GangwayD

I love Stearman and to me Stearman is a bit like our Scott Carson. In that, he could have gone to a lot of league 1 or ANY league 2 team and played games.  Infact I'd probably would have played him more here had I been in charge.  But, there were players ahead of him and Stearman didn't sulk, whinge, take swipes in interviews, he just got on with it. Trained, supported, played his part.
I will always remember him for that and if there was a player out the whole squad I could meet and shake there hand, it is him! Just to say "Thank you sir and good luck for the future."

Spot on. 
Lills got injured early on and Gee come in from the reserves forming a brilliant partnership with Bobby Davison scoring dozens between them.
Lills didnt complain got his head down and when called upon gave his all, expressing pride in playing for us.  
 
He always wore his Derby/Rangers hat when warming up and for some reason became a fans favourite.
Powerful in the air and Ooooh Mark Lillis preceded Ooooh Mark Wright.  
Not sure on his stats for us but most fans loved him. The late great Micky Lewis kind of fell into this bracket too. 
Cheers
Gangway D from the terrace 

I prefer this description, Darryl Powell who was a key player during the last 'successful' Derby team who got promoted to the premier League and to the brink of European qualification. The player who did the donkey work for the likes of Eranio, Biano and Wanchope.
Great teams need balance, part of that balance requires someone to get the ball for the creative players and someone to stop the opposition and give 100% all the time.

He's 32. And s*** at football.

Just 14 starts this year, in a Gary Rowett team, and he’s now 32. Add that to the obvious bit about having seen him with our own eyes before and yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. 
Moot anyway. No chance Warne would want him or would he want to come back here. 

True, just like Will Hughes, he needs a manager to play to his strengths.
I hope he succeeds, nothing better than a local lad playing for the club he supports.

Curtis rightly took all the plaudits and emotion when we learned the curtain has finally came down on a brilliant Rams career.
So much so, Richard Stearman's (and James Chester) exit almost went by unnoticed.  
The Steargoat, as he got christened by someone, always gave it us all when representing us, he never complained about not being in the team or squad, plus was a excellent role model for the younger lads.  I'll never forgot when he was interviewed live on TV and stated just "how proud he was to represent this great football club and how much he loved pulling on the shirt".   He almost had the unsung Mark Lillis like cult hero status about him, for those who can remember Ooooh Mark Lillis. 
Wish him the best in whatever his career brings next.  
Good luck to the Steargoat !
Cheers, GDFTT

I've heard we're after Ferrie Bodde from Swansea...

Curtis rightly took all the plaudits and emotion when we learned the curtain has finally came down on a brilliant Rams career.
So much so, Richard Stearman's (and James Chester) exit almost went by unnoticed.  
The Steargoat, as he got christened by someone, always gave it us all when representing us, he never complained about not being in the team or squad, plus was a excellent role model for the younger lads.  I'll never forgot when he was interviewed live on TV and stated just "how proud he was to represent this great football club and how much he loved pulling on the shirt".   He almost had the unsung Mark Lillis like cult hero status about him, for those who can remember Ooooh Mark Lillis. 
Wish him the best in whatever his career brings next.  
Good luck to the Steargoat !
Cheers, GDFTT

Curtis rightly took all the plaudits and emotion when we learned the curtain has finally came down on a brilliant Rams career.
So much so, Richard Stearman's (and James Chester) exit almost went by unnoticed.  
The Steargoat, as he got christened by someone, always gave it us all when representing us, he never complained about not being in the team or squad, plus was a excellent role model for the younger lads.  I'll never forgot when he was interviewed live on TV and stated just "how proud he was to represent this great football club and how much he loved pulling on the shirt".   He almost had the unsung Mark Lillis like cult hero status about him, for those who can remember Ooooh Mark Lillis. 
Wish him the best in whatever his career brings next.  
Good luck to the Steargoat !
Cheers, GDFTT

Curtis rightly took all the plaudits and emotion when we learned the curtain has finally came down on a brilliant Rams career.
So much so, Richard Stearman's (and James Chester) exit almost went by unnoticed.  
The Steargoat, as he got christened by someone, always gave it us all when representing us, he never complained about not being in the team or squad, plus was a excellent role model for the younger lads.  I'll never forgot when he was interviewed live on TV and stated just "how proud he was to represent this great football club and how much he loved pulling on the shirt".   He almost had the unsung Mark Lillis like cult hero status about him, for those who can remember Ooooh Mark Lillis. 
Wish him the best in whatever his career brings next.  
Good luck to the Steargoat !
Cheers, GDFTT

Curtis rightly took all the plaudits and emotion when we learned the curtain has finally came down on a brilliant Rams career.
So much so, Richard Stearman's (and James Chester) exit almost went by unnoticed.  
The Steargoat, as he got christened by someone, always gave it us all when representing us, he never complained about not being in the team or squad, plus was a excellent role model for the younger lads.  I'll never forgot when he was interviewed live on TV and stated just "how proud he was to represent this great football club and how much he loved pulling on the shirt".   He almost had the unsung Mark Lillis like cult hero status about him, for those who can remember Ooooh Mark Lillis. 
Wish him the best in whatever his career brings next.  
Good luck to the Steargoat !
Cheers, GDFTT

Curtis rightly took all the plaudits and emotion when we learned the curtain has finally came down on a brilliant Rams career.
So much so, Richard Stearman's (and James Chester) exit almost went by unnoticed.  
The Steargoat, as he got christened by someone, always gave it us all when representing us, he never complained about not being in the team or squad, plus was a excellent role model for the younger lads.  I'll never forgot when he was interviewed live on TV and stated just "how proud he was to represent this great football club and how much he loved pulling on the shirt".   He almost had the unsung Mark Lillis like cult hero status about him, for those who can remember Ooooh Mark Lillis. 
Wish him the best in whatever his career brings next.  
Good luck to the Steargoat !
Cheers, GDFTT

Curtis rightly took all the plaudits and emotion when we learned the curtain has finally came down on a brilliant Rams career.
So much so, Richard Stearman's (and James Chester) exit almost went by unnoticed.  
The Steargoat, as he got christened by someone, always gave it us all when representing us, he never complained about not being in the team or squad, plus was a excellent role model for the younger lads.  I'll never forgot when he was interviewed live on TV and stated just "how proud he was to represent this great football club and how much he loved pulling on the shirt".   He almost had the unsung Mark Lillis like cult hero status about him, for those who can remember Ooooh Mark Lillis. 
Wish him the best in whatever his career brings next.  
Good luck to the Steargoat !
Cheers, GDFTT

Curtis rightly took all the plaudits and emotion when we learned the curtain has finally came down on a brilliant Rams career.
So much so, Richard Stearman's (and James Chester) exit almost went by unnoticed.  
The Steargoat, as he got christened by someone, always gave it us all when representing us, he never complained about not being in the team or squad, plus was a excellent role model for the younger lads.  I'll never forgot when he was interviewed live on TV and stated just "how proud he was to represent this great football club and how much he loved pulling on the shirt".   He almost had the unsung Mark Lillis like cult hero status about him, for those who can remember Ooooh Mark Lillis. 
Wish him the best in whatever his career brings next.  
Good luck to the Steargoat !
Cheers, GDFTT

Quite the opposite, he's a midfielder at heart but has said in the past that he feels he is 'better' at CB, not that he prefers it.
It's one of those comments that's been misinterpreted when listening to an interview with him, and then the misinterpretation stated as fact.

I was on the Football special that day too - it certainly was an eventful mid-eighties kind of away day.
Kicked off in and around Newport all day.  Fighting with the Coppers in the Away end and remember one losing his helmet.  DLF in the home end and a great win, all singing 'We're going up next year' (and we did).   
Ironically the Football special train stopped near St Andrews on the way back and Leeds had played Birmingham.  Some wag on the train, shouted, 'Let us off, we'll sort the Leeds out'
I doubt they knew, there had been a huge amount of trouble that day with Blues and Leeds and a wall had collapsed killing a young fan.  This seems to get overlooked. 
We got back to learn of the horrific scenes at Bradford.  I didn't do that pre-season friendly Shipley Ram but big respect that we sang that.
Cheers
Gangway D from the terrace
 

I share this concern OB. 
Should we make the play-offs then many free agents will have already agreed terms or be a long way down that road, before we throw our hat in the ring and with the 23-30 age range we need then the pool of what's available could leave slim pickings for players who PW genuinely feels will improve us - as you said, we can all see it and its completely understandable. 
With many of our squad out of contract, returning loans, or probably not having a future with us then we have another big re-build for next season, meaning the new squad will need 'time to gel' or 'no proper preseason behind them' will be used if we don't hit the ground running.  
I don't think fans will be as patient as we have. I suspect it will mean another season of several loan players. 
We don't have any youngsters showing enough and I don't think we even have a pathway available now to the first team if we did. Those we had have left to find the grass is certainly not greener.
I enjoy the debates, opinions and rumours created from the free agent lists but will be pleased when the club can finally work properly again in the transfer market 
Gangway D from the terrace.
 
 
 
 
 

Get the Dobster back in on loan 😉

Miss them days.  Bank holiday Monday down Sadlergate was packed from 11 o'clock.  

Sam Smith at Cambridge would be a good shout.  Seems to be blossoming later in his career as at 25 he's only really scored goals this last few seasons, but I'm sure we'd create more chances than Cambridge.
Very impressed with Exeter's Josh Key on Tuesday but with Championship clubs sniffing then doubt we'd get him.
It's going to be an interesting Summer as the re-build starts again. 
Cheers
Gangway D from the terrace 

Personally I think one of the big priorities this summer is to pick up as many talented/Semi-talented youngsters as we can that have ben released from other academies to re-stock and retain our Tier 1 status.
We had a purple patch of picking up players like Ebiowei and Plange who were released from other academies that not only improved our academy but quite quickly progressed on to the first team and I believe players like Sonny Blu Lo-Everton have impressed since they have come in although understandably the focus has been on the first team until now.
Obviously with restrictions still in place we will probably maintain a small squad again next year so having quality youngsters pushing to get in to the first team will strengthen our bench & depth.

Deeney will be 35 in June. No thanks. Ash Barnes might be a good shout but his wages might be prohibitive.
Whoever we get in, we have to get them in for the right reasons. Namely, they can do a job we want doing and we play to their strengths. No more buying a Centre Forward and then play him on the left wing or buying a player who score rucks of goals from knockdowns and flicks on from his strike partner and using pace to latch on to through balls and then play him as a target man. That's what we did with Hales. Zak would not be the hero is today if we'd got him to play the O'Hare role. Horses for courses please, not more square pegs in round holes.

For sure. Warne seemed to be cooking up a lovely stew for a while, then he ran out of the chicken (Bird) and it became a bit of an Irish Stew with Knight, Hourihane, Collins and McGoldrick in there….I’ve lost the analogy I was building on top of yours, sorry! 😆 
I share the frustrations with how Warne has utilised the squad at times, I’m just a bit more objective in how it makes me feel overall I guess. I can see what he’s trying to do at times, and I’m baffled by what he’s doing at others. There are points this season when he’s got it right, there are times he’s got it very very wrong. I’m sort of sat on the fence a bit about the whole thing, still Warne in and want him to have time, but growing concerns about his tactical stubbornness/limitations. 

I think that a lack of urgency was created for the January transfer window, by our results at the time. Warne made it clear that he wouldn't be forced into signing players that didn't improve the squad that he had then. A number of those squad players have had a dip in form since and if Warne was given the opportunity to add to the squad now, I think that he would be prepared to set his sights a little lower.