A question for Derby fans...

[Steve How Hard?]

7 hours ago, NorwichLad said:

 

 

I doubt you even scouted Bradley Johnson as you wouldn't have expected him to have been made available for transfer, we all know the rumours why he was available for transfer though..... don't we? 

I'm not sure that I am familiar with the rumours. Please enlighten me, I'm intrigued.

[Sith Happens]

7 minutes ago, Steve How Hard? said:

I'm not sure that I am familiar with the rumours. Please enlighten, I'm intrigued.

He was devastated at the constant ribbing he recieved for his abnormality.  The term 5 fingered Bradley still haunts him today. 

[Gritstone Ram]

5 minutes ago, Paul71 said:

He was devastated at the constant ribbing he recieved for his abnormality.  The term 5 fingered Bradley still haunts him today. 

Also he was fed up being called web less toes.

[Sith Happens]

Just now, Gritters said:

Also he was fed up being called web less toes.

And totally confused by the term 'sister virgin'

[Ghost of Clough]

8 hours ago, NorwichLad said:

 

The quality of your recruitment over the years isn't really relevant to your former manager not bothering to read opposition reports though.

Watching teams that you'll be playing in the near future to work out how they are playing and their likely lineup and then putting it all in an 18 page report is completely different to being assigned to watch an individual player who your club might be interested in signing.

If a scout is told to go and watch Joe Bloggs the striker at Stevenage he'd usually do so for about 3 or 4 games, and he'd be so focused on watching that player that he wouldn't take in most of the rest of the game.  

Also, even if you did have a senior 1st team scout or Chief Scout who was solely used to identify possible transfer targets, it wouldn't really be his job to negotiate the transfer fee and contract would it..... they aren't trained to do that. The extent of their remit is really to determine whether X player is good enough to play for X team, whether its your first team, or U18 team or whatever. 

I'm pretty sure that you didn't have a scout watching Bradley Johnson during our promotion season and then write in his report "This player is excelling on the left side of midfield but would be just perfect as an anchor man for Derby County", and this actually may be an indication that you didn't use scouts and scouting enough rather than that your scouts were incompetent? 

I doubt you even scouted Bradley Johnson as you wouldn't have expected him to have been made available for transfer, we all know the rumours why he was available for transfer though..... don't we? 

You reference the signing of Johnson in relation to our quality of scouting. It’s quite well known about the quality of Clement’s ‘scouting’ - see Shackell, Butterfield, Blackman, etc... But, I don’t think the club’s scouting during his tenure can be linked to Clough’s in any way (I assume you’re trying to make this link based on your OP). Especially when we had a different manager in between the two of them. 

To also state “This player is excelling on the left side of midfield but would be just perfect as an anchor man for Derby County”, smacks of a lack of research. From my recollection, he never playing as the anchor man until McClaren’s second spell, over a year after Johnson signed for Derby City. Johnson started off playing on the left of a midfield three. Interestingly, a lot of fans think he’s performed best when playing as the “anchor man”. 

[NorwichLad]

17 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

You reference the signing of Johnson in relation to our quality of scouting.

I have no idea really where you are going with this now.... like I've already said, my OP was clearly about opposition reports. 

I only mentioned Bradley Johnson because somebody else did. 

Every club has a scout or scouts whose job it is to go and watch your opposition in the week(s) leading up to a fixture, and then write a comprehensive report which gives an indication about what team selection and tactics one might expect to see in that fixture. That's what I was talking about in my OP. 

That's completely different to Talent ID (usually identifying young players with potential) or producing individual player reports (watching a potential transfer target 3 or 4 times and coming to a conclusion on whether he could improve a team). 

My OP was specifically about Nigel Clough not paying any attention to those opposition reports. Its a pretty important part of football to understand what it is that you are coming up against..... I mean.... players would probably find it handy to know if the opposition had recently been using a kid off the bench with a Rory Delap throw, and ideally be spending a day in training trying to defend against it, otherwise it would be quite an unpleasant surprise when trying to defend a 1-0 away from home on a cold Tuesday night in some shithole and the opposition brings on a 7ft freak and long throw dude. For example. 

[Ghost of Clough]

51 minutes ago, NorwichLad said:

I have no idea really where you are going with this now.... like I've already said, my OP was clearly about opposition reports. 

I only mentioned Bradley Johnson because somebody else did. 

Every club has a scout or scouts whose job it is to go and watch your opposition in the week(s) leading up to a fixture, and then write a comprehensive report which gives an indication about what team selection and tactics one might expect to see in that fixture. That's what I was talking about in my OP. 

That's completely different to Talent ID (usually identifying young players with potential) or producing individual player reports (watching a potential transfer target 3 or 4 times and coming to a conclusion on whether he could improve a team). 

My OP was specifically about Nigel Clough not paying any attention to those opposition reports. Its a pretty important part of football to understand what it is that you are coming up against..... I mean.... players would probably find it handy to know if the opposition had recently been using a kid off the bench with a Rory Delap throw, and ideally be spending a day in training trying to defend against it, otherwise it would be quite an unpleasant surprise when trying to defend a 1-0 away from home on a cold Tuesday night in some shithole and the opposition brings on a 7ft freak and long throw dude. For example. 

“I'm pretty sure that you didn't have a scout watching Bradley Johnson during our promotion season and then write in his report "This player is excelling on the left side of midfield but would be just perfect as an anchor man for Derby County", and this actually may be an indication that you didn't use scouts and scouting enough rather than that your scouts were incompetent?”

The recruitment of Johnson was in no way connected to Clough  and his use of scouts/scouting. Prior to the signing of Johnson, I dount whoever watched/suggested signing him reccomended playing him as an anchor man - the manager who signed him only played him on the left of a midfield three.

 

Different managers, different ideologies, different members of staff, different expectations from scouts. It has pretty much been the same at our club for as long as I’ve been alive. But, it’s one of the things Mel has wanted to resolve and add a bit of consistency to (so far hasn’t achieved it).

 

You’ve taken a quote(s) from a scout Nigel obviously didn’t trust. How do you know one of his trusted scouts/coaches didn’t/don’t watch future opponents and feed back their thoughts?

[NorwichLad]

13 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

The recruitment of Johnson was in no way connected to Clough

I'm fully aware that your purchase of Bradley Johnson on 1st September 2015 had nothing to do with a manager who was sacked by you on 28th September 2013, or a chief scout who left your club in March 2009. 

I don't know if you have reading comprehension issues or something, and apologies if you do, but my OP was about Nigel Clough not reading opposition reports.

Somebody else then brought Bradley Johnson into the discussion. Its not the slightest bit relevant to my OP, because he wasn't signed by Nigel Clough and opposition reports are not produced to aid player recruitment. 

In the same way as your gas bill doesn't have anything to do with the bloke who comes and services your boiler. So lets just leave that there. 

[Ghost of Clough]

24 minutes ago, NorwichLad said:

I'm fully aware that your purchase of Bradley Johnson on 1st September 2015 had nothing to do with a manager who was sacked by you on 28th September 2013, or a chief scout who left your club in March 2009. 

I don't know if you have reading comprehension issues or something, and apologies if you do, but my OP was about Nigel Clough not reading opposition reports.

Somebody else then brought Bradley Johnson into the discussion. Its not the slightest bit relevant to my OP, because he wasn't signed by Nigel Clough and opposition reports are not produced to aid player recruitment. 

In the same way as your gas bill doesn't have anything to do with the bloke who comes and services your boiler. So lets just leave that there. 

Yet you directly referred to Johnson as evidence of not using scouts and scouting. Seemingly trying to link the recruitment during Clement’s tenure (when we signed Johnson) to that of Clough’s (your OP). 

[NorwichLad]

44 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Yet you directly referred to Johnson as evidence of not using scouts and scouting. Seemingly trying to link the recruitment during Clement’s tenure (when we signed Johnson) to that of Clough’s (your OP). 

Are you an aspiring tabloid journalist by any chance? 

The poster called Ambitious said this on the fourth page of this thread:

"My point was focused solely on the fact that those who have been scouting players for Derby County in the past decade haven't done a very good job."

Past decade = 2008 to 2018

I quoted and replied to that post on the seventh page of this thread.... 

"I'm pretty sure that you didn't have a scout watching Bradley Johnson during our promotion season and then write in his report "This player is excelling on the left side of midfield but would be just perfect as an anchor man for Derby County", and this actually may be an indication that you didn't use scouts and scouting enough rather than that your scouts were incompetent? 

I doubt you even scouted Bradley Johnson as you wouldn't have expected him to have been made available for transfer" 

I assume that you intentionally left out the word "enough" after the words "not using scouts and scouting" so as to construct some sort of argument for arguments sake.

You also appear to have intentionally ignored the final paragraph which made the very valid point that Derby would have been unlikely to have sent representatives to watch Johnson in the prior season as nobody would have expected him to have been made available for transfer. 

I have no idea how it is that you've come to the conclusion that I'd linked this in any way to Nigel Clough or my OP, when I'd quite clearly stated at the very beginning of this exact same reply:

"The quality of your recruitment over the years isn't really relevant to a former manager not bothering to read opposition reports though"

This is why I suggested that you may have issues with reading comprehension. Are you aware that your local college probably offers free Level 2 qualifications in Numeracy and Literacy? There is a lot of government funding available for basic skills training. 

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

2 hours ago, NorwichLad said:

Are you an aspiring tabloid journalist by any chance? 

The poster called Ambitious said this on the fourth page of this thread:

"My point was focused solely on the fact that those who have been scouting players for Derby County in the past decade haven't done a very good job."

Past decade = 2008 to 2018

I quoted and replied to that post on the seventh page of this thread.... 

"I'm pretty sure that you didn't have a scout watching Bradley Johnson during our promotion season and then write in his report "This player is excelling on the left side of midfield but would be just perfect as an anchor man for Derby County", and this actually may be an indication that you didn't use scouts and scouting enough rather than that your scouts were incompetent? 

I doubt you even scouted Bradley Johnson as you wouldn't have expected him to have been made available for transfer" 

I assume that you intentionally left out the word "enough" after the words "not using scouts and scouting" so as to construct some sort of argument for arguments sake.

You also appear to have intentionally ignored the final paragraph which made the very valid point that Derby would have been unlikely to have sent representatives to watch Johnson in the prior season as nobody would have expected him to have been made available for transfer. 

I have no idea how it is that you've come to the conclusion that I'd linked this in any way to Nigel Clough or my OP, when I'd quite clearly stated at the very beginning of this exact same reply:

"The quality of your recruitment over the years isn't really relevant to a former manager not bothering to read opposition reports though"

This is why I suggested that you may have issues with reading comprehension. Are you aware that your local college probably offers free Level 2 qualifications in Numeracy and Literacy? There is a lot of government funding available for basic skills training. 

Why numeracy for a start ? . Perhaps you could find some local government funding for a diplomacy course, as you're not making many friend's on here it appears.

[Carl Sagan]

Do we have an award for strangest thread on the forum? 

[ronnieronalde]

@NorwichLad I'm not the only one who felt your original post was misleading and hinting at some inside knowledge or direct contact with the former chief scout who was never Derby County's chief scout.

You're back now having a go at a posters numeracy and literacy skills, you cheeky condescending bugger. I could go to that level and suggest you brush up on your comprehension skills. Nowhere does it say David Hamilton was the former chief scout of Derby.

For the record, you may not be aware that I have connections who have that inside knowledge and direct contact and I can tell you with 100% certainty that Clough does indeed read, pay attention to and plan around the opposition scouting reports he gets from his current "opposition scouting team"

The Chief Scout predominantly scouts players.

I hope that puts your mind at rest. Good luck with completing your Level 2 Talent ID course, I hope it prepares you for a long and successful career in the game.

[Comrade 86]

51 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

Do we have an award for strangest thread on the forum? 

Glad it's not just me! Been thinking this for days. 

[G STAR RAM]

21 hours ago, NorwichLad said:

...we all know the rumours why he was available for transfer though..... don't we? 

Nope.

This isn't going to be another one where you pretend to have inside knowledge and link another nothingness article is it?

[Millenniumram]

6 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

Do we have an award for strangest thread on the forum? 

Nothing will ever beat the thread about not letting schoolkids have a piss

[RadioactiveWaste]

We only signed Bradley Johnson because we panicked after losing Bryson and Hughes in the first half of our first match that season. Whatever his merits and limitations as a player, and he has been a good servant to Derby County, his transfer was not a well thought out piece of business.

[ronnieronalde]

29 minutes ago, Millenniumram said:

Nothing will ever beat the thread about not letting schoolkids have a piss

link or gtfo ?

[angieram]

11 minutes ago, ronnieronalde said:

link or gtfo ?

Please don't!  

[G STAR RAM]

40 minutes ago, ronnieronalde said:

link or gtfo ?

I can confirm such thread did exist in The Pub at some point!