TomTom92

Ticks a lot of boxes on the face of it but seems to be a younger Hourihane which seems odd as the general consensus is that Hourihane wasn’t a Warne type player ie. Not athletic. 
 
Guess a freebie brings a relative reduction in risk. Ultimately I don’t know enough about this one and will bow down to Warne and co.

Peterborough seemed to play within themselves last night. Almost like they didn’t want to go full tilt in case Oxford on the break. By the time they twisted their arm at 70 minutes Oxford looked comfy and happy to keep getting ‘injured’ every couple of minutes. 
 
Think Bolton will win the final.

1 minute ago, Bris Vegas said:

Not sure how relegation playoffs could ever work. The two losers of semi-finals face off in a one off game at Wembley? That would be rewarding failure.

Not sure of any competition in the world where losers advance to a next stage (aside from WC 3rd/4th game). 

No need for Wembley, just whichever team finished higher in the regular season gets home advantage.

As a fan that trundles to a handful of matches per season the increased TV coverage benefits me. Plus as a man that has limited hobbies, the more days footballs on the better.

However trying not to be selfish i do think the 3pm blackout needs to be scrapped. 

I know there's arguments about lower league teams losing out but I reckon it would be worth a trial even for a season.

2 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

I was with you until your last paragraph.

I'd rather reinvigorate the cup competitions than invent the NBA play offs (the NBA invented a cup this last season) and absolutely no to relegation play offs, they'll just end with teams who proved they should go down over a whole season having a get out of jail card.

I do agree with scrapping FFP as it currently exists. My thoughts are along the lines of controlling a clubs debt, as it's debts rather than spending that gets clubs in trouble.

I can survive without the play offs idea, was just a spur of the moment thought to keep most teams interested and something to play for until the very end. 

FWIW i'd have the bottom two automatically relegated and then 15th - 18th battling it out for the final drop. But ultimately i don't think the PL would ever trial something like this.

I'd be intrigued to see how we would reinvigorate the cup competitions. It may be a generational thing but i hold very little feelings towards the cup comps.

PL is just a very well marketed league in comparison to the rest of the worlds top leagues.

Pretty sure without fact checking that all the top leagues are dominated by the same few clubs. The PL is no different.

The sad part is, that due to inflation, the money and the amount it requires to take on a big team is so vast from the early 90's to now that only the mega rich can turn a team in to a force. Unfortunately FFP etc. has even stopped that now. Look at Newcastle, they're fighting at the right end, but they're a million miles away from winning the league in the next few years. 

Part of me thinks FFP should be scrapped and if a billionaire wants to buy the league then good for them. But i appreciate that no financial governance does lead itself for smaller clubs potentially going bust. 

Ultimately the PL is nowhere near the most entertaining league in England. Its very American but maybe the PL would thrive from having a league title and then a play off system to crown the overall season winner. Maybe even implement a relegation play off to drag more teams in to the jeopardy. However the latter suggestion won't ever happen whilst the money between the PL and the EFL is so vast. Close that gap and it will benefit all the teams in England bar the top 6. 

4 minutes ago, bimmerman said:

Didn't the Poland manager come out and publicly say he had to play at a higher level then league 1 to stand a chance or am I imagining that? 

Think so chief

30 minutes ago, McArthur Park said:

May I ask why? It's their job, does everyone like the job that they do? Or do you do a job because you happen to be good at it? 

I do a job because I need money.

But I’d say 90% of footballers do it because they’re good and have an interest in it.

Its more school boys/girls dream so to have someone doing it to a good level who doesn’t like it is just bit unsavoury. 
 
Just my personal irk.

6 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

It’s an interesting take you’ve got, so in the absence of proof that another team wanted him or the club didn’t try and offload him it’s all Anya’s fault, yet you can’t prove he had no interest in playing, how do you know he wasn’t doing all he could to be picked to play? Clubs are likely only going to show an interest in him if he was given an opportunity to show his ability on the pitch right? Can’t earn himself a move if he’s not in the shop window type thing. 

Looking at it objectively it was a massive failure as signings go taking into account the fee and wages, but it’s not on him that we paid the fee, or gave him the wages and contract. To hold such personal blame and dislike against him as a person seems odd to me, chalk it down to bad business by all parties involved and move on. 

Obviously haven’t got any proof but this was a seasoned footballer not some rookie. I’d be astounded if we didn’t receive a few loan offers where we paid 70% or something like that. 
 
Not his fault we paid the silly money but it says it all that he’s now retired. 
 
Can’t help it, footballers who don’t like football irk me at the best of times. Add in how it shafted us and my dislike quadruples.

3 minutes ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

This one finished for him start of December though.  We still had 25 games. 

Doubt he would’ve got called up playing in league 1. 
 
He pretty much single handedly kept us up in the Cocu/Rooney season so personally I have no ill feeling towards him.

Don’t hold anything against Bielik. His wage was too high for a league 1 club and world cups come every 4 years so can’t fault him for wanting to get that gig. 
 
Think Buchanan is by far the bigger snake and i can’t help but revel in his situation.

2 hours ago, Jourdan said:

He can’t be surprised. Hull have been one of the biggest spenders in the Championship in the past 12 months. The owners are ambitious. You have to keep pace or you will fall on your sword trying.

He needs a club that he can grow with, a club that can complement him in a sense of where they are in their respective journeys. Hull have designs for something much bigger at a much faster rate obviously.

A better fit for him would be a club like Plymouth. He has a similar playing philosophy to previous coaches there (Schumacher and Lowe) and they are not yet fully established at Championship level and have modest resources. It’s a challenging job but one where it can be stable and mutually beneficial.

Completely agree. Think he could probably sit it out for a safer bet than Plymouth but definitely needs a club that isn’t desperate for promotion (see us and Hull).

Even though he’s showed promise he’s still learning the ropes. 
 
Wonder who Hull will bring in, Cooper is the favourite at the moment which if it comes to fruition, the sacking becomes more understandable.

5 minutes 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. 

But my job isn’t a dream job. 
 
It’s his prerogative not to kick a ball again. But I just find it poor that he had no interest in playing.
 
If somebody can prove that nobody came in for him or that we refused to loan him out then I’ll take it back. 
 
We’ll never agree on this one because out of all the players to grace our shirt he’s up there with my most disliked.

Just now, nottingram said:

Derby gave him an X year contract on £Xk per week. That they chose not to pick him to play football in that time is up to them

But the fact he had no interest in playing football once he got the golden ticket is poor in my opinion. Complete poohouse.

4 minutes ago, nottingram said:

Why should he?

Because one would assume a footballer would want to play football.

6 hours ago, nottingram said:

Not his fault we gave him a fat contract then didn’t want to use him 

Could’ve gone out on loan and saved us some wages and yanno actually played football…his job.

Have no time for the parasite.

From what I’ve seen Kieran Lee is pretty dirty.

2 hours ago, Tamworthram said:

It's not though is it? 

We no doubt had a higher wage budget than most other clubs in League 1 but the wages we could offer count for nothing if trying to attract players still under contract if we couldn't pay a transfer fee.

I think Warne did a good job in the end. But I have to admit I don’t think he’s some magician just because he had a business plan to adhere too. 
 
Surely the real judgement comes this summer.

Think the arguments about budgets are a bit naff. We clearly had a high wage bill in compared to 90% of the league. So should be top 6 no question.
 
But was Warne’s job harder than it should be for a club of our size? To compare it to Birmingham who will be league 1 next season. Yes his job was harder than it should be and he took on the 2/3 clubs at level footing and came out in the top 2. 
 
No restrictions this season so it’s what DC wants to spend plus the calibre of player Warne wants. At this moment in time we have no indication where we stand on both points.

Until we get a picture of how recruitment is shaping up, I think it’s fruitless discussing this season because Warne ultimately did a good job.

Think how Warne does in the championship will determine how we rate him in years to come.

Good on him for getting us up. But he’s only achieved what was expected of him. Hoping he continue to keep building and can do what Nigel couldn’t in getting us up to the PL (in due course).

16 minutes ago, inter politics said:

Viktor Johansson

Would be a good signing. 
 
Haven’t read the article so not sure if Nixon touched on this. But if we’re sniffing around for a goalkeeper it does suggest that maybe Wildsmith is off.

Was just starting to go through the gears and then he missed that sitter at Wycombe. The fact we drew and at the time it looked a costly error probably didn’t do him any favours. 
 
Then he fell out the team and the nature of the rest of the matches meant he hardly got a kick. 
 
Clean slate for next season and hopefully he can do a job in some capacity.

Just now, Reggie Greenwood said:

Cashin will attract a multi mill pound bid , but hope he doesn’t 

How could i forget Cash? Oooops.

Yes this may well change our summer plans although with him signing a long contract i imaginer we'd want top dollar for him.

I guess the question is how much is competitive?

Overall Transfer kitty:

£0 - £1m

£1m - £2m

£2m - £3m

£3m+

i know money will be spent on wages but as @Srg has pointed out, the difference in what clubs can spend is great. Add in that i don't think we have anybody that will attract a multi million pound bid, i'll be intrigued to see what our pot is. 

Curtis Nelson: 9
Callum Elder: 5
Joe Ward: 6
Sonny Bradley: 6
Josh Vickers: 6
Kane Wilson: 7
Martyn Waghorn: 5
Conor Washington: 5 
Tyrese Fornah: 4
Elliot Embleton: 1
Ryan Nyambe: 8
Tyreece John-Jules: 4

Winter:

Ebou Adams: 9 
Dwight Gayle: 7
Corey Blackett-Taylor: 5
Max Bird*: 7

Extensions:
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing: 9
Eiran Cashin: 9
Jake Rooney: 5