Jram

4 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

From the U21 squad, we already have Evans (3rd matchday GK), Radcliffe, DRobinson and DBrown who I would consider to be on the fringes of the first team squad. Weston a little bit behind them.

We then have several players who could still play U18 football but stepped up early - 2nd year scholars Cox, KRobinson and Hawkins, and 1st year scholars JThompson, Gill and Allen.

Davidson has had a lot of trouble with injuries but has always looked promising when in the side. He missed the first half of last season and most of this one (last played in October), but would have been a regualr in the U21 squad (still a 2nd year scholar) if he stayed fit.

McAndrew is on the cusp of stepping up and is still only 16! 

 

I think all of these youngsters have a very good chance of being Championship footballers (or higher), with some doing it with us in a couple of years.

I’m inclined to agree that there’s sufficient talent in our academy to produce a team 50% full of academy players. The somewhat forced use of Bird, Sibley, Cashin, Whittaker duringadmin  et al proves that really.

Do I think that we will see that in reality? Sadly not 

12 hours ago, CapeTownRams said:

I have never understood how football has allowed this bizarre situation to be accepted where the Clubs pay the fees for the player’s agents. These players employ their agents- they work for them and benefit from their efforts. Yet the Clubs pay the fees ! It’s nonsense. The players themselves should be paying for THEIR agent’s fees.

Madness.

Players are in such a strong bargaining position, aren’t they, it’s crazy. There’s usually multiple clubs in for them, clubs have fan pressure to do their utmost to secure the signing and you’ve got to be a highly skilled person in a very specific age bracket to even be qualified to potentially play professional football

They can just make the clubs do what they want. I suppose that’s why wages have sky rocketed 

1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

A poster said he would have us nowhere near the play offs and I just pointed out that he Rotherham near the play offs before he came to us.

Surely nobody is expecting us to be anywhere near the playoffs if we do go up, Warne in charge or otherwise.

Stephen Pearce has mentioned several times they want a couple of years of Championship stability. Unless Robinson, Allen, Brown turn into world class superstars, we’re obviously going to do well to finish above 20th next season (if we go up)

Morgan Whittaker with yet another goal and Emil Riis with 2 for Preston. 

A good day for ex Rams kids in the Champ so far 

5 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

With 6 games to go, we've given the 2nd least amount of league minutes to players currently aged 21 or younger (699 mins), only 221 minutes more than Cambridge. We're over 16,000 minutes down on the side leading the charts (Wigan) and over 9600 minutes behind Peterborough (3rd).

We are however 4th for minutes given to academy graduates (7977 mins), mostly thanks to Bird and Cashin being regular starters and Sibley being a rotation option. Out of the promotion hopefuls, Peterborough are closest to us, ranked 6th with 5599 mins.

This is quite unbelievable really. We’re a cat 1 academy in League 1. Our youngsters compete against the likes of City, Arsenal etc and yet we can’t give minutes in League 1.
 

I’ve mentally written this season off in terms of academy debuts. Partly because of the immense pressure to get promoted but also because of the fact the club made a lot of comments about needing 18 months/ 2 years to rebuild. 
 

I really like Warne but it’s been my biggest gripe. I loved watching the academy prospects progress during the Rooney and Rosenior years (albeit more because of the other horrific things happening at the club).

I have to say, it will be a much bigger gripe if we do go up and aren’t using the academy. There will be much less pressure as finishing 15th will probably represent a good season on our return to the Championship. Therefore, you would like to think there will be more opportunities for the kids pressure-free. 

6-1 up. 2 for Brown

The name of this thread 😂 second in the league with highest goal difference and second highest scorers- if you can’t find some positives in that, then I dread to think what you’re like down the pub 

31 minutes ago, DCFC Kicks said:

I’m not saying we’ve been bad. His approach is clearly working to a large extent. My point was there’s not distinct style or continuity to how we play which creates unpredictability to our performances. I think the teams we’ve battered have mostly been teams who try and play a distinct way or passing way every game, who don’t try and counter us e.g. Bristol Rovers. Warnes style is reactionary to the opposition. 
 

i really don’t think it’s right to put the reason we lost yesterday all down to luck. Even Warne acknowledged we didn’t play well.

i also think you’re undervaluing the quality of our players. I don’t think any Northampton player would get in our squad except maybe Hoskins.

our difficulty signing players doesn’t affect how the manager sets the team up or his playing philosophy.

But in fairness to warne, there have been occasions this season where we’ve been really good. The sad reality is, luck does play a massive part, especially at this level where a lot teams are looking to disrupt us rather than play football and our players aren’t that good, even when they’re relatively some of the best in the division. 
 

Quality of ****housery is the same regardless of division but obviously premier league players combat it better. There are gonna be days where our less quality players can’t. I think yesterday was one of those. 

I wasn’t at the game so can’t comment on how good we were in fairness but I expect us to lose across a 46 game season 🤷‍♂️ it’s fine and doesn’t really reflect on warne or the players 

1 hour ago, Chris_Martin said:

when was that then?

 

Well we’ve won by 3 goals or more on ten occasions this season which i think it’s fair to say is quite impressive. There have been other occasions we’ve performed well too. Most recently Port Vale at home where we were brilliant. 
 

In relation to your other post, I think it’s a bit silly to suggest a team with Forsyth and Bradley at CB would get in the playoffs. I do agree, however, that we have good players. Mind you, we are second 🤷‍♂️

45 minutes ago, DCFC Kicks said:

Its because there are no foundations. Warne just takes every game as it comes and tries to ground out a result by any means. It is working most of the time, but I'm never truly that shocked whenever we lose a game to anyone. It feels like Warne picks one-off tactics for each opponent and hopes they work, but occasionally they don't or the opponent works them out in-game and we lose. There's no longevity or continuity to anything he's implementing.

I can’t agree with this. We’ve been brilliant in a lot of games, let’s not forget that. We’ve battered a lot of teams. However, there will inevitably be games where luck plays its part and we miss out. Wasn’t there but the highlights suggest we had three decent chances, they had none and won 1-0. It’s bound to happen. We’re not City, our players aren’t that much better than the opposition so the opportunity for luck to play a part is greater.

Let’s not forget as well that we’re unlikely to have much of a foundation given the club made its first signing for a fee three months ago for a long time. 

10 hours ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

We will have a tiny budget by Championship standards, so what will he do differently this time?

Our budget won’t be as small Rotherham though. I imagine we will have a bigger budget than a few teams. They didn’t. 

And generally the budget dictates League position, not the coach. I expect we’ll be lower mid table first season but people on here will be raging about it and want Warne gone.

 We’ve actually got to get to the champ first though!

2 minutes ago, TheTinMan said:

Even if by some minor miracle he gets us up his track record in the Championship is relegation straight away. Hes not the answer long or probably short-term to 

This is very unfair. Relative to the Champ, Rotherham had a tiny budget so would always struggle. When he joined us he actually had them too 6 in October 

I’d be surprised Sibbo, Wildsmith and Tommo weren’t offered contracts as they’re obviously valuable to the club due to age, quality and potential.

Hourihane, Smith, Collins, Waghorn will be released if we’re promoted I reckon. Although I think you could argue a case for retaining them

Forsyth and Barkhuizen 🤔 I’d keep Barks and Fozzy still seems to be doing it so I’d keep him too 
 

Two points: sign joe Taylor if we go up (or Haaland I guess) and buzzing for Whittaker

1 hour ago, Ghost of Clough said:

And he gets one

 

 

He’s now their cover photo on twitter.

Finished 1-0

6 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Skip to 37 seconds for Brown's goal

Do they have a dubious goals panel at that level? I’m almost certain Dananga stole that

10 hours ago, Boycie said:

How many did we throw into the team under cocu and Rooney who didn’t do well?

This is an excellent point… makes you think how much more league managers should probably trust youth

I even managed to dredge Kornell McDonald from my mind who’s now playing National League at 22. He didnt look out of place in the Championship if memory serves. There were loads who made their debuts during admin and I can’t think of one who was even remotely awful 

5 hours ago, VulcanRam said:

I think it depends on what your starting point is. If you're starting point is "I want to be entertained" then that will drive your view of our football and your opinions of how the team is managed and plays, as will "I'm not bothered about the football, I just want to win" - same team and manager but a different starting perspective so a different view.

If your starting point is "I think this group of players is ok, and so second is ok" then you'll probably be perfectly happy, if you think "This is a very good group of players and they are under performing", then that will drive your viewpoint. 

Equally, maybe Warne "doing quite a good job" isn't enough for some. Maybe they think at a club our size, with this fan base and a good budget, he should be doing a "good job", or even a "great job". Why should we settle for "quite a good job", which sounds a bit mediocre, they might say?

All of these views are valid, and I don't think it's fair to suggest that people being "remotely rational" will only lead to one conclusion.

 

 

I’m not suggesting anyone is right or wrong but I do question what is driving peoples point of view and I think sometimes it would be valuable to genuinely question whether you’re angry with Warne or whether you’re just generally angry that Derby lost. 
 

Im always irrationally angry when Derby lose. I hate everyone- the opposition players, the opposition manager, derbys players and manager etc

After a bit of reflection, I often realise that none of those people are to blame. Or, if they are to blame like obviously Wildsmith was, there’s no value in demonising them. Wildsmith is a good keeper who happens to have made two high profile mistakes in recent games. He’s still good. He’s going to make more mistakes in his career. 

Same with Warne. Would the grass be any greener with any other manager? I tend to doubt it 

2 hours ago, IslandExile said:

I was just about to say "or maybe it belongs on one of the Warne Out threads".

No such thing anymore. There’s just one completely neutral Warne thread 

1 hour ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

It's based on what has been served up all season, not a knee jerk reaction. I'm finding this constant defending of what is poor football, poor tactics, poor recruitment, poor game management quite tiresome to be honest. It's like some people are being positive for positives sake. I'm guessing these people don't attend the games or don't even watch them? They just look at the league table and think 'ooo that looks nice'.

I'm there every home game (never boo and never will), but I see what is being served up and it is tripe. 

Even his bobble hat is crap now.

It’s difficult because it’s tempting to lump all the people commenting negatively about Warne into one group which is perhaps unfair.

However, in general it strikes me that everyone comes out so angry and negative when we lose and/or play badly and the amount cognitive bias is insane. We haven’t played that badly in that many games and we have won a number of games quite convincingly this season. 
 

However, it is League 1. The pitches are bad, the players are quite bad (even the better players) and the tactics of a lot of teams are frequently to try and destroy football rather than create nice football. 
 

We have been unable to recruit a replacement for Collins (Gayle hasn’t really had a go yet though) so inevitably that will have an impact. Personally I think we’ve got away with not signing another centre back as well. 
 

From where im standing it seems that, if people took a minute to be remotely rational, they’d realise Warne is doing quite a good job. Not just in terms of league position but even in some performances and the recruitment has been pretty good given the constant contraints. 
 

Of course I have criticisms. The main one is the lack of academy minutes but I’ll give him the benefit this season as the current generation was gutted during admin so that may change in coming years. 

With the lack of rationality in the face of defeat on this thread, it makes me wonder how some people function in their day to day lives. 

1 minute ago, Ramfan1958 said:

How much players are deterating under Warne !!!

Sibley isn't half the player he was under previous manager's.  

Is it one goal at PP in 2 years/seasons he's not half the player he was. 

Personally I think Warnes lost the dressing room.

 

Doing what under Warne??

Just now, RoyMac5 said:

We look an ordinary league 1 team. Most of the players are anything but.

Chortle, chortle. 👍

Well Man City look a pretty ordinary premier league team sometimes. They’re still an exceptional side who’ve had lots of success. Football is random, you’re not going to be amazing every game. That’s even more so in League 1

2 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

We're not the ones out on the pitch! I thought the crowd sounded well up for it last night. That's how it sounded anyway.

The players are sent out and set up in such a way that you have no idea how good they really are! Look how Warne made Jason Knight look last season, fans were saying he was rubbish! 😄

There's a reason we look an ordinary League 1 team, that is how we are set up and managed!

An ordinary league 1 team 😂 we’re second with very good goal difference.

18 minutes ago, Sparkle said:

Next season we will have worse players is the depressing statement and the better players of a football are leaving or wanted away from Warneball  for whatever reason given - McGoldrick to Notts county in a league below, Knight and Bird to Bristol city for goodness sake whilst NML has kept us away from the bottom half of this league of dreadful non football 

I don’t think they’re fair examples. McGoldrick made it very clear he’d always wanted to finish his career at Notts County. Knight and Bird are young players who are better than League 1 and I highly doubt they would have stayed in League 1 if their best mate was the Manager