Tickle Tackle - Demolition Derby
Tuesday, 8th Jan 2008 20:03 by Steve Tickle

After Sunday's FA Cup tie it was abundantly clear which option Paul Jewell needs to take to get the Rams back on track.

Yet again, the game was punctuated by stupid individual mistakes that a manager just can't account for. You can get people physically fit, you can coach and you can work on players' confidence but if they continually make stupid mistakes you'd be disappointed to see on a parks pitch there's not a lot you can do other than dump them and play someone else in their place. I've certainly thought for a week or two that the only way to go was to completely dismantle the squad and rebuild it again.

In 2007 that wasn't really an option open to PJ but now the transfer window has opened it's pretty obvious he's reached the same conclusion and has lost no time in doing something about it.

What's more, you can tell by the players he's trying to bring in that he's going to give the remainder of the season a damned good go and if we are to go down, at least we'll go down kicking and screaming. That's all any Rams fan expects.

He's had to take a few gambles though. It's always difficult for a player to settle when he moves clubs. More so when he moves to a different country and more so again when he moves to a different continent. That applies regardless of the player's ability. Emanuel Villa is going to have to get used to a different climate, different way of life and learn a new language. Hopefully, he'll be able to settle in quickly, we're certainly going to need every goal that he can score. He certainly looks the part and from the quotes I've read, he's coming in with his eyes open and the right attitude and at least he's been able to train with his new team mates for the last couple of weeks.

PJ has taken another gamble with Robbie Savage. As I write, he's yet to sign but the deal looks to be all but done. It's a big gamble because Savage is hardly a favourite at Pride Park (that must be the understatement of the century). Opinion is split amongst Rams fans about whether he'll be a good signing or not. Personally, I'd much rather PJ had looked elsewhere for the qualities he says Savage will bring to the club but since I wasn't asked and as I'm a Rams fan first and foremost, I hope his time at Pride Park is successful. I can't see him ever being a hero of mine though.

The signing of Lauren Robert is another calculated risk. Robert has talent to spare but his attitude has always been questionable. However, he's looking to put himself back in the shop window and get a contract next year. That may not be at Pride Park, whatever division we're playing in. It may not even be in England but the crucial point is that it's up to him to do the stuff to win that contract. He'll certainly bring in a level of talent and ability that we haven't seen in a Rams shirt for far too many seasons.

Not content to stop there, PJ has also secured the services of Spurs' Hossam Ghaly until the end of the season, subject to the granting of a work permit. Ghaly is another player with a rather chequered past but again, he has talent and maybe he's learnt his lessons now and is willing to buckle down. He's another player, like Robert, with something to prove.

You can see what PJ is trying to do. Initially short contracts with the onus on the player to earn something better and you can't argue that he's not bringing in a better quality player than we already have. Players are surely going to be leaving to make way for the new guys and hopefully bring some money in to offset what we've spent.

Earnshaw and Barnes must be favourites to go. Earnshaw has done nothing since he arrived but we should still be able to get a good proportion of the £3m it took to bring him to the club. Giles Barnes would normally be a player we'd want to keep but I feel that if West Ham are prepared to give us £5m for him, as has been rumoured, we should snap their hands off.

The spending hopefully hasn't finished yet anyway. It looks like we're in for Jermaine Beckford of Leeds, who are busy trying to warn us off him. That looks to me like another way of saying “up the price a bit more and he's yours”. And then of course we're now struggling for a goalkeeper. The media have been linking us with Thomas Sorensen of Villa but the word on the street is it's Boaz Myhill of Hull City we're actually chasing. The next few days will tell over those two deals anyway.

What's going to be pretty clear in any event is that we're going to be going into February with a much changed (and hopefully much better) squad than we started January with... one that hopefully will make the second half of the season much more enjoyable for Rams fans than the first half has been.

The transfer window doesn't help the smaller clubs and it certainly hasn't helped us not being able to strengthen throughout the season. Now it's here though, PJ looks to be making good use of it... doing what should have been done last summer - and as a side effect, the media also seem to be treating us with a little more respect now.