Teale's 'tache

For me 17th will do just fine, an extra season in the Prem gives us another £100m, another year to get the deadwood out of the squad and big wages off the books, then with a more settled team/squad we can really invest. We have to be wary of a worst case scenario, it would be bad management of the club not to. We can't just sign whoever we want on whatever wages, we need to be smarter than that. I love that the club is so positive, manager, players, fans, owners, but we have to be aware of the ramifications if we were to go down again. I like the way we play on the front foot, I like that we are a team that is willing to take a risk, it could work in our favour and bring us some wins from unlikely places/positions, at the same time we might get a bloodied nose from a few. We need to keep calm heads and roll with those punches. It's going to be a hard slog, we are going to have to integrate a lot of new players and at the same time hit the ground running. We can't afford many bad signings, how we invest in the summer is vital. There is potential that we can do better than 17th no doubt, but we aren't Wolves, they were in a more settled position, they kept all of their players and added where needed, not the wholesale changes we require, and they can attract players others can't because of their links with Mendes. I think 40 points should be our target and anything else is a bonus.

Terry has always been one to test himself against the best, I'm sure he'll want to test his defence against the best next season. He's been very humble in his approach to coaching and management and I think he realises there's still a lot to learn from Smith and O'Kelly, I would like to think he'll be around next season, he's on to a good thing here and it's too soon for him to take the Chelsea job which I'd imagine is his end goal. Fair play to him, he's been a real professional.

It would certainly of been tough, Norwich managed it after losing their best players but that is certainly the exception and not the rule. The problem would of been our wage budget more than anything, it's hard to build a team to wage structure when hamstrung by players on big money who you aren't going to play. We may of had to play Hogan had we not gone up, maybe even McCormack... there's a chilling thought...

I mean at least there's a chance he might play if he doesn't fall apart, but whoever negotiated the wages for these players needs a serious paddling...

I'm so happy that Richards contract is up and those dark transfer days are behind us, and then I remember we still have Hogan and McCormack, it's like that Drake meme in reverse...

We have been linked with a few of their players, but that may just be because of the Dean Smith connection, they have some decent players but I don't know if they are up to the quality required where we are going. They do play some nice stuff too, but if they are as good as they seem to think they'd be the ones getting promoted Hogan scored buckets of goals for them which is why I thought they might be interested in taking him on, especially if they were to lose Maupay.

His wages are the big stumbling block, otherwise I could see us using him as a makeweight in a deal with somebody like Brentford for a player we are interested in. Most likely it will be a loan though with us subsidising some of his wages. It's a shame it didn't work out, but not every transfer does, I don't think it's through lack of effort or desire, just circumstance and a loss of form.

I think loans are fine as long as there's an option to buy at the end of the loan, look at Jiminez and Johnny at Wolves last season. We need to plug a lot of gaps in the squad, loans can be useful way of doing this without spending a fortune in one summer and getting caught with FFP issues down the line. Also, if a loan doesn't work out it hasn't cost us a fee and 4 years worth of wages, see McCormack... I'm not saying all loans, but a few to supplement other signings could work well

Very true, also my concern with Philips from Leeds, looks like he'd be a walking red card in the Premier League. There are a lot of considerations in every transfer, we need to be smart, assess what we actually need in terms of age, position, character, discipline, talent and ambition. We also need to consider how someone fits in to the group, like the Tammy v Mitrovic debate, we already know Tammy fits in the group well, Mitrovic is known to be trouble but he's proven himself in the Premier League, these factors need to be weighed up before making a decision on either one.

We need to sign Mings so bad, I'm not sure I can make peace with the world if we don't.

Was a vital part of the game for him to be thrown in at, he coped pretty well with it I thought, one shaky moment when he tried to step up and got caught in no mans land but he bust a gut to get back and put their player under pressure. Couple of big clearances as well. I don't know if he's good enough for the Premier League just yet, seems a distance behind Tuanzebe and Mings, but he's shown a willingness to improve and a hunger to play, I think if the fee is as low as some are saying we should take chance on him and see how much more he can improve.

Love this guy! Solid, consistent and really seems a team player, we will need guys like him where we going!

I agree, we got in to some good areas but didn't force your keeper into any real saves, Grealish had a couple of opportunities to do so but he wasn't quite at it. Cagey games like yesterday rarely throw up lots of chances. I think you just expect the last 10 minutes when a team is really going for it that your keeper is going to have to do something special to keep them out, but it just never quite materialised. As mentioned at the end of my post we made the least mistakes which was the main difference between the two teams. I think the fact you were missing a few players probably didn't help with this, but also changing up your formation/tactics seemed to cause a little confusion which probably didn't help either. I really hope you guys re-group and have a good run at it again next season, you try to play football the right way and your fans are a credit to your club. I hope Lampard sticks with you and keeps improving as well, I think he'll be kicking himself but he seems the type that learns from mistakes/experiences and comes out the side stronger. Best of luck!

This. He's deserves the chance to follow up on an excellent end to the season, Kalanic may be our #1 in the future, but Jed is in possession of the shirt for me, and I can see him improving more and more as his confidence grows.

Wanted to get Grealish levels of drunk when that final whistle blew and but for wife/children/work I would of done! Loving it in work today though, Wolves fans in my office are getting a little worried now! The game itself wasn't much of a spectacle, the pressure really got to both teams in the first half, it was very scrappy, then from nowhere really we played a lovely bit of football back to front which brought the goal, fortunate it came of his back and went in, but the play up to that was excellent. Derby started too negative and seemed to be playing a system a little alien to them, they couldn't seem to get enough men up the pitch and when they finally started to press our defence we cut right through them. At half time I expected Lampard to right his errors and change things up, he didn't and that seemed to help us grow in to the game more in second half, the second goal was coming but the circumstances made it seem out of the blue, it was very welcome and gave us some breathing room. As soon as Lampard hooked Huddlestone and changed the system they instantly looked more dangerous but still didn't really bring a save from Steer, I liked how we played at this stage, we didn't drop in and try to man the barricades, we still had a go at them, kept breaking when they came forward, kept men up the pitch, it made it so much harder for them to commit as many men forward as they wanted. For the goal we got a bit stretched and Mings looked like he had saved the day, if he hadn't of injured himself in the process we may not of conceded at all. The goal did force us to sit deeper inevitability, but we still tried to break when their final ball broke down. The last 20 minutes or so were nervous, but again I don't think Steer had anything difficult to do, just collect a few crosses and land on a few loose balls. Smith went with what got us there and the player had full trust in that, I think Lampard over thought things, maybe because of the results earlier in the season and he was too passive. In the end we made the least mistakes, showed the most intent and were braver in the way we set up. We deserved it! UTV!

I want my colon back...

I'm stressed about how stressed I'm going to be later, it's so stressful being this stressed.

This weekend is lasting forever! I just hope we keep our heads, don't panic if we go behind, and play the way we know we can. I trust the staff to get the preparations right, the players will need to turn up, handle the pressure and execute the game plan. It's won't be easy, Derby are in good form and have their tails up after the Leeds result, they will enjoy being the underdogs and being written off, it's easy motivation for them. I believe we are good enough and brave enough. We can do this!

The yellow designs have had a very mixed reaction, and I thought the black/green would be the most divisive! Just goes to show how important market research can be, and how good a job they did with the strip this season

It's interesting to hear all the feedback on these, should send this thread off to Kappa for free market research! I expected mixed reviews to the green and black but I've been surprised how many don't like a yellow kit.

Here you go, with a couple more variations...

Yeah that shouldn't be a problem, I'll put a design together next time I'm at my computer

I agree that having a good strategy is important, but it also depends on how far along in that strategy you are, Wolves only signed 5 or 6 new(meaning not on loan the previous season) when they came up, some of them were loans and not all of them went straight in to the first team. They could get away with this because they had a solid base and managed to get the players they'd loaned the previous season on permanent deals, so they kept continuity and added in positions they needed the most. If you look at Liverpool they can afford to not really play some of their signings for several months while they get used to the system/culture because they have such a solid base. If we go up and don't get the loan players on permanent deals then we'll need to replace them, and then improve the others areas, which would mean trying to integrate too many new players in to the first team. I don't think European players has to be specifically the direction we go in, I think a mix of both European and British is better, but we need to ensure new players will fit the system and the group they are going to be working in and not just signing somebody because they are a 'big name' or play for a 'big club'.

I think although the temptation to splash the cash would be there, what we will need should we go up is some continuity. Dean Smith has done an outstanding job getting the way he want's to play across to the players in the middle of a season, but that kind of thing isn't going to fly in the Premiership, we'd need to be at it from the start. We can't afford a quite few months while half a team gets used to the system. Many people on this thread have pointed out that the first thing we need to do is lock down the loan signings that have done so well for us, I agree completely, I don't even mind paying a little over the odds to get them so we can keep the core group, and then we'd need to strengthen in a few areas with new players (i.e left back and right wing). We'd need to be wary of doing a Fulham, signing top players from Europe is not as easy as the likes of Wolves make it look...

Seeing as you guys seemed to like my first foray in to kit design, thought I'd do an update with correct sponsor and added white and yellow/black version. As you can tell I'm not at all just trying to pass the time until there's a certain football match being played on Monday...