Ambitious

Looking back through the seasons, it looks to be March is a bigger problem than February. By my count, we've won 35.7% of our games in February in the past 10 years. We've only won 23.4% of our games in March. Since COVID hit, we've gone on to lose 10 games in March, winning just two (four draws).Good news for Port Vale, Bristol Rovers, Reading, Bolton, Northampton & Blackpool. So you can enjoy valentines day whilst we slowly march towards the true unravelling of our season.

Forest can't be surprised, nor should they be worried about a point deduction - the Premier League is incredibly weak this season because none of them did what they did and spend the best part of a quarter billion after getting promoted. They will survive with a 10 point deduction. I find the whole thing ludicrous to be honest, as I did when we were in the hot seat. How does a team in the bottom 8 sides in terms of wages in the league break financial fair play rules - seriously? If Luton wanted to be anything other than the lowest spending side in the Premier League, they would break financial fair play regulations (for example) - it's the biggest con in the sport and what makes it even more ridiculous is that they're targeting sides spending less than a third of some of the other teams in the same league. Unless the end game is selling broadcast rights to the court proceeding as teams try and kill each other legally then it's a sure fire way to kill the actual product. Too much is made of the team spending the money, how it should be regulated and punished - when equal focus should be given to the team receiving the money. Wages should absolutely be capped in order to encourage a competitive on-field product, however transfer fees should be uncapped and subject to owner investment. If an owner of Newcastle, for example, wants to spend £500m on a player from Peterborough, for example, they absolutely should be encouraged to do so because Peterborough are benefiting from that transaction a hell of a lot more than Newcastle. No loans that straddle the club with debts - if you own a club and want to invest in a player then open up your own bank account and make it happen. Restrictions on spending have done nothing to slow wages at the top end, but have had a considerable knock on effect when it comes to transfers lower down the pyramid. Teams used to factor in transfer income into their revenues - now it's certainly not the case. Spending between clubs within the country needs to be encouraged - it helps strengthen the pyramid. If City buy someone they like from Crystal Palace, Palace then will have money to buy someone they like from Luton, Luton have money to buy someone they like from Bristol City, Bristol City have money to buy someone they like from Stevenage, Stevenage have money to buy someone they like from Hartlepool, Hartlepool have money to buy someone they like Ilkeston & Ilkeston have money to buy someone they like from Forest.. Stopping the top clubs spending or putting restrictions on transfer fees has a much more negative trickle down effect - the players are still getting their payment but the money isn't being recycled around the league as freely as it should. You tie that in with the fact the largest clubs can hoover up any young talent that looks to have something about them for minimal fees before they come of age and you get a very top-heavy, brittle pyramid that is more about preserving status quo than it is improving the state of football in this country.

I think the fee is likely be shy of £600k but would make sense for Charlton to pack out the deal with future incentives, like a bank offering high interest rates. Derby will probably throw £300-400k into the deal following promotion and not think twice, rather than pay that upfront now. If I was Charlton I’d be quite content with £300k upfront with a following £300-400k add ons for a player with one foot out the door.

Moxon was a player who intrigued me the most after last season - first real season in professional football and he was by far and away the best player in League Two. I think he's obviously not had the same impact this season, but playing in a pretty poor, seriously underfunded side, in League One makes it difficult to shine. I'd like to see us roll the dice on him, who knows what he could be if afforded the chance of good-level coaching, top facilities, etc. We know full well that he would come in and dig and fight every chance he got for an opportunity to play. If he could take that next step, as he did when he moved into professional football, then he could be a player for us. I've always like a central midfielder who gets himself involved in every single aspect, from tackles, interceptions to shots. He does it as well as anyone else in the league without the quality in supporting cast.

This is an ideal move for both parties. Langstaff signs for a team that creates a lot of chances for strikers, a bigger club and a much improved wage packet at the end of the month. He doesn’t have to move from where he lives, etc. The problem is going to be the fee we can realistically put up. Wages won’t be a problem, we could triple/quadruple his wages without a second thought but Notts County will want to get paid and that’s where we will fall short. Nice idea, but not happening.

Wildsmith was poor in the Oxford & Peterborough games. I think when you have an experienced keeper on the bench, you have to give him an opportunity to win his place. He's had a few games now - done ok, but probably should've done better in some situations. I wouldn't be surprised to see Wildsmith come back in at some point, personally. I'd probably go with him against Lincoln. Keep the standard as high as possible - conceding two against Burton probably falls below that standard.

He scored the first and set up the second, which was probably enough for him to get MOTM.

Really good old fashioned centre forward play to put NML in for the first goal. He's got a bit of quality, needs coaching up a bit and game time but glad we've got him until the end of the season. We could definitely make better use of his technical ability in and around the opposition area.

We really lack control in games, even the ones we play well in. We are susceptible to being punched in the mouth, so to speak. Burton did exactly that despite a fairly relentless and dominating performance up to that point. It would be nice to see us slow the game down at times, recycle possession and make the other team chase shadows. We have more than enough quality in the team to make that happen, but it’s just not in our make-up under Warne and it will be our undoing at times - like Peterborough. Still, another win, so 10 in our last 12 in the league? Not all have been hugely convincing but I guess you have to credit Warne for that production - a more cautious approach probably leads to some of those being draws, etc. 20 games to go, we need to keep this form going as long as possible. A few extra bodies would help!

£12m was what first came to mind, considering Wednesday, Ipswich, Sunderland, etc all operated down here with a £16m (rough) wage bill. We probably don't have some of the high earners they did, but our squad is fairly deep this year - deeper than any other side in the league anyway.

Quite clearly b*******, but shouldn't be used as a stick to beat Washington with who has done ok for us on the whole.

Difficult to say until we get the accounts back, but seems low to me - I’d be surprised if our wage bill is less than £10m for this season. I’d say it’s likely to be well in excess of that.

Their manager confirming our bid, him being left out of the side and reports that no issues with personal terms tell me that this is very nearly done - especially if what BT said was correct that he’s already been shown around. I’m counting this one as a done deal already.

I quite fancy Maya Jama, but each their own.

Pete O'Rourke has made a good career out of being an inside man. I used to work on a site that he insisted on using a pseudonym, though, so maybe his real name isn't even Pete O'Rourke. He definitely has contacts and gets some good stuff. Footballer Insider were the first to break the Rosenior out, Warne in news - for example, at least to my memory, I would guess a lot of his contacts are agents, etc, so definitely would utilise his base to promote their players name whether the information is real or not.

Smith is a better player than Collins, in my opinion. I would like to see something different, but certainly wouldn’t be against Smith. You would hope our recruitment team are doing something in the background though, surely we can be a little more creative in the market. If not, I would have to look at making changes in that department. You live and die by your recruitment, so it needs to be as efficient as possible.

Never seen him play, but seems to have a decent reputation. Smart signing for Charlton.

It sounds like BT could be correct on BT - resident ITK (potentially) strikes again!

Yeah, it's not too concerning at the moment. We would at least double our wage budget if we went up so have access to a better class of player, theoretically. I am concerned with the recruitment strategy from the club - seems to be a point of frustration and it's ok when you have the biggest budget in the league, but that certainly wouldn't be the case after promotion - in fact we would probably find ourselves in the bottom 8 clubs in the league. I do think we would struggle in the Championship in our current state, but that's not to do with our current team, who for the most part are essentially with us for failing to hold down a regular role in the Championship in the first place. It's absolutely imperative that it needs to be improved - in absolutely every single position.

One of the worst performances in living memory - team came out like they'd been on a four day bender. As professionals, they should be embarrassed by that showing. Still, at least it didn't happen in the league and has no impact on us getting out of the division. Not exactly great for confidence of the team. Plenty need to look at themselves in the mirror.

Warneball is built on a philosophy of catching the opposition unsettled, out-of-position. Creating overloads in wide positions and a high press. The mechanics to it have proven to be, somewhat, disjointed and inconsistent but I think the messaging he puts across is very consistent. The problem that we have had is that in a rush to catch the opposition out of position and forcing overloads that it's sometimes led to us shooting ourselves in the foot. I said previously that I can't remember a manager so reckless in how he sets the team up, typically you want your team to be in shape and settled and continue to work the ball slowly, waiting for the opposition to have a lapse in concentration. What we do, you can't plan - it's a philosophy predicated on chaos and I can see why it's effective and I can see the downfall. You have Stevenage & others, who play 'long-ball' which is typically get the ball into the opposition half and play from there. A big man upfront, into midfield and solid base to counter any opposition attacks. You have teams who play the ball around, like Bolton, who control the game, starve the opposition of the ball and work themselves up the pitch. We play like an Aldi version of Liverpool, without the explosiveness or ability, albeit it's enough at this level to pick up wins. We're now up-to-speed and teams, especially the less equipped teams, just don't have the capacity to deal with the intensity when on form.

Probably, but he’s the only midfielder that is capable of providing a source of production. Bird, really, should be the one to stop teams running over us in the middle of the park - it’s not like he’s in the team for goals and assists.

I saw the first goal and it was very much an Osula goal, he hit it straight at the keeper who essentially turned transparent for a moment. He’s a good wildcard, but he needs game time and he isn’t going to get that here. He will score goals at this level, but I feel you lose a lot with him in the team.

I’d imagine Savage, Arblaster and others are a contingency if Bird is moved on.

He’s not been given a proper run of games, but what I really like the bits I’ve seen. I think he has a lot of potential, it wasn’t long ago most people had him down with Nyambe and Nelson as our best signing of the summer. Bird, I feel, gives us too many 6/10 games. He isn’t impactful enough. No doubt he’s a technically good footballer and he obviously is a great character around the club. He’s a good player for us, no doubt, but it wouldn’t be difficult for us to sell him and improve the side IMO. Similarly to losing Knight, ironically, the guy we picked up as part of the deal has come in and been much improved on the Knight we saw and had last season.