Edtheram

I said the other week there’s often a fairytale escape and we could be the victims.
Both Rotherham and Weds can claim to have beaten the odds if they survive, this will give both a huge boost going into the final game.
Meanwhile we are dropping like a stone!
We could even finish second bottom.....what an utter calamity!

Everyone bangs on about sibley but he does nowt 

1 in 14 has got to go, no ifs or buts ???

How many games does spud head have to lose before he is sacked

Funny how much stick wassall got during his stint in charge. His last game showed more fight than anything I've seen since lampard, and that's only cause lampard had the leeds game.

Everyone bangs on about sibley but he does nowt 

How sad are the state of the affairs when I've just caught myself semi-celebrating injury news for a rotherham keeper I don't even know the name of... not so long ago we were knocking on the premiership door

we pull Austin from nowhere to lower there asking price - Darmstadt get wind of this - leak that forest want him.
couldnt make it up

we pull Austin from nowhere to lower there asking price - Darmstadt get wind of this - leak that forest want him.
couldnt make it up

I think it's perfectly reasonable for fans to be worried that we're at deadline day, approaching game 5, and have no strikers.

Wijnaldum has liked a few Cocu posts too...can't wait for him to sign 

We've known we needed a striker since/before we made the decision on Martin, and yet somehow we've found ourselves with 2 business days to wrap up an international transfer during a pandemic, one that possibly hinges on a team replacing that player in the same timeframe before they will let him go.
Of course we don't always get our first choice, but you move down a list, however long, until you get someone. There are occasions you can defer until the next window when an option is available, but we don't have that luxury.
Strikers capable of playing in this system should have been identified and scouted for 12 months, and as soon as the Martin decision, the EFL decision, or the Bogle/Lowe sale, whichever was the catalyst to allow us to start making moves, we should have gone down that list and got someone in and settled ASAP.
If/when someone does come in now, they will come into a new team, in a run of bad form, facing a schedule of incredibly tough games, and possibly not speaking the language. 
Not including the need for players to build fitness and adapt to Cocuball which apparently can take over a year.

I don’t think Durson can be our number 1 target. 
Someone said we were only linked with him on monday?
Cocu said after the Blackburn defeat that we would have a player in early this week? Looks to me like what Cocu was hoping for hasn’t worked out 

Ye sounds good when put like that - 
however, season 1 was littered with crap football.
were in season 2 and have less points than we did in season 1. The performances have again been crap and all with better players coming in and the team having a year around Cocu. I don’t see us challenging next year, we seem well behind that plan 

It's a nice plan. The problem is that these plans so rarely actually work out. Players don't improve linearly. Successful players and managers leave for other clubs. Tactics have a shelf life before other teams work out exactly how to combat them - even if the tactics are effective to begin with. Managers choose tactics that can never succeed in the division, thus making any success actually impossible. Young players don't necessarily fit with the tactics, are often inconsistent and their inexperience often leads to them making mistakes (one or two youngsters often add energy and can be a real positive, but too many at once is a recipe for failure). Players get injured, fall out with each other, go to the pub and get caught drunk driving etc. Owners change, existing owners run out of cash/patience. The EFL decide to sabotage the club.
To succeed you would need the right manager, the right youngsters, the right signings, the right tactics, the right coaching, the right owner/chainman, the right medical staff and luck with injuries consistently over a four year period. Even one of those things being wrong would stop the plan from working. Those things sometimes align for a while, but never over a long timescale. In the real world there are too many variables for any long-term plan to actually work out.
By far and away the most successful model is:
Old manager leaves - new manager comes in and gets more out of the existing squad, signs a couple of good players and gets promotion within the first full season.
It's a couple of years since I looked, but when I checked, from the last 30 promotion from this division, 22 were from clubs with managers in their first full season, two were promoted clubs getting promoted again and one was a relegated club sticking with their manager. Of the other five, four had been in the play-offs in the previous season and that season had been the manager's first. 
My conclusion is that success (which for us must be promotion) comes quickly or not at all for a manager in the Championship.

By the time the striker signs and Ibe gets fit we could be so far off top 2, even top 6 the season could end up being a bit of a non-entity.
One year, just one, I hope we manage to get our signings in before the 1st game of the season, get them familiar with the tactics and crack on.
 

What I really liked about the YT vid was that when coming from deep he was generally looking to pass forward, into space.... Not back to the DM or just recycling possession but something meaningful...
Would hope that him coming back and playing balls into space for Jozwiak, Ibe, or even the full backs etc would be really good

He looks strong. One of the things Derby lack massively is strength in the team. Looked pretty eager to go forwards whenever he got the ball. I like what I saw from the highlights at least. 

I don’t think he’s in a dilemma. 
 
He tasked Cocu with introducing academy talent and reducing the age and wages of squad. 
 
He’s done this, so he should now be in a position to support him with where the squad needs improving. 

Where does Lawrence play 
I would go 4-2 -3-1 then Lawrence plays the no 10  role this would be attacking.
Shinnie and Bielik the 2 perfect
 
 

Debut Saturday?

Scored 2 goals against Norwich in a pre season friendly.
Surely an omen to get him in before Saturday?

2. Bundesliga is probably the 2nd best if not best quality 2nd division in the world along with the Championship. He got 16 goals and 6 assists last season, puts himself about and wins a lot of aerial duels. He has 1 year left on his contract as well. Lets be honest, we're a Championship team, what sort of players should we be looking at signing? It's unrealistic hoping for top quality, amazing players that play in top divisions. This is a sensible signing, I hope the link is legit.

Didn't watch all of it, but enough to see we could save our money and put Cybulski in. He doesn't look much above League 1 standard. 29 in October, so not much value to be made.

Over the last few years it feels like we have known the price of everything and the value of nothing. The dealings of the last few weeks have only enhanced that view for me.