TuffLuff

I was fairly confident that mels meeting with the council last week was about putting some sort of deal together. I said at the time that I thought it was the most significant meeting that day and maybe we are finding out it’s outcome tonight.

I don’t think I really went into detail about it, but I thought it might have involved the stadium to be honest but I’m highly intrigued about what steps will be taken next.
 

4 minutes ago, Animal is a Ram said:

This could be huge

Gotta guess yesterdays EFL statement has shown we wouldn’t get anywhere under arbitration and he’s left no other option.

Knighton’s earlier tweet, although speculative, was correct in what he was saying.

I think Gibson’s latest comments remind somewhat of Mel’s tenure here

Innocent people don’t need to make repeated and continued lengthy statements telling everyone why they think they are innocent ?

Gibson/Couhig/the EFL, it’s people playing games with a club and it’s community. It needs to stop before something happens.

For anybody wondering ‘what can we do?’, then I think this is a good suggestion over the next few days

2 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

He's guessing.

As for Morris needing the Club to survive, why?

Don’t you dare underestimate Michael Knighton!

In all seriousness from what I’ve heard on Radio Derby I think he knows what’s going on a lot more than what us fans do. From a ‘football business’ side, for lack of a better term. Not saying he’s right or wrong, but it shouldn’t be written of and think we know better. He might just be simplifying something that, let’s be honest a few contributors to forums like this one, could be over complicating. 
 

For whatever reason his involvement does make me smile though, he’s a bit of a character and I find it at least fun that someone like him is involved somewhere within this. Even if it’s a slight bit of light relief!

Michael Knighton’s Barmy Army!

Got to admit though…I don’t think he’s given the most convincing answer here.

Still think he’s got his ball on the pitch somewhere within all this..

Michael Knighton’s Barmy Army!

Thing is all efforts should now be about saving Derby County. Sorting out financial matters between clubs should be saved uk the club is preserved. 

That the EFL, Boro and Wycombe are acting like this is absolutely disgusting and shameful, there isn’t any other words to describe it.

Said on Friday I didn’t think the EFL were necessarily the bad guys, just a unorganised and incompetent organisation being taken advantage of. Now they have seemingly drawn their line in the sand I’ll happily say they are a corrupt as any organisation and can frankly do one because how they are acting is dreadful and needs calling out.

This will never be forgotten.

8 minutes ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

I remember when rumours circulated that Mel was looking to put a roof on Pride Park and turn it into a performance venue.

Maybe that's still his intention, once the club goes to the wall.

The development of, and around, Pride Park was always his intention. To do it he needed Derby to be a Premier League club so he could use the tv money to fund it all. He went all out to get us there and with little care for looking after the clubs best interests, or it’s ‘heart and soul’ to steal a line from Rooney.

…in my opinion, ofcourse!

3 minutes ago, IslandExile said:

Annual?? How long is this going on for??

I think it’s to remind everyone where we have come from in the hope we don’t see the club in the same predicament 

From the Twitter council meeting last night, it seems like those involved are having a few days to let it sink in. Possible talk of more marches in the future, or to make it annual.

Personally I think for now that we continue to get in touch with MPs, local celebrities, journalists, former players etc to keep the pressure on. As we move into the arbitration process any outside pressure, especially in terms of the farcical claims, would only add pressure in the case that the ruling is against us. 

Also maybe to contact local businesses to see who wants to help, I was thinking of maybe asking round a couple of breweries again to see whether they could try and get behind the fan movement or help fundraise for the club.

Shirts are down to £35 which is reasonable considering how many games are left this season. 

RamsTV is £10 tonight. For every 100 people extra who watch it then it’s another £1000 going into the club. So if you can afford it, then go for it! Or there’s nothing wrong with watching it on sky? The better figures we get for sky games the more they’ll put us in tv which is £10,000 for home games. So it’s win win whichever way you do it!

Although we’ve taken some hits (Jags, Shinnie most notably), it’s worth pointing out that this could have been so much worse.

I was fearing a fire sale of Knight, Bird, Lawrence, Joz, Buchanan and Festy but by keeping them weve kept themselves within a shot of staying up. Or at the very least getting better value for them.

Now let’s get that sale of the club sorted!

3 minutes ago, Rambalin said:

Shock horror the EFL insert a catch into proposed deal

 

That article is a bit all over the place but is it suggesting we could potentially have him this season and next?

8 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

You're overthinking it

Nah

40 minutes ago, angieram said:

They'll be 'rate. A midweek away at Huddersfield and a couple of nightgames at Pride Park in front of just the faithful will give em a breather from all the "occasion" stuff! 

Coolest player on the park yesterday was Plange. Just a brief acknowledgement to the crowd as he raced back to the centre spot to get on with the game. That young man will shine.

As for Fozzy, he's always a bag of nerves in the big games. Surprised Rooney hasn't worked this out yet.

 

I hope long term it’ll serve them well, and fully agree that we’ve got games coming up where we can focus on football a bit more! I want them to enjoy playing in front of a full house of football fans, but I don’t want them to have the whole weight of the city on their shoulders either I guess.

Fozzy tends to struggle when he’s a bit isolated and not got someone in front of him in a supporting role. So the attackers crossing over positions isn’t overly helpful but needs must at the minute. 

54 minutes ago, JoetheRam said:

Not sure I really follow.

Anything happening outside the ground, the players will not really be aware of. They might have known there was a march planned but wouldn't have seen any of it before the game and they are professionals, that shouldn't affect their preparations.

Inside the ground there was a great atmosphere. Not sure what more fans could have done or done differently. A few less EFL chants and more pro-Derby ones probably wouldn't make that much difference. 

We're a long way from staying up still, 7, potentially 8 points if Posh win their game in hand with 18 games remaining, so nearly half a point to gain per match. The pressure hasn't really been on the players to win the last couple of months - the pressure is more on to perform and show fight and heart - which they have.

If it gets down to the last 6 games and we're within 3 points say - that's when the pressure to win will ramp up and that's when the players and Rooney being good enough will be the key factor and that's when we can start treating each game as a final.

 

That’s fair enough, I think what I’m trying to say is that I think we need to be somewhat careful. I know we won’t go 2-0 down in every game, but when we need to pick up every win we can do we can’t not turn up for half the game and maybe look as to why it happened. I’m not making some great statement that the fans have done anything wrong at all, I was hoping it would come across as the opposite, I just think we need some consideration going forward.

Just to be as clear as I can, I’m saying we might need to seperate the admin/EFL/Gibson/Wycombe ‘protest’ side of things with the ‘match day’ side of things whilst we’ve got a chance of staying up. 

Every point going forward will be vital now and the club’s (fans, players, staff, media) focus on a matchday needs to be on that. Yesterday was probably a one off and that’s fine, but I just think we need to make the games about the game? I’m sure I’ll have responses saying ‘well during the game we do get behind them’ and that’s 100% true and valid, and if we had a squad full of players in their prime I’d say bugger it because they should handle it, but we have a limited set of very young and old players. Are we putting a uniquely emotional atmosphere, on top of a unique set of circumstances and therefore putting extra pressure on players? 

Im not sure what the answer is, I get the idea of when the fans can get together and make a point is at games which makes I difficult, but maybe we need to look at doing it after the games and focus on the team beforehand? I fully support the idea of doing something, I just want to be sure it’s the right thing.

5 minutes ago, Bald Eagle's Barmy Army said:

I think this is why we hope Bielik is OK to play - Bird and Thompson both need to alternate being alongside Bielik to give them a breather and also will help their game.

Buchanan needs to come back now and share with Forsyth but perhaps Buchanan playing the majority. 

Bielik will be crucial, his composure on the ball is something not many on the others have at this moment. Jags had it and it’s another reason his absence is quite visible (Stearman is very good though)

1 minute ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

You're right, we need to only have bad news before each match.

Good news has inevitably seemed to precede a lackluster performance.

 

How can you be an underdog without being kicked in the knackers 24 hours before a game?

First off, I’m full of admiration for the march and those involved. In fact, everybody’s efforts these last few weeks and months. I’ve felt for a good number of years now, from being at games, online, phone ins etc, a division in the fan base. Whether it’s city vs county support, young vs old, pro Mel vs anti Mel, Mclaren, Martin…it’s not just disagreement, we lost a sense of the community and became any other club. The work that’s gone in, the poetry of Jamie Thrasivoulou, the online council meetings, the flags,  the forums, Punjabi rams, Rooney, supporters group, whoever have helped bring that sense of community together in the most adverse of conditions. It culminated yesterday and I applaud every single person who made it happen.

But…from a 100% footballing perspective I do think we need a rethink the approach a bit going forward. I’ve watched our young squad in the last two games really struggle with the occasion for large parts of the game and I don’t think the emotions involved are overly helping them. The Forest game being Forest was enough without the excitement around the Binnie bid 18 hours before (maybe couldn’t be helped, but focus felt elsewhere imo), then yesterday it’s hard to live up to that expectation pregame and we looked like it was too much. ‘Mentally leggy’ is how I’d describe both performances, passes behind players or bobbling to the player or going forward tackles that they would never win. 

If we think we have a chance of staying up, we need to do right by the players and consider the knock on effects of these actions and what we can do. I don’t think we should stop necessarily, just maybe consider how it’s done. If we were already relegated and wanted to make a point then I’d say carry on in a similar vein, but I’m not sure how much it’s helping this depleted side at this moment.

Theres so much positivity to talk about, but I just wanted to bring this up as a point of consideration. Again, huge props to those fans who’ve done their bit and I don’t want to undermine what they have done at all.

39 minutes ago, StaffsRam said:

Small-time. Time wasting after 5 minutes and then throughout the entire game? Tin pot.

The ‘go 1 goal up and time waste’ tactic is the worst of all the championship tactics and nearly never works.

You're basically telling you your opposition you don’t fancy it anymore.

5 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

typical forest...

poo heads!

Like quite a few teams in the league, they are flat track bullies which most of the time works but when teams go toe to toe with them in midfield they are found wanting. 

Blackburn are similar albeit a bit more successful arguably. You look great when it works, but you can go from world beaters to remarkably average very quickly. There’s no consistency over 46 games, just small unbeaten runs of 3-4 games in short bursts.