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2019-20 season assessment.


RamNut

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This season was always going to be something of a challenge after losing at wembley and then subsequently losing frank, tomori, mount and Wilson. We also witnessed the departures of Bryson, nugent and Johnson, and discarded carson.

we signed four loanees plus shinnie and a new record transfer signing in bielik, with Rooney to follow in January.

expected line up - roos, bogle, fozzy, keogh, Clarke, bielik, shinnie, dowell / Rooney, Waghorn, Lawrence, marriott
predicted finish 8th.

final line up - roos, bogle, fozzy, wisdom, Clarke, bird, Rooney, knight/ waghorn, sibley, Lawrence, Martin 

The Drink / drive incident Had a major impact with the loss of the defensive lynch pin in keogh. Shinnie, Marriott and dowell failed to secure first team places. bielik suffered a major injury. Roos showed occasional wobbles and lost his place to hamer. It transpired that Marriott was carrying a groin injury that required surgery. there was plenty of tinkering with the team selection as cocu sought to find his best 11.

The players who stepped up were wisdom and Martin, and three academy graduates  - bird, knight and Sibley. 

ultimately the season was slightly disappointing but a 10th place finish was good, if not also slightly flattering in the circumstances. 

the highlight was certainly the emergence of the three youngsters - especially sibley - who seemed to have to wait and wait for his chance. Once selected he introduced himself with a magnificent home debut goal, before the season was immediately disrupted by the global pandemic which killed 45,000 people in the uk before the season was even over. 

The season ended on a bit of a downer with a series of defeats against teams from the top six. This killed off any hope of the play offs.

We go into the new season with much uncertainty once again.
 

This time there is the unresolved threat of penalties associated with the EFL charge, and the financial situation remains problematic. The further financial savings on Anya, Thorne, huddlestone, and keogh is offset by hefty wages for Rooney. The On going pandemic presents unprecedented challenges with regards to income.

The expectation is for loans and freebies to bolster a squad likely to be further weakened by the likely impending departures of Bennett and Martin. One freebie signing already confirmed is Mike Te Wierik, the intended replacement for keogh. 

Next comes the annual pantomime of Summer recruitment. Then next season the challenge will be to see whether bird, knight and Sibley can hold their own throughout the notorious second season. We have further academy graduates waiting in the wings, notably Whittaker and the brown twins - Jordan and Archie - trialist, ebosele, and maybe even Ravas or shonibare. 

Mid-table again?

 

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Just now, hintonsboots said:

What is the situation with Rooney ? Did he sign a 2 year contract, and I thought 32Red were contributing to his pay packet?

Yep. Basically we utilised a clause that 32Red offered to all clubs they sponsor (no one took them up on it but us) which allows us to receive extra funds by nominating a player as a star player. Therefore Rooney's wages are covered by 32Red. Most of the clubs sponsored by them had an issue with this but really it was their own fault for not utilizing the same thing offered to them.

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I think our finishing position is outstanding given everything that’s happened. If everything had gone to plan, I still think 10th place would have been a decent result - competing at the right end of the table was always the target this season, at the start of a long term plan. With the squad we actually ended up with, without Keogh etc, simple avoiding relegation turned out to be a decent result. Cocu has done a brilliant job with the hand he was given, all whilst sticking to our long term philosophy of using youth from the academy.

Looking ahead to next season, I think the target has to be more consistent performances, and competing at the right end of the table across the season. We’re still only in year 2 of a long term plan, so if we don’t make the playoffs yet it isn’t a disaster as there’s a lot of work still to be done. We need to be showing we can compete at that end of the table mind, so I certainly don’t want to see us dropping down to 18th or somewhere like that again. We need to show progress in our performances as well, so that we no longer see 3-0 defeats by the likes of Reading.

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I will be as objective as I can be: 

The summer: I feared the summer transfer business wouldn't be enough to see us take a step forward. It's difficult to judge ANY signing before you see them play, but I was only really happy with the Dowell, Bielik and Clarke signings. I was obviously happy with the Rooney signing, but he was coming in January which took the shine off it. I really didn't like the Paterson or Hamer signings. Shinnie, I really didn't have much of an opinion on at the time. It was also a summer where we saw a lot more players leave which I think added to the unsettled start. As we know, the signings were very much subpar. Rooney and Clarke have done very w ell. Bielik has spent more time on the treatment table than on the pitch. Shinnie has also contributed. Dowell, who I really liked coming into the season, was awful (for us at least) and Hamer had his moments, but ultimately struggled. I don't think Cocu came in too late into the summer, but generally I felt there was a lot to go through. Lampard left, along with a number of loan signings and established squad members, so it really did feel like a fresh start. We knew we were sitting on a pot of gold with regards to our academy, but the question was how many of them can you expect to breakthrough in one go. It was always difficult to predict.  I felt that we had some players who would take a leap forward: Bogle, Lowe and Marriott in particular. I was worried about the midfield, extremely worried about the midfield, but thought a defence of Bogle, Keogh, Clarke and Lowe would be good. I thought we had a proven thing in Marriott, with Waghorn able to contribute in a number of positions along with Lawrence. You can see that I am not hiding what I predicted from what the actual result turned out to be. 

The first half: As we completed matchday 23 - an incredibly uninspired 3-0 loss to Reading - we sat 17th in the Championship having endured a whole host of off-the-field issues. The largest one accumulating in the sacking of our captain and one of the most consistent performers, if not THE most consistent performer at the club in the last decade. It really felt like we were going through it. Although, I suspected that Rooney would be able to lift things and we would bring in a few new faces to paper over the cracks that had shown. The first one certainly rang true, but Rooney was the only first-team transfer we made in January. When you consider that record transfer and summer transfer, Bielik, was declared out for the season not long after this point then it makes the second half of the season much more impressive. 

The second half: As mentioned, Bielik was declared out for the season. Rooney came in, plus we brought some of the faces that were previously out in the cold back into the first team. Wisdom started 14 out of the next 16 league games after Reading and we won 9 of them so he did come to become an important piece himself. We leaned on the young players much more and they seemed to thrive. We faced an incredible amount of adversity and we thrived. To a point. IF the season started from matchday 24 to matchday 46 then we would've finished 6th on 38 points (76 over the course of a full season). It can't be stated how much of an achievement that is considering where we were at Matchday 23, whilst also noting that we lost Bielik not long after. The second half of the season provides an unbelievable platform going into next season. The likes of Bird, Knight and Sibley can go into the season feeling like they belong and their performances have grown with every minute they've been on the pitch. 

Next season: We are still non-the-wiser about the EFL punishment. I'm sure it could continue to linger on well into next season. I would imagine any punishment leveled against us will be strongly contested and we will continue to be marred by off-field issues. As I said earlier, the second half of the season provides us with a great platform going into next season. Last season I was worried about our midfield, now its a strength: Knight, Sibley and Bird are all established performers. We also have Rooney, Holmes, etc. We have bought in Keogh's replacement in Mike Te Wierk. Clarke will need to be replaced, but Wisdom and Evans have both shown good ability in the latter part of last season. Bogle and Lowe, who I predicted to take a leap in their development, perhaps stuttered. Both still have time on their side and a lot of ability. The problem areas at the moment are in goal and wide attacking areas. I do honestly think you could potentially fix both quite comfortably in the loan market. They're the two positions where loan players are easier to find - we were really unfortunate to miss out on Grady Diangana last season. He's turned out to be an extremely reliable player for West Brom. I do think a more settled side, with a couple more academy players on the fringes, sets us up nicely. The expectation levels will be higher and I think that brings its own challenges, but providing we can get the 2-3 players with the quality we need for the holes we need to fill AND some players continue to develop then we will be well placed for a competitive season.

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Phillip works hard in class but must be careful not to be distracted by others. His homework is exemplary and some of his best pieces of the year were produced from home. 

Phillip works well within a group, sharing ideas and has strong communication skills

Phillip has real potential but this doesn't always show in test conditions. His exam results haven't reflected what he is capable of and for Phillip to achieve his potential he must be able to replicate his class and homework in exam conditions. 

Phillip must be sure to apply the same effort to all projects. He does have a tendency to switch off during his least favourite subjects. 

We wish Phillip all the best when he returns in September. 

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1 hour ago, RamNut said:

We go into the new season with much uncertainty once again.

This time there is the unresolved threat of penalties associated with the EFL charge, and the financial situation remains problematic. The further financial savings on Anya, Thorne, huddlestone, and keogh is offset by hefty wages for Rooney. The On going pandemic presents unprecedented challenges with regards to income.

The expectation is for loans and freebies to bolster a squad likely to be further weakened by the likely impending departures of Bennett and Martin. One freebie signing already confirmed is Mike Te Wierik, the intended replacement for keogh. 

Anya- £28k per week, Huddlestone- £25k per week, Keogh- £16k per week, Thorne- approx.£12k per week= £81k per week

32Red's star clause gives us £1.5m a year which if put towards Rooney's wages leaves us with just over £21k a week to pay- Huddlestone's departure alone covers Rooney to be fair, the other departures free up space for new signings' potential wages. 

I don't think ''loans and freebies'' is the expectation at all. We'll have to be more prudent, maybe more of a sell-to-buy policy but I think we'll definitely see some permanent signings of some quality. With Cocu at the helm, there is far less 'uncertainty' than previous seasons because we can continue building under the current manager's philosophy; a luxury rarely afforded to us in recent years. The squad's in decent shape with lots of upcoming talent already with decent experience, we just need a few astute signings in key areas to help us push to be challengers. 

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I’ve always thought that I would prefer us to finish tenth and be financially stable and produce lots of our own academy products as opposed to 6th but scrape past FFP and pay 32 years olds 35 grand a year 

This season has finally put that to the test and, I have to say, I feel very positive 

Enjoyed watching all the youngsters and the style of play is mostly good 

Bring on next year

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8 minutes ago, YorkshireRam said:

Anya- £28k per week, Huddlestone- £25k per week, Keogh- £16k per week, Thorne- approx.£12k per week= £81k per week

32Red's star clause gives us £1.5m a year which if put towards Rooney's wages leaves us with just over £21k a week to pay- Huddlestone's departure alone covers Rooney to be fair, the other departures free up space for new signings' potential wages. 

I don't think ''loans and freebies'' is the expectation at all. We'll have to be more prudent, maybe more of a sell-to-buy policy but I think we'll definitely see some permanent signings of some quality. With Cocu at the helm, there is far less 'uncertainty' than previous seasons because we can continue building under the current manager's philosophy; a luxury rarely afforded to us in recent years. The squad's in decent shape with lots of upcoming talent already with decent experience, we just need a few astute signings in key areas to help us push to be challengers. 

How do you know their wages? I can’t find them anywhere 

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54 minutes ago, YorkshireRam said:

Capology has them but that data has been shared on here as well: https://sillyseason.com/salary/Derby-county-players-salaries-126696/

Sounds silly, how likely to be true is it?!

Quote

RANK    PLAYER    ANNUAL SALARY    POS.    AGE
1    Tom Lawrence    £ 1,560,000    LW    25
2    Ikechi Anya    £ 1,456,000    LM    31
3    Curtis Davies    £ 1,300,000    CB    34
4    Tom Huddlestone    £ 1,300,000    DM    32
5    Andre Wisdom    £ 1,196,000    RB    26
6    Scott Malone    £ 1,040,000    LB    28
7    Jack Marriott    £ 936,000    CF    25
8    Richard Keogh    £ 832,000    CB    33
9    Ben Hamer    £ 624,000    GK    31
10    Chris Martin    £ 562,000    CF    30
11    Craig Forsyth    £ 468,000    LB    30
12    Martyn Waghorn    £ 416,000    CF    29
13    Kieran Dowell    £ 390,000    AM    21
14    Jamie Paterson    £ 364,000    SS    27
15    George Evans    £ 312,000    DM    24
16    Duane Holmes    £ 260,000    RM    24
17    Flo Jozefzoon    £ 260,000    RW    28
18    Mason Bennett    £ 182,000    SS    23
19    Jayden Bogle    £ 156,000    RB    19
20    Kelle Roos    £ 130,000    GK    27
21    Graeme Shinnie    £ 0    DM    28
22    Jason Knight    £ 0    CM    18
23    Jonathan Mitchell    £ 0    GK    24
24    Krystian Bielik    £ 0    CB    21
25    Lee Buchanan    £ 0    CB    18
26    Matt Clarke    £ 0    CB    22
27    Max Lowe    £ 0    LB    22
28    Wayne Rooney    £2,600,000    CF    34

 

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Considering he had no proper pre-season due to the Lampard debacle, losing key players for various reasons, health crisis (season pause), large number of penalties given away costing us points (+ couple key ones missed) I think 10th place is decent.

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We know our recruitment has been *censored* for years, but this year I do have some sympathy. Lampard and Morris took on a lot of the resposability around recruiment when they were here, the loanees obviously, Evans was a Lampard pick having been with him at Man City etc, and club couldn't exactly take that responsibility off them until they officially left so whilst they will have been working in the background, by the time they could move the best laonees were already being lined up or in talks elsewhere. Looking at what we did and our squad:

GK: PC was determined he wanted Roos to be his first choice  and loan was just to compete for the place...What good goalkeeper is going to agree to a loan being Championship back-up?

DEF: Our defensive options looked good, obviously we've relied on Keogh playing 40+ games every season since he joined, and arguably was our 3rd choice RB. Take that out and suddenly we look a bit thin. Bielik would have obviously been an option there too had he not got that injury. Clarke looked a very good loan deal in the end.

Mid (Inc AM): Impossible to judge Bielik due to injury, clearly Rooney has had an excellnt impact. A loan move in AM makes perfect sence seeing as the club knew Sibly was coming through, why block his path with a perminant signing? Dowel was rubbish, but I don't think it was outlandish to expect him to do well here...he just didn't. 

ATT: Again, knowing the likes of Knight and Whittaker coming through a loan made sense. Remember the amount of wide player we reportedly were after and how we were supposedly in the running to get Grady Diangana...wouldn't have been many complaints then. OK we got left with the only winger left in Paterson but what elsecould we do? The combination of moving late and not having the FFP room or promotion chances to compete with others. 

Our recruitment has been far short of the likes of Bretfor for years, but this season specifically I think its much less thier fault than in previous seasons 

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