Dave Mackay Ate My Hamster

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!

For those of you that haven't listened to the " Moment Of Truth " podcast on BBC IPlayer, I suggest you do so. It follows Paul Warne and Oxford's Karl Robinson in the "business end" of the 21-22 season, both striving to get their respective teams promoted. It's very insightful into the world of a lower (FL) league  manager.

I remember thinking at the time, this is the sort of bloke I'd love to manage our club, though I never expected it to be so.

Nothing has changed in my opinion of him since DC appointed him. I'm guessing he (DC) heard the podcast too, which may have led to him investigating PW further as our potential manager.

We had a less than ideal start to last season and PW was drafted in, in September when many things were outside his control. The squad was what it was (LR's mainly), there wasn't much wiggle room in January - and I personally think he did a decent job, with a squad that was mainly handed to him to do the best with.

I don't want to come across as a fanboy, but in our big reset after near oblivion, I'd sooner trust our managerial future to him than anyone else I could think of. I'm tired of big name managers underperforming. I think Paul Warne will make the best of what budget and players are available to us.

Football is a very fickle world and more often than not, bigger budgets don't equate to proportionate success. I do think though, we have a better chance of success under PW than anyone available to us in our current situation.

I'll put on my tin hat and await opprobrium from some....

Poacher. Chasing the long ball to outrun last man. Drawing an air square TV - then admiring my easy tap-in on the big screen replay.

Well. That aged well. McGoldrick gone. 😧

I watched a YouTube video tonight of all our goals this season, and I think Sibley and Knight, whilst being "pretty" players, just don't have the 35 year old McGoldrick's "nouse" for the goal. He just has it. And it shows.

4 minutes ago, sage said:

Bird and Cashin.

We all know there's a player in there with Bird, but is it the way he's utilised, formation, or has he just not carved out a postion for himself? He possibly would flourish in a team with a more consistent, definined role for him?

I know we all have our favourite players for myriad reasons, but given we have very few players under long term contracts, this season will be PW's chance to build almost a whole new squad. Will he though?  I think he should, with only 3 exceptions in my opinion. " But you can't let go of - insert player favourite name here " - I can hear many cry, but I think we've stuck with too many players for too long, and our emergency replacements last season, bar two haven't warranted holding on to them.

My three key players are Wildsmith, Cashin and McGoldrick. The spine of our team. Obviously to have a proper spine you need an influential midfielder, but I don't think we have that player yet.

Without boring the t*ts off you as to why, individually they are all game changers. We need influential players in most positions in this league to get out of it this coming season. Not passengers.

Our best younger players like Knight, Sibley and Bird, whilst showing immense promise, in racing parlance " haven't trained on " - ergo haven't fulfilled their potential. We could argue why, or if they were utilised well, but I can't see any of them spearheading a dynamic League 1 promotion next season. Time to cash in for me, whilst they still have some value.

Barkhuisen, Mendez-Laing, Collins flatter to deceive on occaisions, but not consistent enough.

Fozzy - a reluctant no from me for the same reasons. Possibly a squad player.

Hourihane - Too expensive and inconsistent at our level. £12K a week would buy better.

Bielik - Doesn't want to be here. A fiver and a bag of chips to take him off our payroll.

We can afford the best players in each position in League 1. No time for fans favourites and romanticism.

Spend our turnover, which is more than double than most of our League 1 competitors, wisely.

Whilst I'm not arrogant enough to suppose we'll romp this league, use the Ipswich model last season, who spent £2.5m of the total £4.5m spent in League 1, using that slight, but significant advantage to get them out of this division.

You know it makes sense....

Feel free to differ on my "must keeps" but our fanciful previous £10m+ valuations of some of our younger players have, with hindsight, proved to be just that - fanciful. If we can get a £1m+ for any of them, snap anyone's hands off and spend it wisely at our level.

The difference under Warne - and this transfer window - is that nobody knows chuff all. I like that. Of course, as a big fish in a small pond, we'll be linked with all and sundry. From lower league stars to higher league fallen stars.
As much as we all scan this forum for links to exciting players, I'm happy to wait for news of real signings, not speculation.
Very odd, as a departure from Mel waiving his cheque book around for several years and most of us lapping up players who shouldn't have been at our price point, but with Mel's madness actually were.

Haha. I've heard that term more times today reading this forum than all of my 58 years combined. Is it the buzz phrase du jour?

Are we all Americanising? Strange, the recent obsession with this phrase. "Hey Joe, if anyone flat-track bullies me, I'll moida da bum"

Without parroting the "we only had 5 players just before the season started" mantra over and over again, the truth is at least 5 teams in our league, were at a far more advanced stage of team development than us - and it showed.

We got off to a slow start because of it, we had a squad relatively thin in numbers, which told on occasions - and that, ultimately was the difference between a play-off spot, or better - and not.

We could argue PW wasn't good enough, terrible key refereeing decisions in games, but ultimately lack of consistency cost us.

I'd argue, at the start of the season, the average expectation of our final position would be somewhere between 10th and 4th - and we pretty much performed as expected. Yes, we had a few star recruits like McGoldrick and Hourihane, in their twilight years, but you need strength throughout.

Recruiting late, and basically being stuck with those players with little or no wiggle room throughout the season, was no substitute for teams that were better planned and more organised than us.

You don't get out this division quickly, unless you are relegated from the Championship with a heavyweight squad that you can afford to maintain whilst you're down here.

Like most teams in League 1, we have to learn the "long division" route is the only sustainable route back up. We didn't have it, others did.

Close but no cigar. But realistically not that surprising. 'Twas always thus in this division. Having 30,000+ crowds doesn't guarantee anything unless you get the basics right. We didn't have the time to nail all those basics.

I'm as gutted as everybody else we missed out today, but foundations need to be built to progress upwards.

DTID.

Today's consequences were hugely disproportionate to Curtis' "crime", if indeed any crime was committed - which is debatable. I will always be appreciative of his professionalism and absolute class as a man in our recent troubled times.

Sir, I doff my cap to you and wish you the very best for your future. I would have no problem with you being a part of our squad next season. A classy individual.

37 minutes ago, Retro_RAM said:

This is it, I'm stick to death of twisting we've twisted for so many years and look where it has got us? Every time it hasn't been better, it's been pretty much the same with the only difference being the name on the managers parking space and I'm tired of it.

If this was always the plan and LR knew he was only keeping the seat warm then fine BUT if we're just (again) going for another manager because we're not smashing the league I'll be very disappointed.

This club needs stability more than ever and this change (assuming LR was led to believe this role could lead to permanent) just reeks of our old ways, same goals, same desperation of "twisting" on managers to get promoted.

I hope I'm wrong and if/when Warne joins us we stick with him just because we're not bossing the league...

I don't think it was a knee-jerk reaction on David Clowes' part.

I think he's been carefully considering since he took over.

Obviously he will see more than you or I.

I have confidence in him and his decision.

21 minutes ago, r_wilcockson said:

FWIW, I wasn't convinced when I was watching the latest We Are Derby episode and seeing how Liam addressed the players after the game. Yes he was nice, but it seemed like he was trying too hard to copy Rooneys style and without the same gravitas. It didn't look to me like the players were hanging off his every word and looked up to him as such.

It will certainly be a change having Warne in the dugout, can recall him not shutting up every time Rotherham came to town. 

Sadly, I got that too. A good coach, a decent tactician - at times, but the fundamentals of management are getting the best out of all your players on a consistent basis. Some employ brutality, shock tactics, some use good cop bad cop, but ultimately you've got to motivate players on a regular basis.

Clever analysis, the professeur approach, may work at the highest level, but at the Championship level and below, it mostly works at managing everyone individually, carrot and stick in equal measure. We have the tools in our playing staff, we need someone to orchestrate them like a conductor.

That's management at our level.

We all knew we had a fabulous squad for this division. If I'd spent 53 million on our club and we were on the edge of the playoffs early doors with a rookie manager, still not having sorted out our away form, I'd be thinking " for an extra 750K in compensation I could get better ", I'd be twisting, not sticking.

Don't forget he was a very reluctant fan-buyer. He doesn't have billions. 53 mill is still a massive risk. The only way I would have stuck with Liam at this point is if he was six points clear at the top of the division. Even then I'd be fretting...