Sparkle

4 hours ago, Jimbo Ram said:

                    Wildsmith

Rooney.    Curtis.   Cashin.     Roberts

                    Bird.     Smith

      NML.           Knight.        Dobbin

                          Collins

well-earned rest for Fozzy, Conor, Barks and McGoldrick ??

Every time Forsyth has been benched he has had to come on ?

3 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

"...I've noticed it has heated up because I'm getting more and more phone calls off my recruiter and the deals get crazier. I got offered a centre-back yesterday that I don't need. It was no wages and I didn't have to pay a penny for him.

"If I needed a centre-half, I would have taken him because he's a good player. Now if I asked about him three weeks ago, they'd have probably said they needed X amount. But now all of a sudden, they just need to go and play and they can do so anywhere for free. More and more players get concertinaed into the last three or four days. And I've been phoned about other players where this player at a top Premier League club is now available and you only have to pay like an eighth of his wages, which makes it attainable for League One clubs.

...It just gets a little bit chaotic and even more so after this weekend...That's what ends up happening or managers go to the board and say 'look, if you don't get me this striker, we're not going to achieve anything'. Even the board gets tweaky because the fans have been on at the board and everything changes. Whereas at the start of January, there isn't that intensity, but it just gets driven up.

"Or a player might go in and say I just don't want to be here anymore, I've waited all window, Derby want me and I want to go to Derby let it happen. Everything sort of happens in the last 72 hours I think. But there's just more options and loads of things sort of level up a bit at the end of the window."

It just makes you want to know what’s being offered to us in a curiosity sort of way 

Based on us having hardly any options 

                    Wildsmith 

Rooney   Forsyth Cashin  Roberts 

                  Bird.    Hourihane    
mendiz-Lang   Knight.     Barkhauzen 

                    Collins 

14 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

No CBs either.

6 CMs (1 at CB and 2 on the wings), 2 wingers (1 at LB and 1 at CF)

I assume we didn’t pick the best ones at CM then ?

10 minutes ago, Topram said:

Be a shame to lose Osula and not replace him 

Currently I will be happy to keep Dobbin and not lose anyone else 

I see everyone has gone silent on needing a right back as we still haven’t got one - I don’t think it’s important at the moment with smith and Rooney covering it and Knight at a push not to mention the occasional appearance from Chester. 

People never learn the lessons of History do they 

Clough - why have we given him the job ?

Smith - why have we given the job to him? 
McClaren - ex Forest cast off - (won nothing but great football but should have been promoted) 

basically you have to wait and see - unless it’s Phil Brown or Nigel Pearson 

Flint - Dangerous in both penalty areas - I will leave it at that 

I haven’t paid much attention to the championship this season and looking at the viewing figures not many others have either - maybe that’s why more games seem to be on Sky from league one.

6 hours ago, Yoxoram said:

I don't give a stuff who they select as manager as long as they don't recall Dobbin.

Yep - number one criteria for this manager is the ability to run all game long and whilst Dobbin is their player Knight is ours and Bielsa knows all about him and the transfer window is open, let’s get past Tuesday safely 

Very hard for us to rest players when we haven’t got many ! Even more difficult when we have been playing two games a week since late July - if I hear a single time comment about West Ham resting players I’ll treat them with the respect they deserve as they have hardly any games of football in a season, if they need to rest them it’s because they are not fit enough or good enough.

6 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

Time for another bump...

Maximum points taken from first 3 of 6. Morecambe up next ?

Cheltenham - WON

Bolton - WON

Port Vale (A) - WON

Morecambe (H)

Wycombe (A)

Lincoln (H)

Well we couldn’t beat morecambe and lost badly to Lincoln whilst Wycombe away is no pushover - that said I expect us to win every single game Derby play ?

2 hours ago, PistoldPete said:

The suggestion is that we still have wages capped at £8m including employer NI even next yea which could be in the Championship. That cant be right, it supposed to be a business plan? And wages caps only exist in the League One and Two.  

Let’s get to the championship first 

53 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Delap has done very little…

Absolutely true - but I just feel we would have worked with him rather than expecting a world beater like Stoke thought they were getting and now Preston 

2 hours ago, LazloW said:

Had completely forgotten he had joined. Was it only ever to bolster the U21s or was it with the intention of getting into the first team?  Oh well. Frees up some space.

If they are not contributing in real terms it’s a waste of money from our finances point of view 

It was a small thing in the game but it made an opportunity which we took - good impact 

9 minutes ago, Red_Dawn said:

I honestly don’t know what you’re referring. That 2-1 win at the CG was without controversy if I remember correctly..

Fortune has favoured your club let’s see how long it lasts but I say that with no malice intended

3 hours ago, Red_Dawn said:

If there was VAR in our game against Bournemouth and Luton we probably would have won them and got auto’s and wouldn’t have needed the playoffs.. 

You can do this to the death, but the technology isn’t making the game more enjoyable or fair. It’s still massively open to interpretation. 

Yep if VAR was in those game against us you wouldn’t have been given the points either 

Diego has done so well he deserves a second chance if some ref mucks it up ??

3 hours ago, duncanjwitham said:

We had a pacey option down the centre (Osula), and we never really used him, because he couldn't do anything else that a modern striker needs to do. He was quick, and he could dribble and finish, and that was about it.

We mainly are playing 1 up front, and even when we play Collins and McGoldrick together, they're far from a traditional front 2.  So any striker we bring in has to be able to play as a lone striker, which means they have to be able to do at least a few out of: being a physical presence up front, occupying defenders, holding the ball up, linking the play, winning headers etc.  Otherwise you're basically toothless up front and your entire system doesn't work.  There's a reason why small, quick strikers (think Michael Owen, Jermaine Defoe types) barely exist in modern football (as regular starters anyway) - they can't play up front on their own, and if you play a front 2, you get outnumbered somewhere else. 

So if we want a pacey option, we're looking at Ivan Toney types - big, strong, physical and quick at the same time.  And good luck finding one of those for free in January.  Any player that's big, strong and quick and can score goals is going to be playing regular football somewhere already.

And for what it's worth, we have bags of pace in the team already - 4 quick wingers, and the likes of Knight and Sibley breaking from deeper.  What we need is craft in the final third (i.e. someone to actually play passes or create opportunities for those guys).  We only really have McGoldrick, plus Bird and Hourihane from deeper.  A striker that can either hold the ball up, or drop off and play passes, would make a much bigger difference than another guy that can run quickly.

All of that needed for when McGoldrick simply can’t play or when he is shot in a game - Martin on loan for the rest of the season would be excellent cover and available because currently we aren’t seeing many options

1 hour ago, Shipley Ram said:

Imagine my supprise, Notts Forest's spending unsustainable.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jan/26/good-governance-cash-fair-game-sustainability-index-premier-league-championship

"At the bottom of the Premier League table are Nottingham Forest, the result of a financial stability score of one out of 40.

Calculations of financial stability take into account assets, debt and loans owed in the coming year alongside the key industry measure of wages as a percentage of revenue. Fair Game analysts said the most recent financial information from the club showed Forest’s wage bill is equivalent to 202% of turnover."

 

I think football is in trouble, it used to be championship clubs lost a load of cash trying to reach the cash rich Premier, but now most Premier league clubs are losing money too.

£205 million spent this season - mind blowing amount and not including wages - what could possibly go wrong - whilst somewhat exciting for some over in Doggy town there must be more who must be frightened when it starts to go wrong because there seems no rescue possible 

10 hours ago, therealhantsram said:

Wow - so I learned something new there. In the FA Cup the home team pays the away teams hotel and travel costs. Amazing!

Is that why Forest took a plane from Nottingham to Blackpool then?

47 minutes ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

Don’t like talk sport and really don’t like Jamie O’Hara and Jason Cundy but had the Sports Bar on driving home from vale and they said no one wants to see a Southampton v Forest final, that’s like a championship playoff final ???

Typical premier league arrogance and usually I’d be appalled but on this occasion I found it amusing!! 

Rich comments from former players who couldn’t get selected very often especially for (bigger clubs) - if it helps and I am no forest fan  but they have won a Dam site more than the likes of Newcastle - that will no doubt change in the future though 

He’s the first manager to actually play Jason Knight in central midfield ?‍♂️ rather than shunting him into another position due to other deficiencies 

3 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

As another poster has said, the restrictions are a punishment.

For the EFL to turn round and say your punishment doesnt have to be so bad because your turnover is high completely defeats the object of the punishment.

 

 

Currently the punishment is not hurting us - it’s probably bonded the team we have