maxjam

Our local dog rescue and rehoming centre is always desperate for food (and blankets etc at this time of year) as I imagine all are. Go to an organised display and instead of buying fireworks, donate a few tins of food or an old sheet/duvet cover - it really does make a difference.

Not really a fan of having a foreign manager tbh, understandable for smaller nations but more established footballing nations should have to be managed by 'one of their own'. That said, I'm not against the appointment either - decent CV, hope he does well. A bigger problem/question for me is why aren't we producing more of our own.

Bit of a strange teambuilding exercise imo.

I agree. I think some fans have short memories and think that we'll simply return to the heady days of MM spending his way in to the top six forgetting that prior to that we were under the more frugal ownership of GSE lurking around the bottom half of the table. You only have to look at how much other teams have spent this season compared to us to realise that we're not shopping in the same market and any progress will be slow and steady. Youth players will take time to advance through the system. We're relying on the excellent scouting of cheap, relatively unknown players alongside out of contract players to build a squad. Anyone that wants to play attractive, controlled tippy-tappy football and compete with ex-PL squads better have some deep pockets. Its probably worth listening to this short interview with DC again. Some people hear 'competitive budget' and 'aiming to finish first' others hear 'good budget' and 'maintain the position in the Championship'. Personally I am very happy with Paul Warne. The mandate last season was to get promoted. The mandate this season is to remain in the Championship. The mandate for next season will be to finish a bit higher. The fact that we seem to be going about things the right way - unearthing cheap foreign signings, playing better football than last season and everyone at Derby appears to be fighting for the club and each other is the icing on the cake. The next step on the path has to be outside investment, the top six is probably beyond us without it. However, I am in no rush for this tbh, it has to be the right decision for the club and one that I'm sure that DC will agonise over.

I assume the headline is referring to his conker. https://news.sky.com/story/world-conker-championships-investigates-cheating-concerns-after-winner-found-with-steel-nut-13233814

Did we get promoted last season ✅ Were we tipped to get relegated this season ✅ Are we exceeding expectations this season ✅ Have we recruited well ✅ Are we playing better football than last season ✅ Personally I'm just enjoying being on an upward curve again after the past few seasons. It would be extremely harsh, not to mention a little bit risky, to change the manager if it continues. Welcome to the forum btw, lets see what your second post brings!

Flawless!

I guess it depends where you are, if you have a lot of light pollution you're probably not gonna see it with the naked eye. We went down to the sea front last night however...

Yeah I've had a moan on the FM forums 😛 TBH given its a new engine, new UI, new graphics etc they would be better releasing FM25 in March as a free beta and using the feedback to make sure that everything is fixed and works for FM26. They could also spend the extra time putting back in all the features they had cut from FM25 as well 😕 If they do launch FM25 as a full priced product in March are they then expecting us to buy FM26 a few months later? If so, other than an updated database I can't see what new features it would gain in such a short space of time. Better to bite the bullet imho, allow months of beta testing FM25 and building back the goodwill/anticipation for FM26.

Wife : 'you've been spending a lot of the time at the gym lately...' Husband : 😏

You can't play football in L1, any manager worth his salt knows you need athletes, get it out wide and to lump crosses into the box. Good to see things are continuing to go well for the biggest club in the division...

Of I did it when I was younger, who didn't? I haven't 'cheated' in any game for years now however. Another game I used to really enjoy was 'The Forest', spent hours in that game avoiding cannibals, building bases, surviving etc - really, really enjoyed it. Then I discovered you could mod it... I started small, changing a few minor things to remove some of the tedium but ended up making myself overpowered removing all of the challenge. I stopped playing shortly after and have never been back. Pity, it was a good game but I'd ruined it. I've not modded a game for anything other than appearances since, all it does it kill the enjoyment/challenge.