vonwright

1 hour ago, Chester40 said:

Its a decent place to start the conversion this...  as soon as you say 'I do / don't rate' a certain player it becomes an argument.

Lots of posters who I rate seem to love the lad so he must be doing something right.

Personally (wrongly in many people's opinions) I'm not 'emotionally' bothered. Nothing against him - and it was a fairy tale way to end his career here - he just doesn't pull me in like other players do.

Maybe I perceive a casual demeanour, lack of crunching tackle, eagerness to play the safe ball   ... and he's just 'ok'. Not pacey,  or aggressive... he's kinda graceful without enough mouth dropping moments of quality to get me out of my seat.

Adams or Bird - I'm picking Adams all day long. Same with Kane Wilson. 

Quite happy to accept I'm wrong. Just the way I feel.

This reminds me of how I felt when Jeff Hendrick left. I thought he was a decent enough player - but I certainly didn't see what others seemed to see. Wasn't really bothered to see him go for the money we got. 

I was gutted when Will Hughes left for about a third of what I thought he was worth.

Bristol's a nice part of the world. They've got some good young players, including Knight and Roberts. They play decent football that will probably suit Bird. And we weren't guaranteed to go up when he signed. 

Hard to say but he might also feel it's just the right time to try something different. He grew up in a Derby system, and a cohort of young players, that has largely disappeared. I'm sure he loves this club and always will, but it might not feel like 'his' project in quite the same way. 

He'll be massively missed and I'm sure he'll miss us.

4 hours ago, nottingram said:

I don’t know what you do for a living but if the company you work for gave you a fixed term contract then chose not to assign you any tasks, you would probably not go elsewhere for (let’s say) half the money where you might or might not get assigned tasks. 

If he ever refused to play for Derby that’s a different matter but don’t think there’s evidence of that? In Rowett’s season he was selected in an emergency, came in and did well. 

Not sure that's true of everyone. If I enjoyed what I did I'd probably make that switch, particularly if 'half the money' would still be a lot of money. Some people enjoy what they do, want to challenge themselves to develop and achieve, and see doing their profession (well) as part of their identity. 

Anya clearly didn't, at least during his time with us. 

My main memory of Aina is being really disappointing with just how average he was. Thought he'd be a lot better, particularly going forward. 

Just now, Gabby'sThighs said:

I'm sad to see Birdy go. Can't help thinking he's made a terrible decision to go to bloody Bristol City....

Yeah love to know if he has any regrets right now

1 hour ago, Wanderlust said:

Totally agree with this - Ferguson has rested some of his better players and removed the risk of injury, tiredness and suspension in preparation for the playoffs, whereas Evatt is now faced with a game of chicken trying to work out who should be risked and at what point does he take the better players off? The chances of you not winning and us winning by 3 or more is 175 -1 with some bookies so why does he even consider playing his best side against Posh? Other than the argument of coming into the playoffs with a winning mentality? He could regret it if key players are injured again at this stage. It's a dilemma.

Very much hope he takes a cautious approach, but I doubt it. 

Pressure can do funny things, particularly if there's an early goal or two. 

Hopefully this is where my mocking of our 'good characters' recruitment policy comes back to bite me on the a***, and all that experience really does get us over the line. 

Think he's still got a big part to play. There will be a lot of pressure in the games ahead, and he's played in a lot of big games. 

40 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

This bit cheered me up:

"Principal risks and uncertainties

Due to the principal activities of the company, the revenues of the business are susceptible to the on-pitch performance of the football team.

This is mitigated by maintaining top class training facilities, in order to attract the best talent, having competitive wage budgets and operating a category one academy to ensure there is an appropriate player pathway to the first team and to build value for the future.

The company's credit risk is relatively low and is primarily attributable to its trade debtors. Credit risk is managed by running credit checks on new customers and by monitoring payments against contractual agreements.

The company is financed by cash injections and the revenue that is raised through its business activities. The objective is to ensure a mix of funding methods offering flexibility and cost effectiveness to match the needs of the Company; however the Directors note that such dependency on parent company support is critical to remaining a going concern."

Hopefully meaning funds would be available if we went up?

I guess although 'to remains a going concern' is a bit of a worry. Suppose that's just how football is these days. 

22 hours ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

Or Callum Ball

Give him just one more season he could still come good 

4 minutes ago, Norman said:

Slightly unrelated, but Bristol City 6 points off the drop as it stands.

Cheeky bid for Knight and Bird on the way past them?

1 million for both?

Classic Championship. 13th place and six points off the drop. 

1 minute ago, Barney1991 said:

This post can’t agree more. 3 cbs doesn’t always mean negative I agree. Chelsea when they won the prem couldn’t win with a back 4 and moved to 343 and won something like 17 games in a row and stormed the prem having fell on the formation. 
 

our style of play though is we don’t use the formation great at all. We bypass midfield and don’t move the ball quick enough with 2 touch passing to get out and instead of using it offensively we end up getting pinned in with the wingbacks so high up we get countered. If we start to get the ball on the deck and get some movement higher up to pull players out we can get out and use it out advantage 

Yes I mean wasn't part of the point of the Chelsea 3-4-3 to give them numbers in midfield?

Rosenior threw a new (and impressive) squad together from nothing under incredibly difficult circumstances and had us in seventh, playing progressive football and arguably unlucky not to be higher.

If people think he had his chance and failed, fair enough I guess. But it's a bit rich if those same people defend Warne on the basis he is acting under incredibly difficult restrictions, needs more time to impose his style, has new players who haven't fully settled and gelled, etc etc etc...

"Be brave" isn't a particularly useful tactical instruction, is it? If it's supposed to mean 'Get your head up and look for a forward pass' then you have to set your team up to give the player those options. And then make sure you don't give them contrary instructions.

The to-and-fro about Warne feels increasingly pointless. Our strengths and weaknesses - and his - are clear, in our wins and our losses. Nothing much is likely to change before the end of the season. Why argue? Consistent results, one way or the other, are the only thing that will make anyone change their mind. 

For me? There will be more of the same. This is how we play. So these are the games, and results, we can expect. I'm not convinced having Collins (or Washington, or Waghorn) available would have made the slightest difference. 

Feels like the Billy Davies season, although then at least you had a sense of what he was trying to achieve. It all felt a bit more... coherent. 

Anyway. Could still happen, with a decent slice of luck. (Which is exactly the problem.)

Just now, Carl Sagan said:

Absolutely we have to go for wins, even if it risks losing. How does no one understand this? A draw is as bad as a defeat, unless against Bolton or Portsmouth. If you want automatic promotion, you need 3 points from almost every game.

Exactly that's the whole point of 3pts for a win - to encourage teams to play for wins. 

One win and two losses is as good as three draws.

8 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Over an hour for Warne to realize we didn't need five at the back and two holding midfielders. A tactical genius at the helm. Is this last last half-hour enough to win the match in? At least we've had a shot!

It's so predictable, and so frustrating. And if we somehow steal a win it will all be forgotten. 

4 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

You, and Warne, may be absolutely right Crewton. 3 points is the target and I hope we get them, but this is another game that doesn’t bode well for any decent football. As well as packing our back line with sturd, we again seem very happy to concede midfield before a ball is kicked.  Enjoy the game. I will save my money for tomorrows highlights package.

It's also looks like a 'fight fire with fire' approach which isn't necessarily the best way to go. But we will see. 

10 hours ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

It isn’t Steve McClaren football, nowhere near, but we’re in league 1 still under restrictions

Wait - you mean there are restrictions on how many passes we can take before we lump it aimlessly forward?

Curse you, EFL!

Just now, Jourdan said:

What is the evidence that Bradley and Ward are on good money?

There is enough evidence out there to suggest that the budget / restrictions are prohibitive, or did you miss where we were priced out of moves for two back-up strikers from a struggling Championship club and all the other indicators?

So is it the budget or the restrictions? Those are very different things. 

What does the 'evidence' tell us? 

5 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

Are Burton and Carlisle working under EFL business plans?

Did their outgoings (i.e. Moxon to Portsmouth) get completed today?

Why do you think Championship clubs like Bristol City and Wednesday are going to act in anything other than their own interests?

It doesn’t matter if you have a day or a month, it won’t stop clubs from trying to get deals that benefit them.

You recently told me I couldn't possibly presume that players like Bradley and Ward are on good money, because I haven't seen their contracts.

Yet you seem to be very certain about the limits of our budget and terms of our restrictions. 

4 minutes ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

He's here on loan to prevent a meltdown.  It hasn't worked clearly and we now have a 5 month passenger we're still paying ,trying to avoid injury.

To be fair to Bird he doesn't seem the type to give less than 100% - and especially to us. Plus why does he need to avoid injury? He's already secured the move, he's only here on loan 

9 minutes ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Again though. Just because it came out from the Sheffield Wednesday end. Not our end. They would not have been the only strikers we looked at

But the fact we even looked at Lee Gregory should give you an idea how little money we have.

I get this but surely you have to look at our transfer activity as a whole? We didn't start the summer with no money - it seems like we spent quite a bit. We didn't even start this transfer window with no money. And throughout we've had at least some assets we could have sold to generate £££ if things were so tight. 

If we really left ourselves in a position where the only option to fill a long-gaping hole was a failed bit for Lee Gregory, surely that suggests our recruitment strategy hasn't been great? 

32 minutes ago, David said:

Possibly, however can any of us seriously sit here and claim to have any knowledge of exactly who is available within the loan budget we have?

I mean both Smith and Gregory, we are refusing to pay the majority of the wages. Wouldn’t exactly be on mega money so is the refusal based on said budget or some other reason?

We could sit and throw suggestions out there all day long, as I say, we have no idea on the availability.

We can't, but I think we can say with reasonable confidence our overall transfer strategy since summer has been poor. And that whether through a lack of planning or a lack of imagination, it's brought us to Lee Gregory. 

37 minutes ago, David said:

Just to add, I fully blame journalists for linking us with all these players with other clubs fighting promotion.

It’s raised unrealistic possibilities of who we can bring in.

Not helped us at all.

Think that's fair, but also feel there's a lot of space between 'unrealistic signing' and Lee Gregory. If he's really the best remaining option then we shouldn't have put ourselves in this position.

The players weren't good enough to make Cocu's style work. So much possession with zero penetration. And always just one mistake away from an unrecoverable 1-0.

He's still to blame, though, either for not figuring that out, or simply being incapable of trying something else.