Ambitious

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Elder is a lucky charm, if nothing else. Promoted in 17/18 with Wigan 98pts, 29 goals conceded. Promoted in 20/21 with Hull 89pts, 38 goals conceded. Promoted in 23/24 with Derby 92pts, 37 goals conceded. He might be a player who has a small market, but ultimately he's our only left back at present.

The impact of him in our team has been so significant that it makes a lovely change that it's £500k potentially and not £5m. We're obviously going to have to negotiate but I don't see anyway this doesn't get done.

Players who are still contracted to the club beyond this summer: Goalkeepers - Josh Vickers Right Back - Ryan Nyambe, Kane Wilson Centre Back - Eiran Cashin, Curtis Nelson, Sonny Bradley, Jake Rooney. Left Back - Callum Elder Right Wing Back - Kane Wilson, Joe Ward Left Wing Back - n/a Central Midfield - Tyrese Fornah Wingers - Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Corey Blackett-Taylor, Joe Ward Strikers - Connor Washington Players most likely to be offered new deals: Joe Wildsmith, Louie Sibley, Liam Thompson & Darren Robinson. Players who will probably be offered new deals: Craig Forsyth, James Collins, Korey Smith & Tom Barkhuizen. Players who will be unlikely offered new deals: Scott Loach, Martyn Waghorn, Dwight Gayle. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we keep John-Jules for developmental reasons, obviously there are issues regarding his fitness & health but there is definitely an appreciation for his talent and with him being out of contract at Arsenal. I could see him signing a two year deal, low risk in terms of financial investment. We're undoubtedly going to try and sign Ebou Adams (which has all but been confirmed). The scale of the rebuild is there for everyone to see: 2x goalkeepers, 1x centre back, 1/2x left back/wing backs, 4/5x central midfielders, 1/2x wingers & 3/4x strikers. 16-odd players depending on who signs new terms from the out of contract players. I suspect the bulk of our work will be done in free agency once again as EFL have curtailed spending there is a plethora of out-of-contract players hitting the market – an intensely competitive market. We could well see the likes of Wildsmith and Sibley offered terms that we find out of our budgets. Wildsmith will be a Championship number one somewhere next season, on his body of work at Derby and that could mean wages upwards of £15-20k a week depending on the club. Sibley has pedigree and will have a ton of suitors willing to pay him good wages, again it could be beyond what we can/are willing to pay. I’ve just looked through the free agency market and you can see how crowded that market is going to be, especially considering the type of player we need to add to the squad. I’d like to see us bring in Norrington-Davies, Nathan Ferguson, Shandon Baptiste, Alan Browne, Lasse Sorensen, Femi Azeez and Aaron Connolly. There isn’t a shortage of good players, unfortunately there is no shortage of Championship clubs in the same boat. I don’t envy the job the recruitment team have ahead of them – the level of creativity they’re going to need to show in order to bring a squad together capable of being competitive isn’t easy. Not to mention that we’ve got to start recruiting for resale value so it can’t be just about patching a squad together, like we did in League One. My concern with how we approached recruitment in League One was that it was very short-term based, but on the other hand I could appreciate that it's much easier to bring in talented players as a Championship club. It's actually played out as such, so now we have a fairly blank canvas to build upon as a Championship team, but the volume of work that's required is significant. No wonder they're starting back tomorrow.

League One is a melting pot of smaller clubs who are relatively well run and then bigger clubs who are down there for a reason. It's an enjoyable league for the match-going fan and with 49 wins in two seasons there has been plenty of happy Saturdays, albeit those wins (a lot of the time) feel more like 'job done' than enjoyable and anything other than a win feels like we're playing well below ourselves. In two seasons we've probably been the underdog by the bookies in less than 10 of our 92 games which underpins the level of expectation. Expectation ultimately drains the joy out of football. in hindsight, it's been an enjoyable experience (of sorts) but I'm in no rush to experience it again.

It's important to avoid a relegation battle, ensure there are teams below us and keep our heads above water. A Bristol City, Preston North End-type season. I think we'll ultimately know our aspirations and what kind of season we're in for based on two signings: Korey Smith & James Collins. Both have more than played their part in our return to the Championship but anyone with eyes can see that they don't stand much of any chance to be impactful players at the next level. It's a big jump and if we are going to give them contracts to stay on for next season then we will need to buckle in. We need to improve substantially to keep our head above water as you see the types of teams down there - who all have better players than Smith & Collins. These are essentially players who have been released by these types of teams. There will be potentially 12-14 players through the door this summer - without huge investment we're going to need to showcase a level of creativity in the transfermarket we haven't seen since the days of George Burley.

In terms of impactful signings, Ebou has etched his name into Rams folklore because without him I don’t doubt for a single minute that we wouldn’t have been promoted automatically. He’s been absolutely phenomenal for us. At first there was Osman, then there was Thorne, followed by the trio of Mount, Wilson and Tomori.. now there is Ebou Adams.

Wildsmith has been excellent, on the whole, since he signed with us. He signed a deal with a League One club to compete for the goalkeeping position. He wasn’t even a lock for the job when he signed initially, so I’d imagine the discussion will be that he wants to get paid as a Championship number one. The lad’s stock has never been higher and he’s coming into his prime years. I’d suspect the contract he would want is going to be vastly different to the one he originally signed. In terms of replacements, I did notice that one of Warne’s former favourites, Marek Rodak, is out of contract at Fulham.

Missed that bit, but equally the gap between League One and the Championship is ever-growing and more significant year on year so wouldn’t be ideal either. The playoffs typically keep the season alive too, it’s actually a very good system albeit can leave the team finishing third feeling robbed.