RAM1966

Morris was gambling with borrowed money

Is that called gambling though? In the same way that Ridsdale got Leeds into their financial mess by gambling every year that their huge outlays on players transfers and wages would be covered by them qualifying for the Champions League and the season they didn't precipitated their financial ruin?
 

don't think that's true, Professor Pope (an accountant) at the LAP did not think our policy was FRS 102 compliant (not sure what FS104 is)

Yes, and how long before that were we in talks/discussions etc etc. As I said, Mel was looking around for months before the pandemic began on the basis he wasn't willing to fund the club if he didn't have to. Why else were we unable to pay the players/staff on time in Jan 2020, before anyone had even heard of the word Covid? Or why were we receive money from Gabay in 2019 to see us through? 
Anyway, you keep your head in your bucket of sand and believe everything is down to Covid and none of this is Mel's doing. 

I'm sorry but that just isn't true. Well before Covid we couldn't pay the staff or playing staff, and we were relying on scrabbling around looking for short term bails outs from the likes of Gabay and Dell because Mel either wasn't willing to fund or didn't have the available funds.
Yes Covid was a significant contributory factor but let's not pretend the the business wasn't in severe trouble well before it. 
 

I'm afraid all that does is to kick the problem down the road for a while.
Derby County is broken, and Mel is the person solely responsible for breaking it. 

Couldn't we have avoid relegation and new owners?

They have to show optimism, they're trying to sell the club and keep it in business. It's common sense to big up your product and say that you've got others interested. Even if only one of the interested parties are going to put an offer in, if they think that several other parties are also considering an offer, then they'll put in a better offer than if they knew that they were the only ones.
From a practical point of view regarding the value of the club, there are many positives;
1, little or no capital investment is required on the stadium or training ground, which are both premier league standard, unlike many other clubs
2, Fan base can't be bought, but is already there and a high position in the championship, nevermind premier league, will guarantee 30,000+ crowds, unlike many other clubs.
3, Looking at what's left of the playing squad, I believe that there can only be a few high earners left on the books, with sensible player purchases, the club should be able to break even once the incomes return to pre-covid levels.
The price to pay for the club is dependent on the debts, if MM is prepared to write off his debts and the other debts can be negotiated to reasonable levels, then the price should be affordable. Figures of around £50m have been mentioned and don't think that this would be unreasonable for someone to pay MM for the club, if it was debt free. It's just a pity that he wasn't able to negotiate a similar price with a buyer and for him to use the money to clear the debts and save us the 12 point penalty for administration.

No way is Rooney going to Newcastle. They're not going to be looking around the second division for a manager but looking at the very top tier with the kind of budget they have.

That's true here are some facts to be going on with:
Massive debt run up with HMRC - Administrators trying to negotiate with HMRC, this is reportedly employees Income Tax and NI, if those NI contributions are not paid it could affect employees state pension entitlements!!!!
Mel allowed the wage bill to climb to 161% of turnover - That's nothing short of reckless.
Mel has said he's lost £200M - In 6 years that is nothing short of p*ss poor stewardship.  This will only be true if he gives the ground back and writes off all the soft loans!
His choice and trigger finger with Managers in nothing short of shambolic.
His interfering in training sessions and entering the dressing room, displays all the signs of a micro manager, which is even worse when you know sod all about the game.
His communication with the fans has been poor, his final attempt to keep a lid on the fans with his NDA meeting was the final straw for most of us.
His final denial that he had anything to do with Admin and it was all the fault of Covid shows the sign of a man who thinks he's perfect.  We were already in breach of FFP, despite selling the club to himself, the 161% of turnover wage bill was sanctioned by him and ultimately is the main reason we are in the deep poo we are!!!
He's clearly turned a club that was on the brink of entering the premier league into an insolvent business and unless he writes off the soft loans and gifts the ground back we could well go out of business.
Yes we can leave the post mortem until after the deal goes through, but all of the above is a matter of fact and the mans inability to accept any responsibility is quite frankly unbelievable, its also an insult to the Fans of DCFC that he thinks we will swallow all his bullshite!!!    

That's true here are some facts to be going on with:
Massive debt run up with HMRC - Administrators trying to negotiate with HMRC, this is reportedly employees Income Tax and NI, if those NI contributions are not paid it could affect employees state pension entitlements!!!!
Mel allowed the wage bill to climb to 161% of turnover - That's nothing short of reckless.
Mel has said he's lost £200M - In 6 years that is nothing short of p*ss poor stewardship.  This will only be true if he gives the ground back and writes off all the soft loans!
His choice and trigger finger with Managers in nothing short of shambolic.
His interfering in training sessions and entering the dressing room, displays all the signs of a micro manager, which is even worse when you know sod all about the game.
His communication with the fans has been poor, his final attempt to keep a lid on the fans with his NDA meeting was the final straw for most of us.
His final denial that he had anything to do with Admin and it was all the fault of Covid shows the sign of a man who thinks he's perfect.  We were already in breach of FFP, despite selling the club to himself, the 161% of turnover wage bill was sanctioned by him and ultimately is the main reason we are in the deep poo we are!!!
He's clearly turned a club that was on the brink of entering the premier league into an insolvent business and unless he writes off the soft loans and gifts the ground back we could well go out of business.
Yes we can leave the post mortem until after the deal goes through, but all of the above is a matter of fact and the mans inability to accept any responsibility is quite frankly unbelievable, its also an insult to the Fans of DCFC that he thinks we will swallow all his bullshite!!!    

That's true here are some facts to be going on with:
Massive debt run up with HMRC - Administrators trying to negotiate with HMRC, this is reportedly employees Income Tax and NI, if those NI contributions are not paid it could affect employees state pension entitlements!!!!
Mel allowed the wage bill to climb to 161% of turnover - That's nothing short of reckless.
Mel has said he's lost £200M - In 6 years that is nothing short of p*ss poor stewardship.  This will only be true if he gives the ground back and writes off all the soft loans!
His choice and trigger finger with Managers in nothing short of shambolic.
His interfering in training sessions and entering the dressing room, displays all the signs of a micro manager, which is even worse when you know sod all about the game.
His communication with the fans has been poor, his final attempt to keep a lid on the fans with his NDA meeting was the final straw for most of us.
His final denial that he had anything to do with Admin and it was all the fault of Covid shows the sign of a man who thinks he's perfect.  We were already in breach of FFP, despite selling the club to himself, the 161% of turnover wage bill was sanctioned by him and ultimately is the main reason we are in the deep poo we are!!!
He's clearly turned a club that was on the brink of entering the premier league into an insolvent business and unless he writes off the soft loans and gifts the ground back we could well go out of business.
Yes we can leave the post mortem until after the deal goes through, but all of the above is a matter of fact and the mans inability to accept any responsibility is quite frankly unbelievable, its also an insult to the Fans of DCFC that he thinks we will swallow all his bullshite!!!    

That's true here are some facts to be going on with:
Massive debt run up with HMRC - Administrators trying to negotiate with HMRC, this is reportedly employees Income Tax and NI, if those NI contributions are not paid it could affect employees state pension entitlements!!!!
Mel allowed the wage bill to climb to 161% of turnover - That's nothing short of reckless.
Mel has said he's lost £200M - In 6 years that is nothing short of p*ss poor stewardship.  This will only be true if he gives the ground back and writes off all the soft loans!
His choice and trigger finger with Managers in nothing short of shambolic.
His interfering in training sessions and entering the dressing room, displays all the signs of a micro manager, which is even worse when you know sod all about the game.
His communication with the fans has been poor, his final attempt to keep a lid on the fans with his NDA meeting was the final straw for most of us.
His final denial that he had anything to do with Admin and it was all the fault of Covid shows the sign of a man who thinks he's perfect.  We were already in breach of FFP, despite selling the club to himself, the 161% of turnover wage bill was sanctioned by him and ultimately is the main reason we are in the deep poo we are!!!
He's clearly turned a club that was on the brink of entering the premier league into an insolvent business and unless he writes off the soft loans and gifts the ground back we could well go out of business.
Yes we can leave the post mortem until after the deal goes through, but all of the above is a matter of fact and the mans inability to accept any responsibility is quite frankly unbelievable, its also an insult to the Fans of DCFC that he thinks we will swallow all his bullshite!!!    

Undoubtedly Derby’s finances were very stretched prior to Covid. Can’t argue with that when we see the HMRC problems and the losses. We may, or may not have collapsed at some point due to that. No matter how likey,It is speculative .. would new owners have come in ? Would we have got salaries under control, would up and coming youth players attracted better fees ?  We’re the MSD loans short term that Mel intended to settle when he had liquidated other assets pre Covid ? .. who can say for certain ? 
But to suggest that an unprecedented global pandemic (that removes 70% of your revenue in a single event virtually overnight and probably devalues the owners capital at the same time)  isn’t force majeur is a joke. Really ?
There is only one answer to that question and it is .. yes it flipping was. It is also ridiculous to suggest otherwise. 

I rest my case m’lord.

I doubt many true life long Derby fans would have left the club in the state he has. 
Frankly, I'd see my family on the streets before I left this football club in the state he has. 
He took us on, he pushed the expenditure up, he should cover it until he's personally destitute, otherwise he should have stayed well away.
 
 
 

That's true here are some facts to be going on with:
Massive debt run up with HMRC - Administrators trying to negotiate with HMRC, this is reportedly employees Income Tax and NI, if those NI contributions are not paid it could affect employees state pension entitlements!!!!
Mel allowed the wage bill to climb to 161% of turnover - That's nothing short of reckless.
Mel has said he's lost £200M - In 6 years that is nothing short of p*ss poor stewardship.  This will only be true if he gives the ground back and writes off all the soft loans!
His choice and trigger finger with Managers in nothing short of shambolic.
His interfering in training sessions and entering the dressing room, displays all the signs of a micro manager, which is even worse when you know sod all about the game.
His communication with the fans has been poor, his final attempt to keep a lid on the fans with his NDA meeting was the final straw for most of us.
His final denial that he had anything to do with Admin and it was all the fault of Covid shows the sign of a man who thinks he's perfect.  We were already in breach of FFP, despite selling the club to himself, the 161% of turnover wage bill was sanctioned by him and ultimately is the main reason we are in the deep poo we are!!!
He's clearly turned a club that was on the brink of entering the premier league into an insolvent business and unless he writes off the soft loans and gifts the ground back we could well go out of business.
Yes we can leave the post mortem until after the deal goes through, but all of the above is a matter of fact and the mans inability to accept any responsibility is quite frankly unbelievable, its also an insult to the Fans of DCFC that he thinks we will swallow all his bullshite!!!    

That's true here are some facts to be going on with:
Massive debt run up with HMRC - Administrators trying to negotiate with HMRC, this is reportedly employees Income Tax and NI, if those NI contributions are not paid it could affect employees state pension entitlements!!!!
Mel allowed the wage bill to climb to 161% of turnover - That's nothing short of reckless.
Mel has said he's lost £200M - In 6 years that is nothing short of p*ss poor stewardship.  This will only be true if he gives the ground back and writes off all the soft loans!
His choice and trigger finger with Managers in nothing short of shambolic.
His interfering in training sessions and entering the dressing room, displays all the signs of a micro manager, which is even worse when you know sod all about the game.
His communication with the fans has been poor, his final attempt to keep a lid on the fans with his NDA meeting was the final straw for most of us.
His final denial that he had anything to do with Admin and it was all the fault of Covid shows the sign of a man who thinks he's perfect.  We were already in breach of FFP, despite selling the club to himself, the 161% of turnover wage bill was sanctioned by him and ultimately is the main reason we are in the deep poo we are!!!
He's clearly turned a club that was on the brink of entering the premier league into an insolvent business and unless he writes off the soft loans and gifts the ground back we could well go out of business.
Yes we can leave the post mortem until after the deal goes through, but all of the above is a matter of fact and the mans inability to accept any responsibility is quite frankly unbelievable, its also an insult to the Fans of DCFC that he thinks we will swallow all his bullshite!!!    

That's true here are some facts to be going on with:
Massive debt run up with HMRC - Administrators trying to negotiate with HMRC, this is reportedly employees Income Tax and NI, if those NI contributions are not paid it could affect employees state pension entitlements!!!!
Mel allowed the wage bill to climb to 161% of turnover - That's nothing short of reckless.
Mel has said he's lost £200M - In 6 years that is nothing short of p*ss poor stewardship.  This will only be true if he gives the ground back and writes off all the soft loans!
His choice and trigger finger with Managers in nothing short of shambolic.
His interfering in training sessions and entering the dressing room, displays all the signs of a micro manager, which is even worse when you know sod all about the game.
His communication with the fans has been poor, his final attempt to keep a lid on the fans with his NDA meeting was the final straw for most of us.
His final denial that he had anything to do with Admin and it was all the fault of Covid shows the sign of a man who thinks he's perfect.  We were already in breach of FFP, despite selling the club to himself, the 161% of turnover wage bill was sanctioned by him and ultimately is the main reason we are in the deep poo we are!!!
He's clearly turned a club that was on the brink of entering the premier league into an insolvent business and unless he writes off the soft loans and gifts the ground back we could well go out of business.
Yes we can leave the post mortem until after the deal goes through, but all of the above is a matter of fact and the mans inability to accept any responsibility is quite frankly unbelievable, its also an insult to the Fans of DCFC that he thinks we will swallow all his bullshite!!!    

That's true here are some facts to be going on with:
Massive debt run up with HMRC - Administrators trying to negotiate with HMRC, this is reportedly employees Income Tax and NI, if those NI contributions are not paid it could affect employees state pension entitlements!!!!
Mel allowed the wage bill to climb to 161% of turnover - That's nothing short of reckless.
Mel has said he's lost £200M - In 6 years that is nothing short of p*ss poor stewardship.  This will only be true if he gives the ground back and writes off all the soft loans!
His choice and trigger finger with Managers in nothing short of shambolic.
His interfering in training sessions and entering the dressing room, displays all the signs of a micro manager, which is even worse when you know sod all about the game.
His communication with the fans has been poor, his final attempt to keep a lid on the fans with his NDA meeting was the final straw for most of us.
His final denial that he had anything to do with Admin and it was all the fault of Covid shows the sign of a man who thinks he's perfect.  We were already in breach of FFP, despite selling the club to himself, the 161% of turnover wage bill was sanctioned by him and ultimately is the main reason we are in the deep poo we are!!!
He's clearly turned a club that was on the brink of entering the premier league into an insolvent business and unless he writes off the soft loans and gifts the ground back we could well go out of business.
Yes we can leave the post mortem until after the deal goes through, but all of the above is a matter of fact and the mans inability to accept any responsibility is quite frankly unbelievable, its also an insult to the Fans of DCFC that he thinks we will swallow all his bullshite!!!    

Oh how long have we got? EFL of course is the biggie missing from your list. All the media assassins. Gibson of course. Maguire. Keogh. Rush,  etc etc 
 

Rooney said he found out on the tv in his interview and basically took him to task for how he addressed the players and himself... there was complete radio silence leading up to the administration with people who attended the fan meeting also left in complete shock, that is not open or honest communication by any definition. I haven't read all of the thread but I haven't seen any libellous accusations thus far. 

like what? If major criticism for complete silence to the manager, staff, players, fans and the public about our absolutely horrendous predicament is over the top then what on earth does warrant it? The man has behaved cowardly, more than happy to be in the limelight when things were going well but absolutely nowhere to be seen once things headed south.  

Yes I think Mel deserves criticism and plenty of it for his poor judgements . But questioning his honesty is over the top in my view.

He may have had the best interests of the club at heart, but, he has gambled and gambled and run up debts that could send us out of business......
How would you feel if you were one of the small unsecured creditors?  Some of which will most likely go bust, down to this mans actions.  How can he sit on £26M of Income Tax and NI contributions from the employees and not pay them to the inland revenue?  If your stamp is not paid, you have a gap in your NI contributions towards you state pension.  For the players that might not be so important, but the low paid at the club it will be devastating news....
You need to wake up and realise the extend of the damage that this man has done.  He's not personally lost the £200M+ that he claims, if he writes of the soft loans and includes the ground when the sale is done, that could be a possibility.
How did we get in this mess?  Mel was the man he decided to pay too much for average players and tripled the wage bill, at one point the 'players' wage bill was 161% of the total turnover at the club, that is nothing short of reckless......