Ghost of Clough

Oh that's way easier. Didn't even know you could do that 😂

Young Derby County duo Darren Robinson and Charlie Lindsay have been named in the Northern Ireland Under-21 squad for the upcoming UEFA Under-21 European Qualifiers https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2023/08/young-duo-selected-for-upcoming-northern-ireland-fixtures

Let's say the figure is £1m. Half of that could be promotion based with the rest being made up of appearance and goal add-ons. Would that be too bad?

Or highlight all and click on the quote box which pops up

Some people did.
Some different people did.

Some people did.
Some different people did.

https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2023/08/academy-confirms-new-appointments-august-2023

Clowes didn't have chance to speak to Wayne, he left before Clowes took over or spoke to him:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65959914

Our operating costs are not normal for L1 either 

Overall
Fees paid: £1.2m and a lots of undisclosed
Fees received: £6.3m and a few undisclosed
Players signed for a fee
Jon Taylor - £500k > £0
Will Vaulks - £400k > £2m
Ben Purrington - £300k > Undisclosed
Jamie Proctor - £75k > £0
Trevor Clarke - £100k > Undisclosed
Freddie Ladapo - £480k > £0
Dan Barlaser - £240k > £900k (sold after Warne left the club)

Which is why you extend the contracts of the players you do want to build the team around. Cashin, Bird, Thompson and Sibley should be central to our long term plan.
At the moment, this is the best team would we could field next season:
Vickers
Rooney   Bradley   Nelson
Wilson   Fornah   Radcliffe   Elder
Ward   Washington   DBrown

The 5 year plan was to be a stable Championship club. An example of this playing out cold be:
Year 1 (last season): Challenge for top 6
Year 2: Win promotion
Year 3: Avoid relegation
Year 4: Lower-midtable
Year 5: Midtable
It doesn't mean (as I interpret from your posts) that we have 5 years to get back to the Championship.
Whilst I 100% agree with you on preferring to sign players the 'right side of 30', I can also see the opposite side of the argument. There are few young promising players available on a free or negligible fee. Wildsmith, Vickers, Rooney, Cashin, Ward, Wilson, Elder, Bird, Thompson, Fornah, Sibley and John-Jules all fit within the ideal age range, with the majority of our signings so far joining that group.
However, I feel we could have pushed harder on signings younger alternatives to the players we have signed, such as Matt Pennington, Lloyd Jones, Jack Sparkes, Jensen Weir, Aaron Pressley, Tyler Walker

Depends what you mean by waste of time, football is the only sport where the better team on the day can often not get the result their performance deserves. Possession doesn't always tell the story, some teams are naturally more cautious with the ball. Rosenior, for example, dedicated a lot of time to playing it backwards and sideways to move the opposition and create gaps. When those gaps didn't appear, he still wanted players to follow through with the philosophy - it's why Cashin had 138 passes against Shrewbury in a 0-0 draw. In his last game, he had 47 passes against Peterborough in a 4-2 win. 
Possession-heavy teams starve teams of the ball and therefore starve them of opportunities - two teams with the most possession in League One last season had the best goals against record too in Bolton and Ipswich. 
I do think you can generally get an understanding of a team's approach, pros and cons by looking at the numbers of a big sample size. Barnsley and Port Vale is a great example, wasn't much between them in the first game but one team came out 7-0 winners. Now, the team that lost the game sits above the team that won the game after 5 matches. It kind of proves the point that you're trying to dismiss. 
Bolton have the most possession and most shots in the league - 64.3% possession and 15.8 shots a game. We have 47.5% possession and 13.2 shots a game. Bolton, for me, have very good control of football games and can create opportunities. There is definitely a 'soft underbelly' which was a term thrown around for us under McClaren but I think over the season they will have the most possession, create the most chances and ultimately starve the opposition enough to have one of the best defensive records in the league. I'd be confident as a Bolton fan of a top two finish. 

We don't need another cm, but maybe we do need THE CM.🤔
I might organise a testimonial darts match for Fozzy and invite Chris Martin along.😂

Not far from the truth most of the time but not on this occasion.
Link here

Which is why you extend the contracts of the players you do want to build the team around. Cashin, Bird, Thompson and Sibley should be central to our long term plan.
At the moment, this is the best team would we could field next season:
Vickers
Rooney   Bradley   Nelson
Wilson   Fornah   Radcliffe   Elder
Ward   Washington   DBrown

Which is why you extend the contracts of the players you do want to build the team around. Cashin, Bird, Thompson and Sibley should be central to our long term plan.
At the moment, this is the best team would we could field next season:
Vickers
Rooney   Bradley   Nelson
Wilson   Fornah   Radcliffe   Elder
Ward   Washington   DBrown

Which is why you extend the contracts of the players you do want to build the team around. Cashin, Bird, Thompson and Sibley should be central to our long term plan.
At the moment, this is the best team would we could field next season:
Vickers
Rooney   Bradley   Nelson
Wilson   Fornah   Radcliffe   Elder
Ward   Washington   DBrown

Which "Hull lad"? We've been linked with Longman from them, but he's a winger/wing-back

There was I, trying to work out whether we were looking at a pair of kippers, sharks, or prize carps… and it turns out one of them was actually a turkey all along!  🤔😜 🤪😵‍💫🥴
 
This is the best holiday read ever!  😎😁

Well, somebody's well and truly lost the plot 🤣
Utterly bizarre.
 

In the right system Hourihane would flourish. Box-to-box with high defensive responsibility is not the right role for him.

Minutes played under each manager:
Rooney - 1611
Warne - 792
Rosenior - 297
I'm not sure you can put the couple of months under Rosenior as the reason for "sideways and backwards passing". We've gone from having static forwards or those who prefer it to feet (Kazim, Collins, McGoldrick) to players who are better at running onto the ball (Waghorn, Washington)

We haven't had the best budget in the league. Last season we were somewhere between 3rd and 6th, whilst this season, we'll be somewhere in the top 6 again, with Charlton potentially in top spot.
Clowes doesn't need to come our to clarify anything. He has already publocly stated that we have a decent budget, one which is good enough to get promoted.
We could have spent some money on transfer fees, but Warne has opted no to because he sees more value in putting that money towards wages.

He only left only after Clowes took over and they had a meeting. For all we know, the discussion could have been along the lines of Rooney's wages taking up a massive proportion of the wage bill. So if he stays he'll have a small budget, or if he leaves the next manager will have more to spend (with a much greater chance of going back up).
Rooney did a really good job of galvanising the entire club during a unique set of events. However, it is 'easier' to motivate a group of players when you have something to fight for. If he took over a mid-table Championship side, I doubt he'd have much success.