MACKWORTHRAM

Honestly some of our fans are genuinely awful. The sense of entitlement some of them have is absolutely staggering.

Yesterday was all about winning. The performance didn't matter. We're absolutely littered with injuries. Booking them off at half time? Who's that helping?

Cheering the captain when he's subbed off? 

It's absolutely ridiculous it really is.

Now I'm seeing "Blackett-Taylor hadn't really shown anything yet" he's been here 5 minutes, trained with us twice. I despair I really do.

All I hear is "we aren't good enough, Peterborough are better than us, Bolton are better than us" 

Says who? Of course Peterborough were brilliant when they came here. But that was the same Peterborough side we put 4 past on their own ground? Bolton also just scraped past Cheltenham, Bolton lost at Leyton Orient. 

Oxford fans watching us that second half at their ground would have thought we were the best team in the league, we were outstanding.

You cannot play well every week. 

3 hours ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Could be very thin on the ground, definitely missing;

Waghorn

Washington

Rooney

Forsyth

Nyambe

Smith(?)

John-Jules

Plus one more mystery guest for sure and potentially 2 others. 10 players missing if those two fail their fitness tests 😳

Yeah that's a lot. Won't me much options off the bench that's for sure.

Hopefully by Charlton away next weekend we'll have Nyambe back and a striker in at least 

Sounds like we're going to be missing a few tomorrow from Warnes interview.

One definitely out.

Two having fitness tests

Yeah they have qualified. Top 3 teams go through.

1 minute ago, Spanish said:

Namibia are out

I thought they'd qualified to be honest?

Not in the Namibia squad today.

Anyone know if he's injured?

8 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I didn't intend to imply it's all down to Warne. Mereley, a focus on situational passing in training and working on when to make the runs and when not to will improve the success of our passing during matches. If training wasn't a factor, then why do teams bother doing it? The best passing teams in the world rehearse how they're going to pass it from back to front, so much so they can almost do it blind-folded during games. It's no different at our level - the more practice put towards something, generally the better you are at it...

No I agree with you there mate.

I think we do have that. Last night for example I can think of twice where the movement was there, you can see it's rehearsed. Yet Hourihane (who out of our squad has the biggest pedigree and played at the higher level) inexplicably puts too much on a basic pass to set Wilson clear. 

That's what Warne cannot legislate for in my opinion. 

4 minutes ago, Mihangel said:

This - I was definitely on the Warne needs time team earlier in the season and I'm certainly not advocating sacking him but I've come to the conclusion that this is Warne's team and his way and I don't think it's terribly encouraging.

People saying Warne was admitting to bypass the midfield too. He's not saying that at all. He's said that Reading like to press and press quick. So don't take too many touches in midfield, move the ball quickly. Essentially get the ball out wide and beat the press. Which we did and were it not for poor passes to set Wilson away or poor crosses who knows what could have happened. Ultimately these were the reasons we had no shots on target.

Similarly people seem to be beating Warne with a stick about playing Wilson at right back and not rotating the squad.

He's not been able to in recent games has he. Nyambe is not here. Smith is injured. Who would have gone in at right back you'd imagine. Thompson has only just come back. Fornah has been poorly the last two games. So he's had 5 midfielders with only two available. Collins is essentially our only fit striker with Waghorn and Washington out and TJJ made of biscuits.

Out wide you've got Barkhuizen, Wilson and NML as your main options. So he's not been able to rotate any of them. 

Now Nyambe will be back soon and Blackett-Taylor is in, Thompson is fit, Korey Smith can't he far off and Fornah is back. Plus getting another striker in and Waghorn and Washington fit means he will have the chance to rotate his squad.

But over the last few games it's been really difficult for Warne to rotate the squad because their hasn't been options to do so in the areas we need to.

38 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Some simple passes going astray are from the passer expecting the wide player to continue his run down the line. Others are from being caught under pressure. Both of these are a direct result from alack of coaching those aspects of play

Sorry mate but that's absolutely ridiculous. You can blame Warne for certain things but players not being able to play simple passes is not on him.

Hourihane last night had two where all he needs to do is slip Wilson in down the right and he's in acres and passed both out of play. 

Players have to take a certain amount of responsibility also. The quality of balls in and the final third were atrocious, so was the decision making.

1 hour ago, SSD said:

I don't like Warne football as much as the next pessimistic supporter. His objective was promotion and we are still well in the race. Back to back wins and we'll be pulling away from the pack again. He just needs to stop this mini rot of bad performances and now poor results. I still believe we will be top 3, if the manager actually starts to rest his better players more often. We've got a lot of over 30s who are our star players, their game time needs to be managed far smarter than they are now.

My main concern, forget about how dire the football can be when it goes wrong, is he going to learn his lesson from last season and manage the fitness of the squad properly? Ultimately this killed our momentum and we left it too late at the end. Ironically, he had Collins sat on the bench 2nd half of last season and he refused to play him from the start when we really needed to give NML a break. Now we have completely burnt Collins out, burnt out NML and let a young striker out on loan, granted we should be bringing in a striker soon.

He thinks another player will be enough, I'd argue he needs 3 or 4 more for depth. A tight squad with an older average age needs help.

This is it for me. It's not about the football. We've lost two in 14. Yes last night was really poor. But I agree with what you say he has to manage the squad.

In fairness to Warne he's been really unlucky in the respect that Thompson and Smith have been injured and in the last couple of games Fornah has been ill. So he's not really been able to change the midfield. Also he's had not choice but to play Wilson at right back, which I doubt he wants to do. Couple that with injuries to Waghorn and Washington and the only back up striker being John-Jules has meant he's not been able to rotate up front either. Same with the wingers. NML and Barkhuizen are the only ones now Wilson is having to play at RB. So in fairness to Warne the ability to freshen the team up hasn't been there in the last few games.

As these players start to come back he should seriously looking at resting players. For a start on Saturday I'd have both Hourihane and Mendez-Laing on the bench. 

Also, sorry Ryan. But I hope you lot get beat tonight cos we need you back.

Team for Saturday:-

              Wildsmith

Nyambe Nelson Cashin Elder

                 Fornah

          Bird.   Thompson 

Wilson      Collins    Blackett-Taylor

If that team can't heat Cheltenham at home then they are in bother. 

In 2-3 weeks time we should have a new striker, Waghorn, Washington and Smith back. So we'll have options to rotate.

6 hours ago, valakari said:

Brannagan & Arblaster are the 2 i would go out and get as well...

Brannagan would cost £1 million as an absolute minimum. Considering we've had to borrow 300k out the loan plot to buy Blackett-Taylor. I'd say that's unlikely.

Wilder has said they've already turned down championship loan offers for Arblaster 

That's up there with the most angry I've been this season.

The fact we could have gone top and have gone to a team in the bottom 3 and not even mustered a shot on target is a shambles really.

Elder was the only one to come out with any credit.

Nelson and Cashin were ok. Cashin gave the ball away too many times though.

Bird and Hourihane were a joke. Half hearted tackles. No control. Offered absolutely nothing. We are crying out for a midfielder who can break up play, put his foot on the ball and dictate play. That midfield is all over the place.

Collins was offside at almost every opportunity. Even when the ball didn't go to him. He's offside. 

Sibley and Ward came on and did absolutely nothing again.

TJJ looks like he's done. No great loss at all.

We still need 3 players in for me.

37 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

More confidence from our local newspaperman;

 

Plot twist he lives in a tent and hasn't passed his test

7 minutes ago, LeedsCityRam said:

Speaking to a Wendy pal at weekend, apparently Smith got a ridiculous wage increase when they went up & that's the issue. Sounds like we would be unable to get close to paying all of his wages (definition of significant contribution could be very broad & not in reality be the majority of wages) which is why they've asked for a loan fee to sweeten the deal.

Wendies sound in a mess financially what with Chansiri refusing to put any more money in & even asking the fans to pay HMRC debts in October. I suspect they can not afford to have Smith on the books at the end of January & hence we're in a stronger bargaining position the longer the month goes. I can't see there'd be that much competition from other League One clubs now given Oxford & Charlton's recent business and would be surprised if anyone in the Championship wanted him. Sit tight I think.

I think most of league one would want to sign him go be honest. He's a proven goalscorer at this level. 

What will work in our favour is we're at the top and I can't see Smith wanting to go to a team outside the top 6.

Might announce it tonight to cheer us up after watching that 😂

3 minutes ago, roboto said:

Sounds like it could've been Wolves v Brentford. Olakigbe the wide player for Brentford and maybe Fraser the Wolves forward?

I've had a look at the fixtures from Tuesday and it's all I can see.

Said he went to watch a winger and also a striker that has been recommended to him.

Only thing with it is Olakigbe came on in the 99th minute. If that didn't go to extra time he wouldn't have come on. Would Warne travel all the way to London to watch a player that he didn't know would start? I don't think so.

Plus he also said he wants players that are good enough and are first team ready now. Looking at that Fraser's stats, he's not had a loan spell anywhere? So essentially we'd be his first taste of proper football. Is that first team ready? I don't think so.

But I honestly can't see who else it could be 

I thought we were in complete control of the game until we gave their first goal away. Really poor from NML. Trying to be too clever. Also felt Nelson could possibly have got out to him and not let him shoot. 

From that point we lost our way and looked nervous. When we really didn't need to. Then the second goal is criminal really.

But after that I thought we took control of the game again and in my opinion we deserved to win the game. They had 2 shots, which were both from our errors and scored them both. 66% possession, 7 shots on target. Should have been 2 up at half time and Collins should stick that volley away second half.

That could be a huge three points that could. Reminds me of when we nicked that winner against Yeovil in the last minute. 

Got to get some strength up front though. Absolutely nothing to come on there and change the game at all. Sooner we can get CBT and a striker in the better really 

5 minutes ago, Srg said:

It’s alright saying £500k is a no brainer but that’s based on what, a Championship transfer window 6 years ago?

That could be our entire budget, could even eat into the summer budget for all we know. Without knowing anything about all that, we just have to trust they know what budget we have and what value CBT would have to us. 

Because we're a different club to 6 years ago. There isn't a chance Clowes would blow all our budget on one player. Not a chance.

Plus getting him in on a 3 year deal. 500k spread over 3 years isn't a lot. Even if he ends up going for free at the end. But at the very worst, Derby could break even.

Even 500k is a no brainer for me. We're crying out for another winger. NML on one side, CBT on the other. There wouldn't be much better in this league.

Now we know that the bid wasn't today, but last week. Makes me think that we're close.

If they didn't want to sell him and we were miles apart on a fee, he would have played today. The fact he hasn't means we're close and they want to cash in now.

4 minutes ago, BuckoBeast said:

Sounds promising 🙏🏻

Yeah I'm hoping the bid being reported by Football Insider is the same bid reported by that Richard Cawley at the start of the week.

Then we've continued negotiations this week and are getting close. CBT has probably informed Charlton that he wants to leave and move to Derby. So hopefully they've just said look we're close, not played him today and we can get this all done next week.

In all fairness all this means is he either is actually injured or a move is close.

My only worry is we wanted him in the summer. But he had triggered an extension. So they obviously didn't want to do business. Now he's had a really good start to the season, if a decent Championship club comes in, they will be able to offer more than what we can.

Not in the Charlton squad today......

Funny really that some of our fans are annoyed, concerned, angry that we don't seem to have any money to spend.

I'm just reading up now on how Newcastle can't afford Solanke. Arsenal have to sell before they could buy. Money in football really isn't there is it.

Newcastle are literally worth billions and billions and have still been told that will have to sell a star player to find a transfer spree.

Wolves made over £150 million in player sales in the summer and they are dangerously close to a points deduction. Everton have had one. I can't imagine Forest are far off either. 

12 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

Agree, but would we need to let someone go to pay for all three?

We ‘re already paying more for TJJ and, I assume, NML.

Wages could be an issue unless we can offload without unduly weakening the squad.

 

Potentially mate. Maybe we thought we'd sell Cashin in the summer and they would fund what we needed. Obviously now selling Cashin is completely unthinkable because of how good he's been. Also selling Cashin and Bird in the summer is probably best as we need a big rebuild then too.

We've got Embletons wages off the books haven't we. We don't know if we are paying more for TJJ really. The bit that Arsenal countered on could be to do with the structure of the deal and if we pay anything when his contract is up, depending on games played etc. We honestly don't know.

Personally I'd not be too fussed to see Sibley leave. If there was any interest.

57 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Washington is back in training next month and Waghorn will return at some point. As we appear to want to play with 2 upfront and Warne wants to play 352, then it's also where Mendez-Laing will play (Barkhuizen too?). That gives us 5 or 6 CF options so I can see why some may say we have enough. I would still sign one more.

Washington won't be match fit till March providing he doesn't have a set back. Waghorn who knows. At some point isn't really helping.

Smith is proven at this level and offers something different to Collins. Whilst TJJ has potential. Not being able to play 90 minutes isn't really much help at all. 

If we signed CBT, Smith and Arblaster this month I'd think we could give it a right good go to get promoted. Strength in depth is key and being able to rotate and not weaken the side is key. Because last season we ran out of steam as we had nobody that could step in and replace any of our better players. We can't let that happen again.