Ambitious

The inability of this club to deliver on its actions is concerning. We went into the window wanting a striker, publicly stating for a long time how we need extra men upfront, spent probably 6-8 months identifying strikers, yet despite raising funds through a player sale on the final day - still can’t get the job done? It’s this exact approach why unless there are changes this club will struggle to be successful. We are without direction and conviction. This is not me moaning we haven’t signed a striker BTW, I’m not sure I trust the club to sign one with quality anyway, but this is a unequivocal example of how the club can’t even follow up their own actions.

I would say that beyond a doubt that Nahki Wells would score a boatload in this Derby team in League One. You only have to see what the likes of Jordan Rhodes, Chris Martin and other aging Championship players are doing to know that Wells would make easy work of this division.

We actively seek value in players with injuries at the moment, so it’s not surprise really.

This was always going to happen, hence why I’m in disbelief we’re keeping him on loan.

I get that, but just makes no sense on all parties. He’s been getting hammered by fans for about two months now on-and-off, this is just going to exacerbate things. It’s as obvious as the sun rising in the morning. Bristol City fans are already tired of Liam Manning so by the time he gets there he may not even be manager. He could do with him in the team now. If we were a properly run club with a half-competent recruitment strategy we would’ve already highlighted his replacements and know where to turn once the money hits the account. We can then move on. Bird sticking around for the remainder of the season, I don’t know, I’m just not a fan of it. We’ve bemoaned the lack of balance midfield for the entire season, we get the opportunity to do something about it and we bring back one of the sources of the problem? Daft.

In fairness to Warne, when has Bird been anything other than ordinary? He’s probably had his best spells under a short-lived Cocu reign next to Rooney (before he packed it on) for three months and then a couple of 10 game spells under Warne - both this and last season.

Returns on loan, but didn’t want to sign a new deal. I hope the lad plays a blinder for the rest of the season otherwise he’ll be getting dogs abuse from fans. We should’ve just taken whatever more we could’ve got and let him go.

Only 6 teams have scored fewer goals and him playing in the 10 scoring only twice, creating only three goals, probably is the main cause of that. Still, he does work hard and fans love a trier, but when you want a player to step up and win a game - he isn’t that guy.

Maybe Bristol City have a fetish over Derby County midfield academy products that struggle with adding any kind of their tangible production to their game? I thought they would’ve learned their lesson with Jason Knight after playing him in the number 10 for the majority of the season with a grand total of 2 goals. Maybe not.

Wonder who our next target is - I wait with baited breath to see the player who was deemed as the backup alternative to a 35 year old Lee Gregory.

I love this signing for nothing more than this being a competency test for both our recruitment and coaching staff. A player, who lets be fair, hasn’t proven anything beyond fourth tier in English football has been bought in and plays a position where we have five or six options already on the books, potentially 7 or 8 depending on how far down the list you want to go: Hourihane, Bird, Sibley, Thompson, Fornah, Smith, Radcliffe and Robinson. A position of the pitch where despite the quantity of players and individual ability there still causes us a problem with regards to balance. The recruitment staff have essentially nailed their colours to the mast and essentially said we can highlight a player, out of favour, who isn’t proven at our level because we can see ability. This is a good case study for their ability to judge a player and not just going off a CV and availability - like with Bradley, Elder, Ward and so many others we’ve signed. If he turns out to be pony, then we know that the guys tasked with highlighting players couldn’t tell their arse from their elbow and get them promptly binned off. Warne, despite the options available to him, has brought this player to the club to address the balance and make us a better team. Does his analysis, coaching and strategy all click on the basis of this signing? Is he going to be the dynamic piece we all hope for, or have we just signed another Springett? Can he make use of this signing, does he win his place, does he facilitate what Warne wants to do? I have no idea, which is the exciting part, because I’m really keen to see how this one plays out.

Our approach since the takeover has been incredibly short-term from a first team point of view. Clowes hired Warne on his ability to get teams out of league one, nothing more, and got rid of a very promising coach to facilitate that move. I understand that some of the transfers have needed to be short-term, but if we aren’t promoted this season then I would endeavour him reconsider his own approach. I’m in no doubt we would be in a much better shape, in almost every single aspect, had we gone with Rosenior - who was already well respected within the building, recruited really well despite strict budgets and had shown a lot of promise. The move isn’t unsurprising for a new owner of a club, who went for the CV of a manager who had ‘been there and done it’ over a guy who had a lot of promise. For the record, I don’t blame him and I (with a lot of people) could see the logic but in hindsight I don’t think it was right. We don’t get to see what happens behind the scenes but I think this Mark Thomas has also been a big waste of money, or at least isn’t having an impact, because the recruitment has been poor. We’ve probably made Sonny Bradley the highest paid player in the division and dropped him after a couple of games - a long list of them with injury records have unsurprisingly spent the season injured. It’s a massive mess, whether that’s down to Thomas or Warne, I’m not sure, but certainly no creative approach has been taken. We almost exclusively signed players with Championship experience in the summer, deciding on paying out bigger wages for players on the downswing of their careers, over properly researching and scouting players on the upswing of their career. You also have a coaching staff who aren’t really recognised with coaching players, so maybe the short-term, experienced professional approach we take is because we can’t trust these guys to coach up players in the first place? I don’t know. Either way you look at it, I don’t think it’s a setup for a successful football club.

This would be an outrageous signing - why bring in a player just to divide and piss the fan base off more?

Charlton have been in horrible form of late, but if they do hire a new manager before the weekend and get a new manager bounce then they have enough quality to cause us problems. No win in 13 games in all competitions, now with Ladapo and May upfront and possibly a former Premier League manager coming in (albeit a bad one) I suspect this is where they end their winless run. 3-1 Charlton.

I can only assume, along with Warne's comments, that we were interested but couldn't bid what Portsmouth could.

I'm not too stressed about us bringing anyone in, honestly. It seems like we're struggling to highlight players who can make then team better and that's a concern. I'd love to see what Mark Thomas has been doing for the past 12 months - there is clearly a disconnect between him and Warne that needs addressing. If we're waiting around to see what Michael Smith is going to do, like he's the only striker in the world who can improve us, then the whole recruitment strategy needs binning.

From purely an enjoyment point of view: Steve McClaren George Burley Frank Lampard Billy Davies Liam Rosenior Philip Cocu Wayne Rooney Nigel Clough Gary Rowett Paul Warne Terry Westley Darren Wassall Paul Clement Nigel Pearson John Gregory Paul Jewell Phil Brown

It's never a good sign when you get a universal disillusionment following a win, but I did think the performance was on recent trend and that's a concern. Standards need to be much higher - it's been over a month since our last good performance and two months since we strung two good performances together.

You say that, but Bird’s tackle success rate isn’t a problem at all. Aerial ability isn’t important for a centre midfielder, although that is also around 50% success and aggressive enough is just an emotive term. He fouls more than any of our other midfielders if that counts, but I don’t buy that aggression somehow makes a player better. It’s a characteristic that certain players like to exude but I’ve never thought it makes a player better. The success rate of involvements Bird gets himself into isn’t at all bad, honestly, especially when it comes to duels. However, the rate of involvements he gets himself into is the problem. He’s been pinned as a player who can read the game well, intelligent and cultured central midfield player. I just wonder if the wool has been pulled over our eyes a little and the fact that he a) can’t anticipate danger very well and perhaps more importantly b) can’t spot opportunities very well is why his output over the course of the season is always underwhelming. I don’t believe it’s an ability issue, not that I think he’s a supreme talent, but he’s definitely a level higher than this but his inability to really do the above is the reason why we’re still questioning him as a player.

I think people focus far too much on emotive and physical attributes as to why we don’t control the midfield. I don’t think it’s anything to do with the physical aspect of the players, more so their ability to stay within the game from a mental aspect. Jeff Hendrick was/is a great example of a player who had physically and technical ability to dominate a game in midfield but lacked the ability to read the game so much that for 80% of every single game he played that you knew it was going to pass him by, unfortunately I think Bird whilst weaker and perhaps better technically, is similar that games bypass him purely because he doesn’t have the ability to read the game very well and be where he needs to be. Add that to a manager who plays a style, where he puts no emphasis on control and only catching the opposition out of position with a fast, direct approach. Bird and Hourihane play the game picking up pockets of space between the lines but are as useful as a chocolate teapot when we lose the ball and the other team has the opportunity to counter. Hourihane has technical quality and an edge that means he’s more useful to us than Bird, who I think really needs to be sacrificed for the greater good. By that I mean sold and replaced with a more suitable player this team. We really could do with a player who just knows how to stay in games, especially in centre mid, one that can be a presence. Thompson is a good example, but we need that but with much greater ability IMO.

Don’t think anyone wants him sacked, but many (like me) remain unconvinced. He’s got the opportunity to make us all look like idiots by getting us promoted and progressively improving Derby into an established Premier League side in time. That’s ultimately the job. I’d be delighted to be wrong.

Dreadful performance. I don’t even know where to start, so won’t bother, but I will say I feel for the fans that went tonight. The last few weeks have been rotten to watch, performances have been really bad. Too much emphasis on results, rather than performances have seemingly led us down the wrong path. Standards need to be so much better than they currently are. I’m still very much concerned that the people currently employed by the club don’t have the necessary skillset to achieve long-term. The recruitment and coaching is miles off where it needs to be, for me. I have no doubt that even if we did get promoted this season, we would be in for a long season next year which is a niggling thought that I can’t shake. Obviously nothing I can do to change the decisions the club make so I’ll continue to support (and moan) as it plays out. I hope I’m wrong, honestly, because I want success for Clowes and I’d like Derby to be seen as a relevant football team on the national stage again.

Good opportunity for him, based on what we’ve seen he has a chance of doing really well at that level. Acts as a little crash course in men’s football to see how he handles it.

It will be to do with wages and our business plan, 100% - he will be playing on his Charlton wage for the remainder of the year before setting up on new terms for the following season. I’d take it as he’s getting a fairly generous pay increase.

Important to try and not read too much into the money lost within the first 9 months, which could be attributed to a large number of factors post-administration. The turnover of the club, despite being in League One (and considering 9 month term) is very healthy. It’s actually more than Sheff Wed achieved over 12 months of trading at this level. Significantly more than Ipswich, Bolton, etc.