All in all a good couple of weeks, and.....

Cheers Sheepy!

Iwas, you're not actually accusing some people on here of twisting the words of others to suit their own agenda, are you?

Trouble is, Mostyn, when push comes to shove, your judgement of managers looks to be about as good as your judgement of players ('Waste of peanuts', anyone?)

I respect Mostyn for his passion towards Derby, but sometimes emotion seems to blind him from being fair.

As Iwaslevel said, the nine players we signed cost a fraction of Leicester's outlay and we bought cost-effective players to cover positions and bring a thin squad up to numbers. Apart from Shackell, the signings made were relatively modest.

We forget the chaos of last season when Clough was forced to shop around at the worst time of year (January) and he managed to pick up Ward & Robinson for about £500k and both have been key players this season.

A supposedly more self-assured & experienced manager would have to operate the same budget restrictions. The simple truth is that we cannot go out and buy quality because that costs money - which isn't available.

OOE, I was an am a lot kinder than most people here were about Theo. I still think he's not really one for the future and as I stated in the post that's been quoted, IF we were building a team to gain promotion and stay in the Premier League (which, if you werent twisting my words, was the topic of the peanuts article, "cant build a good team with peanuts", Theo would still not be considered good enough, in the same class as your Sharp, Lambert, Holt, etc who would score the 20 a season you need.

Bob, so what? What difference does it make? Liverpool spent more on Carroll than Man United did on Rooney? Does that mean Carroll should be better than Rooney? NO! It means Liverpool were more desperate to buy than Man United were, also Newcastle were less desperate to sell Carroll than Everton were Rooney.

So in the case of Leicester and us, well I compare Barker from Blackpool with Mills from Reading. Blackpool were a languishing club in need of money, Reading weren't. Had Barker been at another club, that club might and would've been able to command a bigger price. Quite simple really, think of Ferrie Bodde.

To pick out ONE player who cost £5m is a bit extreme. Especially when their GK was free, their LB was free, their midfielder was free, one or their strikers was free etc etc etc.

Mostyn, are you talking about the likes of Scmeichel and Konchesky here? The fee for both was "undisclosed", but estimated at 1.25 million for Scmeichel and 1.5 million for Konchesky. Both will also cost Leicester millions in wages over the course of their contracts. There can be no comparison between Leicester and Derby at the moment when it comes to spending power and wages.

Nugent is on 25k a week at Leicester. Id like to see a real figure of Leicester's wage bill compared to Derby's.

I'm starting to think Mostyn genuinely believes what he types!

Mostyn, I am referring to your 'peanuts' article a few months ago, and I'm pretty sure that your damning assessment of Theo was 'waste of peanuts'.

I'm not suggesting that he's a world-beater - sometimes he's not even an egg-beater - but he's got one ability that cannot be coached, boiled down and distilled or even truly defined.

He has the ability to be in the right place at the right time. What he is learning is the finishing to go alongside his 'just being there' skill.

Mostyn
I think the above posters answered your question regarding 'free' signings. They aren't, because the club pays higher wages instead - as seen by Derby under Jewell.