alram

Just now, Pottig said:

How do you know the squad hasn't been strengthened after 1 league game? What evidence do you have to support that claim?

If you guys want to bury your head in the sand that’s fine but nobody can tell me we are stronger this season, the evidence is based on quality of player and quality of performance 

3 minutes ago, jimtastic56 said:

Would you believe it , Knight scored two very well taken goals tonight v Oxford. 

and roberts got two assists

Just now, Andicis said:

How can it be clear that we are worse than last season after 1 league game? 

Because we look worse and the squad hasn’t been strengthened if you think otherwise then fair enough but I absolutely do not agree we are stronger than last season

I don’t think it’s all about warne, I think everybody thinks it would be daft to sack warne at this point

but I think there is a lot of anxiety at the direction we are going in. We are weaker than last season that much is clear, and warne is playing some bizarre football at the minute with nothing for the fans to see what he’s building

that is the key when it comes to managers they may not deliver instantly but they need to be seen to be building something and have a plan for what’s around the corner

i think we have a real lack of direction as a club at the minute

4 hours ago, sage said:

He did accept some responsibility but he threw Bird under the bus. 

Everyone knew who he meant. Radio Derby picked up on it straight away.

It obvious.

 

I agree

warne threw him under the bus to divert attention

my worry is the dressing rooms don’t often take kindly to that kind of thing, if it’s bird this week it could be somebody else the next week

this is a very big game in our modern history

whilst Warne may not lose his job with a defeat the atmosphere around the club will really begin to change for the worst 

we as a club need a big lift after the overwhelming summer we have had and the poor end to last season

6 minutes ago, Grumpy Git said:

The 'novelty' (shall we say), of playing in L1 is starting to wear-off! 😭

yes I said near the end of last season it will grow tiresome being in this league we need to get out of it this season , it’s a big month ahead . We simply cannot linger at this level

people can paint it as fun but in my opinion it’s embarrassing being at this level and watch your star players leave to nothing clubs like Bristol and hull

5 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Not buying it brys.

3-5 years in the prem is the outside best case for forest. The club's natural size won't be sufficient and I have doubts about the long term abilities of their owner.

Scrapped it last season doesn't mean set for success. Although you are right there's some weakening of others that may help them.

there are much smaller clubs than Forest and even us that have had longer sustained spells in the Premier league

the worry is the Prem is so weak next season they can likely stay up even if they are crap and they are half way to become established at that point

13 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Oh give over.

We'll both be in the championship together within 3 years.

 

but it’s still wishful thinking even if that’s the case they can still financially dominate the championship because parachute payments

to think about being level with them we really needed to be in the same league as them this season

they have just brought a backup keeper that will cost more than anything we are likely to spend in the next 5 years combined we are worlds apart from competing at the minute 

It does slightly worry you and I doesn’t it 

or frustrate …

one thing is for sure warne is going to need a result at burton, the pressure will really start to be ramped up if we lose that one on staurday

i am dreading burton this saturday never thought i would say that

the most concerning thing is blackpool have changed almost their entire team and we have barely made any changes to try and get some momentum

1 hour ago, FindernRam said:

There was much talk about how hard players were being worked in pre-season, so how come we were out run by a load of players who apparently haven't been paid and seemed better motivated?

if you want your answer:

wigan starting 11 age:

21

25, 19, 20, 26

21, 22

32, 24, 25

30

average age: 24

derby starting 11 age:

27

30, 31, 21

34, 32, 32, 22, 27

31, 32

average age: 29

we have 3 players under 30 and we wonder why we get outrun by a team with 2 players over 30? it feels like it happens in every game, last season we relied on superior quality

1 hour ago, Jourdan said:

Everyone knows that we’ve only played one game, but the opening day in many ways can be a tone setter.

Everyone knows that I back Warne and believe he has what it takes to succeed here, but after the way we finished last season and the way the summer transfer window has unfolded, we needed a positive, affirmative start to wash away growing concerns.

You could feel the energy in the stadium - it wasn’t one of confidence or excitement. It was rather flat - a mix of nerves, tension and in some cases trepidation.

The performance didn’t do anything to lift the mood. Making one solitary signing won’t do that either, as welcome as Waghorn obviously is.

I don’t think anyone is whining. I think people are seeing fears realised and in some cases, like mine, people are just disappointed we didn’t show more.

for me its an outpouring of lots of red flags and warning signs all summer, we have been told everythings fine everythings fine, then when we finally see it in action it's everything we worried about.

it is not negativity it is worry, i am really not keen as some of lingering at this level

2 hours ago, Macintosh said:

There's a new book coming out in October about the Rams' last few seasons Pride Before the Fall). A nice mention of Waggy:

 

Underpinning some of Cocu’s demise was the presence of Rooney. Talk of Cocu not particularly wanting Rooney at the club and the signing being thrust upon him was doing the rounds amid the squad in earnest. Rooney had been brought in as a player-coach, but did little in the way of coaching outside of sitting in on video sessions and passing on some advice to several players.

‘If he liked you, he’d offer you advice,’ Max Lowe remarked. ‘[Max] Bird, [Jason] Knight – they were his boys. I think he saw some of himself in them. He liked them. Waggy [Martyn Waghorn], too. But for some of the lads it was a bit hard to integrate with Wayne. Obviously we were at a different level from where he’d come from. I think it was hard to find a bit of common ground with him sometimes.’

Whispers had also spread through the squad that Rooney had a clause in his contract that he was going to be the next manager – something which created somewhat of an uneasy tension within the changing room.

‘Sometimes you didn’t feel like you were just playing with Wayne the player. You felt like it was an audition to see if the next manager wanted you there,’ said Lowe.

‘You’d come in on a Monday and we’d break out into our warm-ups and people would ask where Wayne was,’ Lowe said. ‘I think Waghorn would get a bit annoyed especially as he and Wayne would play on the PlayStation together and stuff – they were pretty close – then Wayne wouldn’t show the next day.

‘We never got told if it was a day off or if he was injured or excused for personal reasons. None of that. He just wasn’t there. Then obviously he’d come straight into the team at the weekend and it meant guys like Duane, or Graeme [Shinnie], or Knight, or [Krystian] Bielik had to drop out of the team.’

jesus talk about old boys club

3 hours ago, ollycutts1982 said:

Think this reaffirms where we are. Quite ironic really, Waggy was signed on a decent contract for an over inflated price, a model that got us into so much turmoil. We then resign him as we are under a budget and can’t go out and pay decent fees at the minute so we are shopping in the bargain basement. 
 

Truth be told I wasn’t fussed when he left us so not going to pretend to be excited about him coming back. I will get behind him like I do any player who pulls on the shirt. I was just hoping for better. Certainly to wear the number 10 shirt. Only a number I know but while it was available I was hoping for a better quality of signing. 

summed up very well great post

4 minutes ago, CBX1985 said:

We have been under strict rules due to what happened just one year ago. Let's say we get promoted, we would probably want a greatly changed squad.  

Short termism to get us up might be a pretty good strategy.  

yeah it might be and i hope it is.

it just wouldnt be what i would do as there is a backup plan if you sign players with an upward curve. eventually we will run out of players to sell and you just end up in an endless cycle of signing a new core of players every summer. good teams take time to build and grow together, doesnt happen if you sign everyone on 1 year deals

16 minutes ago, Caerphilly Ram said:

Not exactly the same position. We will be free of the agreed business plan. We may be in league one if he doesn’t do well, we may be in the championship if he does. There might be more viable options available to us on free transfers next season and/or we might be in a position to spend more. We will also have Dajaune Brown 1 year further into his development and potentially ready to step up to the first team with a clear path open to him and less pressure on his young shoulders having been supported through his development this season, thanks in part to the improved depth of senior pros.
None of us can predict the future so can’t say definitively what will happen. This is a signing that adds squad depth to the forward line in the immediate, which I think is one of the only things we as fans unanimously agree was needed. There is indeed an element of short-termism in this signing, but for the moment that’s the reality of where the club seems to be. 🤷🏻‍♂️ 

it's the reality because we keep buying old players and having to do business next season to replace them

if it was waghorn in isolation its a good signing, but added into the rest of the age profile of our squad and the desperate need for athletisim in the squad, i am very underwhelmed - he is just not the sort of player we need and in a years time we will be in exactly the same position looking for his replacement whether he does well or not.

17 minutes ago, hiltonram said:

I don't know what path you want to go down but the right path is to not spend more than we are getting in and have to go through what we all have endured these last three years.

 

i have said several times, younger players with an upward growth path - not high wage older players with a downwards trajectory

i am not saying we should spend more money i am saying we should spend what we are currently spending wiser and build a squad that will take us forward properly so we arent in this exact same situation every summer

every year we do what we have done this summer and last summer we will have to rebuild the entire squad, its a fact we are not building anything we are just putting a team together until they run out of legs

18 hours ago, EnigmaRam said:

I don’t often agree with your negativity but in this regard I do. 
 

There’s no guarantees we will go up no matter who we sign. But almost every signing in the last 3 windows has been old players with no sell on value. 
 

Would much rather have gone for the younger players that were free like Bernard and Smith etc. even if we didn’t go up or work out they would still have value for a nominal sale. If they did do well they could be worth millions.

Hopefully this is the last window we will need to get free old has beens in to make up a team

sorry if i often get on peoples nerves i do love a rant i must admit, i am just frustrated in the direction the club is going. I hope it is genuinely to do with constraints in the market and not the overall vision because in my opinion we are going down the wrong path

43 minutes ago, enachops said:

I think last summer was decent given the circumstances. We had 5 players at the start of pre season, no scouting system or anything in place. We did well to recruit who we did.

This summer, those excuses don’t exist and we’ve still gone down the same route of recruiting ageing players. It’s a short term plan. I’m fine with that if we go up. But, if we don’t and we lose Cashin, Bird, Sibley etc. That’s a massive rebuild on a limited budget. I can’t for the life of me workout why he hasn’t recruited more pace and athleticism. It’s what a ‘Warne team’ is all about. People like Pennington we could’ve got from Shrewsbury rather than Blackpool. 28 and got 4 year’s minimum out of him. Would add a bit more to our back line.

 

yes, a perfect situation to build a squad from scratch.

my frustration is we are no better off than we were then as we will be in the exact same situation next summer unless we go up

i would just like to see us build a long term squad instead of throw one together thatll be dismantled at the end of every season

1 hour ago, oldtimeram said:

Don't want him at Derby

 

i am not sure why he would want to be at derby either considering the bad blood thats been around for years

you know what winds me up is when you go down its with the view of oh we can finally rebuild properly.

we have done the opposite, weve assembled an ageing squad that already needs rebuilding and we just put it together. really poor recruitment overall since we have gone down.