Nuwtfly

Is there an argument to say that Collins scoring that many goals says more about the standard of opposition than his ability? After all, it's actually about 13 goals in the league I believe? Looking at the list of top scorers in League One this season, there's names in there even above Collins who have been either deemed surplus by Championship clubs or who have failed to do it in the league above time and time again. He's done well this season, don't get me wrong. He's had a lot of opportunities to. But you would surely be concerned if we went into next season (lets say in the Championship) with him as our main no.9?

Don't. I've been hurt before.

A) I thought Colin Kazim-Richards was one of the daftest signings we’d ever made when he came in. But he played a vital role in us staying up and really helped foster the unity amongst supporters. David Nugent was another one I didn’t rate who did quite well. B) I really wanted Tom Lawrence to be the star man to get us to the Premier League. What a sad story that ended up being in the end. Great moments at times, too. Jack Marriott was another. George Thorne got to be on there for different reasons, too. C) Chris Martin 100%. Paid nothing. The Chanpionship Diego Costa. D) Ikechi Anya. We paid more for the likes of Butterfield but at least they played a part.

Hang on though - you told me the other day that McGoldrick papered over the cracks and carried us into the playoffs? So was the squad last season good enough or not? You are right on recruitment though. We did a bad job last season and we haven't done a great job in this Jan window either. But surely this is more to do with how skint we are than Warne's ability to bring players in? Say what you like about him but the previous summer window proved he has the pull to bring players in.

Haha yeah me too mate as I totally didn't think it was tonight either...

I will admit that he doesn't have the same quality of players at his disposal, but beyond that I obviously can't accept any of your points (not that I think I'm supposed to). I think my argument that Warne's football is especially unenjoyable though ultimately does hold water because this is a thread about comparing enjoyment levels, not win percentages or even success over 90 mins. In my view this whole debate is centred around the style of play and how much you enjoy watching it. The football Warne has got us playing is as worse than almost every manager on the original list, bar one or two, and I think that it at times feels even worse because the standard of opposition is ultimately poorer.

It was the constant veering for other jobs that annoyed me. I remember him denying the reports that he was going to Celtic in an interview. There were no reports 🤣

Yep, I think I've made it pretty clear what I think about the way we play under Warne. Not been impressed by his management of the team all season and I think we're pretty lucky to be so close to the top all things considered. But he absolutely has earned, through results alone, to have this season to bring us promotion and, hopefully, turn the football around with some new players + some returning from injury. Sacking him now is just pressing a pointless self-destruct button. It's a unnecessary gamble. Let's have another conversation about it as a fan-base in the summer, and depending what division we're in.

All the managers that you are so keen to have us compare Warne to were all managing a club in either the Premier League or the Championship. Warne is the only one on that, other than Rosenior, who has managed us in League One. On that basis the only fair comparison is between those two managers and I would take Rosenior back over Warne in a heartbeat, with hindsight.

Not right now, no. For all the reasons I listed you earlier. (You may well be right on your second point, by the way!)

Some of the football Warne serves up is topped only by the likes of Jewell and Phil Brown for me. And Warne is managing it in League One. All the others have had tougher opposition to deal with. Hopefully you have interacted with me over the years enough times to know I don't say stuff like that about managers flippantly. We are in the worst division we have been in for decades and have been outplayed at times by the likes of Cheltenham and Shrewsbury. I have seen some of the most clueless, ineffective hoofball I've ever seen from a Rams team.

You have at least made one good suggestion - Mowbray would have been brilliant. Probably unlikely to ever happen while we are in this division, though! He has rightly deserved to stay managing Champ clubs.

Agreed on that point mate, I'd like to see us cast our net a bit further than the ex-Rotherham pool! But in fairness, to date, we've only signed a couple. Vickers, Washington, have there been any others? I think perhaps some of the links to ex-Rotherham players are just examples of lazy journalism. If you're one for rumours, you might also stipulate that it's got something to do with a slightly discordant start to the new Head of Recruitments time in charge.

I wouldn't sack the manager because it's January and we're three points behind first. I wouldn't sack the manager because he's not had a fully fit squad to select from all season. I wouldn't sack the manager because there's absolutely no other obvious alternative available who we could bring in. I wouldn't sack the manager because even the better managers you could identify are all under contract and therefore out of our price range. I wouldn't sack the manager because we're in a promotion race, not a relegation one. And I wouldn't sack the manager because it would destabilise the club at this current time. You say I'm not very convincing but I'm not even sure what your point of view even is? I haven't seen you offer one alternative to Warne or offer any constructive feedback to how the club should do things differently. The only manager I have ever seen you fawn over was the one that was trying to take over the club with his dodgy mates. How did he get on at Birmingham by the way? If you can offer 3 ways in which Derby could do things differently I'll take this back, but I am starting to think you actually just prefer us to be in crisis at this point.

Confidence going forward? Roy did you actually even read my original post? I’m literally saying I’m worried about us going forward. Honestly think you could get into an argument with your own reflection sometimes 🤷‍♂️

When he left Rotherham for us, weren’t they in the top 6 or something? It’s definitely something I worry about. If we are playing the football we are now next season we will go straight back down. Question really is whether we think, with more of an opportunity to change the squad, it will get better?

After the “vote of confidence” from the club he changed formation and we were clearly keeping the ball on the deck more and looked better going forward. He has shown he can change plan. There was even evidence of that yesterday with the changes he made in the second half.

I feel firmly stuck in the ‘I don’t want Derby to sack Paul Warne but am concerned about how bad the football is’ corner. The league table does not lie but the performances across this entire season as a whole have been pretty abject. I am very, very concerned that we would not survive in the Championship under Warne. We absolutely won’t playing like this.

No! Haha. That really was a performance that, for m, kinda sums up Warne’s time here. Horrible football that (just about) gets the result.

Ok well I would disagree with you on that particular opinion. The reason why I would disagree is because I think that there’s no actual evidence for it. It’s just the feeling you get from the way he talks. You and I don’t know him and what he’s like around the group every day. For that reason, I don’t think it’s fair ground for criticism. There are other areas, such as the aforementioned tactical decision making, recruitment, etc, that you have criticised before and fairly. I’ve even agreed with you at times. Don’t you think that digging him out on points like “he just wants to be one of the boys” just ends up detracting from some of the valid points that you do make? Criticism is fine when it’s fair - let’s keep it fair!

Valid criticism of our playing style, tactical decisions, recruitment is fair enough Roy, but I think comments like this are pretty unnecessary. I think you’d made some fair points in the past re: Warne. He’s certainly not been anywhere near perfect. But stuff like this just tends to lessen the validity of your other points. Why bother? It’s obviously your right to have an opinion and your right to post it, but it’s not your duty.

Ah yes, TransferCentre9. Up there with The Athletic for me.

Overall, no. The league table doesn't lie. But we also shouldn't pretend that the football has been fantastic and that he hasn't made some perplexing decisions at times.

This one will go to the wire and then Wednesday will concede that getting some of his wages off the bill is better than nothing. Absolutely no other club is going to pay a fee like that for him. It'll go to the wire but, if Warne wants to wait, he'll get him.