Animal is a Ram

Summer window:

Curtis Nelson
Callum Elder
Joe Ward
Sonny Bradley
Josh Vickers
Kane Wilson
Martyn Waghorn
Conor Washington
Tyrese Fornah
Elliot Embleton
Ryan Nyambe
Tyreece John-Jules

Winter:

Ebou Adams
Dwight Gayle
Corey Blackett-Taylor
Max Bird*

*I've included Max, as I feel it was crucial we had him to the end of the season.

Extensions:
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing
Eiran Cashin
Jake Rooney  

Ratings out of 10, please. I might do some statistical analysis.

1 year left on his Cardiff contract. £400k max.

How about @Day-o?

or

@Daylight come and me wan' go home?

6 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

 

With some of the reverse perskyologicals we've had this season, I'm taking this to mean he's starting.*

*pinch of salt.

1 minute ago, Patrick Rams said:

As already mentioned your proposal is virtually copied and pasted from the National League rule book.Only two divisions below Derby County.

Not quite - this one is double elimination. Barnet would get two bites at it with the one @RadioactiveWaste proposed.

3 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Why should a team that's spent the whole season proving they're not up to playing in the division above get a chance for a reprieve in a one off match? It's also just got the absolute worst vibes for hope, ambition, joy. Just hate the idea. So PL will probably implement it.

My preference would be:

3rd play 4th at home - winner is finalist. Loser plays winner of 5/6 at home.

5th play 6th at home - winner plays loser of 3v4 away.

Winner of that match goes to the final.

I like it because each place up you finish gives an advantage.

3rd has 2 shots at making the final, both at home.

4th has 2 shots at it, second of those at home.

5th has to win 2 games to get to the final, but the first is at home.

6th has to win 2 away games to make the final.

Final because it's a good money spinner. The games to get there are not two legs.

It's still balls because we all know top 3 should go up by right, but the entertainment value of the play offs is a good thing overall.

 

Also known as, the double elimination bracket. See it tons in esports. 

Yes, I know, I'm a nerd.

25 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

I disagree with play-offs. You've done enough to prove yourself over 46 matches, to finish 3rd in my opinion. Seems unfair you could fail to gain promotion to a team in 6th, finishing say,  20 points behind you and winning the play-offs

I do find myself agreeing with this, and sometimes it feels as if there's more prestige to going up through the playoffs than there is coming second (matron!)

That said, for me, I'd change the format: 

3rd goes straight to the final, 4th place becomes the semi vs. the winner of 5th vs. 6th.
Single games, at neutral venues, final at Wembley.

Will never happen, mind.

Saturday sees 8 out of 12 games in the final round with permutations for the league:

Barnsley vs. Northampton
Derby vs. Carlisle
Fleetwood vs. Burton
Lincoln vs. Portsmouth
Peterborough vs. Bolton
Port Vale vs. Cambridge 
Reading vs. Blackpool
Stevenage vs. Cheltenham

A two-way fight for second, a four-way fight for two playoff spots, and a three-way fight to avoid the last trapdoor spot. Stick yer Premier League, I love lower league football.

There's also a world where we finish with more wins, more goals scored, and fewer goals conceded than the champions if Derby win and Portsmouth fail to beat playoff-chasing Lincoln.

My predictions have the final top 8 looking as such, with Burton relegated on goal difference.

Derbyshire 2-0 Cumbria

Collins

Even if 2nd was unlikely, surely you'd want to at least try and secure 3rd?

Just now, Topram said:

Cambridge now winning and staying up which I’m glad about, decent lot on Saturday 

Even sweeter that it's against Car Park Sold Out FC

While his distribution could be better, and a few head loss moments have caused us some trouble, he's been solid.

I'd be more than happy to have him stay whichever league we're in.

HAHAHAHAHAHAH

Win for Posh. Keeps Bolton under a lot of pressure.

21 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

What is their argument gonna be:

"they said we are like a mafia gang, which we need to sue for because we are 100% definitely not a mafia gang"

The Forest Forum is pretty depressing, many of them they are making an incredible stand here vs the problems with VAR and referees in general. They all seemed to miss the part where they excused an official of deliberately cheating to benefit the team he supported.

They also claim that loads of other people are behind them (some tweets) and there is a grand conspiracy between Premier League, The Media, TalkSport, Sky etc. They are all coordinated against plucky little Forest, who should have had a penalty, so called out someone for cheating.

Oh, and some posters even revelling in their owners crimimal links, laughing about how he'll burn down their bakery, or more sinister actions. Will they be celebrating when someone gets hurt, either on their owner's command or just a Forest moron acting alone.

This is absolutely what happens when the official club account tweets things to this effect. Instantly legitimised the normal conspiracy nonsense 

15 hours ago, Archied said:

You bugger ,,, you’ve just raised my can’t bloody wait for Saturday levels when I was managing to keep a lid on them and it’s only bloody Monday 😡

Look at the bright side, at least it's Tuesday now 😁

This week is indeed crawling past though... 

2 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

I may be old fashioned but I find the best place for ticket news is the official DCFC ticket site which said sold out last month.

I've found the ticket site to be flaky as all heck.

You do you. 

It doesn't particularly matter, just means PP will still be rocking. 

6 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

It’s been sold out since March the 24th.

This is the first time they've announced it on their socials. 

10 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

And that's fine, by the way! I'm not saying it's not. It's just your own personal philosophy. For me its high up the list.

So the bit in bold is essentially where I'm disagreeing with you and with others. You might not expect to be, but surely you hope to be?

I've got plenty of sympathy for Warne re: all the reasons that we've played the way we have. Budget, injuries, quality of the players, the nature of the division, etc etc.

But surely we have to eventually strive for better?

I would imagine that if you asked Paul Warne himself he would even say that he would like us to be playing better football than this.

He deserves to be given the opportunity to do that, and I hope the club back him to do so, but you can understand why some supporters don't have much faith that Warne can deliver better football than this based on a) his time with Rotherham and b) his time so far with us!!

I agree with everything you've put here, and absolutely, I hope to be entertained - and, I may be stating the obvious, but if given the choice, it ranks thus:

Win and play well
Win and play not so well
Lose and play well

What I take issue with is people's stupid expectations. We had the same under Mac when we were playing well AND winning. To pinch a phrase from Alpha a long time back, we weren't winning-y enough.

I take issue with the ones that don't accept that we have those things tying a bit of a hand behind Warne's back. 

1 hour ago, Tamworthram said:

Old news isn't it?

I believe the club have been drip releasing seats, especially the ones closest to the away support in the East stand.

It'll also be that all the hospitality has sold out, I expect?

1 hour ago, Tamworthram said:

Do I smell a dose of unnecessary anti immigration sentiment sneaking in there?

It would be the EFL docking points not the FA.

And I'm not sure Bolton and Peterborough would be best pleased if Mickleover were promoted in our place. 😀

Especially when they've been deducted points for allegedly fielding an ineligible player...

35 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

But you are there for entertainment aren't you? You're there to watch a sport you love, a team you've got a connection to etc etc.

I appreciate this has become a somewhat philosophical debate now but the purpose of sport is for entertainment as far as I'm concerned. Otherwise it would be called exercise. It's a multi-billion dollar global industry because it is primarily entertainment. 

It's a way down my list of priorities for going.

I just said, I don't expect to be entertained. Mostly because, especially this season, there's always a team doing their damndest to stop that.

Yes, sport is entertainment, but only really for a neutral. In my opinion.

2 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

But people do watch all of those for entertainment, and take part in those to compete in what is essentially a game. They're not not entertainment because you don't personally enjoy them.  

I don't see how you can see football as being anything other than entertainment. The entertainment of the people playing it and the people watching it. That's all sport is at its core.

Do people saying all sport is just a "physical activity" pull up a chair in the gym and watch people go for it on a treadmill? 

The modifier you're missing out on is the emotional component for a lot of people.

I go to Derby games because I like watching football and I have an emotional connection to the club. I don't expect to be entertained, because it's not guaranteed.