chinapig

There are certainly those who accuse him of having a bad attitude, something for which I know of no evidence. Others accuse him of being lazy, which I also don't see. If anything he sometimes tries too hard, and ends up losing the team shape. There have certainly been no Bakinson style comments from Nigel, who tends not to hold back. He just doesn't seem to be tactically disciplined, which may be why no manager has got a consistent tune out of him. He seems to be a perfectly decent young man who doesn't deserve the hostility he gets at times. I wish him well.

Didn't something like that happen when Aubameyang left Arsenal?

They must be gutted that with the Gas being promoted they've missed out on their cup final. Not often they get to play against such a huge club.

Seems to have a good reputation as a coach so good luck to him.

Tibia or not tibia, that is the question.

I tend to agree in principle but once Nigel is in place it becomes a question of whether he wants to work with a DoF. Maybe he would like a head of recruitment accountable to him rather than a DoF to whom he is accountable. Or indeed neither. We don't know. As to appointing managers, Steve isn't going to delegate that even to someone much more expert than him. Which brings us back to why we have no DoF

An odd way of reporting it don't you think? Removed from the squad and sent home after one sub appearance suggests more than simply being dropped. I conclude that none of the reports we are getting are reliable.

When Nigel was asked about this he said we would not be appointing a DoF. What we don't know of course is whether he agreed with that decision.

Reportedly, yes.

Despite another promised deadline being broken Derby fans don't seem to be bothered. They seem to have the same faith in him that they had in Morris.

Ashton signing a load of Balls as usual then.

Alternatively, giving a charlatan of a Chief Executive total freedom to spend as much as he fancied and massively increase the wage bill while leaving us with a bloated and unbalanced squad. This from an owner who preaches sustainability and has always been in favour of a wage cap. So by his own standards it is rather a mess.

It's generally been reported that Beale was the coaching brain in the partnership so the same may be true of Critchley. Nothing wrong with that, not all managers are hands on coaches. But Critchley has moved away from being the boss at Blackpool to being the right hand man at Villa, which is not the usual career path. Which again is fine, he may just have found that he prefers it that way.

When the Gas open their impressive new stadium (in August I believe) I wonder how long it will be before they get all nostalgic for the good old days of tents??

Critchley was at Liverpool of course and highly regarded by Klopp. Still, unusual for somebody to go from being a manager to an assistant. Though I imagine Villa are paying him a lot more than Blackpool did.

Football welcomes money from appalling regimes. Brum may get some minor sanction for failure to declare but the association with a murderous dictator is unlikely to bother the EFL I suspect.

Thanks, yes it is. Reep does indeed tend to be misinterpreted and didn't get the credit he deserved. If anything it's a surprise analytics didn't become fully embedded in the English game until relatively recently.

Both of whom Alan Dicks tried to sign

The role of non-execs should be to challenge the executive. But imagine a scenario where an independent non-exec said to Ashton: "Mark, why are you increasing the wage bill to unsustainable levels?" "Because Steve told me I could." "Ok, meeting closed, gin and tonics all round?" The last thing Steve is going to tolerate is what is in effect criticism of him.

Nasser Al-Khelaifi, President of PSG, is also President of the European Clubs Association and highly influential in UEFA. Aleksander Čeferin, President of UEFA has already rejected Real Madrid's complaints and declared that PSG have not breached FFP. There is no threat to PSG on the horizon therefore.

Chosen by Ben Fisher who is I believe one of our own. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/may/30/football-league-teams-of-the-season-2021-22 Note also that they name <ahem> Kane Wilson League 2 player of the season.

Due to be finalised tomorrow according to Kirchner. Posted this a couple of days ago. Haven't seen any details about the stadium, creditors and so on though. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61605694

Thanks Dave. Even if the deal goes through tomorrow there is an awful lot here that should worry Derby fans as to how much money Kirchner actually has and in particular the power MSD has over the club. The latter is a bit like Chelsea where the majority shareholder is Clearlake Capital not Ted Boehly - who has the real power there? I can see more trouble coming down the track post takeover.

We don't have the money to pay the loan fees and wages involved. They don't come cheap.

That's a pretty fat hornet! Brentford perhaps?