Oldben

Other free agent potentials ...
Joe Rothwell, Ben Mee, Tom Ince, Luke Freeman, jake cooper, chris willock, todd cantwell, liam lindsay, Dan Barsaler,  Joel Latibeaudiere, Oliver Norwood, Kieran Dowell, Ryan Ledson and Jack Whatmough.

My picks for free transfer targets ...
Jordan willis, Jordan ibe, Sean Morrison, Michael Hector and Jerome Sinclair.

Would be a very minor upgrade on Thompson as back up for Bird in my view. If we were to sign him, it would strike me as very opportunistic and lacking a great deal of thought behind it. Signing a player because he’s one of the few we can get under our embargo, rather than actually being something we need.

Will always have my respect for how he lead the battle and fight last season against all odds. However, I really can’t see the thinking in bringing him back. 
 
The only circumstance I wouldn’t mind seeing his return is if we let Knight go. That’s not me saying Shinnie is anywhere near Knight’s level but for a short term box to box roll with experience it makes sense. 
 
Hopefully it’s just Nixon playing fantasy football. 

This will fix our goals issue. (Sarcasm).
Not needed at all.

So hope not. Was really pleased when he left as he was so limited compared with our other midfielders. I would put him behind Bielik, Sibley, Knight, Smith, Bird and Hourihane in our pecking order, possibly competing with Thommo.

I think the basics don’t change - will we play them - are they good enough - can we afford them - if so then it’s a managers choice and at least that bit starts getting interesting - I am very interested in which centre forwards Rooney wants and which ones he can bring in because we simply don’t have any coming through our junior ranks as we had to sell them to survive 

There isn't a straight line between decent in the Championship and good in League One though.  Different leagues and different situations suit different players. 
People get carried away by someone working hard, running around a lot and snapping into a tackle now and then but it's nearly always better to control the midfield, be pro active rather than reactive.
If the opposition bypass the midfield and go long (as is considered traditional league one fare) what use is Shinnie? He's not physically dominant, positionally astute and won't win any defensive headers. If we want to control the midfield... what's his role? He slows play down too much because it takes him 3-4 touches to turn himself atound from controlling it to playing a forward pass. 
I just don't see how he fits in. 

We have players in his position. He would add depth but not improve on what we have. Not a position we should be focusing on.

I'd argue it's more of one, you are signing players with no resale value, who are at the ends of their career for likely a larger initial outlay. We need to sign players for the future. 

I don't understand our obsession with bringing back old players. He was decent here, but it's time to move forward. 

For gods sake what is it with old players that quite frankly were not that great   lets have  shiniesta , bryson , bobby davison , shilton , blah blah blah . 
Then lets order 20 walking sticks and watch us get of the league easily .................THE WRONG END ...........there is some damn stupid rosy eyed fans but jesus come on give ya self a head wobble and wake up . 

B4 I would probably give Shinnie a chance, he would be great in Div 1. But as good as Bryson was, he is too injury prone to waste a squad shirt on. Especially as we need so many players, we might find we will be working with a small squad for a while so no point taking a big risk.

Thanks but no thanks. 
Not just a limited player but a limiting player. Offers little in the way of positional protection due to chasing the ball looking for the tackle, which is fantastic when it works and he's winning the battles, everyone loves that (it's enough to get you POTY awards!), but it leaves big gaps for others to cover when he doesn't win it. 
There's a time and a place for Sbinnie, but he's very much a bottom half of the league battler and if you want to be a team on the front foot playing toward the top of the league there's not really a place for him, as he's found at Wigan. 

We are a loss making club until we are at least in the Championship, even then the real money is either in the premiership or in the parachute payments which give an unfair advantage for returning to the premiership.
League one is chunk change when you've spent 50 million bailing out the club.
We are not favourites for promotion this season, that surely rests with plymouth, ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday.
Pw probably has a 3 year plan to return the club to some kind of decent position.
Based on our performance against Bolton, I'd say we have a challenge ahead to see our club do well next season as players signed will be free agents or loans.
Pw has said he's not seeking new loans as he wants to keep the loans he has.
Next season the club will still have transfer restrictions, so more free agents who are generally older players that are no longer wanted by their clubs.
Free agents generally have little resale value.
On a positive note, we still have a club and we are not bottom of league one.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I think he left the last sub too late today.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.sportsmole.co.uk/football/league-one/best-defence.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/league-one/top-scorers/assists
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/league-one/top-scorers
 

https://foot.ie/threads/34729-David-McGoldrick-(F-Derby-b-1987)/page22

McG is 35, Cosgrove is 26.
McG must surely be considering retirement, plus he's injury prone.
McG has scored 1 more goal than Cosgrove.
McG has almost zero, resale value.
I'm not saying Cosgrove is great, but is he the best player our club can get on a free transfer, at this time.

McG is 35, Cosgrove is 26.
McG must surely be considering retirement, plus he's injury prone.
McG has scored 1 more goal than Cosgrove.
McG has almost zero, resale value.
I'm not saying Cosgrove is great, but is he the best player our club can get on a free transfer, at this time.

https://the72.co.uk/2022/12/13/the-4-players-linked-with-derby-county-ahead-of-january-and-the-likelihood-of-each-deal-happening/
the kind of players we are rumoured to be interested in signing in January, don't inspire me.
We can sign free agents and loan players, great.
free agents, usually are by definition, not wanted by their clubs and at the end of their careers and are seeking a final pay day. They are platers without much resale value and who require large wages to come. Large wages because there will be other clubs interested in signing them, if they are half decent.
loan players, are mostly young players from higher league clubs, looking to get experience through regular first team playing. By definition their an unfinished article, and a risk because they take time to develop.
bielik is another knight. A player ready to play at a higher level, that if they play well, is an improvement to what we currently have. Knights contract ends next summer, bieliks contract ends in may 2024.
we allowed bielik to play for birmingham and therefore, play at the world cup. We will not get enough money from his sale to cover the money we owe arsenal. We will not get a better replacement for him, because players of his calibre and age are not going to drop to league 3, without a transfer fee.
birmingham are not paying his full wages, they are however, playing him regularly in the first team.
in my opinion, its time for bielik to return to our club.
in honesty, how many of the free agents that we signed in the summer actually play both effectively and with a desire to do more than just not be on the bench. Why is that any different to bielik playing for us, and if bielik does return, i cant see him wanting to just sit on the bench every game.
bielik will most likely, want to play well for us, to earn a transfer away at some point

A player Bielik’s quality in the centre of the park in League One could be a significant improvement for our club, and ultimately, as much as we might want him to be happy, we have to think about our own best interests and ambitions for the season.
 
 
 
There is no doubting that his talents lay beyond the third tier.
 
 
 
If we sold him we couldn't use the transfer fee under current restrictions, and would the fee go to creditors?
 
 
 
In any case we are likely to be looking at bargain basement freebies in the transfer window, the best of whom aren't guaranteed to come to us. Bieliks a significant upgrade on that.
 
 
 
In a transfer window that might see us lose knight, so that we at least get a small fee for him, bielik appears a decent replacement to knight.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thought he had a good game today at LB although he does need to get himself in the gym as he often gets muscled off the ball.
I hadn’t realised until the Newport County game what a superb crosser of the ball he is with that wand of a left foot and today once again against the Wendies he put in some excellent deliveries.
In a 442 he could well cement a place at LM but long term I don’t see him as a LB or a LWB.

Just thinking how great it will be, when we can finally start paying transfer fees
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Matches like these have me questioning is pw good enough for derby