FlyBritishMidland

Birmingham are down you say……

I would agree with those who feel the majority of this squad needs to be retained into next season. The biggest mistake promoted teams can make is to destroy the fabric of the side that has achieved success - quality of course needs to be added but the DNA/character of the dressing room is not easily built, its that intangible that can drag out vital results & I feel will be necessary for a tough upcoming season. I also believe Warne will need a big squad to compete given the physical demands he places on players. With that in mind;
Release
Waghorn, Hourihane. I also would not offer John-Jules a contract
1 year deals
Forsyth, Korey Smith, Barkhuizen, Gayle, Collins
2 year deals
Wildsmith, Sibley, Thompson
I've noticed many would release Forsyth, Gayle & Smith but I would retain all 3. Firstly, Forsyth is an extremely useful utility player & makeshift CB - he is not easily replaced at all. I saw enough of Dwight Gayle to realise that he still retains plenty of quality & movement and the way he meshed with Mendez-Laing & Barkhuizen gave me confidence he could be a gamechanger still at Championship level. Given we're likely to be playing on the counter attack against better quality opposition, Gayle seems ideally suited to how we'd be looking to play. Lastly, we have a massive hole in midfield with Bird, Adams & likely Hourihane leaving - Korey Smith is a steady option to keep some continuity there, the lad can play & of course has significant Championship experience.
Keeping this squad would enable us to target resources at the 4/5 quality players we need to improve the overall standard of the first team without wasting time looking for squad depth because we'll already have it. Primary focus for me will be for first team starters down the spine of our team - in central midfield (enforcer & conductor), two centre forwards & one centre half. 
Evolution not revolution.

Follow that by he is about to come into the peak age for a GK. I’m trying to get my head around why people want him gone. He has saved us a lot more times than he has cost us.
 

If Wildsmith played for say Portsmouth and had just won the golden glove with a clean sheet every other game, is at a good age and was being released, Derby fans would be saying straight away we should sign him up....

Wildsmith is one to keep, in my opinion. Anything else would seem counter-intuitive.
He’s been part of a strong defence and kept twenty clean sheets. He’s been first choice for us for the past two years. He deserves a shot at being a Championship regular. Crucially too he won’t demand the same wages as keepers like Rodak and Ryan with higher level experience.
OK, yes, upgrade on players when you can. But in our position we’ll need to prioritise where money is spent and goalkeeper would not be a top priority.
Surely if we can extend Wildsmith’s deal and spend funds elsewhere, it makes the most sense?

It’s called negotiation. You go in low (but not ridiculously low) with the hope and expectation that you’ll meet somewhere in the middle.
If their ask is £500k (again, have they gone in high?) an opening bid of £250k doesn’t sound too unreasonable.

Funnily enough just after I posted this Warnes interview was released where he’s said he’ll be looking at the free agent market and him and his staff are going to games in the Netherlands to look at players. 
 
Also extra info for people who haven’t seen it, they’re also going to be at games in Denmark and Warne has already met with a few players who he’s trying to sign.

For a player that doesn't want to be in L1 Bielik seems to end up there quite a lot.

Birmingham are down you say……

Promotion should always be the aim. However, not making it isn't necessarily a hanging offence. I want promotion next season. Would love it to happen. Midtable or better would suffice though.
Ipswich? They built over 4 seasons into a team capable of back to back promotions. 2 years ago we had 5 players and no money. We brought in a shedload of players on freebies. 1 year ago we had a bit of a clearout and brought even more in. Today we have 14 players out of contract. Some will retire, some will go back to their parent clubs, some will be let go. We are likely to have an influx of 10 to 12 players again. A million miles away form the Tractors steady build. 
Would I like back to back promotions? Hell, yes. Do I expect it? Hell, no.

Birmingham are down you say……

Birmingham are down you say……

With the exception of Adams who just clicked instantly, every single one of the players Warne signed or inherited improved after six months or so of getting used to what he demands from them. I know people like to joke that his a PE teacher or a fitness coach, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a massive physical shock to CBT. A full pre season, hopefully injury free, and I'd bet on him hitting the ground running next season. Him and NML either side of a powerful striker who can hold up the ball and win the aerial duels will be a thing to see next season.

I think the move was a bit of a culture shock. Not just location but a new group of players and a focus on fitness and hard work.
Winning promotion and celebrating together should help him fit in and he has a summer with Sergeants Warne and Barker to look forward to.
If he comes out stronger, fitter and feeling loved, we may have a bit of a gem.

A valid point, well made. Sadly, the levels of remuneration demanded by players and their agents make sustainability on and off the pitch, a very tough balance to achieve and there's also the issue of sustainability for DC himself. As you rightly point out, saving our club has come at significant cost to the Clowes family already and I think the best reward for DC's good faith would be a like-minded investor to share the financial burden and help foot the cost of developing the playing roster. Trying to find a silver lining, I do think we are a deal more investable than at any time in a long while now, so there may be some small chink of light not too far ahead.

Have you had a personalised email from the Club telling you how many minutes of football you've watched, and various other stats from home and away? 
It's a brilliant touch, and a reward for those fans who put in some hard miles.
I won't spoil it for anyone, but read right through to the end! 
Here's a snippet from mine. Not bad for saying I cracked an ankle bone and was in a brace for several weeks mid-season.
I'm bet @Foreveram has a better one though.
 

A think a few things to think about here. 
1. I’d take those estimates there with a pinch of salt. That estimate puts Blackburn players on less than £6k a week on average. (25 players) Not having it. 
2. Our wage bill has been widely reported but that figure, someone correct me if I’m wrong, is the entire clubs wage bill. Not just playing staff. There is no way our average players wage is £13.5k a week. 

 

I really don't get this thing with Wildsmith. He's not the perfect keeper by any means, but he has just kept 20 clean sheets in a season. Yes, a lot of that is down to the players in front of him, but he still made some very important saves to keep the score at nil. Many seem to remember more his mistakes rather than his saves. If we were looking to sign a keeper who had just kept 20 clean sheets in a season in the league below us then most people would be all over it.

He grew as the season went along for me. All being well he play a big role for us again next season.

Having been relegated twice from the Championship should at least have give Warne a good idea of what works and what doesn't in that league. He clearly knows how to get out of this league which was the number 1 priority, get us out and get us out quickly. That has meant that we have limited the haemorrhaging of money and our best young players, both from the first team squad and the academy to a minimum. 
Warne's last attempt at the Championship was short lived but successful up to that point. So hopefully that's an indicator that lessons had perhaps been learned. He should certainly be better prepared for the tactics and standards required this time. When you listen to Warne its obvious that he's a bright guy, he's far more erudite than most football managers you listen to so it seems inconceivable to me that he can fail to understand the tactical nuances that his arm chair critics - myself included - accuse him of. Bright guys are better than most at learning too. So why did we hate the football so? I'm coming to the conclusion that Warne knew better than we did that the ugly, basic football the team played a lot of the time was the most effective at that level. He said - and I criticised him for it -  ''my job is not to entertain the fans, its to get results''. My criticism at the time was 'no Paul, your job is to do both'. Whilst I still think so, maybe I should concede that his view, as a professional, is that to do both may be possible but with this squad would be less certain to get promotion quickly which was the overriding priority. 
So lets see how recruitment goes, this summer and next January. I think we will make a solid return to the Championship finishing comfortably mid table and then kick on the following season            

Another thing I would like to say in praise of the management team is that in past seasons, there seemed to be very few goal scoring options.
This season I think we had 19 different scorers. Nineteen!
Just shows that confidence has risen in the squad.
 

Not watching bits of the game but I’ve been going through the RD podcasts while out walking the dogs.  Done the whole of the post-match and today I finished the full Monday night show.  EFL podcast with Collins is next.
Trouble is, that wind keeps making my eyes water.

Not watching bits of the game but I’ve been going through the RD podcasts while out walking the dogs.  Done the whole of the post-match and today I finished the full Monday night show.  EFL podcast with Collins is next.
Trouble is, that wind keeps making my eyes water.