Stuniverse

Derby County XI (U21 / U18) pre-season fixtures


Source: https://www.dcfc.co.uk/fixtures?team=32&competition=&season=&home_away=&display=

Kwaku Oduroh was in pre-season training today with the first team squad as well.

Washington definitely one of the players Warne has met

Best take so far is that Darren Robinson is in the pre season video, hopefully means he’ll be a big player for us. You don’t get called up to your national team at 17 for nothing 

I do like Jason Knight, a lot, but for an attacking midfielder anybody looking at his numbers from the outside would surely say he didn’t score enough goals last season, nor did he have enough assists. And that’s playing in League One.
Also, it doesn’t matter how much we think he’s worth, he’s only worth what someone is willing to pay.
—
On the other hand, there’s a gamble to be had here in that if we don’t sell Knight, and we get promotion, he may be willing to stay and sign a new contract in the Championship with Derby but, if we don’t go up, or he’s unwilling to extend his stay, he can leave for nothing next summer.

Not true, as Knight is one of our academy products, as long as we offer him a new improved contract next year, we will be entitled to compensation decided by an independent body, if we can't agree a price with his new club.
Many factors contribute to this compensation figure including international caps, appearances for Derby and at what level, details of the new contract offered, etc. This applies to players under the age of 24. Once it goes to the independent panel, their decision is final and neither the buying nor the selling club can pull out of the deal.

Good post.
The other thing I'd say is, if you are the kind of team that wants to move the ball forward quickly (which is what Warne openly says he wants his teams to do), rather than build up slowly through the thirds, you are going to get less goals from your midfielders.  The game gets stretched a lot more, there's a lot more vertical distance between your players, and you get less of the types of situations where forwards are laying the ball off for midfielders to score goals.  
If you look back over Warne's seasons at Rotherham, the goal totals are always dominated by forwards.  You'll maybe see one midfielder taking a bunch of set-pieces/penalties and getting a decent goal return, but you don't really see lots of midfielders (or even wingbacks) getting in the 8-10 goals range in the same season.

Played as much anywhere else as he did as any form of attacking midfielder, but therein lies the Knight conundrum.

I do like Jason Knight, a lot, but for an attacking midfielder anybody looking at his numbers from the outside would surely say he didn’t score enough goals last season, nor did he have enough assists. And that’s playing in League One.
Also, it doesn’t matter how much we think he’s worth, he’s only worth what someone is willing to pay.
—
On the other hand, there’s a gamble to be had here in that if we don’t sell Knight, and we get promotion, he may be willing to stay and sign a new contract in the Championship with Derby but, if we don’t go up, or he’s unwilling to extend his stay, he can leave for nothing next summer.

I do like Jason Knight, a lot, but for an attacking midfielder anybody looking at his numbers from the outside would surely say he didn’t score enough goals last season, nor did he have enough assists. And that’s playing in League One.
Also, it doesn’t matter how much we think he’s worth, he’s only worth what someone is willing to pay.
—
On the other hand, there’s a gamble to be had here in that if we don’t sell Knight, and we get promotion, he may be willing to stay and sign a new contract in the Championship with Derby but, if we don’t go up, or he’s unwilling to extend his stay, he can leave for nothing next summer.

Think Washington will come in, sounds close to being done. Warne wanted 5 in before Pre-season which I've read starts on Thursday. The most interesting thing at the moment is weather Max Bird stays or not. Hull and Coventry want him apparently.

The Bielik fee wasn't paid off. As is normal, we honoured the original payment schedule. The 'price' Clowes paid would have included this amount.

I’d be surprised if there is money left to be owed for Bielik to be honest. When coming out of admin one of the priorities is all football creditors are paid off. If things went through properly then the fees owed to any club for the likes of Bielik and Jozwiak should have been included in the price Clowes paid a year ago.

The one thing we lacked last season was squad depth.
If we want squad depth we need to accept the the lads coming in to act as a back up are not going to be massive, statement signings. Sometimes you need some decent pro's in the squad to fill a gap and cover where needed. Capable of doing the job but not so expensive that they eat up huge chunks of the budget.
I really do not see a probelm with this transfer. Anyone getting upset about it at this point needs to give their head a wobble. If we start the season with Collins and Washington as our only strikers then fine, I'll be a bit miffed. But Warne has already stated that we have multiple targets, so lets just chill out and trust that the club know what they are doing.

That was never the case based on the points system. However, from this season on, L1 and L2 clubs can sign 2 overseas players who don't meet work permit rules, whilst PL and Championship clubs are allowed up to 4.

When the ball hits the goal,
it's not Shearer or Cole,
...it's Carbone!
 
 
Magic for us for a couple of months!

Nah, I remember when we went from ‘stars’ to ‘grafters’ under Jim Smith, and I’d take that season again all day.

Sounds like a good change for the youth football, there’s lots of lads who just get held back extra years to play for the u21s, think Ethan Wassel for us. Knew he’d never make it but just kept him on when he could’ve left and rebuilt himself earlier

👍
SWISS STYLE FORMAT
1 x single group containing 25 teams
Teams seeded based on multi-year performance
Fixtures drawn from 5 pots based on seedings
A 21-game week scenario would involve teams playing each club in their own pot plus 4/5 teams in all other pots, either home or away (would equate to 20 regular season games)
Results generate a combined table that determines play-off positions
UEFA Champions League will introduce this format in 2024/25
The change was voted through by shareholders at the Premier League Annual General Meeting last week.
A number of proposals were considered before clubs agreed to introduce the ‘Swiss model’, which will see all 25 Category One Academies field an U21 team in the same league next season, with promotion and relegation between the current two-tier system scrapped.
The ‘Swiss model’ is based on the tournament used in chess and will be used in the UEFA Champions League from 2024/25.
In PL2, the 25 teams will be seeded into five pots based on their historical performance in the competition over the preceding three years, meaning each team will play 20 matches in the regular season (the same number as in PL2 Division Two in 2022/23 but six fewer than in PL2 Division One).
A 21-game week scenario will see teams playing each club in their own pot plus four or five teams in all other pots, either home or away. After this, the combined table will determine play-off positions, with the top 16 teams qualifying for the knockout format.
Many of the more established clubs have been in favour of removing relegation for some time, believing that the desire to maintain league position has overshadowed development decisions regarding individual players.
In recent years, some clubs have opted to retain players for longer than they otherwise might have in order to boost their PL2 position, or they have recruited specifically for the U21 age group.
However, some club officials remain concerned that the new one-tier format will reduce the amount of jeopardy or meaningful competition in the latter stages of the season.
The changes mark another shift back to the one-tier U21 Premier League format that was last seen in the 2013/14 season. A year ago, PL2 reverted from an U23 to U21 league, with clubs permitted to field five ‘over-aged’ players.
Fixtures for the 2023/24 campaign are due to be released in July.

£2.5m and see you later, Jason.
I like him - overall a very sound player - but I still couldn't tell you what position he plays or what he's especially good at (besides running).

New Academy Manager Matt Hale signed from Southampton’s academy. This is a duplicate post on my part but made sense to pop it in the Academy Thread too. Hopefully this goes some way to reassuring people the academy is still a priority and to me seems like an exciting and forward thinking appointment as Saint’s academy has produced decent talent over the years, hasn’t it?
 

Just thought I would check when our first summer (first team) signing was announced for the last 10 years:
2022 Jul 3 Tom Barkhuizen
2021 Aug 6 Ryan Allsop
2020 Feb 6 Mike te Wierik
2019 May 8 Graeme Shinnie
2018 Jul 20 Florian Jozefzoon
2017 Jul 3 Andre Wisdom
2016 Aug 27 Matej Vydra
2015 Jun 19 Chris Baird
2014 Jun 25 Zak Whitbread 
2013 May 7 Lee Grant
 
Absolutely no reason to start panicking quite yet, as only three seasons had we actually signed someone by now…

The 13s beat Palace 4-1. I didn’t watch all of the game but from what I saw, the 13s were good. 
 
The 14s won. They beat Crewe 1-0 - should have beat them by more but couldn’t finish. 
 
Some very good boys in both teams and a few to keep an eye on.