new deals the will sell them which confirms both of those players will be sold - I would sign them both if they are affordable.

Other than a lot of waffle and hiring consultants for every department of the club, the key takeaways from that stream...

• Charlton have lost £45m over their 6 years in L1 (£7.5m per season). Their board believe they have a top 3 wage bill (confirms my thoughts). They aim to cut losses down to £1.5m a season
• Identified a regular change in playing style as a cause of underperformance
• Plan for squad building is 8 top end L1 players capable of stepping up, 8 'consistent' L1 players, 8 academy graduates
• Concern over number of injuries. Their recruitment didn't consider historic availability when signing players (sounds familiar?)
• On the academy, they're ramping up the number of academy coaches and employing a coach to aid the transition between the academy and the first team (similar to the role Justin Walker originally had under Cocu?). Also linking up with a Jamaican academy.

That was a boring listen. It makes me appreciate the Fan Forums we have with @Owen87ITK, Warne and Pearce a lot more!

8 hours ago, Eoghan1884 said:

Helps when you have millions on millions backing you, I doubt carvalho rang Liverpool saying please recall me from the Bundesliga so I can go play for Rosenior at Hull. It’s because Hull offered the best money. Sadly we have next to no money to spend. 

I don't know how we're coping in this league against the mega millions Cheltenham have.

On Hull, they still only the 9th highest transfer expenditure this season and I'm willing to bet there are just as many teams who are spending more on wages. I know we've been out of the Championship for 2 seasons, but surely you couldn't have forgotten how much clubs spend on wages in that league? £40m is top 6, £30m is top half. Hull had a wage bill of just £12.7m 2 seasons ago. The way you talk about Hull's finances suggests you thing they've quadrupled their wage bill in just 2 years?

2 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

And I bet you cant remember anything else of note he did in 45 minutes against League 2 Bradford reserves 😉

Since the other highlights of the game are:

1. Vickers giving the ball away cheaply and almost conceding
2. Vickers making some good saves to keep us in it
3. Ward not challenging from a corner resulting in us conceding
4. Fornah walking back as Bradford were breaking
5. John-Jules not passing to an offside Collins

Sibley's contribution of creating our best chance means he did well in comparison. 

Just now, RoyMac5 said:

Who were duds? Only the injury prone or the youngsters? All of the above are decent play bar perhaps Oduroh and Anang.

You could argue we gave Smith, Hourihane and Barkhuizen 1 year more than we should have. Collins struggled for the majority of last season too. Chester was injured for the majority of last season.

With the benefit of hindsight, I would have preferred signing the only player who was still available on July 1st was Nicky Cadden (joined Barnsley on 8th July). There were a number of other free agents I would have pursued, but they all agreed deals prior to July 1st or opted to join Championship clubs instead.

Considering our first summer signings we're Wildsmith, Barkhuizen and Mendez-Laing on the 2nd, I think it's fair to say we signed the best players we could. These players were all willing to wait for our takeover to go through at the risk of ending up with no club at all. We may have had to over pay slightly, but the alternative could have meant having a much weaker squad.

1 hour ago, RamFan13 said:

Probably cleaners left a light on

5 hours ago, roboto said:

Maybe the player wanted to return or we've had an enquiry from a team higher up the leagues to take him for the second half of the season?

In and out of a side 8th in the table - 7 full 90s, subbed off in 8, subbed on in 4, and unused in 8.

A loan to a side lower in the table, or in National League North is more likely. Perhaps Fylde (battling relegation in NL) or Chorley (battling for promotion in NLN), with both located in the North-West

2 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Dress it up with stats as much as you want, his general play has been pretty poor on most occasions that he has played.

Sure, pretty much any player can be dressed up by stats, but I bet you can only remember one good chance being created last night and I bet I know which player it was who created that chance 😉

48 minutes ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

I think the main reason he's gone to a back 3 is because we haven't got an out and out right back. Playing Wilson there essentially takes away his biggest threat which is running with the ball and taking players on and being an attacking threat in the final third and Joe Ward basically can't defend. So neither are suited to playing as a right back in a back 4. But are ok playing as a wing back. When Nyambe is back we'll have more of an option to play a back 4. 

I still think there's a player there with Fornah. He's just too laid back and has too many touches. He shows glimpses of what he can do. But there are times he needs to release the ball quicker, but this will need to be coached in to him. I wouldn't write Fornah off just yet. Elder I think will come good, but he is going to need a run of games. He's never gonna be able to get up to speed if he's in and out and until he has a proper run. I won't judge him.

One of the benefits of playing a 3 at the back is the fact we play 2 up top. Since that Collins has been scoring and that's no coincidence. Anyone with eyes can see he's not lone striker. All his goals at Luton came in a 2. 

Whilst 352 suits some players, such as Collins, it doesn't suit others. Mendez-Laing went from having 5 goals and 4 assists in his 9 games on the left wing, to just 1 goal in 5 when played in the middle.

4 minutes ago, jimtastic56 said:

Bird 1 goal involvement every 3 games ! Against some of these pub teams . Hope he’s not bragging about that .

For comparison, he's creating as many open play chances as Szoboszlai is for Liverpool. There are only 7 PL CM/AMs who create more from open play than Bird does in League 1. It's nothing to be embarrassed by

12 minutes ago, dcfcreece1601 said:

Sibley isn't showing anything in league 1 nowadays let alone championship (yes he doesn't get much of a run to build up form but plenty of others don't that have shown more) disappointed In his progress currently

Bird - who played most of the season as an attacking mid has 7 goal involvements in the league (7 total), which is 1 every 231 mins (302 mins)
Sibley - who has played LB, LWB, LW, RW, CM, and AM has 2 goal involvements in the league (7 total), which is 1 every 328 mins (146 mins). At CM/AM only, he has 2 league goal involvements in 273 minutes - 1 every 137 mins and 3 in 284 mins in all competitions (1 every 95 mins)

Sibley has only had consecutive starts at AM twice this season. Unsurprisingly, he had a goal involvement in both of those spells (assist in his 2nd game of his first spell and a goal in the first game of his 2nd spell.

Freddie Draper was released by our academy at 16 (now 20) and currently has 10 goals in 21 League 2 games. In the same age group is Darren Robinson, who our club regard as a much brighter prospect (hence us signing him as a 16 year old and not releasing him). League 2 is the minimum we should be loaning him out to, although personally I feel he's of lower League 1 standard. The same can be said of other youth players, who I don't think have been judged correctly.

Least week when talking about sending players out, Warne said "If you look at teams in the Premier League or the Champ, they try to get a non-league loan, then League Two and then League One. Once they come back, they have been developed by other clubs really. We can train and physically prepare them, but we can't give them the game time yet." 
This is partially correct for some players, but not all. Some go straight into the first team, others loaned straight to the Championship or League 1, skipping the leagues below which Warne refers to. However, in the Championship and below, players almost always have a few first team games before going out on loan.

Counter to everything Warne said above, Ben Wiles went into Rotherham's first team under Warne without ever going on loan. Perhaps a pressure free environment of relegation from the Championship being acceptable meant Warne was happy to throw him straight in.

People judge players differently, which is the likes of Elsnik and ABrown were released, and the club were close to releasing Festy and Cashin not long before they had a shot in the first team. You need to make sure you have the right person in that position to better judge young players. Judgement is one thing, but first team exposure is just as important. It tells potential loaning clubs if a player is ready for that level. I refer back to Bogle who we couldn't loan out to lower EFL clubs due to no exposure - he ended up getting 2 goals and 9 assists from RB that season! With only 90 minutes for our first team (against a Wolves U21 side) and only 63 minutes in the same competition last season, which club is going to know if Darren Robinson is ready for L1/2 football for the rest of the season?

5 minutes ago, Barney1991 said:

I’ve corrected it for you the bold is warne signings.

 

the bold italic and underlined is Craig Forsyth signings 

To be honest, I was tempted to leave Waghorn out for that reason, but he was still signed by Warne in the end.

One to keep an eye on is 21 year old forward Will Goodwin from Cheltenham. Struggled with injuries a bit early in the season, but him starting consistently has coincided with Cheltenham's upturn in results (starting with his assist against us). 6 goals and 2 assists in his last 11 games (836 mins). 

Scored and assisted for Torquay when we drew against them in the FA Cup last season as well.

Just now, Returning ram said:

Still a restriction though isn't it ? 
 

If Derby and Pboro go in for a player today, one can offer more than the other (regardless of if they can afford to pay it) - correct or not ?

Don't get confused between budget and restriction

3 minutes ago, VulcanRam said:

Supporters were not motivated enough to turn up.

Players were not motivated enough to turn up. 

Seems no-one likes playing L2 opposition in front an an East stand-only crowd, whatever competition it's in.

We can have an inquest and/or a meltdown but I'd just forget about it and move on. Far bigger fish to fry this season and our league form is good. 

It's why it's usually a good idea to include a couple of U21s in the team. They bring enthusiasm and unpredictability to the team, the sort of energy which helps motivated the more senior players in the team.

1 minute ago, Returning ram said:

Well yes, because you only have a tenner 🤣 

The same would apply to a business which (hypothetically) has set it's own budget of £8m even if it's governing body would have allowed it to go up to £10m.

If we go up, I would keep 12 out of the current 24 man squad. If we don't go up, I would want to keep those 12 (unlielly as some will want to move on) and keep a further 3 or 4.

Either way, we'll need 10 signings between now and the end of the summer window. The more players we sign in this window who are capable of stepping up the better off we'll be. Due to who we have contracted currently and beyond the summer, that means a heavy focus on the attacking players this month - AMs, wingers and forwards

15 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Does that mean there is no speed limit on the estate where I live because I have no intention of exceeding 30mph? 😀

Seriously though, if we are still subject to agreed business plan that includes self imposed spending limits, surely effectively they are restrictions if the business plan wouldn’t have been approved without them. We’ll never know if it would have been rejected but I’m pretty confident that DC and his team had a reasonable idea of the type of spending the EFL were likely to approve. Surely conversations took place.

My view is that, technically we may not be able to call them restrictions but effectively they probably are.

If my personal budget is £10, but someone tells me I'm restricted to spending a maximum of £20, it's not really a restriction, is it?

7 hours ago, kevinhectoring said:

Not wanting to detract from Rooney’s potential but: if these ratings put Rooney above Nyambe it puts a large question mark over all of the ratings 

You could argue it'd down to a small sample size (3 games / 187 minutes).

I'd also say it's fairer to judge players per 90 than per game, but the ratings are average game rating instead. Per game, Rooney made 2.7 tackles and 3.3 clearances to Nyambe's 1.5 and 1.6 respectively. Per game, there isn't much difference statisticly.