Rival Watch

[Snowflake Royal]

Well the manager is obviously the major issue now

I’m desperately trying to convince myself that we might now sack him as the window is shut and no incoming manager can make transfer demands and knows what he has to work with

If he isn’t gone after the Peterborough game, he isn't going. And I think it's hard to see him going before then given what he has survived already.

[Zip]

So Derby's "fire sale" resulted them in losing none of their players for the rest of this season, and pocketing £1M.

Frankly, whoever the administrators are they have done a better job in this window then many people who are nominated as Director of Football!

Indeed although if they do end up being liquidated (it won’t happen) then there should be serious questions asked as to why the administrators didn’t sell player assets.
They must now be forced to pay all their debts in full. (which they won’t).

The media love in with Derby at the moment is nauseating.

[NathStPaul]

Well the manager is obviously the major issue now

I’m desperately trying to convince myself that we might now sack him as the window is shut and no incoming manager can make transfer demands and knows what he has to work with

If he isn’t gone after the Peterborough game, he isn't going. And I think it's hard to see him going before then given what he has survived already.

Yeah I think is this the case, he would have gone after Fulham if he was going at all. We have an owner who I doubt even knows our recent results so we have absolutely no chance of getting rid of him. That being said it doesn't mean our supporters shouldn't protest about it though.

[Zip]

Makes it clear we are going 1 up top from here on in.

Could be interesting if we deploy Hoilett and Ince as wide parts of a front 3 though.

Yep

[Mr Angry]

The media love in with Derby at the moment is nauseating.

Agreed - and it is only because of Rooney being their Manager; had it been, for example, Michael Appleton, there wouldn't have been 5% of the positive coverage that they are getting.

[tidus_mi2]

I'm not against playing one up top, our best form came from one up top after all I just think all that time playing Puscas as the lone forward and no attacking support has made fans wary of the lone striker.

Joao will obviously play the role better and having wide forward options of Ince, Hoilett and later Meite should be welcome and Swift playing as a 10.

[Hound]

I'm not against playing one up top, our best form came from one up top after all I just think all that time playing Puscas as the lone forward and no attacking support has made fans wary of the lone striker.

Joao will obviously play the role better and having wide forward options of Ince, Hoilett and later Meite should be welcome and Swift playing as a 10.

yeah, no real issue with 1 up top or the 4-2-3-1 formation. Its just Pauno has made such a mess of it, and its turned into a shapeless mess, bunged up in the centre of the pitch with no width or ability to retain possession in the opposition half

Something like

Southwood
Yiadom Dann McIntyre Baba
Rino Laurent
Meite Swift Ejaria
Joao

looks great on paper. Esp with Hoilett, Ince, Halilovic as options to replace that front 3. but with Pauno in charge, expect it will still stink the place out with slow negative tentative football

[NewCorkSeth]

I'm not against playing one up top, our best form came from one up top after all I just think all that time playing Puscas as the lone forward and no attacking support has made fans wary of the lone striker.

Joao will obviously play the role better and having wide forward options of Ince, Hoilett and later Meite should be welcome and Swift playing as a 10.

yeah, no real issue with 1 up top or the 4-2-3-1 formation. Its just Pauno has made such a mess of it, and its turned into a shapeless mess, bunged up in the centre of the pitch with no width or ability to retain possession in the opposition half

Something like

Southwood
Yiadom Dann McIntyre Baba
Rino Laurent
Meite Swift Ejaria
Joao

looks great on paper. Esp with Hoilett, Ince, Halilovic as options to replace that front 3. but with Pauno in charge, expect it will still stink the place out with slow negative tentative football

That does look good on paper. Good impact players too like Halilovic, Hoillet and TDB. could work.

[Stranded]

Well the manager is obviously the major issue now

I’m desperately trying to convince myself that we might now sack him as the window is shut and no incoming manager can make transfer demands and knows what he has to work with

If he isn’t gone after the Peterborough game, he isn't going. And I think it's hard to see him going before then given what he has survived already.

Yeah I think is this the case, he would have gone after Fulham if he was going at all. We have an owner who I doubt even knows our recent results so we have absolutely no chance of getting rid of him. That being said it doesn't mean our supporters shouldn't protest about it though.

Peterborough would be the cut off, esp if we keep losing. Naturally if we manage to pick up say 4 points from Bristol/Coventry, which isn't beyond the ability of the players we have (not sure I can use the word team at the moment).

[Sutekh]

So Derby's "fire sale" resulted them in losing none of their players for the rest of this season, and pocketing £1M.

Frankly, whoever the administrators are they have done a better job in this window then many people who are nominated as Director of Football!

Indeed although if they do end up being liquidated (it won’t happen) then there should be serious questions asked as to why the administrators didn’t sell player assets.
They must now be forced to pay all their debts in full. (which they won’t).

The media love in with Derby at the moment is nauseating.

If it was, say, Barnsley in Derby's financial mess I wonder if the media would approach it in the same way.

[Pepe the Horseman]

So Derby's "fire sale" resulted them in losing none of their players for the rest of this season, and pocketing £1M.

Frankly, whoever the administrators are they have done a better job in this window then many people who are nominated as Director of Football!

Indeed although if they do end up being liquidated (it won’t happen) then there should be serious questions asked as to why the administrators didn’t sell player assets.
They must now be forced to pay all their debts in full. (which they won’t).

The media love in with Derby at the moment is nauseating.

If it was, say, Barnsley in Derby's financial mess I wonder if the media would approach it in the same way.

Or Reading.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Possibly the club may have waited until outgoings before deciding on whether to sack Pauno or not. Again, I don't know how much of an influence our current FFP restrictions have on our ability to sack our manager as that comes at a cost and who knows whether our outgoings has brought in some capital via small loan fees as well as reduced wages which gives us enough to pay him off.

At this point, that's the only logical reason I can think of for not sacking Pauno at this point. Either that or he's glossed up a very convincing case to the owners and directors about the situations we have faced this month that has "bought" him more time.

[Hiram K Hackenbacker]

Possibly the club may have waited until outgoings before deciding on whether to sack Pauno or not. Again, I don't know how much of an influence our current FFP restrictions have on our ability to sack our manager as that comes at a cost and who knows whether our outgoings has brought in some capital via small loan fees as well as reduced wages which gives us enough to pay him off.

At this point, that's the only logical reason I can think of for not sacking Pauno at this point. Either that or he's glossed up a very convincing case to the owners and directors about the situations we have faced this month that has "bought" him more time.

I agree

[Snowflake Royal]

Whatever the case it's undermining the theory Dai sacks people as soon as he loses faith in them getting us promoted.

That ship sailed about 3 months ago

[Stranded]

Whatever the case it's undermining the theory Dai sacks people as soon as he loses faith in them getting us promoted.

That ship sailed about 3 months ago

Possible even Dai knows promotion was never a goer this year.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I'm not even sure where that theory comes from because I'm still not sold on what constitutes getting sacked at our club. Stam earned credibility for the season previous, but remained in charge for far too long, Clement barely got any time, then Gomes got 10 months, Bowen was just sacked out of the blue and now Pauno hasn't been sacked despite worrying form. I suppose all of the sackings had some obvious justification bar Bowen but it does all seem rather strange that Pauno and Stam have been gifted significantly more time than the others.

I'm not sure our season last time has earned Pauno enough stock to justify our results in our last 10 games, particularly who we've lost to, the scorelines and the manner of the results as well. Stam you could argue earned himself a buffer when times got tough, but they even took that too far. So much for learning from mistakes of the past.

[3points]

Pauno was Dai’s appointment whereas some of the others came via other people’s recommendations. He wants to stick with Pauno to prove himself right (which clearly he isn’t)

[Hound]

Doesn’t Kia have some manager mates he can suggest to Dai? Or was Pauno one of his originally?

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I wouldn't want to take another word of advice from Kia, he sounds about as toxic to a club as what a lot of agents are, namely Mina Raiola.

I would rather us make our decision, but then again I don't even trust that. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what DoF or manager we have, these issues all filter down from the top. As much as we do not like Gourlay, when he stepped in as Chief Executive with Nigel Howe moving to Vice-Chairman we had a mix between an experienced CEO in Gourlay who had been involved in football for 25 year prior to his appointment and Howe who had spent 20+ years at the club, yet we still encountered issues.

The decisions are coming from the owner and a lot of them, no matter what advice is being taken, have been wrong on a footballing level since day one and will likely continue for some time yet.

[Hound]

Just looking through the fixtures

Cardiff have Barnsley and Peterborough in their next 2. Derby have 2 games before we next play.

Table could look very different by the time we ply Bristol. Expecting cardiff to pull well clear