Dave Mackay Ate My Hamster

I might get some pelters here but personally I think the potential appointment of Paul Warne is possibily the best option available to us at this stage of our " rebirth ".

LR clearly was influential in WR's team, some even suggested he was THE tactician in the set-up. Our away form was woeful last season, and continues to be so. There's absolutely no chance of promotion repeatedly making the same mistakes away from home.

If you've not listened the the BBC podcast Moment Of Truth, where he and Oxford's Karl Robinson were mic'ed up for the second half of last season, I suggest you do. He is a supreme man manager. Direct yes - very!  A complete sweary-Mary, but he can get players to run through brick walls for him. He knows what levers to pull for each of his players. I think we're all agreed we have one of the better squads in our division, but Paul Warne has done much more with lesser players and less than half our budget in this division. I listened to the podcast and did think he would be just the sort of motivator that would be ideal for us at this level. As much as I admire LR's loyalty , if you've ever seen the cameras in the dressing room, he's very vanilla and I'd even suggest uninspiring .

" But he plays hoofball doesn't he, Paul Warne? " I hear some cry. He plays with what he's got and the budget he's got.  I think he'd be licking his lips at the opportunity to work with our squad. One thing I'd be confident of, based on what I've heard of him when he was mic'ed ( is that even a word? ) up is that nothing will be left on the pitch. He demands it from every player.

I'll take that with our squad. If we're not good enough in the final analysis, I'll accept that. But it won't be for the lack of Paul Warne pushing them to their limits and accepting anything less than 100% from every player. Oh, and his track record in this division isn't too shabby, so he's not all talk.

I like everything David Clowes has done so far, measured, not knee-jerk, but I believe he's seen enough to be brave when change is needed.

We will certainly be in for a hell of a ride if we do appoint him.

DC, you've got huge gonads Sir. I applaud you.

Nice find. At first I thought " Blimey, he's getting ahead of himself after only 3 games! " ?

Dear Lord, stop this incessant nostalgia obsession.

For whatever reason, whatever preceded didn't work. And any previous players are now older and slower.

Look forwards not backwards.

Though I believe Roger Davies has kept himself fit on his postal round over the years.... 

4 hours ago, Ellafella said:

Can’t believe the South Stand haven’t made this our new anthem yet! Original lyrics:

Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air,
Where are the clowns?

Send in the Clowes…

Amended to:

Isn't he rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground*
You in mid-air,** 
Where are the Clowes, 

Send in the Clowes….

* ie Pride Park

** He’s a pilot

The tune: see YouTube link. 

Come on South Stand. Bellow it out ?

Are we not rich? 

Is it unfair?

Delighted to see, our football ground.

Curtis in mid-air 

Gone are the frowns 

Mended by Clowes.

5 hours ago, plymouthram said:

Get out the pub and go home

Haha. That's what good times with the Rams does to you.

It makes you giddy like young love.

Unashamedly unapologetic. ?

Yeah, the feel good factor has returned UR. The performances seem to be mirroring that.

It just feels positively different. Everything seems to be screaming  we're in an upward cycle.

Based on not much, but the instinct is strong. 

I think after long periods of negativity, you just feel the football gods favouring us at the moment.

I can't explain it rationally, I just FEEL it..

Just now, Boycie said:

Was it the two wins and one defeat?

Haha, it's more that everyone seems to be collectively pulling in the same direction Boycie.

After paddling without direction for a fair while, I just get the vibe that we've turned a corner. I didn't get that vibe under any of MM's managerial appointees.

This time it just feels different. Healthier, with purpose...

There's something going on at our club that gives me the Arthur Cox, Jim Smith vibe.

I can't put my finger on it, but something instinctive in me tells me we're entering a new exciting chapter.

The planets seem to be aligning.

Something in my water ( and hopefully it's not cystitis) tells me we're at the beginning of something big, and I've not felt this way for many a year.

I feel something brewing. Don't ask me how, I just feel it....

I think we're at the outset of a huge uplift for our club.

Remember where you heard it first... ?

So, in summary, 3 games in.

Won 1 - just - hard fought.

Lost 1 - one of those games where we mostly panned them then got sucker-punched.

Won another, cup game. Another hard fought, but class prevailed.

For saying we barely had a club, let alone a team a month ago, I'll take that thank you very much.

Loving football for football's sake, not money's sake.

I'm loving our club's big reset. It's a bit Roy of the Rovers stuff. Jumpers for goalposts anyone? ?

B365's battleship's commentary says we've scored. ?

Goooal!!

3 minutes ago, Ellafella said:

...and from where the saying "Back to square 1" comes from. 

Every day's a learning day. Thanks for that gem Ellafella.

2 minutes ago, Ellafella said:

A4...fire!

Haha, brilliant. Reminds me of the 1930's(?) commentarys where radio listeners were supplied with a grid of the pitch and the commentator would describe the ball going from A6 to B4.

At least I think that's how it worked.

Don't know who scored. Watching through Bet365's 2D visualisation.

It's like watching battleships, circa 1970.

Yay!!! Goooal

RIP Dean. Happy memories.

Really disappointed by us missing out on him. He looked quite special.

I can only assume we didn't give him much in the way of realistic prospects of being in the first team early doors.

Personally, I thought he could have easily slotted into the first team at this level.

Good luck SR, I think we might be hearing a lot more of you if you're playing regular first team football.

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't all have a collective regret when he shines at FGR.

Strangely, now we've been saved by St. David of Clowes, I'm really pleased, in the bigger picture, that we are now in Division 1.

Back to old school football. Back to being a big fish in a small pond. 

We tried, under Mel to turn up at the casino that was the Championship with a big F off stack of chips to intimidate other players at the table. Spent fast and loose - and lost.

We needed a total reset and we got one. I can't lie, it's hurt. Being threatened with extinction was a very real prospect.

Now we've cleared the football cache and cookies, we're back to a fresh start.

I'm still haunted by the memory of all that money we wazzed up the wall. Even the least of the excesses was Anya. £4m and and £20k a week over 4 years, ergo £8m over 4 years. There were 4 or 5 others that cost £10m+ in transfer fees and salaries over 4 year contracts.

£60m minimum wazzed up the wall on 5 or 6 players, not to mention our merry go round of managers that resulted in the amount of debt that threatened our very existence. Covid didn't help, but the aforementioned was the real problem.

Certain individuals that had Mel's ear and were administrators at our club were also abusing their parallel self-interests as agents to sell us pup after pup.

Now we're back to football reality. It's amazing what team we've managed to piece together on frees and modest wages.

Loving our new reality. We can attract decent players at this level, where if we spend within our means, which is significantly above most of our competitors, we can perform well at this level. 

If we continue in this manner, we can grow organically.

What's not to love? A fantastic academy that should finance our rebirth. 30,000+ crowds, that again should finance our rebirth and perversely the EFL reining us back to a financial plan that we absolutely NEEDED. Didn't want, but definitely needed.

Oh and being rescued by the 'quiet man of football' - DC.

What a time to be alive! I'm falling back in love with football again.

The only way is up...

Moment of Truth is the best football podcast I've listened to.

Rotherham manager Paul Warne and Oxford's Karl Robinson are mic'd up for the last 3 months of last season.

Very insightful. It's on BBC sounds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/moment-of-truth-new-bbc-sounds-podcast

I even managed to bump into our Lord and Saviour David Clowes. I shook his hand and said thanks for making half a million people much happier. He laughed and said I'm much happier too.

My missis looked at me a bit pityingly and called me a "fan boy".

He's so unassuming. Someone else had to point him out to me. You would never spot him in a crowd. Jeans and polo shirt.

Thanks DC. ???

So, my in depth reportage of the evening....

The team in Light Blue ( Derby ) played the team in Yellow ( Matlock ).

The blue team looked very young and full of athleticism, whilst the yellow team looked less athletic and older.

For the first 20 minutes the blue team looked very fit and fast, whilst the yellow team huffed and puffed against them.

The blues ran around very fast but just looked like a random collection of fast runners.

The yellows looked slightly overawed for 20 minutes, impressed by their collective speed.

Then the yellows realised  that the blues weren't actually a team, but a collection of random fast runners.

So, after being initially impressed they decided to fight back as a team.

The two teams cancelled each other out at half time. Half time result 0-0.

Second half yellows thought " These are just a team of fast runners, they're not that special, maybe we should fight back "

Cue first goal for the yellows - a headed goal - early-ish in the second half.

Blues got indignant and ran around even faster for a few minutes after that. No end product.

Yellows got more ebullient, unafraid of the blues, culminating in a flying air kick volley for their second goal.

2-0

Game fizzled out....

That's my seasoned journo's analysis of the evening.

Henry Winter eat your heart out...

Oh, I might add, a great night at Matlock. Think football meets Peter Kay characters. Very entertaining.

1 minute ago, RoyMac5 said:

 

 

Cheers RM5.

From the announcer's fumbling attempts at pronunciation, I can just about decipher Jake Rooney and SBL Everton. 

The rest were unintelligible.

I'm there now. Love Matlock's ground.

Anybody have any idea what team we're putting out?

I must be getting old. They all look about 14.

Oddly, I do think that keeping him for this season is a distinct possibility.

Our wage bill without him would possibly be £8m a year and with him £9m a year.

In the great business plan, as ridiculous as it sounds, having him in our team, in the absence of anyone else wanting to risk signing him, could actually make business sense.

If he stays fit - and that's a huge if - with our other signings, we could easily be very likely to get back to the Championship at the first attempt.

In terms of a c. £60m investment by David Clowes, getting promoted at the first attempt the extra £1m could be viewed as a potentially sound investment.

The likelihood of it happening is slim, but if nobody else comes in for him, it's not as ridiculous as it sounds.