Millenniumram

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

I think the reason some get a bit disappointed when the window is open is the same reason I do 
We don’t want to spend silly money and go against financial restraints blahdy blah but it’s the fact that PW explains how difficult it is to get anyone and all the stars have to line up and the wind has to be blowing in the right direction etc etc when others seem to just get on with it and get players in eg Charlton signing Coventry 
it seems to follow a similar path each time saying we are near players have been shown round blah blah and we all think this is Derby and we should be able to sign a couple of half decent first team players for league 1 and then in the last few days PW says we tried but everything can just change and it’s so difficult to get the right players in yet also say it’s not difficult to get players to play for a club like ours ??
Then hey presto …last knockings of the window  cue the Springett and White signings ….lol ….we’ve had all season to identify the players that would make a difference yet something stops it from happening and I don’t think it’s all about finances 

10pm Monday
 

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 

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

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

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

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