Betty Swollocks

Times have changed. Back in late 90s and early 00s I would know every single player from every single premier league club, thanks to sticker albums, match of the day, football focus,;football italia on TV...etc etc.
Now I'm ashamed to say, j would struggle to name more than 10 players who play for England and 10 is pushing it. If it isn't derby I ain't interested any more.

I'm sorry, but am I the only one that finds it amazing that many here have no football knowledge at all? Who's Sonny Bradley, never heard of him I've read. Curtis Nelson where does he play? This Conor Washington we've signed, is he any good? Ryan Woods – you couldn't miss him with his ginger hair and should know that Brentford paid a million for him from Shrewsbury when they got promoted into the Championship, he'll have played 20 times against Derby. The younger here, I thought they lived their life playing Football Manager and knew every footballer in the world.

I think Waghorn returning is a solid bit of business for us in a difficult transfer window where better quality forwards are at a premium.
At this level he should be a real handful for defenders and his positional versatility can see him fitting in quite a few places across the attacking positions

Exactly mate. 
Like Warne said. Tottenham don't want to sell Harry Kane. 
But he's got a year left. Everyone has their price.

Sometimes moves work, sometimes they dont, all it takes ia for it to click at a club and a player gets back to form. 
Used to think he was a class player when at Brentford, seems to have gone from club to club since then but maybe we could be the team where he gets his form back.

Showing my age now, but I remember Arthur Cox selling our prized asset Kevin Wilson in the old Div 3 to Ipswich.
Fans were shocked, but the money we got, allowed Cox to buy the likes of Geriant Williams and Gary MIcklewhite.
I suppose, if intentions are good at board level, then we have to trust the manager to do his stuff.?

Showing my age now, but I remember Arthur Cox selling our prized asset Kevin Wilson in the old Div 3 to Ipswich.
Fans were shocked, but the money we got, allowed Cox to buy the likes of Geriant Williams and Gary MIcklewhite.
I suppose, if intentions are good at board level, then we have to trust the manager to do his stuff.?

It's all about money rather than stature - as it should be. 
All things being equal we dwarf them as a club in size and stature. e of a club - Hull and Bristol have rich owners who are willing to bridge the gap as best they can to the parachute payment boys. Hull turnover is around £15m - we will do more than that in League One and double that in the Championship. Bristol are slightly bigger, but not by much more. 
Playing for a bigger club that's under-performing has it's pros and cons. It could be argued last season with the likes of Wednesday and Ipswich being in our division but as we kick off the new season, no club in English football is playing as far below their natural level as we currently are - it carries expectation and frustration. We finished 7th last season and whilst it was enjoyable for the most part - the season will go down as the joint-lowest finish the club has ever had in it's 139 year history. I don't think anyone would make the case as that being our worst ever side, but the fact is that no Derby team in 139 years finished lower in the football pyramid as they did. 
Football is cyclical and I'm fairly sure that a well-run Derby County will be snapped up by someone with plenty of money. Clowes just has to steer the ship as best he knows how until that point and we can go back to a more comfortable part of the food chain. 

Showing my age now, but I remember Arthur Cox selling our prized asset Kevin Wilson in the old Div 3 to Ipswich.
Fans were shocked, but the money we got, allowed Cox to buy the likes of Geriant Williams and Gary MIcklewhite.
I suppose, if intentions are good at board level, then we have to trust the manager to do his stuff.?

Would be okay with him going if we get about 2.5 million for him and we reinvest the money on a quality box to box player or number 10 and get another for depth. 
He's a good player but overrated imo, he doesn't score many, isn't physical or athletic and doesn't play well enough in the big games when we are up against it  or have the ability to run games and turn the tide of matches even at league 1 level. He is a good,tidy technical player and could be a good championship player as part of a good possession based side but I'd rather have 2 good league 1 players if we were going to reinvest the fee, maybe could help us sign a better striker. 
If we don't reinvest properly then I wouldn't be as keen on selling .We are lacking in central midfield as it is.
If we sell I'd put Robinson in until we get a replacement,  and register Johnson for the bench. 

Showing my age now, but I remember Arthur Cox selling our prized asset Kevin Wilson in the old Div 3 to Ipswich.
Fans were shocked, but the money we got, allowed Cox to buy the likes of Geriant Williams and Gary MIcklewhite.
I suppose, if intentions are good at board level, then we have to trust the manager to do his stuff.?

Spot on. Wilson was sold to Ipswich, and Arthur signed Gregory, Micklewhite, George Williams and Ross MacLaren with the money.
If Warney pulls that off this month then he is truly Midas.

Showing my age now, but I remember Arthur Cox selling our prized asset Kevin Wilson in the old Div 3 to Ipswich.
Fans were shocked, but the money we got, allowed Cox to buy the likes of Geriant Williams and Gary MIcklewhite.
I suppose, if intentions are good at board level, then we have to trust the manager to do his stuff.?

Showing my age now, but I remember Arthur Cox selling our prized asset Kevin Wilson in the old Div 3 to Ipswich.
Fans were shocked, but the money we got, allowed Cox to buy the likes of Geriant Williams and Gary MIcklewhite.
I suppose, if intentions are good at board level, then we have to trust the manager to do his stuff.?

Knight wasnt out of contract, he had a year left on his deal like Bird does

I'd meant to start a midfield thread after Warne commented we needed another body there. I wasn't convinced. But if Max Bird goes, we will and it allows Warne to shape things more in his image. Lovely lad, but I feel Bird has not pushed on as he should. His goal should be to have become our Michael Carrick, but when I watch him I'm a bit meh. 
The issue is Clowes bought us to save the club. Without him, we were gone, but he does not have deep pockets and running a football club with ambition at our level is a seriously loss-making enterprise. It's now about balance, but I expect we have to sell before we buy and it seems apparent (and understandable) that not all monies received will be reinvested.
If this happens we look weaker than last season, but need to adapt and work with what we have. It's not what we want, but we're still living off scraps. I'm far from the only person on here to suggest Sibley has a higher ceiling than Knight and Bird. It should be up to young Louie and the manager to realize that potential. That's the kind of mindset we need for the moment. 

Can go for me. Over rated amongst a few on here without truely delivering over a sustained period. A few good passes here and there is about it really. Not good enough defensively or in an attacking sense. Need a bit a grit in this team for our midfield and he doesn't possess that. Thanks for your time and effort Birdy. 

Think bird has had long enough to kick on so wouldn’t be against this with a year left for a decent fee usually.
however any money got from sales doesn’t seem to be helping strengthen the squad currently. Think we need a midfielder without bird leaving, would be two if he goes. 
with timing of this I do think would be a pretty big setback. 

Birdy would be a big loss but its business if he wants to go !!

If true, it’s starting to look like the club is being asset stripped. 

If it's £2-£3 million now or nothing in a year and he doesn't want to stay. Then he goes.
Absolutely no point in keeping a player who does not want to be here.

Would have to bring someone in before he left in my opinion.
We are already short in midfield so selling him with no replacement would be daft.
Not sure if we got a relatively decent fee for him (£2 million) that this would allow Warne to spend maybe half of it.
If we replaced him with a midfielder who chips in with more goals then I'm ok with it.
He's only got a year left. So he either stays and signs a new deal or moves on.

They've been sniffing around Birdy all summer long. We are going to get to crunch time soon with him only having a year left on his deal 

Make no mistake, PW and DCFC will be aware of the vitriol aimed at BS, If they don't then get out of the business of being a Pro Manager and running a Pro football club, Jim Smith eons ago had a dossier on players before they came, He interviewed them at length, Took them around Derby to show them what Derby has to offer...ie schools, Shops, Parks, In todays world of football a players DNA is forensically assessed...I'll be SHOCKED if PW signs BS.
As for the songs sung against Sharpe...mocking his baby's death and accusing him of sexual misbehaviour crosses the line and I for one would take up where  Eric Cantona left off.

I'd like him here, on one condition...
He proves our imbeciles wrong.