TomTom92

Just now, Nuwtfly said:

This was my thinking especially alongside the Thompson/Robinson comments.

It’ll be 3-5-2. Three central midfielders, maybe one advanced, one sitting a bit, with two strikers.

For me that makes it all the more imperative that we bring in a quality centre forward. I’m not sure where the cash from Knight/Bielik has gone or what Clowes really meant when he said we had a good budget, but surely there that is an area we should be looking to spend in?

Begs the question where that leaves NML and Barkz? Wingbacks? Neither looked accomplished. Or bench warmers who can come on if we want to play with 2 wide men. 
 
I know we could switch to 343 so maybe that’s their input, but if what Big Trav says is correct it leaves is short and unbalanced.

3 minutes ago, sage said:

Only 2 or 3 more incomings with 2 of them being loans. 

Gives some credence to the possibility of the budget being no bigger this season.

Yep Leigh Curtis etc. have gone awfully quiet on this. At the start of the summer it was all restrictions have been lifted and we'll be able to reinvest a proportion of any departures. 

I can't see where this money has gone.

42 minutes ago, Big Trav said:

Slight update, 1 more Striker in on a permanent deal, with Dajaune Brown given the first few games to see how he performs. Warne a massive fan of him and wants to use him as the 4th striker. However a loan striker is not off the cards. Creative number 10 looks like it’ll be a loan. Robinson and Thommo impressive and will be rotating in that midfield 2/3

Not sure how i feel about this. Think we need a minimum of 3 through the door, this reads as definitely 2 maybe 3. 

Plus if one of the two ends up being a carthorse liked Rhodes then IMO we're struggling. 

Doesn't seem like we're going all in to get promoted this season but merely happy to consolidate a top 6 spot and see where the chips fall.

Thanks for the update though Big Trav.

26 minutes ago, oldtimeram said:

I'm curious to know.  How do folk feel about the business we have done so far, the players we are linked with and the ones that got away?

Are we stronger than last season and based upon the players we have now do you think we are good enough to get promoted?

Think the signings in defence have been quality with Warne/recruitment deserving praise. Best defence in the league IMO.
 
Think some of the names linked with improving us offensively are shoddy. Really disappointing to see us not go in for some of the freebies such as Smith and Knibbs. 
 
Think we’re 3 quality signings away from autos. As things stand we’re 6/7/8th in the league standard.

48 minutes ago, David said:

Rhoads could be a free transfer as well to be fair.

Given his age, year left on his deal, Huddersfield might be happy just to get his wages off the books.

Can't see Warne spending money on a transfer fee for a player that looks to be somewhere down the alphabet list of plans.

Feels like he's getting some stick here, yet without knowing what his intentions were at the start of the summer were and why some of those didn't come off.

I doubt any manager has a 100% success rate on plan A.

If plan B or C is Collins, Washington and Rhodes then I’m asking serious questions. 
 
Rightly or wrongly once the restrictions were off and with Weds and Ipswich going up a lot of us thought that HMS pish the league was in full swing. We’re not pishing anything with our current forward options and that’s including Rhodes.

Doesn’t appear that there’s much in the pot. Be interested to see what Leigh Curtis has to say on the matter. 
 
Warne in one of his interviews alluded that he didn’t have a transfer budget. 
 
Can’t help but agreeing with another poster when they said they doubt Rhodes was a top target. Feels like we’ve missed the boat and the options remaining are slim.

Liking our tactic (if Rhodes signs) of signing that much dross that Collins by default will be the standout option. 
 
Always said Collins was the man for the job…

11 minutes ago, DCFC1388 said:

Warne knows far better than any of us on what it takes to get promotion from this league, he has done it 3 times all in recent years so knows his stuff, its also why we got him here in the first place.

So far the business he/we have done imo has been brilliant so lets trust him to get the attacking players/strikers he wants & judge them on what they do in a rams shirt. Lets not write them off before they even kick a ball because of their age or previous scoring records, players like McGoldrick, Kazim-Richards and to some extent Martin all signed with some fans negativity for 1 reason or another and all went on to be decent signings.

So if its Rhodes, Sharp, Godden or someone else...if Warne picks them to join us, I back his decision & they will get my 100% support.

Agree to some extent, but surely we should be looking a little long term? If Rhodes comes I’d argue that in another seasons time they’ll be knocking on the retirement home and IMO none would be good enough for the championship. 
 
Just seems so underwhelming when restrictions have been lifted, we’ve got this bloke from Oxford who has a record of unearthing gems but instead we’re signing football manager 15’s greatest championship strikers.

19 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Has the window closed then and no one has told me?

Warne says he’ll settle for 3 strikers if he can’t 4 good’uns. 
 
Doesn’t matter who else he signs, if our 3 strikers are them then our goose is cooked.

Our 3 strikers: Collins, Washington and Rhodes. Poor from Warne and the recruitment team. Where’s the money?

If Rhodes is the final striker then we’ll struggle to get top 6. Dreadful.

11 minutes ago, Srg said:

Why would he loan to League 1? Makes zero sense for his career.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility but i agree its unlikely. Warne also strikes me as the sort of man that wouldn't want to hold back one of 'his players' by dragging them back in to League 1. 

23 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

 

Yes just seen this. Personally i think Reading have done well to get both him and Knibbs in.

I will accept that we may not have been in for either as links to both were minimal, but as fans playing football manager, these 2 along with May seemed like obvious choices for targets.

I think/hope that we'd have heard a more concrete name by the end of the week of who we're after.

It’s been a quiet few days. I wonder who this player is that we’re allegedly signing this week. 
 
On the striker front none of our obvious competitors have strengthened significantly. Charlton signed May and Bolton Nlundulu but apart from that it’s been quiet for them. However, a lot of them have at least 1 decent striker whereas I’d say we have 2 average strikers. We simply need to nail the signing of the third striker. Big few weeks ahead.

I’m interested whether we’ll register him with the first team. I mean I imagine the likes of Robinson will be given a squad number, let’s see if this guy gets a number too.

Man City, Southampton, Derby and Notts County

36 minutes ago, Chellaston Ram said:

I think our next striker will Ladapo and Warne is just waiting for Ipswich to sign another striker to replace him 

Best of the ones we've been linked with IMO.

I don’t particularly like the guy and at 37 signing him would seem so short sighted. So it’s a no from me. 
 
However do I think he has the ability to score 15+ and be a useful player in league 1? Yes

Personally I think he’ll stay in the championship.

I'm not even a Collins hater and I'd say there's no chance of that happening. he may hit 15 tops (which shouldn't be sniffed at). Also think Collins goal contribution may be determined by who else Warne brings in, if we bring in a marquee signing then Collins might not get much of a sniff. If we bring in another Washington type striker then it'll be a case of who has the better season and he might end up being our number 1 striker.

But ultimately with McGoldrick leaving and with us having ambitions of top 2, everyone including NML, Barks etc will need to step up. 

5 minutes ago, Kernow said:

I’d still like one more CB. Ideally a younger player who can feature without being a regular, but with a view of being a regular starter in a season or two.

I’ve had a bit of a look at free transfers and can’t actually see anyone that would fit the bill at our level, so that might be hard to do. I don’t see the need to spend a fee on a player like that, and don’t think we’d loan a player as cover either.

We have four CBs for 3 positions, and if Kane Wilson joins, then three WBs for 2 positions. We could probably get away with that, but it just takes one injury at CB and we’re struggling then. Whether Warne rates any of the younger players enough, I don’t know, but I think we are just one defender short in the middle.

Ideally we're 1 short unless we can confidently stick Rooney in for a run of games. But Warne seems happy from previous interviews so maybe he's not a fan of having established pros sat out of the squad twiddling their thumbs.

10 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Did some training then whilst we waited 3 weeks for a mind blowing 60k after deductions.  I think Warnes a buffoon at public speaking and this jobs too big for him but that doesn't mine I don't like him or dislike him.  I don't know him .  I have also had a number of years in large financial negotiation, often trying to get blood from a stone to get things finalised.  I talk from experience.

Must admit i'm struggling to agree with you on this one. There's no way we'd have gotten more than £2.5m for Knight, if clubs rated him that highly they would've paid that already. Bristol City appear to be the only interested party that actually want to put up as opposed to shut up. I think from a squad building perspective it benefits us to get him out the door, even if it means us losing £200k-£300k on his overall fee. 

The only other genuine option the club had would've been to have kept him and banked on him helping us up. Then hope we can tie him down after making him see Derby is the only club for him. I think with the pressures from the Ireland boss, this option was unrealistic to happen. 

I think Warne was being as honest as he could regarding Knight. Could have dismissed the question? Or played it stone faced? Yes, but would that have resulted in us getting millions more? In my opinion no. 

What a difference a week makes.

Defence is sorted and for me the best in the league, Warne looks to have his additional wing back, so all we require is 3/4 players.

Personally i'd like to see 4 consisting of striker, x2 attacking wingers/forwards and a central midfielder to replace Knight. The only thing i would say is if we got 4 in then Sibley could become the spare man. However, I'm not sure i'd trust NML, Sibley, Barkhuizen and one other to be good enough to get us autos. I think 2 fresh faces would really inject some new life in to the final third.

All eyes on who we do bring in now, as i think the next 3/4 signings will determine whether we're solid for the play offs or a genuine title contender. 

Will be loaned out again at a guess.

Nixon reporting that we’re after Coventry striker Godden this morning. 
 
He’s 31 so on the oldish side but has a decent record in front of goal.

1 minute ago, Big Trav said:

Just watched Collins interview with ramstv says he’s spoken to a couple players who he expects to come in. Putting 2+2 together Sonny Bradley and Mark Harris spring to mind 

If this is the case then Collins deserve the head scout role. Already played a part in getting Nelson here.