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I can't keep track of who's ITK, who has a gut feeling, and who needs more fibre in their diet.

They might actually sell their best CB today

I can't keep track of who's ITK, who has a gut feeling, and who needs more fibre in their diet.

Cool.  I like that not only are we not signing Gregory, we are openly rebelling against the notion. 

Oh for those days when we signed 7 players in January and completely f***ed our automatic promotion chances or added millions to the wage bill for no effect.....
TBH, if we end up with a net 2 additional players in the squad, it'll have been OK from my PoV.

That sets out the effective  price Clowes paid: 
£13.24m for the club
£19.28m other debts paid
(So, £32.5m cash)
And taking on a £22m debt on the stadium.
So, effectively, a £54.5m price. Do I have that right?

That sets out the effective  price Clowes paid: 
£13.24m for the club
£19.28m other debts paid
(So, £32.5m cash)
And taking on a £22m debt on the stadium.
So, effectively, a £54.5m price. Do I have that right?

The current state of social media, in a nutshell!
Nobody gives a toss about whether it's real or true

What we need is for Stephen Pearce to come up with a clever way of accounting for players residual values. 

That sets out the effective  price Clowes paid: 
£13.24m for the club
£19.28m other debts paid
(So, £32.5m cash)
And taking on a £22m debt on the stadium.
So, effectively, a £54.5m price. Do I have that right?

I'm going to take a wild stab at this one....

That sets out the effective  price Clowes paid: 
£13.24m for the club
£19.28m other debts paid
(So, £32.5m cash)
And taking on a £22m debt on the stadium.
So, effectively, a £54.5m price. Do I have that right?

I don't think that is quite right. The business plan is also a way to make sure that clubs don't get an unfair advantage from administration. Imagine a rich new owner takes over a club, buying them out of administration for a low price that pays creditors only 25p in the pound. Not many would think it fair if he then spent £50 million on new players - when he could, if he wanted, have used that £50m to pay creditors more of what they were owed. I think that's a key reason why EFL business plans last longer than a year.

I don't think that is quite right. The business plan is also a way to make sure that clubs don't get an unfair advantage from administration. Imagine a rich new owner takes over a club, buying them out of administration for a low price that pays creditors only 25p in the pound. Not many would think it fair if he then spent £50 million on new players - when he could, if he wanted, have used that £50m to pay creditors more of what they were owed. I think that's a key reason why EFL business plans last longer than a year.

I don't think that is quite right. The business plan is also a way to make sure that clubs don't get an unfair advantage from administration. Imagine a rich new owner takes over a club, buying them out of administration for a low price that pays creditors only 25p in the pound. Not many would think it fair if he then spent £50 million on new players - when he could, if he wanted, have used that £50m to pay creditors more of what they were owed. I think that's a key reason why EFL business plans last longer than a year.

I don't think that is quite right. The business plan is also a way to make sure that clubs don't get an unfair advantage from administration. Imagine a rich new owner takes over a club, buying them out of administration for a low price that pays creditors only 25p in the pound. Not many would think it fair if he then spent £50 million on new players - when he could, if he wanted, have used that £50m to pay creditors more of what they were owed. I think that's a key reason why EFL business plans last longer than a year.

I don't think that is quite right. The business plan is also a way to make sure that clubs don't get an unfair advantage from administration. Imagine a rich new owner takes over a club, buying them out of administration for a low price that pays creditors only 25p in the pound. Not many would think it fair if he then spent £50 million on new players - when he could, if he wanted, have used that £50m to pay creditors more of what they were owed. I think that's a key reason why EFL business plans last longer than a year.

I think it’s backfired us not playing some more youngsters now in this competition. We’ve learnt nowt from playing our first team players and now don’t have a final to fall back on. This was an ideal time to sound out the Weston’s, Robinsons, Browns and Fapetu. 
The league was always the priority, but a final would’ve been nice. This was an ideal opportunity wasted to give some U18s/23s a go. 

January would be an apt time to sign him, although I think he’s a little too young. If we wait until the January 2035 window, we could use the headline ‘Old Lang Signs’

Yes!
Then we'd have Lang Lang:

It's their anthem from the 70s, and it's stuck to them. I can see why they like it, it's a good singalong.
We should use our anthem from the 70s and play Sailing by Rod Stewart - We Are Derby is still loved by most isn't it?
But while I'm on it, they should never have dropped Zombie Nation.

Derby Girl by Aqua:
I'm a Derby Girl, in a Derby world
...
Come on Derby, let's go party, ooh ooh ooh yeah

Derby Girl by Aqua:
I'm a Derby Girl, in a Derby world
...
Come on Derby, let's go party, ooh ooh ooh yeah

... of 26,550 members 

I thought a little bit of statistical comparisons could be an interesting read. Maybe some statistical knowledge might even calibrate one's expectations.

Here are the points per game averages needed for automatic promotion and playoff spot in recent seasons:

Season      19/20   20/21    21/22    22/23    23/24 so far
top 2          1.77       1.89     1.96       2.13        2.05
playoff       1.69       1.61      1.8         1.67        1.89
This season, we are averaging 1.89.

To get to the average 2.14, which should mean automatic promotion, we would need 62 (61.84) points from the last 27 games. It could be achieved for example with 19 wins, 5 draws, and 3 losses = 98 points.

To get to the average of 2.05, which could be the amount needed for automatics, we would need another 59 (58,3) points. 18 wins, 3 draws, and 6 losses = 93 points.
If we keep getting the points we have so far this season, we will be heading towards another 16 wins, 4 draws, and 7 losses. Overall that would mean 88 points which doesn't sound bad at all, but this season it might not be enough.
People have been saying that the league is poor this season. The stats support the idea as the top 6 teams average more points than usual. With the number of points we have now, we would've been in the top two 20-21 season. Poor level is a double-edged sword though as the top teams don't drop many points. Poor level means unforgiving at the same time.

There is not much to conclude from this except the fact the draws are not enough. We need to go for a win in every game, even if that means occasional loss.

I felt these stats are not completed yet. I had to take a look into xG and xGA. You all wanted this, right? So, here's xGD (expected goal difference) lately.

Season 19/20    20/21    21/22    22/23    23/24
2nd       0.47      0.35      0.77      0.72       0.54
6th        0.21      0.40      0.34      0.24       0.23
We have scored 1.79 per game, while our xG has been 1.51.
We have conceded 0.84 per game when our xGA has been 1.11.
Therefore, we are scoring 0.28 more than expected and conceding 0.27 more than we should, which is a good sign. It also means that we are heading towards xGD 0.4 which usually has meant playoff place but is not enough for automatics.

Let's take a look at other candidates for promotion. If xG doesn't change much towards the end of the season, Peterborough should do well and Stevenage should drop from their current position. Let's see how it goes.

What surprised me most is how well such a robust method as xG, xGA, and xD creates a valid linear pattern over the whole season.

I'm expecting a ridiculous amount of xG bashing even though I'm more interested in what people think of our chance of getting around 95 points this season.