Jason B

Their pitch invasion wasn't quite as good as ours, it has to be said
 

As long as there were no big surprises for DC after admin, presumably any Bielik payments etc were known about, surely these numbers are to be expected by the company and prob more importantly the EFL. Presumably they have seen them before publication and are happy in accordance with what they expected coming out of admin and our business plan or cant imagine we would have been able to sign someone on a fee yesterday. 
 
cements my total admiration for DC and his family as they have gone from running a successful development company on a low key basis and enjoying being normal rams fans (if actually we can ever be normal) to taking all of this 💩on to deal with. Can you imagine the stuff he's had to deal with?  And after all that you have fans moaning about us not signing people, going over snd over the words the poor bloke said on the budget for this year forensically, and how terrible last January's window was, etc.
the accounts wont tell half the story but to me there are no words to describe what David Clowes and his family did for all of us, the club and the City. I also dont think we know just how close we were to being gone. Also in strange way grateful to Kirchner as if DC had not already been involved with knowledge of what was going on when just buying the stadium, would he have been in a position to act so quickly to save us? 
 
Respect always
 

I read a couple of headlines from Derbyshire Live this morning:
"Nigel Clough wades in on Derby County struggles ahead of Crunch Clash"
"David Clowes sent Derby County transfer message by 'uber-paranoid' Paul Warne"
These are just sensationalist headlines for what purpose? Nigel Clough certainly didn't "wade" in and I am sure Paul Warne speaks with David Clowes on an almost daily basis and he is fully aware of Derby's requirements in the transfer window. 
Although in my 70s, I do try to keep up with technology as far as I can. I can't help but think that we are starting to live in a pretty toxic society, where many people want to voice their opinions about all sorts of topics and people on the Social Media. I have no problem with that per se, provided the opinions are based on fact or reasonable assumptions. I have no time for people who just seek sensationalism, winding people up or make hurtful, personal comments about others. I am happy for criticism of actual behaviour but not personal character assassination. Just imagine how you would feel if it was you who was the subject of these comments. You don't know the effect such comments can have on people -suicide, mental health issues or maybe just want a transfer away!
This Forum has voiced a few of those after the first couple of games of the season. There should be criticism of the team's and  individual's performances but please let's avoid personal, sensitive comments especially when these cannot be backed up with hard facts.
"Kane Wilson couldn't cross a road"  "scariest thing is we have bought two central defender who can't play football" "I guarantee Waghorn would have missed Wigan's first goal" "can stick his f****** why all up his arse" "Bird is more sparrow than golden eagle. An exhibition player not willing to break sweat. I'll drive him to Hull myself" "We've got a pub team manager in charge of a jugganaught" "Bradley has the mobility of a superglued traffic cone"
These were from just 2 posts on the Forum.
I'm not a prude but can we just think about what we are writing about and to other individuals. Hopefully, we all want all our players and staff to bring success to the Club - so lets show our support. 

We were never close to top two last season. We had a season to bed in after off the pitch turmoil, we weren't well equipped enough to go up last season on or off the pitch as a club in recovery.
What do you want? Us to fire Warne? With what money? Who would replace him? With what money? And what would we do about the squad Warne has assembled? We. Don't. Have. The. Money.
So stop the childish tantrums, it's two games in. We're a club under a financial business plan with the EFL, we're two games into the season with a new squad, and we're still finding our feet. 

That sounds pretty sour to me. Luton are a small club but with fiercely loyal fans who have been through the biggest grinder ever being points deducted season after season and fighting their way back from none league. If the go up they will be the only club to have gone top to bottom to top. That isn’t “two bob” 

Been really impressed with the quality and consistency of Luton's free kicks and corners, nearly every one producing an opportunity to score.

It's a tough one but for what it's worth, I thought we were comfortably the better side, even, for the most part, with only 10 men. It's disappointing but I've said before that I think the Championship would be a step too far under the current business plan and with the personnel (or rather numbers thereof) we currently have in place.
Horrible for Curtis to finish this way; he's been such a grand servant to the club, but he really should have put that ball into orbit. He'll be getting horrible pelters for this from the overly emotional Twatterrati and that's not the way it should have ended. 
It's now time for Warne to take stock. At least without the play-offs to muddle the picture, he can now get early markers down in the transfer market, knowing which league we'll be playing in. I'm pretty sure there'll be little rest for the coaching and recruitment teams, even if the players now get to recuperate with friends and family.
It's been a tough old year to be a Rams fan, but it's never been dull. I think we've all grown adept at rolling with the punches over the last dozen years and this is another occasion where all we can do is wipe our mouths, regroup and go again, this time even harder. I'd fancy us to do well with this under our belts, fresher players and one or two well chosen additions, so despite the disappointment of today, I'm feeling pretty good about 2024 being the year the curve turns sharply upward for this great club of ours.
COYR

The 'work' they've done is to keep the club running on a day to day basis despite the business being left in such a state that.. well a state that it needed administrators called in!
Don't underestimate that job in itself. There's a reason Administrators fees are as high as they are, and there's a reason Administrators don't tend to be at the top of everyone's Christmas Card lists. It's not a job you do to make friends. 
If another interested party comes forward now they benefit from the 'work' that's been done. They know the amount of money they need, there's an agreed (provisional) structure for how and when that money will go to creditors, there's an EFL approved business plan that can be used as a template, any new candidate knows what the budgets are going to look like, what's acceptable to the EFL. 
With a bit of tweaking everything is already in place for someone to stump up the money CK was supposed to pay and the club is theirs.
 
Up until recently there's been no veritable evidence that CK had no chance of getting the deal over the line. He's surrounded by entirely reputable people who have backed him up every step of the way.
Proof of funds is proof of funds. I doubt the checks made on this by the admins are any different to the checks any other admin would make. 
It's simply a fact that he has or had the money somewhere. That it appears to have gone missing now is a separate matter and I'd agree with people saying that there should have been some sort of 'test run' perfomed much earlier to prove that the money would arrive. It still remains though that there was no legal, no formal reason for anyone involved in the process to think he couldn't pay up - cynicism from supporters doesn't cut it, feelings don't come into it - there needs to be firm evidence presented as a reason not to proceed. 
The crux of the second half if your post is "if you believe MA's representatives".
That'll be a firm no. There's no point discussing MA further at this point except to say if you believe the PR that's coming from the biggest game player of the lot, we'll that's your prerogative. 
If the administrators are in it purely to line their pockets and drag everything out intentionally, why did they even bother go to the EFL with a bidder and the cross claim cram down thing to get a PB in place for January?
I suppose you could accuse them if doing that for show, to make it look like they wanted this all over months ago... but then you're not just calling them incompetent you're literally accusing them of illegal activity. 
If that's the case it will all come out in the wash, but they've been convicted already by Derby fans. 
If their fees are 'crazy' surely someone can prove that they aren't simply in line with what anyone anyone else would charge for the job? Mike Ashley refusing to pay someone their due doesn't make it any less due. 
None of this is to say they haven't made some big mistakes, but some of the stuff that comes out of people's mouths about the administrators while they simultaneously wax verbal about other parties (with their own agenda) and swallow every PR fluff piece designed to make them look like some sort of victim in all of this is... I don't even have the words tbh. 

I think you should temper your expectations.
It will take a good few years to rebuild the club unfortunately.
It does look brighter than it did, but time to be realistic. Promotions are NOT easy.
Our infrastructure and club have been decimated.
We will be restricted on what we can spend on player transfers and what wages we can offer. 
We will have the basis of a brand new squad, which need time to adjust and gel.
This will not be easy.

Agree re expectations and I think the thread title hints at the realism required here. I think it's highly unlikely that we will be able to (or even want to) stretch to the bloated wages of premier league bit part players on loan. Assuming that all goes well, we'll still have an EFL approved business plan and budget and every overspend is going to eat into what that means that we can do with other bits of the squad. We are also unlikely to be able to afford anyone of that kind who is much better than what we have, it'd be raw talent without any of the big game experience that some of our lads have and these lads are now battle hardened with lots of first team games under their belts.
I think what we need is a spine of experienced pros to build around plus a blend of existing youth and some up-and-comers who we will have to just take a punt on. Before we had the rug pulled from under us in Jan we were doing really well with what Rooney had managed to gather on frees, blended in with our younger lads and the odd senior pro like Lawrence. Everyone wants the best up-and-comers of course and our scouting has been underwhelming in this regard for a while now. Important that we don't get ahead of ourselves - we don't need to know who will be able to go toe-to-toe with the cream of the PL. To adapt the saying about Stoke, we just need to know who will fancy it on a rainy Tuesday night in Accrington. Our away form has let us down this year and we won't find it much easier next year without a change of approach and some help for our younger players in the form of canny pros who can grind out results.

All the above plus someone who can find the net regularly, preferably helped by a few from midfield and maybe a few set pieces. Small shopping list then....
Even ignoring fees and sticking to wages, Championship players are going to seriously stretch our wage budget so we are going to have to see what we can find in places like Scotland - we've had some excellent value from there in the form of Bryson and Shinnie. We are going to need to do our homework and I get the impression that Rooney is already on this as he has had recruitment discussions with CK already. Ross County who are 5th in the SPL play in front of barely 3-4k notwithstanding Old Firm visitors. Surely some of this sort of player would view us as a hugely tempting destination and could slot in very nicely in a League 1 Team ?

It's going to need some creative thinking to get the right blend of flair and match-winning capability and the sheer bloody mindedness to get over the line in ugly attritional games.

I was at university in Birmingham in 1984 and remember listening to the depressing commentary on Radio Derby of Derby playing Plymouth in the FA Cup Quarter Final replay (in the home leg Plymouth unluckily hit the right hand post and the ball went across the goal and hit the left post and came out), we lost that replay when Plymouth scored direct from a corner. With Derby needing every penny due to an imminent HMRC winding up order at the time, it really looked to me as though Derby would go out of existence which seemed shocking for a club that had won the league twice in the previous decade. Then the Maxwells came along and the rest is history, including a rapid ascent to Division 1, followed by demotion to Division 2 when it was found Maxwell's finances were found to be built on sand.
Feel somewhat relieved today that this season's struggle is finally over and we can look forward to rebuilding from League 1 as we did in 1984. However we have to be realistic about how fast we might return to the Championship when other large clubs such as Sunderland and Ipswich have struggled. Automatic promotion from League 1 this season is likely to be around 88 points, play-offs 82 points. Provided Rooney stays and there is no 15 point deduction, then I would be happy with a top-half finish next season bearing in mind he will have a large number of new players to have to train from scratch with only 5 players left in contract.
Assuming the CK and WR partnership goes ahead, I'll be looking at whether we improve the recruitment as too many of the players we signed in recent years for large fees (Bradley Johnson and Jacob Butterfield are just two that come to my mind) have woefully underperformed at the club, most of the exciting talent has come from the Academy. It really hurts when I see good youth players leaving our club for peanuts due to what has happened and we have to start all over again.

You’re going to be gutted this morning, and rightly so.
But it ain’t all bad.
When we dropped out of the old 2nd division into the 3rd in 1984 things were in many ways, worse.
We didn’t (quite) have the financial issues, but we had a horrible team and the entire season was utterly depressing and devoid of hope in a way this season hasn’t been.
My personal highlight of an utterly depressing season was meeting Dave Watson in a Little Chef on the A1 after we spanked Cambridge away 3-0 in the FA Cup. That was pretty much it for ducks sake.
AND we had not just relegation, but the ignominy of losing to Plymouth in the FA Cup quarter-final to contend with after we had dragged them back to the BBG.
We all thought that we’d bounce right back when we did get relegated and the arrival of Arthur Cox just emboldened that belief.
An opening day away loss to Bournemouth, when Bournemouth then were more like the equivalent of Exeter now, didn’t dissuade us.
Of course, we didn’t bounce back and ended up outside the top 6.
But we had some BRILLIANT away days that season, Hull, Lincoln, and the last game of the season at Newport spring to mind.
It was a whole lot more fun than the previous season because we were, for the most part, competing and you could see what Arthur was trying to do.
There’s something fun about going to smaller clubs and taking the place over. Those of you who travel to away games know that the camaraderie is special.
In fact, the adversity that we have faced this season has developed that camaraderie, only it’s done it at home.
I work online and use social media a lot and the admiration for Derby’s support, especially those of you who travel away is a delight to read. I’ve even read genuine Forest and Leeds fans say they’re impressed.
And what’s not to be impressed about?
Forget the trolls who are loving this, the REAL football supporters appreciate and understand what Rooney has dragged the club through and the guy is universally respected, exponentially more so than when he was merely an excellent player.
He’s now an excellent ex-player and an excellent human being. Time will tell if he can become an excellent manager, but the signs are promising.
The second year under Arthur we did come up and that season was even better for road trips..
I’ve seen Derby beat Benfica, Real Madrid, every top English club multiple times and Forest many times. But if I were to list the best 5 games I’ve ever attended, Derby at home to Rotherham in the old 3rd Division on a Friday night would be up there.
That game with that penalty that took us back up to what would now be the Championship was a raucous, intense and then delirious atmosphere ending in an effing celebration comparable with any I have witnessed - although to be fair, my memory is a tad blurry because we did hit the pub hard.
I doubt there was a Liverpool fan that got anything like the joy from beating Man City in the cup semi or will get more if they win the thing, than we Derby fans got from squeaking past Rotherham that night.
The fact is, winning is just fun, no matter what division you are in. And beating adversity is fun too. So much more satisfying and enjoyable than just delivering on what’s expected.
Somebody posted that they hope we're not that team that thinks they will bounce back up.
I don't really care if fans think that. It's totally irrelevant.
What is relevant is what WR thinks and what he allows his staff and players to think.
And I have no doubt whatsoever that he'll not allow that entitled type of mindset to creep in.
The good news is we have renewed hope for a stable club, a very promising manager in place, an Academy that is flourishing even if it is being pillaged and some wins to look forward to.
We are where we are, so we may as well embrace it and have fun. And you will have some fun, I promise.

I was at university in Birmingham in 1984 and remember listening to the depressing commentary on Radio Derby of Derby playing Plymouth in the FA Cup Quarter Final replay (in the home leg Plymouth unluckily hit the right hand post and the ball went across the goal and hit the left post and came out), we lost that replay when Plymouth scored direct from a corner. With Derby needing every penny due to an imminent HMRC winding up order at the time, it really looked to me as though Derby would go out of existence which seemed shocking for a club that had won the league twice in the previous decade. Then the Maxwells came along and the rest is history, including a rapid ascent to Division 1, followed by demotion to Division 2 when it was found Maxwell's finances were found to be built on sand.
Feel somewhat relieved today that this season's struggle is finally over and we can look forward to rebuilding from League 1 as we did in 1984. However we have to be realistic about how fast we might return to the Championship when other large clubs such as Sunderland and Ipswich have struggled. Automatic promotion from League 1 this season is likely to be around 88 points, play-offs 82 points. Provided Rooney stays and there is no 15 point deduction, then I would be happy with a top-half finish next season bearing in mind he will have a large number of new players to have to train from scratch with only 5 players left in contract.
Assuming the CK and WR partnership goes ahead, I'll be looking at whether we improve the recruitment as too many of the players we signed in recent years for large fees (Bradley Johnson and Jacob Butterfield are just two that come to my mind) have woefully underperformed at the club, most of the exciting talent has come from the Academy. It really hurts when I see good youth players leaving our club for peanuts due to what has happened and we have to start all over again.