YorkshireRam

2018/19 Collins scored 25 goals at this level for Luton, Didzy's best season was likely 20/21 where he scored 8 in the PL, each goal there is worth 3/4 at this level. It's a bizarrely reductionist argument to try and discredit individual achievement. Rather we should be grateful to have had 2 players that are capable of hitting 20+ league goals a season?

That's true. I suspect they may just be 'on the list' rather than active targets. If Collins continues as he is, he'll be first choice for the remainder of the season anyway, and convincing established players to join as backup is tricky, so I get the thinking- if that player in the squad is going to get limited minutes, that player may as well be a randomer and we can loan Brown out to somewhere he'll actually play regularly?

Because not giving minutes to someone else's youngster, whilst ours plays regularly, is surely the best outcome for our academy prospect in that situation isn't it? I'm not sure keeping on playing him at this level is necessarily the best thing for his development. If he struggles to make an impact, there's a good chance it could damage his confidence. Getting regular gametime at non-league level, where he can hopefully get the knack of scoring goals in the men's game sounds spot on for where he's at.

Brown playing regular men's football is better for his personal development than warming the bench for us. I get that replacing like-for-like seems pointless from an overall squad point of view, but if a loan is the best move for the player, couldn't it be seen as a progressive thing that we're prioritising his development? Especially given some of the criticism aimed at Warne regarding youth.

Josh Maja on loan would be pretty spectacular

It wasn't, I was being polite.

Me manifesting that player being Ebou Adams and us signing him tomorrow:

Would definitely prefer to keep Fornah, if it's between the two.

You really do have a strange habit of making even innocuous comments seem like you're trying to sneak an underhanded jibe in 😂

Given the Adams deal could be close, and this could herald the departure of a midfielder. Could Smith's 'setback' be very similar to CBT's ''injury'' before he signed for us? ie. a convenient excuse as to why he's not featuring in matchday squads...

I'll be honest, based on very little- I like the sound of this!

I spent the whole of the time writing my comment trying to remember the term 'false 9' so cheers for jogging the memory on that one 😂 Good thing Bird can do both then 👀

I've read the highlighted line 5 or 6 times now and still can't make sense of it...? Rosenior likely had more wiggle room financially due to the combined wage bill being so low. Now the squad is much fuller, if the business plan is tied to spending limits, more wages on the books means we're far closer to that limit, and therefore have less money to offer as potential wages to new signings. Hence finding it harder to do deals as the business plan is tighter now our overheads are much larger.

Because it's likely not a rudimentary budget as you're envisioning it. It'll be 'cannot exceed £X per season', balanced against turnover and revenue margins. Beginning of last season, overheads would be so low, that getting deals done was easy. Now our running costs are substantially higher, working around the agreed plan will be trickier. Doesn't that seem more likely than ''You can spend £5.74 on transfer fees this season Derby, now go spend it wisely''? 😂

I'm going to be positive and say 2nd. Performances have been faltering recently but we look more able of grinding out results. With players due back from injury, I think we're capable of going on another unbeaten run which will see us move into the automatic spots and hopefully stay there 🤞

Because it'll be tied to loss limits and thresholds. When you have literally 3 senior players to your name, these values won't be high, whereas with a full squad, they will be. Hope this helps 👍

I agree, think most fans feel similar, and this is where any perceived 'panic' is starting to come from. We all saw how lack of squad depth last season cost us. We're all desperate not to see the same happen again. Warne's not innocent in building expectation either as he's mentioned repeatedly recently wanting to get bodies through the door. However I've always got the impression from little things said here and there that he's actually finding it tough to get the players he wants, simply due to the restrictions placed upon him and the club. It'd be fascinating to see how different our squad would look, and who Warne would have signed, if we didn't have any financial issues; as I suspect this is limiting our transfer dealings far more than many realise.

In fairness, #10s are literally referred to as 'second strikers', and are often dedicated forwards. Our best #10 in recent years was Vydra (who was a textbook trequartista). Firmino played this role in Klopp's gegenpress, and Rooney in later years played this role for Utd as well. In your system, 'pushing' a midfielder in a 3 would make them more of an #8? So Warne playing a striker as a #10 in his 4231 does make sense, you just seem to prefer a traditional 433.

I think the big realisation from this window is that we're not as flush as first thought, either through EFL restrictions or our own frugality. The message this time has been very clearly the club cannot put much money into signings. I'm guessing the restrictions we're still under are quite harsh but for some reason we're reluctant to throw the EFL under the bus by saying this explicitly. Having tight restrictions that massively limit our transfer dealings is absolutely not Warne's fault. My main issue is the complete lack of tempering expectations from the club. Why did we ever come out and make comments about having a 'good budget', when in January we'd be having to do weird dealings like doing a permanent transfer as an initial loan? If the restrictions were still tight we should have been subtly warning fans that we likely still weren't able to spend transfer fees- everyone assumed Warne was being coy when he inferred this, turns out he was closer to the truth than we thought.

Asking you to cite your sources to back up your unsubstantiated claims isn't pedantic, it's the bare minimum you need to do when making outlandish claims. Burden of proof is on the one making the claim. Otherwise Hitchens' Razor applies: 'That can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence'.

All that means is the press don't know what's going on, let's not conflate that with nothing happening behind the scenes. Let's just wait and see; if this season's taught us one thing, it's that sometimes those who are quick to criticise often wind up eating their words... 👀

Sanest take I've read this season. Spot on 👏