Millenniumram

f**** sake, we never make things easy do we Truly disgraceful defending

I already have 🥰

GET IN COLLINS

Oh f*** me… do we have to?

We’re climbing up the Championship table apparently?

Don Goodman holding back the tears that were winning

GET IN BARKHUIZEN! Another great assist my Mendez-Laing with that cross

Bit worried about this 4-4-2 when they’ve got 3 men in midfield. Getting overrun in midfield has become a bit of a habit for us when we’ve only got 2 in there.

I wish, but our recruitment last summer was only funny to a Forest fan

That would be a huge drop off in quality and leave us with very little reliable squad depth. And we’ve seen last season how costly that can be. I just don’t think it’s a sensible strategy given the density of games at this level. You’d need to have academy as good as ours was before administration ripped it apart in order to make it work.

Yeah I realise that now, but I still don’t really agree with it - you’d need a very strong academy to produce 8 League One quality players that you can rely on to provide your squad depth at this level.

Ah fair enough - I still don’t agree with it though, unless your academy products are all quality players at this level then you’ll be left with a very thin squad. On Rooney, it’s probably a bit harsh… but I just don’t see it with him yet. Now that’s likely in no small part due to him being generally played out of position at full back, where his pace is exposed. He's the reason why I put “not yet” on that category, I may feel differently once he’s been given a proper chance in his natural position at CB. Ward however I just think has been a rancid signing. He makes so many individual mistakes defensively that whatever good work he does going forward becomes kind of irrelevant. And the worst part is, he doesn’t even seem to care that much, the amount of times I’ve seen him gift possession away and just amble back… you’d be fuming if you were his manager / teammate. Until he starts putting in more effort and stops letting his team down, then he remains in that category for me, irrespective of his past performance at this level.

Not sure I subscribe to that squad profile. This is coming from a club in Charlton who find themselves in mid table, so to be honest, I’m not sure why we should be following their model. For what it’s worth, this is how I’d roughly assess our squad: Top class players who are clearly capable of stepping up to the Championship: Cashin, Mendez-Laing, Hourihane, Wilson Good League One players: Nelson, Forsyth, Bird, Nyambe, Collins, Barkhuizen, Wildsmith, Smith, Sibley, Vickers, Embleton, Elder Poor League One players: Waghorn, Fornah, Washington, Bradley, Thompson, John-Jules Players not capable (or not ready) at League One level: Rooney, Ward Note: This is based on our squad from the first half of the season, so I have included Embleton and John-Jules, but not Oduroh. As you might expect, most of our players fall within the “good” category - which is why we’ve found ourselves in and around the top six. And that’s not a problem - you need enough of those players to create a strong squad depth. But I think it’s those players in the top category that are the difference makers in getting top two. They’re naturally hard to come by of course, since they really shouldn’t be playing at this level, so you would never expect too many players in that list. But I do think a couple of additions of that quality would propel the entire team to one that is too good for this league - and that is the level you need to show to achieve automatic promotion. The trouble for me is, finding top quality players on a budget is hard. And looking at those players in the bottom two lists - there are a lot signed under the current regime. I had a lot of hope for the new recruitment team, but so far they’ve performed very poorly. That needs to change this window.

Given our aims for this season (promotion at all costs), I think most of our signings need to be (and will be) from groups 2 and 3. We need players who can make an impact NOW and get us out of this god forsaken league as soon as possible. Players who we know have top quality at this level. There’s little point at this stage wasting what little budget we’re allowed to spend on development players. That can come when we’re in the Championship, can spend more money, and are focused on re-establishing ourselves at that level. For now, all eyes have to be on the short term in my opinion. Couple of caveats here of course. Obviously I’m referring to first team signings here - we should still be making transfers at U21 level of players with potential, and I should hope there is a separate academy budget for this. Secondly, I’d agree with the OP that any player stepping down to league one should be on a short term deal only - as they’re clearly no longer good enough for the next level. Younger players who may be able to step up I’d be happy to sign permanently. Finally, this doesn’t mean it’s only older players who can help us right now - we really MUST look at the loan market too, as there will no doubt be youngsters at the big boys who can make a real impact in league one.

Struggle to see why anyone would be against this as a loan. Smith has proven himself over many years as a decent player at this level. He might be aging, but that really isn’t relevant unless we buy him - an an ideal world, he joins us for 6 months, helps us get promoted, and then we ditch him (harsh as it sounds) since he’s no longer good enough for the Championship. No brainer for me if he’s available, obviously a player Warne personally wants given their time together at Rotherham. Not as naturally talented as John-Jules of course, but I think he’d offer us a lot more reliable competition up front.

To clarify, I meant a maximum of 500k - as you say, we don’t want to be overpaying for players. But we do have to be prepared to pay the going rate, or we’ll end up with no one like last January. But if we can get him for less then all the better!

Think we should go up to 500k for him. He’s out of contract in the summer so we don’t want to get ripped off, but equally he’s still young so should have decent resale value. If he’s a player who we really want and would improve our chances of promotion this season, then it’s worth it. No idea where the money is going to come from though.

That’s January ducked then

No, they’re both s****. As are Ward, Fornah, Bradley… even Vickers has not looked good so far. Think I have more faith in the government than Paul Warnes recruitment

He did a decent job in the studio before the match. Probably a better midfield showing between Owen and Shaun than Fornah put in

He made comments like that all of last summer and all we got was a broken John-Jules at the end of the window

That’s absolutely pathetic. Knocked out of two cups to lower league opposition. Once is a mistake, twice is unacceptable. No effort or heart on display at all. We’d better win promotion now.

He’s s****

DUCK ME WARD

Even a free transfer was too expensive for Joe Ward