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A perspective and a plea

ilkleyram

By ilkleyram
in Derby County Forum

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ilkleyram

ilkleyram

Posted
Posted

When you reach a certain age you start to count backwards.  I reckon that if I am fated to have reasonable health for the rest of my life I will probably have about 15 more seasons watching my Rams live rather than on TV.  It gives you a different perspective from when I was properly young, it will come to you all and the seasons pass quicker than you think they will. So enjoy them.

It was Shanks that said that football was more important than life.  I like to think that he would have changed his mind after 1989 because he was a decent man. Football and the club you support is important, but life is more so and as someone said on these pages last night, nobody has died after this season and after we didn’t get to Wembley.

Football is about entertainment too.  It is a game - bag of wind into a piece of string - and just as on Saturday I trod home with a heavy heart and step, then so I left the KC stadium last night, light of foot and sore of throat and with heart soaring.  That was a night to recall in the years beyond the days when I can actually make it to the Ipro.  The other 2499 who were there to watch made it special before, during and after the final whistle had gone; the team, on and off the pitch, made it special with a performance that almost made history and probably deserved to do so. 

Those who say ‘yes, but we lost overall’ are correct of course, but you miss the point.  Sometimes sport and competition is about more than winning or losing, sometimes it’s about the spirit and the performance. And last night was just such an occasion.  I suspect that we have won more self respect and other friends in losing the tie but playing the way we did than we would have done by winning more ordinarily.  I cannot recall in 50 plus years of watching ever being applauded by opposition fans as we were last night. Decent people in Hull.

To those who ape Peter Beagrie and say this has been a disappointing season I say ‘rubbish’.  Disappointing seasons are for relegations and going into administrations. We improved on last season, we are well run off the pitch and on it not so far away from being a side capable of promotion from the toughest league of all. There were mediocre performances and entertainment to be had along the way but that’s been true of every season I have ever watched, and we have an owner prepared to say that he didn’t like what he was watching and then do something about it. That’s not a disappointing season, that’s a season of development and change that many others would have given their eye teeth to have had.

And the plea? It’s a hopeless one and I know that I am an old fart. 

I love this forum and its different views. Sometimes I’ve had my original opinion changed by contributions from others, I’ve laughed at the puns and the jokes and mostly I enjoy your company. But I despair sometimes at the vitriol that sometimes pours out both towards others and occasionally each other. Too much in modern life is excused as ‘banter’ or ‘passion’, aimed recently and particularly towards the likes of Darren Wassall and even Mel Morris, by keyboard warriors who happily write things that they would never say in public or to an individual’s face.

We are owned and run and the team is managed by decent human beings with the best interests of the club at heart. It hasn’t always been like that. They do their best and sometimes they make mistakes. The fact that they (probably) never read these columns doesn’t make it right that it is written.

Is it too much to ask that when we get going again that we retain our different views and arguments but express them in a way that we might if the person we were talking about were standing in front of us, whoever might be chosen to be our new Head Coach? We could call it The Forum Way, perhaps?

Have a fun close season and thank you to those of you there last night.

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Ewe Ram

Ewe Ram

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Well done for writing that! So much of it I could have written myself. I am a huge fan of the club and have supported more years than I care to admit even to myself. The days of genuine banter seem to have gone. 'Who's that copper with the helmet on?' sung at the BBG was funny, that's banter. The things that get said about Mel and Wassall in particular have made me quite sad. Mel is a Derby man, would we prefer a foreign flashy owner? No, I wouldn't. Derby is a footballing city and it really is in our DNA it seems. Wassall does not deserve vitriol, he's a clown, clueless, called Darren Waffle. He's passionate, he cares and he's made mistakes, he's human. Do you want a recycled manager who's been sacked a dozen times for his failures? Football isn't like consumerism, you don't always get what you pay for. If you can't live with that then you should save your money and get Netflix. 

So if you have a poor opinion of someone by all means say what you don't agree with but the childish insults are beyond boring now. 

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Bilbo

Bilbo

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Can't say I agree with everything that's been said here, but well done. A great piece that I have no place with arguing about as it's clearly from the heart.

Thanks for turning yesterdays underlying disappointment into something to smile about at work.

Football means so much to so many.

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SaintRam

SaintRam

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I was going to post a gif but as I only use them to be sarcastic I won't.

A lot of people on here could do with a big booster shot of perspective 

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Casio

Casio

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Well written, intelligent post. 

We all get frustrated, but I wouldn't have it any other way. The highs and the lows are all a part of football, if we didn't have the low's we wouldn't appreciated the good times. Why it must be so amazing to be genuine Leicester fan now, sure they're having way more fun than any Chelsea supporter had last season with their title win!

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PistoldPete2

PistoldPete2

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30 minutes ago, angieram said:

Great post, @ilkleyram - I  nearly missed it in the plethora of new manager threads on here! 

Deserves bumping up so a few more can read it. 

yes well bumped.. i missed it too.

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BOB BIGGS

BOB BIGGS

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I've been away so missed the Play Offs. Significant Highs and Lows in just 2 games by the sounds of it. Our performances appear to have been chalk and cheese. 50 plus years a fan so I'm used to it. I still love it all.

As for the original post on this thread by Ilkleyram - brilliant, just brilliant. It won't happen because too many of our younger brothers have been born into a different world where their levels of expectation outweigh reality.

There's nothing wrong in hoping though. To remove some or all of those nasty, tasteless, ill-conceived comments would make this Forum an ever better place. I look forward to next season with renewed hope:)

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Reithe glas

Reithe glas

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Great balanced post. Just two little things. It always grates a bit with me when I hear the oft misused shankly quote "football isn't a matter of life and death, it's more important than that". It was obviously a clever joke but just that. There's no way he ever meant it to be taken seriously at any stage and therefore wouldn't have had to change his mind about it. Secondly, while you're dead right to encourage a sense of perspective and cup half full outlook, I'd be worried that our players have too much of it and are happy with their lot in the championship. We're a big enough club to have Premiership ambitions and maybe need a bit of ruthlessness. Other than that, enjoyed your post big time.

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trevor1946

trevor1946

Posted
Posted

Wow,a great view from a,happy chappy,15 years to go,you are a lucky ,proud of so many millions being wasted,.

Proud of seeing,good people sacked,,proud of, spin,that Glick   ,could only dream off,To be proud of the teams performance against Hull justified,but the over the season with the millions spent on the squad,the season was poor,

Keogh-Bryson-Hendricks-Hughes-Martin-Russell-,Christie,,observation why didn't our ,big money signings.turn up

,Championship is nothing but 2nd division football,and over the last 3 years,many changes have been made,and the bottom line is failure,.if progress had been made,3 Head Coaches would not have been used, And we would not be looking for a

is it a manager or Head Coach,,Be nice if we all had rose tinted glasses,.

But money talks so maybe if we throw enough at it,,  Players moving on,its only the old guard,were money can be made,.

Thorne--Ince-Weiman-Johnson-Butterfield,-Blackman-Camara, 23 million a joke-----Bent--Pearce-Baird,will another club match the wages we pay them.,   , p-s  i like the old soldier routine --flying the flag goes down well,we shall not be moved.

 my take recruitment very poor,-team spirit disjoionted

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