Sunbury Fox

Hmmm. Surely our main priority at this point has to be some midfield creativity, especially as funds are so tight?

So not an outright creative midfielder then?

A couple of changes - Mike and Salisbury out, with Walker and Wood brought in. Happy for Wood to have a go but never been impressed by Walker. Assume Mike must have an injury?

What kind of midfielder, is he?

Do you think he is really a winger, though, rather than a 10? Not really sure why I'm bothering to ask you this stuff as I'm sure he'll be off to Rennes anyway.

What's your view on how good he is?

Superb player. So sad to hear of his passing at such a young age. RIP Thorpey.

Not at all convinced by this lad but beggars can't be choosers.

My conclusion is that there is no clear strategy at the club. We have become a BTEC version of Man U.

True but I think many fans are so desperate now that they are pouncing on any link at the moment in the vague hope that the club might actually be planning to start the new PL season with a better starting XI than in the Championship.

So he'll be joining Everton then.

Given the mess Warwickshire made of our run rate, looks like the best we can manage is 3rd place in the group, given the form of Warwickshire and Glamorgan.

Nasty bunch down there. Nice to beat them.

Cooper must think he is in some sort of parallel universe working with our "recruitment" team after his experience at Forest where he was presented with a new player daily for a whole summer.

I missed the last 10 or so overs. What did they do this time?

This is worrying to be honest. They seem unaffected by the scoreboard pressure and still have Alsop and Simpson to come.

This looks like an excellent batting track and they have a very decent batting line up. This is not all over.

Starting to throw away wickets regularly again...

Of that list we'd probably target Sczesny and Rugani, given our obsession with signing GKs and CBs.

I get your point but it's still annoying that they have basically rolled over for 4 other teams and have then decided to play a much stronger team against us. We certainly owe them one after the 2 heroic defeats down there in the last 2 seasons, when some of their behaviour in the first of those games was appalling.

I think the most we can hope for is a plucky Luton-style campaign where we give it a go but inevitably fall short in terms of quality. Unless we add some real quality in the next 2 weeks, there is zero chance that we will stay up, especially given the impending points deduction.

Given our impending big points deduction, I honestly think there is a chance that we'll break Derby's record low points tally this season. Getting promoted and losing your manager and best player is a recipe for disaster, especially as there is no sign of our bringing in an adequate replacement for said best player. Can't remember a time when I felt this negative about a coming season.

To be honest, I think the lack of signings reflects the fact that we are just not an attractive proposition at the moment. Players know we're about to get a huge points deduction and are likely to get relegated, so they're not keen to join, especially as, thankfully, we're not going to bribe them to come by offering silly wages like we have in the past.

I think the reason we have an older team in this is because the players we have lost to the Hundred are all young. Out of necessity, we've actually been giving young players more first team chances than the likes of Essex do. Nevertheless, I would definitely look to give Sam Wood a go in this instead of someone like Salisbury. It would be good to give him some experience and I'm pretty sure he'd be at least as effective as Salisbury, based on his T20 efforts.

It's bad enough being reduced to taking unwanted players from the likes of Fulham and Palace. The thought of taking rejects from Forest would be a step too far, surely.