Oldben

The fact our business plan doesn’t allow us to offer more than a 2-year contract is ridiculous. How are we supposed to ensure financial security long term but cannot put younger players on longer term contracts. EFL are clueless again.

Football is all about emotional rollercoasters.
Rumour that your club is chasing some superstar signing leads to feelings of disbelief, hope, excitement, anticipation, impatience.
Eventually to be followed by realization, disappointment, despondency, disillusionment, pain, anxiety.
It's what we're all in it for.

Agree. Waghorn is finished, he's well past his best now. I think we got him just at the right point of his career where he was at his peak, or maybe even just after it. That season at Ipswich he was very good as he was in his first season with us. After that you could sort of see the decline. I think we got as much as we could out of waghorn. 

With Osula and Stretton gone, I would imagine a CF is our top priority 
 

Stretton has now gone to Stockport on a permanent transfer, so no recall there now, to cover Osula going back.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/the72.co.uk/2022/12/20/the-ace-up-their-sleeve-can-derby-county-secure-promotion-this-season/amp/
good analysis of derbys chances.
points towards a need to strengthen, but without spending a transfer fee thats very difficult.
loans and free agents probably are not enough to see promotion.
The ability to pay a transfer fee gives plymouth, sheffield wednesday and ipswich an advantage over derby.
 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/the72.co.uk/2022/12/20/the-ace-up-their-sleeve-can-derby-county-secure-promotion-this-season/amp/
good analysis of derbys chances.
points towards a need to strengthen, but without spending a transfer fee thats very difficult.
loans and free agents probably are not enough to see promotion.
The ability to pay a transfer fee gives plymouth, sheffield wednesday and ipswich an advantage over derby.
 

https://the72.co.uk/2023/01/05/3-strikers-derby-county-could-realistically-sign-on-loan-this-month-as-fresh-transfer-priority-emerges/

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.

Whos a realistic free agent signing possibility that's better than what we have now, and strengthens the team, and not just sits on the bench, and isn't the wrong side of 30?

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

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.

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.

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.