Pikeyram

Terrible interception and pass from that passenger Bird 

Of all the things we could moan about this season, James Collins is not one of them.
He gives 100% every time he pulls the shirt on and scores goals. 
Yes we can moan about tactics and team selections etc, but Collo's effort, comittment and goals are beyond reproach. He's an honest pro playing at his level and giving it everything.

Some of the reactions on here and twitter last night were beyond a joke to be honest.
"No prem club is going to trust Warne with their young players"
"Max Bird probably left because he cant stand Warnes football"
"Warne can't attract players, the club are lying to us"
"Warne hasn't got the contacts"
"The club said we had money, a good budget, this is a lie"
Amongst other things.
Yet if you take time to wait to hear the reasons and let the club have their say. We were two young strikers first choices, but unfortunately the clubs in question could not get cover and therefore wouldn't let them go. But apparently we have a manager who cant attract these young players because no premier league manager would trust Warne. 
Max Bird was leaving anyway. It really sounds like even if we had got promoted this season, he would have gone. He has been here for a long time. He wants a fresh challenge. Simple as that. No ulterior motives, no hate of the manager, he just wants a fresh challenge.
A deal agreed with a striker, all pretty much done, till at 8pm the gaffer of the club in question pulls the plug. What can we do about that?
We knew of every striker available, we left no stone unturned. But we just couldn't get one done. Despite trying our best and essentially having one agreed until the plug gets pulled at the 11th hour.
We clearly had a but of money left to bring one in, but through no fault of the manager or the club, it has not happened.
Yet yesterday the club, the manager got dogs abuse for failing to get a striker in.
Washington and Waghorn will be back in 3 weeks. You have Barkhuizen that can play through the middle, NML if needed. In the next 5 games we have one midweek game, so the others are all a full week apart. Plenty of times for Collins to recover.
We have ended the window with a better midfield than when we started & wingers that would be the envy of most clubs in this league.
Lets get behind them now and stop looking to pin blame and point the finger at.
UTR

Absolutely fantastic news. Very good PR from the club to announce it today after yesterday's debacle, given Cashin is probably the most universally loved player at the club (one specific poster excepted, clearly).
Top quality player at this level who would easily be able to step back up to the Championship, if we ever return. Best CB in the league, in fact I’d argue the best player full stop.

Fantastic signing. Proper defender. 
 
loyalty beyond measure. What great bloke 

Brilliant news. Keeping Cashin, for me, is the best bit of business we could have possibly done.

Had a quick drive around Derby and haven't seen anyone with a rope round their neck swinging from a lamppost,  so lets get on with the football now. 

We clearly didn’t have the money to compete with other rival clubs for transfers, that or we refused to pay over the odds for Smith or Gregory. Selling Bird wasn’t in the plan unless we got a good offer which we did and we’ve got him for the season, I would hope we can use that money in the summer.
How in any way is this down to Warne?. People will say Ward Bradley Fornah (although most were supportive of those transfers at the time), I will raise you Hourihane Smith Collins Mendez Laing Barkhuizen who I would bet any money will be in the top 5-10 earners at the club, none signed by Warne and of them people only want Mendez (although I also like Collo). However it is dressed up we’re still being restricted by an EFL business plan. We should hopefully have wriggle room in the summer (unless this really is the limit of Clowes spending in which case we potentially have some issues).
They tried but ultimately we go with what we’ve got. Overall we’re stronger than when we started the window. Washington just needs stay fit and be our second striker to Collo. In fairness he was starting to look good when he got injured.
You’d be fools to write us off. I remember 2015 January window, we were top 2 and signed Bent Ince Lingard De Sart and we were thinking what a window we’ve just nailed promotion. Look how that turned out - we didn’t even make the playoffs!

The deadline is 11pm tonight, maybe we should all wait until 11:01pm to fully panic.
EDIT - also on your point about everyone not being convinced by our one fit striker…. I am 🙋🏻‍♂️ 
Have been a fan of Collins since he signed, he’s hard working and scores goals as he has done all his career. 18 and counting for the season, 13 in the league, I’m convinced.

It’s been the theme since Clowes took over.
The initial summer signings post admin were quite public as it seems a number of them were lined up by Rooney/Rosenior, the signings in Jan then seemed to come out the blue (as underwhelming as they were), the signings last summer were known to Big Trav but not the media or Twitterati from what I recall(?), and the CBT info only seems to have leaked from the Charlton side. Even the links to Smith and Gregory have come from local Sheffield journos.
As anxious as it seems to make the fan base in general I think I prefer it. Warne has maintained that bids were in for players, Adams has said himself this move was lined up a while ago, 2 players in on top of keeping the ones we had (so far 🤞).
Just a striker now please Santa Clowes 🙏 

Him and Fozzy are my man crushes, two players who for me epitomise everything that is great about our club. Forget about Rooney, let's give Curtis the keys instead! Oh and a coaching position. A man of his intelligence, passion and professionalism and one who instantly commands respect without ever demanding it, he's tailor made I reckon.
Anyway, thanks for the memories Curtis. There'll be plenty of Rams fans who'll be delighted to stand you a pint or two when you do hang up your boots, indeed I doubt you'll ever pay for a beer again in Derby.

For 60 minutes it looked like they were still in Reading!!  One of the games where you’re glad you’ve got the 3 points but know you’ve got away with one.  But, there are no bonus points for playing well.  That said, we do need to start doing the basics better.  Too many times in the last couple of games passing the ball more than 5 yards seems to be the most difficult thing in the world.  And the players have to bear their share of the blame and that really is basic.
They do seem to have character though.  After Tuesday, to behind at home in what was, at times, a pretty nasty atmosphere takes guts.
Booing - never understood it, never will.  I think that if I had people following me around at work and they booed me at lunch, would it motivate me for the afternoon.  No.  Footballers are no different.

Remember, measure twice, one chop.

in other news Maidstone won their FA cup th round game against Ipswich.

Not sure I can properly articulate how much I love this man. The waiver against the Wendies, signing a blank contract that summer when Morris was playing his games, mingling happily with fans at Wembley 2019 even though he wasnt playing & must have been hurting, leadership on & off the pitch during the dark days of admin....amazing that a man with such a career as him thought so much of us to do all that.
Much derided as a 'kick it, head it' centre half by outsiders, he improved massively technically when under Rooney/Rosenior. Set his fastest bleep test I believe in training whilst with us during the admin season...he wanted to be the best version of himself at all times.
He deserves & will get a rapturous reception tomorrow. I hope he returns back home to us in some capacity very soon 🖤🐏

Once a Ram...
 
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/curtis-davies-interview-derby-cheltenham-retirement-b2485335.html

People need to get over it. He will have made mistakes, but it's clear to me he also has regrets. Despite that, and still getting abused by fans, he has stuck by the club to make amends. Quantuma felt he was worth keeping around. Clowes has made the decision to keep him as his CEO. Move on.

A few bits from today, no questions from the floor due to time.
West Stand front imagery changing this week.
We have the 61st highest average attendance in Europe 
Wages are now at 45% of turnover which speaks to the club's commitment to be run sustainably
Stephen Pearce knows how admin looked from outside the club but everyone at the club knows how important it is to the city and refused to give up. The work done by fans, businesses, employees was inspirational. Club has made vast strides in the last 18 months to be run responsibly, humbly and with integrity.
Paul Warne spoke about how he works, his realisation how much of a big club this is after seeing the work DCCT do to embed it onto the community.
Spoke a lot about fostering group unity, only recruiting talented, strong-minded players who can handle the pressure of playing here. He said everyone wants to play here and he almost has to try and put them off to see if they are just here for the money or genuinely desire to be here.
Made a comment about a player might be brilliant for a Port Vale but might struggle in front of 30,000, or not have the right mentality to succeed here. Could be Arblaster, or could have just pulled Port Vale from nowhere.
Hinted that Cashin and Elder may have picked up knocks but didn't say for definite, John-Jules is absolutely devastated by hamstring injury, hoping they can get him back before end of season. Senior players have all offered support to him.
Team were extremely disappointed with themselves on Tuesday.
Not much else really. All I will say is that Pearce in my opinion is doing a good job and seems very determined to help DCFC to succeed.
It was my first time hearing Warne in person and he comes across so much better. Very personable and interesting.

Saturday 27th January 2024. 3pm kick-off.
Believe this is the first time I have ever started a match day thread…
Will it start with us going on another long unbeaten run or turn out to be very short lived? Let’s hope it’s the former!
UTR! 🐏

I hope so. Literally ended last year with a bang. Fell down the stairs on the first day of my Christmas break and badly sprained my ankle. Still can’t walk far or do stairs easily. Had to laugh that after everything else the year ended like that 😂

Why can’t we all just be pleased we’ve signed a player for a fee, albeit a loan fee instead of analysing how it might or might be structured.  Maybe it’s a legacy from mad Mel.  We’re no longer run by someone who got a bit lucky in the IT world, we’re now run by, in my opinion, a sensible businessman.
Lets just enjoy it as another step on the road to being run like a “normal” football club.

Caught it on radio Derby, but have cooked, eaten and watched some of Gladiators since then so maybe don’t remember it all clearly.
So from memory I’d say Warne sounded fairly positive in his demeanour, praised them (Lincoln) and their efforts, said the ref could have sent Wilson off, praised Vickers, observed we weren’t quite at it and a point away is alright, commented at one point about shouting at Bird and Hourihane for leaving the middle of the park which meant we were wide open, then said some bits about recruitment ongoing that he has been backed and offers are in for players but stopped short of confirming anything about Blackett-Taylor. After listening to it I thought it was a fair summary of the game. 

The cross that Barkhuizen headed back for Collins to head home our second goal seemed a good moment to me….
I see today as a chance for him to further build his fitness and confidence, I don’t think he was as bad as has been suggested on Monday.

As long as there were no big surprises for DC after admin, presumably any Bielik payments etc were known about, surely these numbers are to be expected by the company and prob more importantly the EFL. Presumably they have seen them before publication and are happy in accordance with what they expected coming out of admin and our business plan or cant imagine we would have been able to sign someone on a fee yesterday. 
 
cements my total admiration for DC and his family as they have gone from running a successful development company on a low key basis and enjoying being normal rams fans (if actually we can ever be normal) to taking all of this 💩on to deal with. Can you imagine the stuff he's had to deal with?  And after all that you have fans moaning about us not signing people, going over snd over the words the poor bloke said on the budget for this year forensically, and how terrible last January's window was, etc.
the accounts wont tell half the story but to me there are no words to describe what David Clowes and his family did for all of us, the club and the City. I also dont think we know just how close we were to being gone. Also in strange way grateful to Kirchner as if DC had not already been involved with knowledge of what was going on when just buying the stadium, would he have been in a position to act so quickly to save us? 
 
Respect always
 

He looked like his heart was in it when he celebrated that winning goal! 
I think he will be gone at the end of the season, and then we'll see what transpires.
Hourihane and Bird will always attract criticism while they're the only two midfield players. 
I'm not a fan of only two in there, but Warne is. 
We're winning plenty of games set up that way, so what do I know?