Dave Mackay Ate My Hamster

5 hours ago, MickD said:

Jamie Vardy on loan.  Scored 20 in Championship this season

 

Vardy isn't getting out of bed for less than £50K a week. Even at a hundred and eleventy seven.

Perfect for soaking up the bitterness from some.

Whilst DC is our owner and funder, we'll always have to spend within our overall turnover budget. No sensible fan can ask him to dig deeper into his (comparitively small for this league) pockets. He's spent £50m+ saving us and we all love him for it.

Now we'll sink or swim on how wisely we spend that budget. The only way that may potentially change is with outside investment.

For now I - and I'd guess 99% of us will be happy to see what that budget will buy us in our first season back in this league.

Don't chuffing overspend though. We know where that got us. If it's not enough to keep us up so be it. I think it will be. But just accept, in our first season back, it could go either way.

Loving the ride. Within our means.

Brentford incrementally hoisted themselves from relative obscurity by recruiting players on a data based model of analysing player attributes, buying those that excel in footballing stats in relation to their playing positions and then selling them on when, surprise, surprise they repeated their statistical strengths at a higher level. 

Whilst some may scoff at this data-based approach, they got far more right than wrong and they're now in the Premier League and have made a profit on players of well north of £100m.

Bigger Premier League teams can afford to buy "off the peg" and mostly need instant results. We need to learn some lessons from Brentford if we want to slowly work our way back to the promised land. Mel mostly messed up by cherry picking some of the best players from our rivals, then trying to crowbar them into our team, ignoring the fact that we played a different style from the team we bought them from.

We've a long way to go before we can dream of a similar renaissance, but be more Brentford. Player stats are by no means perfect, but can lead you to spend your money wisely, and hit the jackpot of resales on a fairly frequent basis.

The first stat we should concentrate on is players who regularly are able to play 40+ games a year consistently.  At least you're not buying a " Maradonna for 5 games a season ".

Every penny will count this season. We're fairly lean now, with little debt. Not a time for risks.....

" Spice up your life" has a very different meaning in Derby City centre, sadly.

On 19/05/2024 at 22:29, IslandExile said:

"Punching above our weight"???!!!

We are Derby County. 

There are no such limits to what we can achieve 🐏 Believe. COYR.

Haha, of course IE, that's a given. I should've said " Punching above our weight - on paper, as a newly promoted team." But that wouldn't have made a racy title. Not that my original title was anything like racy. More soporific. 🙂

I agree. We have a solid defence. Whilst not being the best defence in the new, higher league, I still think it'll be solid.

I'm quite disappointed that Oxford got promoted because I think we could have signed Brannnigan had they not got there. But I agree, midfield is the key. Hopefully Adams +3 would upgrade us massively, plus 2 quality strikers, most likely Premier League loanees as we can't afford that calibre to sign on a transfer fee.

We need to spend carefully, with a huge emphasis on future resale value.

Wheeling and dealing seems to be the only way to attempt to compete with parachute payment clubs.

Parachute payments income aside, we should still be a mid-table Championship team next season, just based on crowds and income. Obviously we're not an established Championship side now, after being relegated. We're not going to do " an Ipswich ", but we should be able to hold our own in this League.

My personal take is to buy wisely on speculative young talent. To take us forward, we need to take risks on upcoming prospects. Gone are the days of "ageing stars". Been there, done that. I'd settle for an improving team in this league. But don't do ourselves down - with good management and careful spending, we should, at least not be troubling the relegation positions.

I think we need to take advantage of young Premier League loanees - and speculative talent from the lower leagues. Also, despite PW's less than illustrious record in this league, I'd argue, cut him some slack. Rotherham, most likely had the smallest budget on the occasions he got them there.

We can't afford " Billy Big B******s " transfer fees or wages. We'll most likely have to wheel and deal. Maybe even sell Cashin or Dejaune at the top of the market to fund expansion. But, I do think, with our huge financial recalibration, we'll operate smarter. We have to. We don't have the big bucks anymore.

I'm expecting  a mid table end position next season. But obviously wanting more.  I'm wanting us to recruit like the Brentford of a few years ago. But will we?

Now every £ is sacred, will we spend wisely? I hope DC's influence will spend every penny carefully.

Do you think we can spend intelligently enough in this new financial reality to easily cement ourselves in this league next season?

Surely the most famous (non Rams) chant  of all time was when Scotland played Estonia in 1996. The Estonian team failed to turn up, the Scotland team presented themselves on the pitch, the whistle blew, then 3 seconds later the whistle blew again to end the match. Ironically, the Scots expected a 3-0 standard walkover but were forced to replay the match - which they drew.

" One team in Tallinn, there's only one team in Tallinn "

It's even got it's own wiki page. I'm not sure if any other football chant has that.

May I just add, to facilitate this, we may have to sell one of our 2 biggest assets, Cash or DB, who's gaining a great reputation where some higher team may take a few million punt on either. Stranger things have happened...

Given that our ( believe what you will from various sources ) turnover will increase from aprox £20m to £28m in the leap from League 1 to the Championship, do you think there may be a potential £3m of that increased revenue to spend on transfer fees? - or do you think no transfer fees, just increased player wages that will swallow up that ( supposed ) increase in revenue?

I'd like to think we could afford 3 x " Barker fees " i.e. 3 x £1m transfer fees for a goalkeeper, midfield general and a striker, taking into account a few of our expensive oldies on £10-£12K a week will be released and the anticipated £8m increase in revenue will happen.

Probably fanciful, but you can but hope...

I'm channeling my inner B4.

He was great for a year. A bit like my old grandad - looked like the world's most active pensioner up until 90, then sadly fell off a cliff physically and passed away a few months later. We could afford a player like Alfie May on his wages. Thanks mate, you did a great job for a while - but Father Time finds us all out.

And unfortunately, my old grandad wasn't on £12K a week.

Mikkel Beck, Claude Davis and Connor Sammon were never utilised to their strengths. Had we done so, Derby's history would have been ever so more glorious.

I've just put down my £12 insurance policy at B365. £10 on Bolton at 100/1 and £2 on Posh at 1000/1. 

Obviously it's money I'm happy to lose, but if the unthinkable happens, at least I'll be able to afford a drop of something decent to cry into afterwards.

The first rule about Big Trav is - you never question Big Trav.

Big Trav doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

The dinosaurs looked at Big Trav once. You know what happened to them.

Big Trav doesn't sleep. He waits.

Big Trav beat the sun in a staring contest.

Big Trav's tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

On the 7th day God rested. Big Trav took over.

Big Trav counted to infinity. Twice.

Never question Big Trav...

I bow to your superior knowledge BR. ( No sarcasm) 

11 minutes ago, Brailsford Ram said:

I enjoyed them all. We won seven and lost two of the first nine league games. I hope we match that this season. Do you know something that the rest of us don't? I hope so.

But the downside was that we ended up finishing 17th in the table that season. I hope that's not your forecast for this.

I stand corrected. You've got a few years on me BR, but I do know his first season wasn't spectacular.

1 minute ago, TomTom92 said:

Pretty sure DC, PW and numerous players have said promotion is the aim this season so not unexpected for fans to have this as the base line.  
 
Agree 2 matches is too early to get the knives out. However, a poor end to last season, poor recruitment in the final third and up to now a poor start to the season isn’t looking good. 
 
A win tomorrow will definitely ease any tension but likewise another defeat will see the heat turned up again.

DC might give PW the season regardless but if it looks like we’re midtable at best then attendences will drop as well as general interest.

" A win tomorrow will definitely ease any tension " 

Exactly! A win tomorrow will massively change perspective.

Too many over-react to a single win or lose. We may have to develop as a team this season, get some things wrong and some things right. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

I'm quite concerned at some fans over-reaction to our first two results of the season.

"Yes, we nearly went out of business, blah, blah, blah" some say "but that doesn't excuse everything", but I do see the same old sense of entitlement many of our fans exhibit, thinking we're too big for this league.

We're NOT as this precise moment in our history. The rebuild won't be as quick as the Harry Enfield character shouting "28,000 crowds" in a "loadsamoney" fashion. 

We're under financial restrictions which non of us are privy to.

Just rein it in for now. Allow the manager and team to develop and work out the myriad challenges that we need to wade through this season to get us where we need to be.

Remember Cloughie's first games and our renaissance post Igor. Success doesn't come quickly or easily.

It's a graft. We've not started as we wanted. But it's just ONE league game. There's 20 odd pages discussing whether Warne is on borrowed time!

Reality check. Please!

2 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

I think tomorrow is just another Friday, ain’t it? 🤷‍♂️

See my correction. I thought it was later than it was. Ooops.

Edit:  It's an hour to go till the end of today. So tomorrow isn't strictly accurate. 🙂 It feels like tomorrow, it's sooo close

At the risk of getting splinters in my a**e, my glass is 3 quarters full. Our defence is/should be almost Championship standard and will surely be the best in League 1. Time will tell...

But that niggling doubt about our attack.... Will we collectively replace Didzy's goals through more players stepping up to the plate and spreading our attacking output on a wider team contribution?

Will we be the  Arsenal of League 1?  " 1-0 to the Derby boys " - Sing along now.

Or will " Warne ball " - a constant drive to fire balls into the box, where they go in off shins and a**ses, it doesn't matter, just get it in there, lead us to be more prolific in front of goal than our current strike force suggests?

What do you think?

Fabulous. I can almost hear the gush of that "Watney's Party Seven" can nostalgia. (It actually became a Watney's Party Three and a Half after you'd stabbed it with a crude 1970's can opener - and most of it was lost volcanically)

1 minute ago, S8TY said:

We will but it might not be our first or second choice, plenty of teams with money to spend like WestHam for example haven't made a signing yet have some money.

Agents probably advising players to wait until later near end of window when clubs will pay more wages and fees etc then freeing up space for movement 

We are not alone in being frustrated in lack of signings and greedy agents won't be advising players to jump at first offer.

A team starts the season not scoring many and the price and wage demands go up its not good and is far from the good old fashioned way transfers were conducted.

In many ways the transfer window itself does not help and I think it would be much better if you could buy players at any time, then agents would'nt wait until last knockings to get the price up ...i personally think agents are bad for the game and just out for themselves...a lot of teams waiting and trying to get players in not just us 

Nail. Head. Hit. 👏

1 hour ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

Missed it last night so I listened to it on my way to work this morning.  I really enjoyed it and could listen to him all day.  I like his ideas on leadership and culture and, as he admires Klopp and his type of football, I like his football philosophy.  I’d rather watch Liverpool when they’re at it than Man City any day of the week.

Obviously he wants a striker or 2 but interesting to hear his comments on Collins.  If he can stay in the middle of the pitch and in and around the penalty area he’ll get more goals.  Totally agree, I think Collins will have a good season.

Can’t wait for Saturday 🐏.

I totally agree. Some complain he's too open, too honest, borderline frivolous - implying he's a bit smoke and mirrors for a football manager (OUR manager particularly). They mistake his jokey manner for someone desperate to please when he's interviewed. As though it's a smokescreen for lacking substance, or nous - That this "type" of manager isn't what we need. An "old school" type with the tactical ability of Pep is what we need - At League 1 level! 

He doesn't rule by the rod. Modern day footballers rarely respond to those archaic tactics these days. Exhibit A - Nigel Pearson M'Lud.

Don't confuse his "matey" personality with an inability to do a job for us. It's worked 3 times already for him getting a team promoted. That's no accident. The more he practices, the luckier he gets.

In the words of a comedy sketch (which one, escapes me) - "Jesus doesn't give us what we want, He gives us what we NEED". What some think we need is a champagne manager on a Lambrusco budget. What we need, at this time of a total reset of our football club is Paul Warne. Our Lord and Saviour David Clowes worked that one out.

I happen to agree. Even if we don't get promoted this season, when the EFL financial handcuffs are eased next season, we can properly - and within our means - use our fan base and financial advantage at this level, alongside PW and DC to sensibly reposition ourselves to where we can be punching to our weight again.

Sorry for the sermon. Praise the Waaarne!