And made it pretty clear that he thought the signings were shit… Sounds familiar

Anyone for joint managers? Michael Duff and Damien Duff ”Duff and Duffer” 😁 Cover the bus in fur and get Netflix involved on our journey to Aspen Wembley… Maybe we could get Jim Carrey to chuck us a few quid or make an appearance…

Anyone know what his current contract is? Seem to think it is well below the level of other players in our squad that could be considered comparable (pretty much guaranteed starter or worst case sub if totally out of form)? Quite simply if he is being offered less than Buckley or JRC then i have full respect for him not even engaging in the discussion although i think any move will be to a mid - lower level championship team (possibly a newly promoted team if they have some money)

Reading it again (and taking it for what it is worth) - only Gary O'Neill is mentioned in connection with the actual process at the club. The rest are effectively dismissed as speculation, hearsay or being pushed by agents... All depends on his comp package - if he has been paid a sum to terminate the contract then could be game on. If he forfeits income by taking a new job at Rovers in the (self) belief that he can get us over the line this season then fair play to him (though i suppose he could find another club in summer provided he can negotiate a "walk away" clause)

Who is at 33-1? 😉

Either something is known or they really don't have a clue on how to price it as by now there SHOULD be indications of who the favourites really are if it is a genuine search. Either way they suspect that someone somewhere already knows who it will be (IMO) The above applies if they have genuinely "closed the book" - a quick chat message / mail with a request for odds for Rob Edwards would probably give you an answer

Having known people spend 30 quid on petrol to save 10 quid on a product they would not be unique in this form of stupidity

I agree in theory - it is an exciting and somewhat unusual opportunity and SHOULD be very attractive for any half decent coach/manager who is currently out of work or looking to move upwards in the football world. I just have zero faith in our management (and/or owners) not putting so many caveats and being too tight to offer a decent reward for promotion that "top" managers and coaches would say "forget it" after being messed about... My hope is that if we recruit externally - we genuinely find another underrated coach that delivers beyond our expectations

So the question for any potential candidate could be if they are willing to have Boateng as assistant with Gestede as DOF and the other coaches ”as is”. That rules out pretty much any established manager that the salary and Vs reputation haven’t already scared off…

Not sure what we pay our head coach but I’m guessing our actual cost for the last 2.5 years has been fuck all! Are our owners actually stupid or are they playing 4d chess that we just can’t comprehend 🤔😉

Boateng and Boa Morte will be cheap and, initially, compliant and probably accept whatever contract is put to them. Sold as being ”High profile former players” akin to Gerrard but a damn cheaper - sound like something Suhail would want and Barry Mantits would lap up?

The bit in bold is sort of my point - the transfer team is always at the whim of our owners. Of course I’m guessing about JE “meddling” - i might be completely wrong. As it is we have spent very little but fair play to both JE and the recruitment team - most signings have done ok/well and have been integrated into the team/squad on merit.

PMSL despite being slightly afraid that there may be an element of truth in it... -🤯

Having half decent options on the bench/in the squad I would say is the biggest difference. We are missing 2 left backs, 2 central defenders, a starting CM and 2-3 attacking players yet we could still make changes without weakening the team as a whole or having most of the team blowing out their arses on 85 minutes

Most players contracts include an appearance bonus - if we are picking up a part of his wage then i assume any "individual/performance add-ons" are to be covered by us

Bring Kenny as "moral support" and let them get on with it. New manager/head coach usually wants to demonstrate who is boss and inevitably some players get disturbed. Kenny is canny enough to only interfere if it starts going tits up and wouldn't feel the need to prove anything if Lowe is doing the job with Johnson, Benson and Sheron. Only question is if it will affect us on a different level as we are effectively 3 coaches short compared to a month ago

We are paying Siggy 18k a week to sit at home...

Read that somewhere yesterday - not sure if it was on the Derby site, BBC or another news outlet (Guardian??). It was phrased as "wanting to feel the buzz of Pride Park without causing a fuss as the deals weren't signed and sealed" (paraphrasing as i can't find the article again

Suhail - always Suhail (even if he is not one of the three involved 😉)

Given what our core players are achieving after different coaching I would suggest (rightly or wrongly) that JE believed he could have got a tune out of Gallagher and having seen the recruitment 1 year earlier (Telalovic and Ennis) was scared stiff of what would be brought in to replace him and Szmodics... That JE demanded more of an influence in transfer targets as time went on is pretty standard stuff - the question is how was this handled internally? If internal communications are even close to the clusterfuck that is our external communication then i would suspect it was not handled in a professional manner...

Do you think JE could just leave when he wanted to? It required someone to pay it and Derby were willing to do that. Not sure he’ll be on more money but he now has an income until summer 2028 regardless of what happens. IF he stayed - would another club pay the fee required when so many more managers are potentially available during the summer as opposed to mid season? Not a chance he felt was worth taking despite a playoff chance at Rovers. That screams to me that he was absolutely desperate to leave - regardless of destination. His past at Derby was just window dressing

That is me being optimistic 😉

Rob Edwards as he is someone who has done it before and might stick around to keep us in the championship next season… If we had different owners I might consider Warnock but no way in hell is he coming here after the coyle fiasko (yes I know I’m choosing but can’t ignore the big fat turd on the carpet that is the Vs)

The magic number (Coyle was also 33/1)

Tinfoil hat on: club delays an appointment until the summer. Suhail and Steve get a bonus for keeping costs well below the budget (750 and 3 wages ) Summer transfer window and contract renewals delayed whilst we appoint a coach… edit: PR dept puts out that they didn’t want to risk disrupting our promotion bid