Animal is a Ram

35 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

The process used for this season will need to be overhaulled. 12 summer signings and a further 2 in January, of which only 3 are likely to be regular starters is absolutely shocking (Nelson, Nyambe, Blackett-Taylor). This is also after the squad failed to place top last season, losing 3 of our first 11 (Roberts, Knight and McGoldrick) and not even having a right back in the entire squad.

It's summarised by having no long term vision. That's in terms of: a) bringing in younger players who will either maintain their current standards for longer, or have room for improvement; or b) planning how the players will fit into the team.

Warne put a clear focus on older and more experience players, based on the rationale of higher wages equates to better players. If more budget is put towards the wages, we'll end up with a stronger squad of players.
Warne also had no plan on how to fit the players into the team. This is demonstrated by early summer recruitment being with 3421 in mind, which quickly changed to 352, and then alternating between 442 and 4231 during the season so far. We signed a LB (Elder) to play as a wing back, but also signed Nyambe (RB) after already signing 2 wing backs. He also signed a slow CB who cannot play in a high line and is uncomfortable on the ball under pressure. We've basically got through from October with only 1 fully fit forward whowas 2nd choice last season and failed to improve on in the summer AND January.
The style of play our CF targets prefer also varied. Summer targets like Harris, Rhodes and Sharp all have different strengths and weaknesses. Similar with January targets such as Smith, Gregory, Mubama, Ennis. It's just a scattergun approach all round. Most of these targets compromise on the high intensity press Warne wants to implement too.

Or as I like to call it - the promoted at any cost. Far too much sense in one post for this forum though.

There are other factors why we haven't seen as much of the youth.

I get the want to solely pin this on Warne, and his track record doesn't speak volumes to want to use them- leopard, spots, etc. - but it can be hard to shift that mindset when we've tasked him with finding near immediate league success.

A lot of the lads in the u21s were rushed from the u18s as a knock-on from the admin exodus, and have only had half a season at that level. Not only that, but there's been a lot of change in the academy hierarchy. That'll take it's time to settle.

We're still in rebuild mode as a club. Can only use that for so long, yes, but it doesn't exactly scream the most stable environment to safely develop these players - especially when the fans have the expectations that they do right now, can you imagine the reaction if Warne throws in a young player and doing so loses a game?

2 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

The fact he has gone to a non league club would lead me to believe we don't think he is ready for League One football yet?

Possibly, but it also could be down to the ease with which we could recall him if necessary.

4 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

There's a permananet pot, a loan pot, and a sack the manager pot. The first 2 pots were agreed with the EFL and cannot be exceeded. The EFL don't care about the third pot.

But that leads me nicely into:

16 minutes ago, Animal is a Ram said:

And then the money for new players that a new manager will inevitably want? This is the cycle that got us into this mess in the first place.

2 minutes ago, Curtains said:

Bird has gone I ain’t bothered about Cashin 

Why?

You know what, never mind. 

1 minute ago, Curtains said:

It good news week .

We have one CF .

Woopee

One *fit* CF. Wash and Waggy back fairly soon.

3 minutes ago, Curtains said:

I thought he was great in U21s for us and said he had a future but he is no Roy McFarland or Colin Todd 

Nobody will ever be one of those. Might as well list big Dave Mackay while you're at it. But what relevance are they 50 years on?

Curtains, put the fishing rod away.

Club's most saleable asset, and POTY contender secured. How that can be anything but good news is beyond me.

1 minute ago, Simmo’s left foot said:

I think its about time mods starting dealing with all these stupid and toxic comments. Its ruining the forum which has always had a good atmosphere. Its become toxic now because of the anti Warne and anti club agenda a vocal minority have.

It's okay to have that opinion. It's also okay to call it out.

5 minutes ago, tinman said:

The bird money will more than cover it. 

And then the money for new players that a new manager will inevitably want? This is the cycle that got us into this mess in the first place.

1 minute ago, David said:

You wish

5 minutes ago, tinman said:

The question was how do we change it up? 
the answer I gave was change the manager. 
 

or only answers approved by you allowed?

If there isn't the money for a new striker on a permanent, what makes you think there's money for a firing and hiring cycle?

That's how you do it, Max Bird

*tongue firmly in cheek.

In all seriousness. What a bloke. Let's hope we can reward his loyalty with a promotion on his CV at the end of the season. I was a little surprised there wasn't even a hint of Brighton coming back in with another offer...

What a man.

Freedom of the city, please.

http://thera.ms/cashin2027

If Collins goes down, I'd expect NML to go down the middle with a rotation of Barkhuizen, CBT, Ward and Wilson behind.

Something like:

                                         Vickers

            Nelson               Bradley              Cashin

Wilson               Hourihane              Bird                    Sibley

          Blackett-Taylor                       Barkhuizen

                                   Mendez-Laing 

It neutralises NML a bit, but until Waghorn and Washington return, I don't know who else goes there.

7 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

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). 

To play devil's advocate here - it's harder for Rotherham to hold out for the bigger offers. Would it be beyond the realms of possibilty that if they were Derby players (in those seasons) you could have seen them go for 0.5m-1m more?

Then again, our track record hasn't been fantastic in getting the best value for players...

Quite probably the closest in match fitness compared to the rest of the names in the list, but that goal record is a worry.

Wouldn't be totally opposed to a 6month deal.

I never did understand the 'penalties are just stat padding' argument.

Players miss easier chances than penalties regularly. The number of one-on-ones I've seen in football where a player hits the keeper's legs, fluffing a free header...

But when they score the tap-ins from a couple of yards out, in an empty net, you going to ignore those too? Barkhuizen's got a couple of those this season.

1 minute ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

There are some options out there according to transfermarkt, whether any of them are feasible in terms of fitness, work permits, willingness to join etc is the bigger question;

- Lucas Joao formerly of Reading, only 30 so would be the pup of our forward line if he signed.

- Josef Martinez (also 30) formerly of Beckham’s Inter Miami. Venezuelan international, big name in the MLS for a few years and probably way too unrealistic an option for us.

- Lys Mousset formerly of Bournemouth and Sheff United, only 27 apparently. 
 

Connor Wickham, Dwight Gayle….Lewis Grabban 👀 

Realistically I think Warne will go with what he has, rightly or wrongly, but there are some options out there in free agent land. 

I couldn't quite believe Lys Mousset was only 27. Doubt Martinez would pass the work permit even if it was feasible..

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/spieler/vertragslosespieler/statistik/1/plus//galerie/0?ausrichtung=alle&spielerposition_id=14&land_id=alle&altersklasse=&wettbewerb_id=alle&seit=alle&yt0=Show

Go nuts.

Jurgen Locadia, anyone? Feel like we briefly flirted with that one while he was at Brighton?

To put a slightly more positive spin on this - for all the talk that Portsmouth have done well, I think they've gone too far in trying to stop their stuttering form, they risk unsettling the balance. Time will tell of course.

1 minute ago, MoleyMcMolerson said:

So chaps, thoughts on Bird?

I wouldn't, you might want to give it a few days...

That said, you've got a cracking young player - he'll have a better time in the Championship than he's having in L1. Doesn't look spectacular, should shoot more often, but is a 7/10 most weeks.

Needs to shoot more often, only really scores stunners.

How very disappointing. How very Derby County. Hand on heart, when was the last, effective January window this club had?

CBT and Adams get a thumbs up from me - on paper at least - but to come into the last third of the season with one fit recognised striker is woeful. We'd better hope Washington and Waghorn get fit and firing soon, and that James Collins has the recovery powers of Deadpool.

It's not all Warne's fault, desperate as some fans are to squarely lay all the blame at his threshold. I fail to see how it can be. I know we're still recovering as a club, and the recruitment team is fresh this season - but they've sold Paul up the river here. We won't know the ins and outs of it all, but why we bothered dealing with Wednesday beyond an initial approach for Smith and a 'you know where we are if you see sense' is beyond me. Why did we then think they'd treat Gregory any differently? 

It still feels as if Rosenior managed to cobble together a better bunch of waifs and strays, and that was just him.

Remember that summer where every striker we got linked with ended up going to Bristol City? Or at least that's what it felt like.

Fun times.

Our top three 'clinical' players by this metric:

Waghorn, Forsyth, Barkhuizen. 😅