Srg

2 minutes ago, Kernow said:

Any idea on the reasons behind Wilson choosing Bolton ahead of us? Even though they finished above us last season I’d still expect us to have bigger pulling power than any other side in the division if we really wanted someone.

Could it be... and hear me out here because this is a mental idea on my part to just put out there... could it be... we have never wanted him and Trav doesn't know a thing?

18 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

To be honest they should've declared their second innings, lead of 200 odd to really get the juices flowing.

To be fair, I get why they thought they might have a bowl at the openers for half an hour on day 1 but there's no substitute for runs on the scoreboard. It's not what I (with my picked last at everything in PE pedigree of sporting success) would've done. 

No play before 13.10 anyway, and if this match ends up a draw I'll laugh until the next test.

This whole 'Bazball' thing means that they are willing to lose in the pursuit of winning. They'd much rather do that than just going for a draw.

Just now, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Yeah the only thing with Bradley is he would fit the mould of what Warne wants and when he said we are trying to sign players who don't want to play in League One. I'd imagine Bradley fits into that category too.

Doesn't fit the age profile. Will be 32 in September, and has had injury issues recently.

2 minutes ago, MACKWORTHRAM said:

Does anyone else actually expect us to sign anyone today?

I know Big Trav has said there will be two. 

But I'm not sure on what basis he has that from? Is it a guess?

Cos Warne said essentially we should have 5 in before pre season starts. Which I think is towards the end of next week?

So could just say there is two coming today quite easily cos there's a chance you could he right?

But then again Big Trav has also said we won't sign a permanent right back we want one on loan. Which is quite a bit of detail which could have only come from someone in the recruitment team or someone who knows someone there?

Fwiw when we haven't got a right back at all. Signing one on loan would be bizarre.

Loans tend to be later in most cases due to deciding on squad numbers etc, so I would be surprised if a loan has been agreed at this point and, as you said, would be the first choice thing to do.

It's only logical that signings will have to come at some point this week. If we are signing 5 and pre-season is likely underway next week then has to kick off soon!

10 minutes ago, JakeDCFC said:

Do you think it finally comes to fruiting this time around? haha

Personally? No. But I also don't think there's anything in the Sonny Bradley stuff either.

2 minutes ago, JakeDCFC said:

linked to him last year as well?

Consistent links with him, amongst others.

Just now, JakeDCFC said:

Saw on an article that there have been some links to Curtis Nelson. I could be late to the party lol, but I just saw it.

Only about a full year late.

Just now, CBRammette said:

The restrictions are paying small fees appears to have been lifted so can we also now sign players on longer deals if we wanted to? 

Correct, but they’d obviously need to want to, too. Which I can’t imagine Knight would in case we didn’t get promoted. 

29 minutes ago, ramit said:

It's not so mental though.  Gylfi will be 34 in September, hasn't kicked a ball in ages, thinking of retiring, knows he will be a star focus any team he joins, the Premiership is a no go, Championship tough to start again in.  League 1 is about his level atm.  Has one to two decent years left in him, then end up doing a season with his local team and call it quits.

Think you’ll find the Monk is already the main star for Mean Machine. 

9 minutes ago, Rev said:

So far this international term, he's played on the left of a front 3, the number 10 role as a substitute, and now as a right wing back. 

His versatility will be his undoing, if he's not careful.

 

Problem he has is his energy is limitless. So he does so much of the dirty work, and when teams like to press he’s ideal. The downside is he can’t beat a man for pace, doesn’t have a trick or even the drop of a shoulder. So he will always struggle in those advanced positions. He’s best as a box to box midfielder but there’s only so many teams that play with that type of player these days. I sense a permanent switch to wing back maybe the best spot for him to use that engine and aggression he has at both ends of the pitch. 

Well timed performance. 

5 minutes ago, silhillian said:

No fun you lot 😋

What’s fun about clearly made up nonsense? Go play football manager if that’s your thing. 

Channel 4 need to stop with this Andros Townsend experiment. 

Lock it. 

20 minutes ago, Topram said:

1 will 100% be the back up keeper and a right back 

Funny how many have said Vickers despite only 1 supposed ITK poster bringing him up. 

1 hour ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Elder and Bradley would be very solid additions IF they were to happen. The Twitter noise about Bradley includes mentions by a reincarnated Barry the Ram so I am a tiny bit sceptical, but would welcome the news if true. 

Putting it out there to be shot down when it now happens but I don’t think we will be in for Bradley. 

Burton signed Cole Stockton.

Oxford's season last year was a little bit of an outlier. They finished 8th, 6th and 4th the three prior seasons. Just kinda s*** the bed last season. Don't expect them to be that bad again.

25 minutes ago, Anon said:

For anyone who watches the coverage on youtube, do your eyes ever drift across to the live chat? I ask because during t20s it is genuinely some of the most unhinged and bizarre nonsense I've seen anywhere on the internet. For starters, every poster is near illiterate. All player names are spelled incorrectly and the grammar is so poor that it's often impossible to even parse what the commenter is attempting to convey. The reactionary nature of the comments would even make people in dcfc matchday threads blanch. A single dot ball inevitably means a batsman is useless and should never play again. One bad ball is often met with a chorus of posters claiming the game is fixed. Whilst we're on the topic of fixing, you get multiple posters claiming to have utterly absurd amounts of money invested on the result. Part of me wonders if many of them are bots because I struggle with the concept of human beings conversing like this.

Most seem to be Pakistani or Indians tuning in for their players and only seem to be invested in how they do.

2 minutes ago, Kokosnuss said:

Agree that budget usually plays a big part, as it'd he hard for me to argue against that and then say we should finish top 2-3 this season because our budget is high for the league. Sometimes teams defy their budgets though, and I'd say that's where good managers really come into their own.

It's something we're yet to really see from Warne, it's unfortunate for him that the only time they've gone up and stayed up is after he left! They may well have stayed up (or finished higher than 18th) if he had stayed but we'll never know. 

The way I look at it is just get up first and foremost. If things go south when we are there, we can replace Warne and attempt to stay up. So, yes, I'd like us to be able to build and fly up through the leagues to the promised land, but have to take every chance we can get to at least get back to the Championship.

I might be coming across like I'm some kind of Warne fanboy, which isn't the case. I try to stick to as many facts as possible to form an opinion - which is an issue some posters seemingly struggle with when it comes to Warne. I like his ideals of a high energy, athletic team and I find his interviews to be, on the whole, interesting. There's far too many misquotes or overanalysis on a small part of a sentence going off in some quarters. He didn't have his own team last season, and he did have a small, old squad which seemingly ran out of legs. Let's see what this season brings after a proper transfer window and pre-season.

Just now, Kokosnuss said:

That's the sort of attitude that sees you coming straight back down the next season as twice happened to Warne with Rotherham, so absolutely not. There needs to be an eye on the future too.

I thought it was clear from the interview that this isn't what we're doing anyway, with the talk of a trying to sign players who don't really want to be / shouldn't be playing in League One, signing players with quality, experience an a continued ability to play at Championship  level.

The fear was that last season's better football came about because we had some real class in the team that a manager would have to be an idiot to ignore, but that with it gone and/or a year older we'd devolve toward the more desperate / uncontrolled stuff we saw in tougher games, & Warne's progression as a manager (seen toward the end of the season, IMO) would regress, essentially making us Rotherham 2.0.

The interview alleviated almost all of that fear for me, in terms of our intentions - the club now just need to back up what was said with the signings, and Warne with how he sets up and manages the team throughout the season.

As a general note, it does make me laugh when people are so defensive of Warne and wish to dispel any and all negative opinion to the point that that they'll end up contradicting something he himself has said in his own analysis.

I was being facetious. I don't believe for a second our football is remotely anything like that, and not even as bad as the naysayers make out. But I would argue that that would be the reason for Rotherham coming back down - that would be budget and holding onto their better players when they do come up related. Their level has always been a tweener of Championship/League One area. 

The other point I'd make on the whole "sign good footballers, then organise and motivate them" approach... we've tried that before. You can argue whether or not they were actually good, but they had at least proved worth at others clubs. It was the whole strategy throughout Mel's reign of terror. In fact, look at Chelsea's recruitment strategy of signing loads of wingers/inside forwards and no actual strikers of any note. 

Sign players to fit a role and in a defined system. Don't sign them because they might be decent then worry about how it fits later.

7 hours ago, kevinhectoring said:

lets‘s see what sort of football we are playing next season and come back to that one  

First,  recruit the best possible footballers, and then organise and motivate them. That’s what we should do. He’s got it backwards, he starts with motivation 

Oh and make sure the best ones don’t leave to move down the road. 

We could play like prime Pulis Stoke if it got us out of this cesspit of a league. Let’s win football matches, then worry about how it looks. 

1 minute ago, DCFC1388 said:

That makes no sense. You sign a pre-contract. You don’t officially sign with the new team until 1st July so you’d still be on your former team’s contract. He really is properly clueless. 

29 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

We haven’t been linked have we 🤔

Nope. Just apparently a league one team has bid circa £500k and there’s only a short list of teams who could do that.