May Contain Nuts

I would have preferred more entertaining football and control in games. I think that the lack of control in games led to unnecessary physical exertion which there is a good case for saying led to the amount of injuries. Some may argue our style of play played a part in Bird wanting to leave. Pure speculation of course.
I think much of the recruitment was ill thought out. Too many signings of players who were arriving with injuries, too near the end of the career or hadn't played for a while which didn't fit well with Warne's style of play. He signed Fornah to do a job he want physically capable of doing. 
There is an argument that our superior budget dug us out of a mess of our own making with the arrivals of Nyambe, Adams and Gayle later in the season.
I thought the whole captaincy process and back 5 insistence made him and Bradley look weak to many people. I can see the sense in a vote on captaincy but there was a perception amongst fans that Bradley was brought in to do this and that Hourihane wouldn't have been his choice.
On the plus side, we bounced back from adversity well. We never went on a dreadful run like we have under other managers. Some more cynical may suggest its easier to bounce back as you are never more than a couple of matches from playing a poor team.
We showed some good resilience in important/difficult games. Our away performances against Pompey, Posh (first half) and in patches Bolton were very good. 
He eventually solved the back 4 problem with Nyambe and in January solved the midfield energy problem with Adams.
In terms of PW I don't hate him. I hate very few people. I didn't like 2 interviews he did this year and I know they irritated many on here, some of whom have a rosier view of PW than myself. I'm fairly ambivalent to him generally. I dont feel the love that i had for Cox and Smith but he equally isn't a Pearson or even a Clement.
He has talked about needing a lot of changes for next year. I hope that means looking after the ball a bit more and not just taller, quicker versions of what we have now. His admiration for Bird gives me some hope in that direction.
My view of fans on here defending/over defending PW by pointing to limited resources is a bit off. They are only limited in terms of fees and in comparison to the MM Madness. We had a very good budget on wage bill compared to the rest of the league.
That is my constructive view.
 
 

You’re correct, with my patient optimism I have always been right! And some people have also always been correct in their concerns. But mainly I was right 😉 
I think the door has swung both ways with the more vocal minority on either side of the argument quick to goad, dismiss, mock, label all season long. Looking at it objectively the following concerns have been raised, some of them are valid and some were clearly short sighted and spiteful, the evidence is there if you go looking from all sides. These are summarised/paraphrased points to try and capture all sides ;
- “Warne doesn’t have any pull” (disagree here as we’ve signed some effective players this season… and gambled with some injury prone ones)
- which brings me to point two, “he’s been operating with restrictions so we should be patient.” I always felt there was some logic to this and also agree with the points made that we still could have recruited better when you look at some of the other free agents signed up by our rivals. Overall the group we had were effective and got the job done, hindsight being the wonderful thing that it is I can’t help but wonder if we’d have won the league with a couple of different options.

- “he only signs old players/cloggers/former Rotherham players” biggest short sighted load of nonsense out of all the criticism for me and one point I’ve been at pains to counter for the last 2 seasons. It’s a generalised and ill informed view that ignores the restrictions at play and also the likes of Nyambe, Adams, Nelson, Wilson, Elder, Ward, TJJ, none of whom are ancient or cloggers or former Warne players.
- “players don’t want to play for him/he’s a glorified PE teacher/fitness coach” always felt this was unfair and it’s clear by the end of the season that this squad did want to play for him and he’s got a little more about him than some would credit. His man management seems to be a big strength and one people have been quick to dismiss, surely he deserves credit for getting the team over the line even if they are “the best players in the league” and he’s “just done what’s expected of him” 😉 
- “he’s tactically limited” this is one of the big ones and hard to fully pick apart without a good dialogue from all sides. Part of me agrees and sees it from the football purists point of view that we don’t typically control the ball and control games so see why folks have issues there. But also he has adapted all season, used different shapes, different combinations and still got the job done. It seems to be a case of pragmatism over style which then comes down to preference as many have expressed, it’s not for them that’s fair enough, and others (like myself) are happy seeing us score goals and win regardless of style (which is also fair enough). Though my biggest and remaining complaint with him will seemingly always be his timing of subs, a couple of times this season he’s nailed it (can’t remember specific games) but there have been others when a change was desperately needed and he’s done nowt….come on Paul, save my blood pressure next season please. It’ll be interesting to see how he adapts in the championship with Derby, but I think he’s earned that right.
- “the football is dire”, another difficult one to reconcile personally for me as I’ve enjoyed it but I get that people want more control in midfield, more passing etc so again it’s a complicated point to discuss with more nuance. Personally I’ve enjoyed winning lots, scoring plenty, improving away and ultimately going up automatically but it could have been smoother sailing for sure.
- “he doesn’t trust young players”, another of the biggies that so far seems to be evident and is more a wait and see thing for me. He definitely could/should have used the pizza cup to blood a few more youngsters this season then perhaps they’d have been ready to plug gaps when injury struck. However I also see Warne’s point about not throwing them in and “ruining them”, he’s essentially done the job this season but given the investment in the academy and his key it in theory will be to the clubs future this is one he must do better on.
- “his interviews are *insert positive/derogatory comment*” this is all down to personal preference, some like his interview style and some don’t, if that’s how you feel it doesn’t make you factually wrong it’s just an opinion. 
 
- “give him time”, seems so far to have been the right shout, earlier in the season understandably more and more people had concerns, I even had my own mini wobble, but essentially the patience appears to have paid off (for this season at least….what happens next we have to wait and see).
There may be other points but I’ve got to do the school run so feel free to pile on and tell me what I missed and where I’m wrong. My point here is that there are valid concerns all round, and plenty to discuss respectfully, we all want what’s best for the club. 

Wasn't that thread from October, when things were looking absolutely dire on the pitch? I appreciate it's a results business, but at the time we were getting neither the results nor a performance. We'd barely troubled the top six the previous season, and looked set to repeat the same again.
The message was sent loud and clear that it wasn't good enough. Had things carried on in the same manner, he'd have been out of a job. Absolutely no doubt in my mind. It's also important that Warne at this point was freely admitting things were nowhere near good enough. It wasn't just us Warne outers that were critical. He was agreeing with us.
Credit given to all involved that following that "altercation" with Hourihane and the fans, results did improve. And that was despite key players being out injured. I absolutely think that the toxicity at the time knocked some reality into the players and staff. I think it was their make or break time. I also absolutely think we'd be nowhere near second had we all just clapped them off every game, and quietly accepted whatever garbage was being served up. I truly think it was the moment the penny dropped for the club. And it was needed.
I think that point in time, when the Warne doubt was at it's highest, that neither camp was wrong. One camp were fed up with things as they were in reality. One camp were optimistic things would improve. I'd also argue both camps were right because despite results improving, arguably the football didn't. So some very valid questions remained.
However it's results that get you up, so most sane doubters were placated. And we did go up. Because we're Derby and we're brilliant, regardless of who's in charge.
But I'm always wrong, so feel free to disagree.

It was nice being a big fish in a small pond for a bit, but lets be honest League One is absolutely honking and the idea that Derby should have been happy to take it slow and rebuild down there was nonsense. I am delighted that we got out relatively quickly given the circumstances that saw us down there, let's never go back again.

“Not renaming the road between Derby and Nottingham”
Fair enough. But the M1 between Derby and Rotherham can now be the “Paul Warne Way”. 

Misread that and thought it was a “paint me like one of your French girls Jack” sort of line 👀 

My grandson is doing it, so proud.

I don’t think I’ve ever really understood this argument. You can’t do it perfectly but if you have a relatively big budget for the level you can buy relatively better players for the level who can do it.
If we get promoted, we will have a relatively worse squad than this year, that’s where I can understand pragmatism. Although even then we played decent enough football to accumulate enough points to be lower mid table with a tiny budget last time we were there, albeit in weird circumstances.
Warne has chosen this way to play football. It’s not really my taste but we’re pretty good at it so who am I to argue. But let’s not pretend he’s not had a choice. 

As one - of what felt a relatively small minority at times - who urged patience earlier in the season,  I'm obviously glad we were, and that the outcome justifies it.  I aleo don't subscribe to the 'with the squad we have it was the least we should expect/we should be walking this league' mentality either.
However,  we have been slightly fortunate that other teams have stumbled so much and/,or that 3 good teams went up last year that would possibly have finished above us again this year. It doesn’t feel like a particularly strong League 1 - the Championship looks ridiculously strong though.
All irrelevant, we go up and we deserve it. Warne deserves a crack at the Championship. 
But it's inevitable if we continue the style of play when we are bad that he will come under pressure. This year the mantra is 'he's done it 3 times' and that calm experience looks key now. Even the way we accepted a (vital) point at Wycombe whereas Peterborough have taken a couple of hidings in amongst their wins.
Next season all previous experience is relatively negative so it won't be long before the pressure is on. Bottom half there will be a lot of groans, near bottom 3 close to Xmas and I expect he'd be close to gone.
I can't imagine many teams go up with such a divided fan base around the manager but almost everyone will agree he's done his job this year and so understand why he's going to be given the chance again. How long that patience last is going to variable!!

I wouldn’t quite describe it as “exemplary”. Our performances against Northampton and Wycombe (in my book, by and large, the management and players take joint responsibility for the poor performances and credit for the good ones) in particular are enough of blot to make such an accolade unjustified. Even most of the wins have been less than convincing but, I agree with your other sentiments. 
 
whether he is the right man to rebuild and go again is uncertain (I do understand certain posters concerns) but I do think he’s got us close enough not to be sacked.
Again, I get the concerns voiced by some others if we go up but he will have earned the right to give it a go.

For the away or third kit, I'd like us to try something different and include a map of Derby in the design of the shirt. It could be done so that Pride Park is located within the club's logo, seen as the logo is an outline of a ram. For extra points they could utilise the colour scheme featured in the modern remake kit that @loweman2 posted a few posts ago. Here's a few attempts at it with other clubs over the past few seasons. I especially like the green Hibernian one from 2021/22.

Sorry, you should know I don't mean your comments. I have no problem at all with people disagreeing with my view of Warne and then telling me what it is that I don't see in the football and results. But I am fed up with personal insults just because I don't rate Warne. 
Warne has done his job, the one Clowes picked him for. And whilst we may have set Club records we've not exactly done it with any style (imho obvs 😄 ) and we're at a level we've hardly played at and are playing at not because of our football abilities but because of our financial failings.
Here's to next season! #COYR I'm sure you'll have a great time at the Carlisle game if you've a ticket. 🙂

Watching the Bolton game.
 

Can and should are different things.  You can debate anything at anytime.  It doesn't mean you should.
It comes across to me as pure Monty Python to have a debate about sacking a manager two games out from a clubs greatest achievement since 2006/07. 
  

You've stated twice that my opinion is everything wrong with football. I'd describe that as being outraged yes. 

It’s difficult to be a good footballing side and good at set-pieces, especially outside of PL level.
I don’t mean this in a trolling way, but we were never going to be a good set-piece side under the McClaren days when we had decent footballing players like Hughes, Ward, Bryson, Dawkins, Russell etc. We simply didn’t have the height or physicality.
But you look at cloggers like Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich and of course they looked far more dangerous at set-pieces.
We know Warne is more McCarthy than McClaren. We know Warne will favor physicality over flair. So it’s refreshing to see us become decent at set-pieces, but no doubt it will come at a cost of flair, technical ability and fluidity on the ball - especially at Championship level when we get there.

Whilst it’s not worth going back and listening to a whole day worth of audio, it was a very impressive stint from Radio Derby and I really enjoyed it as something different. Lots of interesting bits with Eric Steele with the kit man etc, but also a pretty interesting kind of round table with Colin Gibson, Tom Loakes and Ed Dawes about the media side of things (including having to hide Marriott in the back of Gibbo’s car when he signed). Owen Bradley spoke well about RamsTV, a few interviews on the academy etc etc. It was just good radio tbh, and I hope people didn’t purposefully miss out because they talked themselves into thinking it was a distraction or whatever they were whinging about beforehand. I do find it quite funny that there were 9 pages on here before Monday and just after a page since it was broadcast.
FWIW, the most important thing to come out of it is that it’s sured up the club’s relationship with Radio Derby. I might be wrong but I did sense it was all quite frosty under Mel’s tenure and there has probably been a bit of hangover in the 2-3 years since. I’m sure it’s not that any bridge mending was needed, but things like Warne doing a couple of interviews with presenters away from Dom and Ed are good because it brings a different perspective to Warne. Hopefully it means there will be more stuff like this was in the future.
Great job by everyone involved!

Please answer?! I gave you my thoughts the first time, how about “please read it”.
The Hourihane sub meant a change from an ineffective 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3, it got Collins in a more central striking role than he’d been in before that point, and allowed Smith to drop in and cover the right side of the pitch so Wilson went forward to join the attacks. I didn’t say Wilson did a good job, but the substitution did change our approach, it was still ineffective but it did at least change something about how we were playing….therefore I can see some sense in it.

We always seem to drop our standards to the team we’re in front of & not impose our game…when we played on the ground we cut through them but that was twice all game…hoof it for the other 99%. Technically 1 point away and 3 at home will see us up…but 7 shots & 0 on target for a team away to a hoof-ball side is stark. 

What an appalling game of football. 
They are abject and we are trying to do our best to match them.
So disjointed, dreadful passing and control.
The linesmen are on crack.
Collins has touched the ball twice and if CBT can play for Derby then anyone who can run 100m in under 12 seconds can too.
 

Shakespeare got it about right when he said "Xg or not Xg? Stat is the question"!

My latest offering. This is a corner of my husband’s aunt and uncle’s farm in Lincolnshire. Sadly, his aunt is terminally ill. This is a surprise gift I’ll be posting to them this week. 

Just like last season and as predicted this season.

Sonny Bradley getting a 3 game ban is the best contribution he has made since he joined the club.

Every time we go on a good run is because Warne has stumbled on something, let's just hope he can stumble on something again friday