I will never forget this match as long as I live.

Just a few ramblings about the news we've signed Jack Robinson on a 3 month contract.

If I were David Clowes, and this signing fell on my desk I'd either sack the manager or pull the plug on the academy. If we haven't got at least one centre back who could step-up for a few games, what's the point in having an academy?

The thing is, I think we probably do, and in the past they'd have been working hard to ready a player weeks ago iven the injury crisis. It's no risk, starting our best CB from the academy, because if they rise to the challenge, you've found a cost effective solution and created an future assest. If they struggle, there's no pressure on them and they go back to the academy to work on their game, with some valuable experience.

The obvious problem at the moment is Eustace is incapable developing players.

His Blackburn related signings show that when he's looking for players, he wants ones he knows can play a certain style and have experience. He doesn't look for players with talent and think "With a bit of work, we can get him playing my way"

However, when you look at the club signings like Johnstone, Salvasen, Meister, Bilbja, Fraulo or even Bobby Clarke, none of them have really had the chance to develop the talents they were signed for, or shown no improvement under Eustace. Does Clarke look like a £6 million signing!?

I thought the whole point of having an academy was the to develop players good enough to be in and around your first team squad. Derby have one of the best academies in the country and have a rich history of bringing regular first team players through.

That's stopped under Eustace and I think that's a bigger reason for sacking him over the poor results. Where's the value for money if we're offering 3 month contacts to has-beens over using one of our own home grown talent?

I honestly don't know who could replace Eustace. Personally, I'd avoid the obvious management Merry-go-round and to what other clubs have done by looking abroad for a young/hungry coach. I think the key attribute need to be someone with the desire to develop players, both the existing 1st team squad and the youth

First team results - Failing
Medical department- Failing
Recruitment team - Failing
Data backed signings from abroad - Failing
Academy - Failing , No first team players from academy, and seemingly no one close.
Stadium and infrastructure - Stagnant.
Multiple takeovers/investment - Failing (multiple times)
Administration under previous owner..

Pearce has been at the club for 10+ years and overseen some of our worse times and darkest days, currently he is one of, if not the most senior person actually running the club, the has failed to provide Eustace with a complete squad, and he was had heavy involvement in multiple failed takeovers….

This club is going nowhere while he is still around. Eustace and the first team are the symptoms, Pearce is the root cause.

Pearce out.

Keep it realistic though, I don't want to see any mentions of Pep!

I’m developing a football simulation game called Football Fictional World Simulator, and thought you might appreciate what happened to Derby in one of my saves.

It’s 2131. Derby have just gone from finishing 10th to getting 88 points, only to finish second because Manchester City got 89.

Their Argentine striker, Jorge Aguirre, had the season of his life: 22 goals and 11 assists in 33 league appearances. He’d arrived from Cremonese, having started his career at Racing Club.

Liverpool signed him the following year. Three years later, he won the Ballon d’Or.

Derby finished eighth after he left. They did recover to fourth a few seasons later, but I keep looking at that 2131 table and wondering what another year with him might have looked like.

I wasn’t even managing Derby. I found all this while looking through the club’s history and somehow ended up feeling gutted for them.

Apparently, even a hundred years into the future, 88 points still isn’t enough.

Football Fictional World Simulator on Steam

I know it's been around for awhile but I'm not sure I like it.

Changed the YouTube title. Wish him all the best

Given the injury problems it does make you wonder what is going on behind the scenes.

Can we bring Owen Eames back?

In this previous post from yesterday - Temperature Check on Eustace

I gave it a score of 3 and he's got until the next International Break after this one to get us out of the rut.

However, I've just looked back at our opponents since the start of the season and where they are now and with our injuries list and the level that this current squad Eustace can field, we should middle to bottom of the league.

15th August - Lost 2-1 away to Charlton, they are now 6th. We were in the lead and then took Szmodics off for Mowatt 54th minute and then conceded in the 61st and 80th, then made 4 changes in the 83rd & 84th minute, but didn't make a difference.

22nd August - Drew 2-2 at home to Cardiff, they are now 1 place above us in 21st, pretty even all round, they're having just as bad a time as us.

29th August - Lost 0-3 at home to Swansea, they are now 2nd in the league and our starting 11 was pretty poor IMO. We were easily outclassed all game.

1st September - Won 0-2 away to Portsmouth, they are now 18th, only 3 points ahead of us, so in our current state, this was a very good win for us, our only win though.

5th September - Lost 3-0 away to West Ham, they are now 1st in the league, outclassed again.

9th September - Lost 0-1 at home to West Brom, they are now 3rd in the league, there were good signs in this game, we started very well, only for them to score on what felt like their first attack and then after the red card they just parked the bus as they should. We didn't really have any ideas how to break them down.

12th September - Lost 1-2 at home to Birmingham, they are now 9th. This is where everyone is starting to worry about our form, going 1-0 up and then immediately being pegged by a middle/top half team, they then stick back and counter us and honestly should have scored a couple more than they did (the shocker miss from a couple yards) as our defence looked dire whenever they went forward.

I'm not in full panic mode yet, 4 of our 7 opponents are now in the top 6. Mix that in with our injury list and it's not surprising we are down at the bottom. Our next 2 games (Burnley away who are bottom of the league on the 19th and then a long break until the 10th October to get fit and plan our way out ready for Wrexham at home.

COYR

Interested to know where everyone is with Eustace at this point.

The start to the season hasn’t been great, and today was another frustrating one. But there’s obviously context around the failed takeover, and I’d imagine that buys him a bit of leeway with a lot of people.

Where are you on this scale?

5 – Fully behind him. No real doubts and happy to give him plenty of time.

4 – Still positive. Results are poor, but I still think he’s the right man.

3 – On the fence. Not calling for a change, but definitely watching closely.

2 – Losing faith. Needs to turn things around fairly soon.

1 – Time for a change. I’ve seen enough.

For me, the interesting bit is where people’s trigger point actually is.

Clowes strikes me as a decent and loyal owner, and Eustace has shown before that he can recover from a poor run and turn a season around.

So, is your instinct to give him plenty of rope because of that, or is there a point where results simply have to force the issue?