Summer Rumour Mill

[Andicis]

21 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

I like Nelson as a signing but if the choice is Fozzy as first choice and a decent forward or Nelson and Waggy as one of three I know which way I’m choosing.

The point is if we're playing 3 at the back, we need backup defenders. We couldn't only have our three with Fozzy, Bradley and Cashin, with only Rooney as a backup. We had to sign another centre half. 

[Ram1988]

48 minutes ago, DCFC1388 said:

Washington apparently has some pace & runs in behind so is slightly different to the other options

He is. He has been brought in to press, get about and stretch the play. 

Not a profilic goal scorer but someone will help create space chances for others.

[maxjam]

24 minutes ago, rammieib said:

How many would a good striker score?

25

But we either need to find another Didzy or spend more money than we've got.

[TomTom92]

14 minutes ago, Andicis said:

The point is if we're playing 3 at the back, we need backup defenders. We couldn't only have our three with Fozzy, Bradley and Cashin, with only Rooney as a backup. We had to sign another centre half. 

Yes but I’d rather sign the defender equivalent to Waggy and have a decent forward than the choice we’ve made. 
 
I’m not sat here spitting on Waggy’s grave. I’ve said as a 4th striker I’m happy for him to sign. But I personally think we should be seriously targeting the autos and that requires a decent frontline.

[Andicis]

6 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Yes but I’d rather sign the defender equivalent to Waggy and have a decent forward than the choice we’ve made. 
 
I’m not sat here spitting on Waggy’s grave. I’ve said as a 4th striker I’m happy for him to sign. But I personally think we should be seriously targeting the autos and that requires a decent frontline.

We'll be targeting the autos and competing for them, even if we didn't sign anyone from here (IMO). We've got a very solid defense built now, and so even if we don't score shedloads of goals I'd expect us to be able to nick a lot of 1-0s. My view is this, strikers are broadly speaking significantly more expensive. We needed a good backline, and I doubt Nelson is too expensive. It isn't a case of one or the other, it's too simplistic. 

[Ghost of Clough]

1 hour ago, RamsFan10 said:

Waghorn would be a good option (not that he did anything against Stoke, assume he’s not up to fitness) as a back up. Warne says we want a ST and a 10, Waghorn can play all those roles. Perhaps gives Brown chance to go on loan. 
 

But we still need another striker regardless. 

Brown won't be going out. He needs a full season of U21 football, with a few games at first team level. The situation can be reassessed if he makes an impact in those first team games.

[Ambitious]

Waghorn would be a good signing as 1 of 2 strikers coming in, but if our budget is as tight as believed then it gives us room for only two players - we need better than Waghorn. Not to say he couldn’t do a good job in League One, but he’s just not the player we could hang our hat on. 

[MackworthRamIsGod]

1 minute ago, Ambitious said:

Waghorn would be a good signing as 1 of 2 strikers coming in, but if our budget is as tight as believed then it gives us room for only two players - we need better than Waghorn. Not to say he couldn’t do a good job in League One, but he’s just not the player we could hang our hat on. 

You sum it up qell for me.

I've come round to the prospect of us getting him back, but he can't be the only one. It would make Clowes claims about budgets seem bizarre.

[Ram1988]

I don't see us getting an goal scorer like we had with Didzy last year but instead trying to get more goals all round the pitch. Bradley and Nelson will certainly help with that from set pieces. Hopefully our wing backs will also chip in with a few then we can have a say three centre fowards averaging 15 goals each. 

[FlyBritishMidland]

7 hours ago, Andicis said:

We'll be targeting the autos and competing for them, even if we didn't sign anyone from here (IMO). We've got a very solid defense built now, and so even if we don't score shedloads of goals I'd expect us to be able to nick a lot of 1-0s. My view is this, strikers are broadly speaking significantly more expensive. We needed a good backline, and I doubt Nelson is too expensive. It isn't a case of one or the other, it's too simplistic. 

 

1 hour ago, Ram1988 said:

I don't see us getting an goal scorer like we had with Didzy last year but instead trying to get more goals all round the pitch. Bradley and Nelson will certainly help with that from set pieces. Hopefully our wing backs will also chip in with a few then we can have a say three centre fowards averaging 15 goals each. 

Agree with both of these.  At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, we’ve filled gaps in key positions.  The centre of defence is stronger.  We’ve signed wing backs, which in turn has strengthened the midfield as Smith and Sibley are now allowed to play in more natural positions.  Washington is a 1 in 3 striker at this level but he’ll stretch play and create space for Collins, the number 10’s to run into.  We’ll be more of a threat at set pieces, an area where we’ve been weak for a few seasons.

We now have a really strong defence.  This will bring confidence into the midfield who will be able to focus more on playing forward rather than leaving gaps behind knowing the defence has it covered.  This will have a knock-on effect on the strikers in allowing them to be more advanced.

[OoooMarkWright]

1 hour ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

 

Agree with both of these.  At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, we’ve filled gaps in key positions.  The centre of defence is stronger.  We’ve signed wing backs, which in turn has strengthened the midfield as Smith and Sibley are now allowed to play in more natural positions.  Washington is a 1 in 3 striker at this level but he’ll stretch play and create space for Collins, the number 10’s to run into.  We’ll be more of a threat at set pieces, an area where we’ve been weak for a few seasons.

We now have a really strong defence.  This will bring confidence into the midfield who will be able to focus more on playing forward rather than leaving gaps behind knowing the defence has it covered.  This will have a knock-on effect on the strikers in allowing them to be more advanced.

Agree, but…

We had a strong defence last year as well. It wasn’t a weakness apart from towards the end of the season when our oldies were all knackered. 
My worry is we have lost the energy, legs and pace of Knight and not replaced that in midfield. 
McGoldricks goals not replaced either. Yes we can spread it about more like you say, but we MUST sign a decent forward. For me, our season will depend on that. Top 2 has to be the aim and at the minute I’m not sure we’re strong enough as it stands. Time to go to correct that, but clearly this window hasn’t quite gone to plan in terms of attacking additions.

[Andicis]

6 minutes ago, enachops said:

Agree, but…

We had a strong defence last year as well. It wasn’t a weakness apart from towards the end of the season when our oldies were all knackered. 
My worry is we have lost the energy, legs and pace of Knight and not replaced that in midfield. 
McGoldricks goals not replaced either. Yes we can spread it about more like you say, but we MUST sign a decent forward. For me, our season will depend on that. Top 2 has to be the aim and at the minute I’m not sure we’re strong enough as it stands. Time to go to correct that, but clearly this window hasn’t quite gone to plan in terms of attacking additions.

Did we? We didn't have a proper fullback in the side. We had makeshift right backs and full backs (depending on what position you see Haydon Roberts being best in). We also lacked with centre halves, Curtis wasn't at his best, Chester never played. We couldn't play 3 at the back for large portions without proper wing backs or enough centre halves like Warne wanted to play. 

We've lost some energy from Knight, but ultimately we have players who can act as runners. I'm not his biggest fan but Thompson covers a lot of ground.

What do you consider a decent forward that is a possibility for us to sign? I think we've got a striker in Collins who will score a lot more this year. He thrives off crosses into the box which we never provided him with last year, with our new fullbacks I'd expect him to score a fair few more goals. I'm sure that Mendez-Laing will grab a few too. I don't think we'll get another 25 goal striker like McGoldrick, but our squad is pretty good.

[Donegal Ram]

For once in modern day football Derby's business has been done on the quiet. Maybe Clowes comments about the budget were to appease the fans and not the manager/ recruitment team. Warne may be downplaying the budget because he is having to pay over the odds as it is. Fans have to be a bit more realistic when expecting stellar signings. Didzy was a freak in league one last season but, no-one, no-one predicted his impact on the team. The defence has been strengthened considerably and will allow the rest of the team to be more attacking. If Rhodes and Waghorn are the next bodies through the door then we have to trust the managers selection. 

Winning football is all that matters at this stage and I for one am excited for the new season. 

[Kernow]

17 minutes ago, enachops said:

Agree, but…

We had a strong defence last year as well. It wasn’t a weakness apart from towards the end of the season when our oldies were all knackered. 
My worry is we have lost the energy, legs and pace of Knight and not replaced that in midfield. 
McGoldricks goals not replaced either. Yes we can spread it about more like you say, but we MUST sign a decent forward. For me, our season will depend on that. Top 2 has to be the aim and at the minute I’m not sure we’re strong enough as it stands. Time to go to correct that, but clearly this window hasn’t quite gone to plan in terms of attacking additions.

The defence was unbalanced last year, we had to move away from Warne’s preferred system to begin with because we didn’t have the players to fit it. We had no natural wing-backs, barely had a natural full-back. Roberts prefers playing CB, he was LB/LWB. Sibley is an attacking midfielder but had to play there too. Knight, Smith, Chester all had to play RB. NML had to play RWB.

The replacing McGoldrick’s goals comment is something that’s mentioned a lot but I always find it strange. How do we know they’re not replaced yet? We haven’t played a game. If we signed Langstaff, or May, or Smith, would that mean they’re replaced? There’s no guarantee that any of them would get anywhere near 25 goals. I don’t think even the most optimistic of fans would’ve predicted 25 goals for McGoldrick, but it happened. We have players who have scored at this level before, so we’ll see how they do. I’d personally like to see the goals spread around a bit more rather than relying on one player this year.

And as for Knight’s energy, how much of an impact did it really make? He created very little for us, he’s great at running but technically he showed he wasn’t a standout player at this level, which I expected him to be. Players like Hourihane had a far bigger impact than Knight, and I still thought Hourihane was disappointing at times.

[OoooMarkWright]

9 minutes ago, Andicis said:

Did we? We didn't have a proper fullback in the side. We had makeshift right backs and full backs (depending on what position you see Haydon Roberts being best in). We also lacked with centre halves, Curtis wasn't at his best, Chester never played. We couldn't play 3 at the back for large portions without proper wing backs or enough centre halves like Warne wanted to play. 

We've lost some energy from Knight, but ultimately we have players who can act as runners. I'm not his biggest fan but Thompson covers a lot of ground.

What do you consider a decent forward that is a possibility for us to sign? I think we've got a striker in Collins who will score a lot more this year. He thrives off crosses into the box which we never provided him with last year, with our new fullbacks I'd expect him to score a fair few more goals. I'm sure that Mendez-Laing will grab a few too. I don't think we'll get another 25 goal striker like McGoldrick, but our squad is pretty good.

We had the 4th best defensive record in the league. Yes it was makeshift but we kept loads of clean sheets and generally were solid, despite the issues we faced with no right back etc. It went a bit south towards the end, but that was down to fitness. Over the season we didn’t concede many. Not doubting we’re stronger now though. 
We need to get out of this league this year. No excuses. Are we much stronger overall than the end of last year, marginally maybe. I expected more. That’s why these next couple of signings will be key to our success and not sure, if it’s Waghorn, that would be enough. As someone said earlier, if you’d offered Washington, Colin’s and Waghorn as our top 3 options at the start of the summer I can’t see many fans being delighted with that. 

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

10 minutes ago, enachops said:

We had the 4th best defensive record in the league. Yes it was makeshift but we kept loads of clean sheets and generally were solid, despite the issues we faced with no right back etc. It went a bit south towards the end, but that was down to fitness. Over the season we didn’t concede many. Not doubting we’re stronger now though. 
We need to get out of this league this year. No excuses. Are we much stronger overall than the end of last year, marginally maybe. I expected more. That’s why these next couple of signings will be key to our success and not sure, if it’s Waghorn, that would be enough. As someone said earlier, if you’d offered Washington, Colin’s and Waghorn as our top 3 options at the start of the summer I can’t see many fans being delighted with that. 

The fans being delighted is not really relevant to Warne to be fair. If the season starts and we are winning games the fans will soon forget about whatever happened in the transfer window. That's the bit Warne cares about.

[Sidd10]

8 hours ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

You sum it up qell for me.

I've come round to the prospect of us getting him back, but he can't be the only one. It would make Clowes claims about budgets seem bizarre.

I do get where you are coming from, but I think its more the quality we can get for that budget. 

I think Warne mentioned it recently, that the value in a free or loan is far greater than paying any inflated fee for a player likely to get a similar output.

Lets not forget, although not super prolific, Waghorn has been operating pretty consistently in a division higher than the one we are in for most of his career. And he was once a £5mil player 😉 

[OoooMarkWright]

2 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

The fans being delighted is not really relevant to Warne to be fair. If the season starts and we are winning games the fans will soon forget about whatever happened in the transfer window. That's the bit Warne cares about.

Obviously. But until that happens, all we can comment on is how the window has gone so far. It’s clear we’ve had difficulty bringing in a forward and, for me, filling that position is key to our top 2 hopes. We didn’t score enough last year, Collins was average and we’ve only added Washington to the mix. Goals will hopefully be more spread out, but we need a quality addition up top in my opinion. 

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

3 minutes ago, enachops said:

Obviously. But until that happens, all we can comment on is how the window has gone so far. It’s clear we’ve had difficulty bringing in a forward and, for me, filling that position is key to our top 2 hopes. We didn’t score enough last year, Collins was average and we’ve only added Washington to the mix. Goals will hopefully be more spread out, but we need a quality addition up top in my opinion. 

I agree with that for sure. I'm not sure we need to fixate on a '25 goal a season' striker though as some fans (not aimed at you) seem to. It's obvious we aren't spending that sort of money so some fans are going to be feeling let down whoever we get in.

[Ram1988]

If we signed Waggy we would then have options to play different ways. Whether that was a front 2 or a front 3 with inside fowards (being Collins, Washington, Waghorn, Mendez-Laing and Barkhuize).