Ambitious

44 minutes ago, Tombo said:

I do totally understand that football is more than just stats and there are lots of factors other than the keeper at play when we look at goals conceded.

However I really must insist on this, what good is a goalkeeper if he doesn't stop you conceding nearly a hundred goals?

Are we really saying that the rest of the Rotherham team was so severely out of their depth that with one of the best keepers in the league they still conceded that many goals? If they had a bang average Champ goalkeeper they would have basically picked up about 5 points all year and conceded a hundred goals?

I've honestly never seen the guy play so I'm not qualified to say if he is any good. I just need to know what is so good about him if he concedes about 2 goals a game in the Championship?

Also, if I was to use your Premier League analogy, how would newly promoted Ipswich fans feel if they signed Wes Foderingham from the Blades??

He’s saved 335 shots in two years at Rotherham, conceding 143 goals - 478 shots, 70% save percentage. 

Wildsmith has saved 192 shots in two years at Derby, conceding 77 goals - 269 shots, 71.3% save percentage. 

Not a huge difference, considering the amount of saves he’s had to make and the increased ability in strikers faced in that time.

5 minutes ago, Gerry Daly said:

Cup with just the dregs in never mind half empty. You know the square root of FA anyway, have a little faith and let's wait and see

Not being negative, but my advice would be not to put too many eggs in the free agency basket.

It really surprises me that more footballers aren’t more dedicated to seeing their contracts out and going on frees. Bird would’ve have a better choice than Bristol City had he just seen it out, for sure, probably earning a lot more than he’s signed up for too.  

26 minutes ago, Big Trav said:

Some good talent available on frees this summer

There is but will be a hugely contested market. We will do well to snap up the top talent available and I’d imagine we would be fighting another 8-12 championship teams (plus potentially League One, SPL sides and maybe even Premier League sides who want to spend or not spend money in each respective case). 

We might get a couple but would bet we lose more than we get - so much so I would consider other approaches to the market. 

6 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Not sure of the relevance of the total wage bill of the club to how well Warne has done?

 

Because it adds context, doesn't it? Typically the teams with the highest wage bills are better equipped for success.

What we know as fact is that Derby County spent £17.2m on wages as a whole in the first season out of administration, our first in League One, which was more than Sunderland during their promotion season from League One. We also know the club didn't spend a penny on transfer fees and only committed to relatively short-term deals. The EFL restrictions imposed restricted our approach in the market but ultimately didn't stop us being competitive on wages, hence why we largely went after Championship players out of contract. I suspect that this season's overall wage bill will be over £20m as a whole - more than Ipswich's when promoted. They did spend £8m on transfer fees though.

My opinion on Warne hasn't been the greatest, I've acknowledged that he's perhaps the best tactical manager that we've had in my living memory, but as a technical coach it's just not his approach. He can take technical footballers and make them smarter, more impactful players. I don't think he can improve a player's technical ability, as long as we can nail recruitment and sign technical footballers who need help bringing on tactically then Warne can absolutely succeed at the next level. He wasn't afforded the opportunity at Rotherham, look at the accounts: he had half the budget of the second closest team and a quarter of the league average. It's hard to sign technical footballers at that sort of level, but in hindsight the recruitment was pretty good and the club made a profit out of transfers. 

The Championship with Derby is a different beast, albeit we go into it with an altered mindset after the last few years, so he won't be expected to be competing at the top end right away. Nevertheless, it's a massive rebuild and the scale of the challenge isn't lost on most of us. We are going to have to do very well not to be fighting for our lives at the bottom end of the table and will go into the season as one of the favourites for the drop.

23 minutes ago, Srg said:

Imagine he will be way out of our price range with the wages he will be on. 

7 goals in 18 games for Ipswich, even if they don’t sign him then I can see a lot of money being thrown at him for a short-term deal at the top end of the division: £30-40k a week for a year or two. 

54 minutes ago, Topram said:

Probably been mentioned but Stoke have released Tyresse Campbell

I think he will have options, but would like to see us take a chance on him. He was an outstanding talent coming through the academy but hasn’t quite hit the heights but it has to be said that Stoke seems to be a terrible environment for players and even really good players end up taking significant backwards steps in their career. 

I had a little dive into the Danish Superliga to get a feel on the players who are coming through. 

Names that come up a lot: William Clem, Filip Bundgaard, Franculino Dju, Orri Oskarsson, Ibrahim Osman, Elias Jelert, Dario Osorio, Tobias Slotsager, Andreas Schjelderup, Roony Bardghji, Victor Froholdt, Theo Sander, Conrad Harder, Mario Dorgeles, Aral Simsir, Alexander Busch, Ibrahim Said, Mo Fuseini, & Matthias Kvistgaarden

Ibrahim Osman has joined Brighton for mega money, most of these guys are being talked about with regards to huge clubs, German and Italian mostly. 

It will be interesting to see who we are scoping out, I think Denmark is hotspot for scouts at the moment.

Rated as one of the best keepers in the Championship and part of that was the 177 saves he had to make (& the 158 he had to make the season before). Both times significantly ahead of the next closest.

To put it into perspective Wildsmith made 80 this past season. 

A very good keeper but find it difficult to see us spending £900k on a keeper - can only imagine fees like that will be reserved for midfielders and strikers.

3 hours ago, Chesterfield_Ram said:

Would we take Lee Buchanan back if Birmingham go down? He is above league 1 remember. 

I’d rather perform my own circumcision than see that waste of skin in a Derby shirt ever again. 

We will have to sign a lot of strikers to pass up on giving Brown chances. Nine subs in the Championship opens the door and you can do a lot worse than a young striker with a ton of pace & strength. 

21 minutes ago, valakari said:

Sean Roughan is a left back!

He’s played more games at centre back this season than left back/left wing back. Either way, the fact he can play both would make him a good deputy/replacement to Forsyth. 

Out of the top young players in League One, I'd like to see us consider: 

Marc Leonard, Thelo Aasgaard, Bosun Lawal, Freddie Potts, Harvey Vale & Idris El Mizouni for the midfield positions

Karamoko Dembele, Kwame Poku, Femi Azeez, Paris Magoma, Abu Kamara, Martial Godo in the wide positions. 

Joe Taylor & Miles Leaburn upfront. 

Other than that: Charlie Hughes (CB), Sean Roughan (CB) & Sam Tickle (GK)

Most of them have been on loan from Premier League clubs and will be highly sought after. The ones that haven't may be out of our price range, but there's some talent knocking about on review - especially if we're considering young players to add asset value to our club. 

12 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

He's 22 so will command a compensation fee - essentially he'll go to the highest bidder and out of our price range.

They also have an extra year option on his current deal so I’d suspect they would still be looking at £1.5-2m. Not exactly our ball park.

I've just been told by a Huddersfield fan that there was talk of Sorba Thomas joining us and agreeing to terms last week. Not one I believe and haven't seen a single person mention it elsewhere, but thought I'd note it here in case it happens and I get ITK credibility. 

4 minutes ago, maxjam said:

I just put the following in the new investment thread, its probably worth posting again here as its relevant to the above;

This Rams Daily podcast was really interesting, especially the 2nd half in which they discussed finances;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hv0gmg

To summarise this season Derby had a wage bill of around £17m.  The Championship average wage will is around £30m - so £13m more than we're currently paying.  Next season our income will increase by approx £7-8m compared to what we have been getting in Lg1.  So already thats a shortfall of £5m not including include any transfer fees etc.

Given that a wage budget is typically a good indicator of league position and Derby under DC will be run sustainably, any outside investment is going to be crucial if we hope to cement our position in the Championship nevermind push on towards the play-off positions.

We've got a lot of work to do this summer, with little room for error.

*Furthermore and IIRC, they also said the average Championship club is losing £400k per week.  Whilst we were a big fish in a small pond this season, financially unless we find some money down the back of the sofa we're gonna be up against it next season.

The average wage bill in the Championship being £30m seems high to me, certainly post-COVID. The parachute payment sides doing their best to prop that up, maybe, but last accounts for some of the non-parachute sides: 

Stoke - £31.1m turnover - £28.2m wage bill (268 staff)
Middlesbrough - £28.5m turnover - £29.6m wage bill (228 staff) 
Cardiff City - £26.2m turnover - £22m wage bill (206 staff)
QPR - £23.2m turnover - £25.4m wage bill (189 staff)
Coventry - £20.3 turnover - £18.4m wage bill (196 staff)
Birmingham - £19.7m turnover - £28.9m wage bill (237 staff)
Swansea - £19.6m turnover - £26m wage bill (510 staff)
Millwall - £19.3m turnover - £22.5m wage bill (156 staff)
Bristol City - £18.5m turnover - £26.3m wage bill (205 staff) 
Huddersfield - £18.1m turnover - £21m wage bill (234 staff)
Hull City - £18m turnover - £23.6m wage bill (225 staff)
Rotherham - £15.6m turnover - £9m wage bill (166 staff)
Preston - £15.5m turnover - £21.5m wage bill (134 staff)

We turned over more than 8 of those teams I searched for whilst in League One - turnover £20.4m & wage bill £17.2m (177 staff). The Championship TV money is going to push us on an equal footing as MIddlesbrough - give or take a little. Stoke over-inflate their accounts with an annual £10m+ sponsorship deal with B365 which is why they have the highest revenue of all the non-parachute sides. 

42 minutes ago, Topram said:

Would be looking at Sorba Thomas from Hudds

4 goals 9 assist only 25 still, can play 

Good player, but I assume he's almost the exact opposite of what Warne looks for in a player. He's got absolutely no love among Huddersfield fans due to his appalling work rate, attitude issues, etc. 

Rudoni is the player I'd love to see us get from Huddersfield - an extremely talented player at a very good age. I would assume that he would almost certainly be out of our price range, though, but can see him moving on for £2-3m following their relegation. 

7 hours ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

The financial figures released for 22/23 showed we had a high wage budget compared to the rest of the league, maybe not the highest but very much up there. £7.3m on first team wages according to this, not sure how that compares to other sides but it's probably pretty high for league one and we’ve recruited further for 23/24;

I’ve preached patience with Warne for 2 years, and yes the club has been working with restrictions for sure, but let’s not pretend we’ve not had some money to spend. How that money has been spent should be the focus of the debate for me, with consideration of those restrictions as part of the debate.
Our agents fees were the highest in the league as a result of both the restrictions we faced (big focus on free agents) and the resources available, we could afford to spend the most;

Just presenting the info I can find, I don’t see why people use it as a stick to beat Warne with as there are plenty of examples throughout football where having the biggest budget doesn’t always equal success (Chelsea lately anyone?), it still needs a capable manager to shape a squad and get it performing which Warne has done, perhaps more pragmatically than some would like. 

I don't think anyone can dispute that we had the highest wage budget in the league. I know the club were coy in putting 'first-team wages' in the public domain but ultimately we spent more on wages last season (22/23) than Sunderland did in their promotion campaign (21/22) and they also had a category one academy. 

Sunderland spent £16.1m total across 572 employees - 252 full-time staff & 320 matchday staff during the 21/22 season. 

We spent £17.2m total across 177 employees - 59 playing staff & 118 non-playing. 

When the accounts are released for this season, considering promotion bonuses will be included & the increase in the first-team squad, I wouldn't be surprised to see it surpass £20m - which would be higher than probably roughly 10(?) Championship clubs. 

No need to offer Warne a new contract until we consolidate in the Championship. We've got a significant rebuild ahead of us this summer and he's tasked with it. If he makes a success of it and we consolidate in the Championship then I agree he deserves a new contract, but until that point the contract he was awarded when he signed would've been given on the pretence this was a given. 

I'm not going to hammer his record at the Championship - we had a (much) higher wage bill under Rooney during our relegation season than he was ever-afforded at Rotherham and we know how difficult that season was. Fortunately we had a ripened category one academy to call upon. He never had that at Rotherham. The last full season he had at Championship level, Rotherham's overall wage bill was £7m - potentially £5.5-6m on the first-team? Average wage of roughly £5-6k a week. He still managed to get players like Viktor Johansson, Michael Ihiekwe, Michael Smith, Daniel Barlaser, Ben Wiles, Freddie Ladapo and others. 

The difficulty for Rotherham to be competitive at Championship level is bordering on impossible. They're cut away from everyone else in the league and when they do find a good player, develop them, they're often pinched by another club and they have to start again. 

6 minutes ago, DCFC1388 said:

Im sure Sheff Weds fans were saying the same about NML.

I wonder if his lack of effort off the ball was more down to fitness & recovering from injury. Also I think at one point Warne told NML to not to worry about tracking back so he had more impact in attacking areas (may have been last season) so maybe Warne did the same with CBT knowing he doesnt yet have the fitness for both.

I agree with others, a full preseason with Warne will do him the world of good, it certainly helped NML go up a level from last season.

I agree, with CBT you can see the potential upside. He might never get there, but he's a technically gifted footballer with a good level of pace. He came into a side with much higher fitness standards, better quality of players and ultimately struggled to have the same impact.

It's absolutely not to say with a full pre-season that he can't offer a different proposition next season. 

What I will say for Warne is that he is able to get the best out of passive, technical footballers, because he beats the fundamentals into them. In his time here, he's got the best out of certain players and it's usually the best technical footballers in the squad who need tactical help. Bird is a great example. I think back to his days at Rotherham too - the likes of Barlaser came on significantly under him. 

He isn't going to bring players on technically, that's just not his game, but what he can and will do is add substance to technically gifted footballers. He was incredibly limited in doing that at Rotherham as it was incredibly difficult to sign technically gifted players on £5-6k a week. He has an opportunity to do that at Derby. 

I hold out hope for CBT in light of NML. 

5 minutes ago, Ram a lamb a ding dong said:

I like Barks as a player and a person. Very honest lad. Earnt himself an extension imo.

Going up we need to retain leaders so Collo and Sonny are a priority. Its not all about the 11 that go out on the pitch.

I'm of a different mindset where you typically want younger, typically more cheaper players on the fringes of the team pushing the first team. 

Collins, Smith & Barkhuizen to me were three players that have played their part and ultimately I'd like to see us replace with younger players. All three will be on 'Championship wages' so to speak - if we keep all three of them on then that's fine. They can contribute. I just doubt their impactful at the next level. 

All three could be better suited to the bigger League One clubs being paid well to play every week. 

Cashin is a special player, but quick strikers are always going to give him pause for thought. I'm not at all worried about his ability to step up to the Championship and I'm positive he will be one of the best centre backs in the league, but at the next level it could be difficult for him.

Joe Taylor, who did give him fits and is the only player in the league to do so this season, is going to be a player who I suspect will have a very fruitful season at Championship level next season if Luton are relegated or on loan somewhere. In terms of strikers I've seen at League One, the likes of Alfie May is an accomplished poacher but lacks quickness to really impact at the next level. Joe Taylor on the limited bits I've seen seems to have that quickness. 

1 hour ago, Eoghan1884 said:

Barkhuizens wife seemed to hint at him already signing on for us on tiktok 

It would be interesting to know the terms of that one. He's had a good season for us, but always felt a bit-part player who has struggled to hold his place down. I'd assume it's an automatic extension due to promotion - an additional year (maybe) at increased terms?

I can't see him featuring much next season and if he does then the summer hasn't gone to plan. 

Good player, predominantly a Championship performer - only played two games in the Premier League in his entire career. He's spent a lot of it at non-league level too. I've always considered him a hard-working winger, someone who is always willing to commit players and put full-backs on their back foot. 

There will be a number of teams in for him. I think he's well liked at Swansea too, so would imagine they're one of them. 

5 minutes ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

I know we were very keen on Edmundson last summer and again when Cashin was due to go their on loan after his Brighton move went through.  I expect Ipswich to step back in for Cashin if they go up.  I believe we're still keen on Edmundson so a makeweight or other fee signing wouldn't surprise.

Cashin was due to go to Ipswich on loan? I completely missed that one - is that right?