BPV

If we end up with Collins, Rhodes and Washington after Warne's 'three good strikers' comment...
With the likes of May and Smith gone to promotion rivals, I'd like to think we have someone better up our sleeve than Rhodes for that third striker spot.

Why can’t we find a striker no one has heard of?
Especially with this recruitment guy who is supposed to be so highly rated? 
Just journeyman old strikers being linked.
No imagination.

Am finding it so depressing that every striker we’re linked with is over 30.
out squad doesn’t feel any younger or quicker than last year. We’ve lost knights energy so far. 
these were all the excuses given as to why ended the season so poorly. 

Mel literally pulled the plug just as we started to produce the product he was creating. He was literally about to see the academy shine in the first team in the championship and then make profit on those players when they move on. Unfortunately for him and more importantly us, we sold some fantastically talented youth products for peanuts 

I think for the most part the only people  actually using the term "hoofball" are those doing so in order to defend Warne, misrepresenting what's actually being said by those have cast a more critical eye on his style. Creating something to argue against which isn't even being said.
It's a bit like when people would pre-empt others' criticisms of Keogh by claiming that they were still blaming him for / bringing up his mistake at Wembley. It must have been brought up 20x more by people defending him than anyone else.
Hoofball would to me be lumping it up to a target man and looking for flick-ons rather than playing long passes to people in space or putting in lots of crosses. Warne is not a hoofball merchant.
Throughout last season there was indeed some nice football played, but as a trend it only really happened when we were playing against the poorer sides in the division, those who gave us plenty of space. The more competitive mid table teams (Lincoln, Shrewsbury) stopped us playing. If we went a goal down we stopped playing. We didn't see that good play all too often when McGoldrick wasn't playing (although it wasn't exclusively when he did).
I'm sure we'll continue to see the 'neat interchanges' against the poorest sides, but we will be ramping up the percentage of our overall play that's dedicated to getting crosses in, to taking advantage of balls over the top (there's nothing wrong with that, again... not hoofball), to making the most of set pieces. That's simply a fact. We have brought players in to that effect, and at present it doesn't look like we're trying to get anyone in who would provide the finesse that McGoldrick added to our attack.
We'll be more effective, and presumably won't be bullied by teams like Lincoln like we were last season (under both managers), so should be in for a good season regardless of how we play.
The hope is that once this style gets us up (and why shouldn't it?) we go on to 'do a Luton' (their style last season could be seen as the ultimate version of what Warne is looking to achieve), the fear is that we go on to 'do a Rotherham' and end up back where we started.

Nothing wrong with Warne but at least I am yet to see what he can bring to the table regarding results first and foremost. Last season was, even according to him, kind of a failure so I personally can understand why some are a bit hesitant as well as outright critical towards him. Only Warne himself can prove his critics wrong by getting on the field matters right and I am hopeful that he will do so after being able to form his own squad. With that said it really did not look to good last year even when you take into account the difficult circumstances he was working under. Most teams were truly awful footballers but our team somehow managed to be equally bad more often than not. Please just get it to work this season Paul! Fingers crossed!

Cashin one of the only players I'd be genuinely gutted to see go. 

I’ve seen enough of him to know he’s not a player I like.
If Warne does then that’s fine, or if that’s all we can afford on our budget then so be it. More than happy to eat my words if he turns out to be good

Come on, let’s face it, he’s crap. We all know he’s crap. 
However we, and  the whole league, are crap so he might end up being alright. That’s how I will end up viewing it . Welcome to Derby! 

Good luck to the guy. Hope he does well - but also hope we sign another (better) striker.
I'm also beginning to wonder if we are putting to much weight on the fact players have 'experience of promotion'. I mean Ryan Smith and Jay McEveley had 'experience of promotion' to the Premier League. Jonathan Greening 'had experience of' winning the treble with Manchester United. 
Anyway, yeah, good luck. But if he'd signed for a promotion rival honestly I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. 

I’ll support him, but good god he is not a good striker. 
Works hard and puts himself about, but technically gifted or a goal scorer he is not. 
 
Hardly an inspiring signing to replace McGoldrick is he? Hope we have somebody else lined up as well 

I’ve seen enough of him to know he’s not a player I like.
If Warne does then that’s fine, or if that’s all we can afford on our budget then so be it. More than happy to eat my words if he turns out to be good

I think of he doesn’t get promotion this season then Warne should face difficult discussions with Clowes about keeping his job. For me only way he keeps his job if we don’t get promoted is if we have a really strong season just miss out on autos and then lose in the playoffs, although losing in the playoffs would be a failure. We’re signing 10+ players in the summer, we are now undisputedly the biggest club in the league, we’re the favourites to win the league, last season was the joint worst league finish in our entire history and we’ve never been in this league for longer than 2 seasons. Promotion has to be the expectation. 

Promotion. We should have achieved more last season.

It certainly started with a c

No disrepect to anyone but whats his record 6 goals in 37 appearances? Seems like Warne is just trying to pick up as many 'old faithfuls' as possible in this recruitment drive, yes they did a job for him before, but I have my concerns about this policy, that's all I'm saying..
 
 My jury is still out on Warne. 

Oh gawd imagine paying a fee for him...

When McGoldrick left it wasn't just his goals he took with him, it was an element of control to the game in the opposition's half; a player capable of thinking a couple of steps ahead of most of the defenders he was up against which allowed us to create that slight extra bit of time and space on the ball, which in turn helped us put in some of our more watchable & aesthetically pleasing performances.
Perhaps my least favourite thing about last season was that all too often without McGoldrick the flow of our games resembled one more akin to that of a basketball game, where it felt as if most most just running around at 100 mph with no real consideration of how they were going to craft an opportunity or break through the opposition lines through anything other than a brute force method, repeatedly doing the same thing over and over.
While we probably can't get and arguable don't need a player to come in and replicate exactly what McGoldrick was doing, a player like Washington feels like the direct antithesis of that. Not really what I want to see.
IF he is to come in, I'd really hope that there's also someone else with a bit more on-field 'class' about them coming in to balance things out, whether that's a striker or a no. 10.

Mainly White & Black Shirt with yellow/gold trim
Mainly Black & White Shorts with yellow/gold trim
Mainly White & Black Socks with yellow/gold trim
 

 

Entirely agree with this. 
 
I still see failing to make the play offs last season as a failure, along with not enjoying the style of play Warne was attempting to implement. However I’m also willing to cut him the slack on it not being his team, not being allowed to spend any money, joining mid season and not having a pre season with the squad.
Going into next season, 3 of the bigger teams outside of us have left, leaving probably Bolton and Pompy as the only other “big” teams in this division.
With the restrictions being lifted, the time Warne has had to asses the squad, decide what kind of football he wants to play and now the summer to sign the players to play it. Anything but promotion should be considered a failure. I’d be disappointed if we didn’t make the top two, but we have to be going up.
 
Massive summer ahead that’s for sure.

Entirely agree with this. 
 
I still see failing to make the play offs last season as a failure, along with not enjoying the style of play Warne was attempting to implement. However I’m also willing to cut him the slack on it not being his team, not being allowed to spend any money, joining mid season and not having a pre season with the squad.
Going into next season, 3 of the bigger teams outside of us have left, leaving probably Bolton and Pompy as the only other “big” teams in this division.
With the restrictions being lifted, the time Warne has had to asses the squad, decide what kind of football he wants to play and now the summer to sign the players to play it. Anything but promotion should be considered a failure. I’d be disappointed if we didn’t make the top two, but we have to be going up.
 
Massive summer ahead that’s for sure.

How many people said "no hard task" for you to state "some"?
The target this season absolutely should be top 2 and anything less would he a failure as far as I'm concerned.
The starting point is the performance of the squad last season. We were 4th highest placed out of the teams staying down (Barnsley, Bolton and Peterborough). A lot of that being down to multiple referee decsions.
Then there's the 3 coming down, two of those are in such a mess they'll be lucky if they finish top half. Add only Blackpool to the challenging group.
Portsmouth, Wycombe and Charlton are then next best placed to mount promotion challenges. However, they'd need to improve by 20-30 points on last season to be serious contenders. I just don't see that happening.
Our main list of challengers are therefore: Blackpool, Barnsley, Bolton and Peterborough.
Peterborough are trying to sell their top goalscorer, the only player they had who scored more than 10 goals, and are desperately trying to keep hold of their top assister. Two key players they need to replace just to stand still, after sneaking in to 6th due to a referee mistake in a different game.
Evanton has been at Bolton for 3 years now so they've had plenty of time to get the players in to suit his style. I didn't see anything last season which made me think they'll be pushing for the title next season. Trafford and Bradley were two of their most important players last season. Both were only on loan and won't be going back.
Blackpool. 6 players went back to their parents clubs when their season ended and 10 others didn't have their contracts renewed. A lot of players to replace, but they'll be up there.
6 players also left Barnsley to return to their parent clubs. They haven't lost anyone else they want to keep yet. They'll be fancying their chances of winning the league too.
 
We have by far the biggest budget in this league. We have more potential than any other L1 club. Warne has had a long time to prepare for this transfer window. We shouldn't have any excuses for failure this time round.

I’ll believe this one because it fits my narrative. 

Change the blue lines on the black stripe to gold and I’m all over it 

Hoping for the day we sack Umbro off and move on from the Primark quality football shirt