Sparkle

20 hours ago, Terry Hennessy said:

Not saying that Clarke isn't a good player....but if he's THAT good how come we keep conceding stupid goals from crosses... cant see him coming back...nor him wanting to come back....

Clarke is Average - the highest level he has played is bottom half of the championship - with us 

51 minutes ago, TexasRam said:

Until the window shuts and we’ve only signed a 18yr old 5th choice CB from a prem club on loan for the season and nothing else. Then the realisation finally hits our fan base we are more than skint and deep in the poo. 

Just like half the division this season I suspect 

Knight, Sibley, Bird,Buchanan are a great bunch of now experienced young players which many other clubs would like to get hold of.

hopefully and we have seen other youngsters pushing through ( out of need) - on the pitch our future could be very exciting if they progress together but what we don’t have is any promising centre half’s who need to be good enough for the championship so we need to sign some of them and quickly whilst also addressing our lack of goals and I do hope Stretton can progress but he won’t be ready to do that on a full time basis. We actually need someone like Marriott to turn up with a full bill of health with the right attitude and to do it on the pitch but that seems unlikely based on recent times so let’s hope shall we.

5 hours ago, LondonRam2 said:

A few thoughts on this.

I always enjoy seeing a new player from the Academy break into the first team, and in recent years some of them have been excellent - Bogle, Lowe, Sibley, the list goes on.

If we are headed for a short term future in which we are strapped for cash, it's the only way to survive in the Championship as far as I can see, because it seems that big money purchases are out of the question for now.

The other side of the coin is this however.  Running an Academy takes money, and most of the players we produce won't make the Rams first team.  To some extent we are developing players who then get sold before we have seen them at their best, and for less money than they will soon be worth (unless we insert valuation or sell on clauses in the contract when they are sold).  Therefore, in order to produce a Bogle or a Lowe we are spending probably more money than it would cost to sign an established 25-30 year old journeyman.

One more thing that I've noticed.  All the players that have emerged from the Academy in recent years seem to be the same type of player - skilful, quick, exciting going forward BUT also defensively fragile and liable to not be in position when we are under the cosh and about to concede from yet another set piece.  (To be fair, Max Bird has proved the exception to this rule I admit).

Where are the goalkeepers, centre backs, big #9s etc coming up from the Academy?  Or do we preselect, when they are young, boys who might become the next Will Hughes but not the next Curtis Davies or Scott Carson or CKR?  Or is it that only the quick, skilful players show up for trials?  If so, what are we doing to try to find other types of young players?   We need those kind of 'solid' players coming through as well as the skilful midfielders, of which we seem to have an abundance. 

For example, would we sign up a very young version of Akinfenwa to the Academy?  People may scoff at this example, but the fact is that the guy has had a 15 year professional career and scored a lot of goals, albeit at a lower level.  Would we sign a very young version of Peter Crouch either?  Or even Gazza?

The ability to spot talent that is housed within a non-standard individual (non-standard mentally &/or physically) was surely part of the genius of Peter Taylor.  Teams used to be full of characters, eccentrics and strange looking people - Nobby Stiles, anyone?  Archie Gemmill?  Would those types get signed now, or do we always go for the slim, athletic, average to tall height, skilful rather than solid or gutsy type of youngster, and thereby miss potential in other positions in the early stages?  Are we at risk of producing an assembly line of Hughes/Bogle type clones because they are easier to spot at a young age than a potentially great GK or CB or big #9?

I don't know the answer I admit, but I have worked in education and I do know enough to know that guts, character, resilience and a determination to improve often count for more in the end than natural talent.  How then does one judge guts, character, resilience and determination in an 11 year old?  If the next Jamie Vardy turned up at the Academy would we be able to spot him?  I hope so!

All good points - and worth remembering that Jamie Vardy was released by Sheffield Wednesday and had to work his way up in a fantastic Roy of the Rovers way 

3 hours ago, SFox1993 said:

Do we have a sell on clause ?

Yes I believe we do 

17 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

I think it disrupted player development sticking U23s in the first team squad then either not playing them at all or giving them ten minutes max. 

They lost any rhythm gained at junior level and became part of a losing mentality. 

It would have made more sense picking the best two or three in a starting line-up where they knew each other's game. 

To be fair most youngsters get 5-10 mins at a go but the emphasis is on them showing that they are good enough on that pitch at that time to be selected again - not easy but it’s a ruthless sport for a youngster 

Worth noting that Sheffield United are talking of wanting £15-20 million for one of the best attacking full/wing backs in the premiership last season in Bogle after Norwich showed interest as they will probably sell theirs for £30 million or so they think 

I think without the academy players coming through we would be in even bigger trouble. There is nothing wrong the academy model of players coming through and all our problems stem from buying extremely average players for far to much money and paying them far to much money for far to long, resulting in absolutely no sell on return. 
 

The only two players I can think of who we purchased who were good value for playing time with us and selling time were Ince and Vydra. Does anyone agree?

21 minutes ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

I think the biggest problem with investing so heavily in the academy is that it's so unpredictable. There's no guarantee that the next crop will be any good.

Contrast that with investing heavily in setting up a Brentford-style recruitment system; you know the talent is always going to be out there and it's just a case of making the right decision on who to sign. Obviously that's easier said than done, mind.

Especially when they could pick up any European that they thought would do well for peanuts - if Brentford hadn’t gone up they would have started to struggle with their model with only the UK players to pick up 

18 hours ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

Not really

?

There are going to be so many out of contract footballers available this summer 

14 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Hendrick was 24

I class 24 as young ! 

8 hours ago, cheron85 said:

We got £10.5m for Jeff Hendrick - Personally I think Knight is already a more well-rounded player than him and has more potential once he gains some more experience

We got that fee for Hendrick off the back of a couple of good games for Ireland at Euro 2016 - So a few good games for Ireland and Knight could be worth £10m+ if a couple of suitors came in

I don’t disagree on knight but Hendrick got his move because he was young, experienced and very decent which is why out of all our players who moved on to the premiership he has done the best of all of them.

45 minutes ago, Spanish said:

Brighton a prem side when he signed so odds on the salary was prem club standard.  Really can't imagine we  will match that unless you know something more about this

Clarke will be on too much in terms of wages and there will be a loan fee and let’s keep this real he has only played at championship level for one club Derby county everything else was league one or below. He isn’t very quick on the deck so no selling point there and he contributed to us finishing very badly in season 19/20 and the dreadful season of 20/21 - was it his fault no not really but the same can be said about all the others. Can we find better who knows but I do want to see the likes of knight Sibley Buchanan and Bird flourish here at Derby county and sell them at their peak value and not when we know it will sky rocket in a few seasons.

Keep all the youngsters who are first team regulars if we can and let’s build something good from a low cost base because replacing them is fairly difficult 

2 hours ago, GenBr said:

Depends how much you think Bogle will be sold for. Anything would help us at the moment, but I don't think he will go for a great deal of money.

I don’t think Sheffield United would sell him unless it’s for a sizeable profit for them 

10 hours ago, GenBr said:

Don't think we will get much from any potential sale, but good for him if he does go back to the Prem.

We would because the deal was a very incentive lead - I believe it was £8.1 million for both Lowe and Bogle with sell on and avoiding relegation clauses plus set appearance money.

7 hours ago, Dimmu said:

20% used to be a norm back in the day. We sold him quite cheaply so hopefully it's more than that.

I guess Norwich is selling Aarons then?

Anything would be enormously helpful wouldn’t it 

Had a decent season 

29 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Stoke are in tricky financial waters, I wonder if we could get Gregory on a free to save them his wages?

Yes you would assume so but it also depends on what he would want paying?

I looked at going to a game in September when the Raiders play their first game at the new fantastic stadium in Las Vegas 

cough cough cheapest seats $800 yep season tickets around $7000,$8000 - which puts things into a different perspective when my season ticket goes up £25 

Blindingly obvious link and probably true - whilst the money would be decent would he want to move down there if he has family?

3 hours ago, Asheville Ram said:

FYI David Tepper worth $12,000,000,000. I can also confirm in my opinion the Spanish kid would not be involved at all

That’s a lot of zeros - a bit like our goals scored and not our clean sheets !

3 hours ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

David Tepper is worth more than Sheikh Mansour, more chance of us being taken over by David Tennant.

WHO?

Worth noting all three relegated clubs from the premiership will be relagated by a very large margin in football terms