Ram@Lincoln

Off topic, but isn't it lovely to be debating all this rather than the finances. I absolutely love it!

6 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

Unless you’re in the first three or four priority groups I wouldn’t hold your breath and start to think about what attractions Fleetwood may have to offer for a Saturday afternoon. ?

Fortunately, I think I'm at 15 league games away for last season, so should be fine here. If not, the booking has free cancellations until the Tuesday midnight. Should know by then if I have tickets or not. Saying that, I've promised her a weekend away without saying it's a football weekend away so I'll be going regardless!

3 minutes ago, SamUltraRam said:

I think they'll be a significant number of renewals done this this week - deadline 29th

Combination of people leaving it to the last minute & most monthly salaried folk getting paid at the end of the month, for example Rolls-Royce pay staff on the 28th

Definitely, I'm the only one out of my group of season ticket holders that have renewed already. Probably around 20 of us. Everyone either waiting for direct debit or the wages to drop in.

I can't wait for the Fleetwood tickets to open up, I have the hotel booked for the weekend with the sea view for the missus. Just need tickets sorted out now!

I'm sure I've read that Smith plays full back too? Wasn't that one of the big things to bring him in? We can't be wasting Knight out at full back.

There were a few posts on one of the Derby facebook pages from programme sellers saying they've been brought back in to sell programmes again. Fantastic news for sure as I know quite a few people were upset at losing a matchday staple. Hopefully the other things that were dropped will return eventually. Any staff that lost their jobs and haven't picked anything up will hopefully be reconsidered, Shane Nicholson for example on the coaching side and the youth staff that lost jobs.

4 hours ago, Ram@Lincoln said:

Agreed, it's not worth the DET getting involved. For me, the issue is sorted. For the others with tickets, I hope they manage to get theirs cancelled too. It does seem a confusion between the club and council, I just hope it's clarified for the weekend. As said, I've written to the council asking for clarification so fingers crossed get it in time. If I do, I'll post it here.

I've now had a reply from DCFC - pre season friendlies are not included in the car park season ticket and are purchased separately. The website hasn't now been updated. Therefore, the council was correct - however, I parked in good faith from the club's original information that friendlies were included. Thankfully the parking ticket issued to me was cancelled by the council.

He didn't impress for me, but as said neither did anyone. The problem will Diallo and anyone else coming in, they have very big boots to fill from Ebiowei and pre January Ebosele. All these young wingers will always be compared against them, the stage has been set and they have to perform to the high standards we now expect. Granted, this is a high pressure environment, but we have shown to be the club to give the youth chances and a place where the youth can prosper.

1 hour ago, Mucker1884 said:

@Ram@Lincoln,

You mention the barrier letting you in with your parking season ticket.

(I'm not familiar with these car parks).  Is it a pay & display, or grab a ticket on the way in, and pay on the way out?

Do you display any form of pass in the windscreen?  How does the entry work?

You have a ticket card with a hanger on that goes on your rear view mirror. On arrival to the car park there are stewards at the entrance that check you are displaying the correct car park ticket and then wave you in. Occasionally depending on how busy it is, they'll direct you to a certain section to park up. As @Keepyuppyhas found, it seems to be significantly cheaper to pay to park on the councils system not by buying a season ticket from the club.

14 minutes ago, Keepyuppy said:

I have purchased a West Car Park Disabled Pass and I too assumed ‘friendlies’ were included too, as that was included in the pre purchase Derby County info. 
As I had  not received a pass I went to the Ticket Office to check what I needed show at the Hertha Berlin match (was my name on a list) - I was told then that Car park passes were not included for friendlies. I queried this but it was it wasn’t, so I asked to purchase a pass for   £10 for my disabled bay and was told it had already been sold and there were none left. I said I’d have to return my match ticket then, as I can’t walk very far - I was told although they weren’t supposed to say this, but if I went on the Derby City Council Mi Parking portal, I might be able to buy a parking bay behind the South Stand - I went on the portal and was able to buy a parking pass for 5hrs (standard period) 2pm-7pm for,,,,,, wait for it £3.10p !!!! You don’t get a ticket or a Pass, as a Parking attendant scans your Car Reg if a ticket hasn’t been bought at the machine and is on display. 
On Sat thIs South Car Park was only 1/4 full and I thought, I’ve missed a trick here, because if I plan ahead, I could book a Car Park Ticket for every home game through out the season for under £80 instead of the £162.00 Derby County charge for a Car Park Pass. 

I think I’ve worked out why this is kept quiet by DCFC !!!! - it’s a bit naughty to be honest, as it’s not the Councils doing and clearly they didn’t know what DCFC were doing ?
 
 

I'm sorry to read of your troubles here with the club and car park, definitely not how things should be. Big thanks for the heads up on the parking tip, annoyingly I've already renewed at the £180 fee for the south car park A. Just looking at the portal they have DCFC parking at £!0 per matchday or £3.10 in the park and ride car park.

Does anyone know which car park is which? I always thought the park and ride section was behind the arena, but my parking ticket said I was parked in the park and ride car park despite parking in what the club call south car park A. 

5 minutes ago, LazloW said:

Could be a genuine misunderstanding or mistake by both the club and/or the Council (but everyone likes to give the Council a kicking!).  Might also be a over zealous warden who made an error (the Council probably aren’t going to push them under the bus).

The good thing is it got sorted, albeit it wasted your time and probably caused a degree of concern and frustration.  Things like this shouldn’t happen, but they do. 

The DET do love a story like this though - even though ‘Council mistakenly fine people parking at Pride Park but cancelled it so alls we’ll that ends well’ isn’t really much of a story.

Agreed, it's not worth the DET getting involved. For me, the issue is sorted. For the others with tickets, I hope they manage to get theirs cancelled too. It does seem a confusion between the club and council, I just hope it's clarified for the weekend. As said, I've written to the council asking for clarification so fingers crossed get it in time. If I do, I'll post it here.

7 minutes ago, Gaspode said:

The problem is that you're assuming the council are capable of logic....

They know they screwed up, but they're not going to publicly admit that as they'd have to cancel all the tickets/refund everyone - as it stands, they can sit back and wait for people to contact them for a refund.....and keep the money from those that pay up without making a fuss....

If I was you, I'd contact the DET - they'd love a story about the council that claims to supportt the club issuing fines to fans that have legitimately paid for their parking....

I've written back to the council and to the club's supporter liaison officer to see if clarification can be gained. As you say, the council seemingly are trying to save face and know they screwed up. My concern now is when I return to the car following the Leicester game, am I going to get another ticket and have to go through this faff again? 

It seems like a utter waste of time to all involved as Derby provide the council car park stewards to vet each car going into the car park on a match day. If you don't have a valid car park ticket then you are simply turned away. The car park is now £180 so isn't exactly a cheap way of parking, but with the money (hopefully) going to the club and the guaranteed parking space it's worth it for my family.

On Saturday, despite having a car park season ticket for the new season, myself and many others had parking tickets issued by the council. On the club website here; https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2022/07/202223-season-ticket-information-confirmed it says that pre friendly matches are included.

However, I received a parking ticket from the council despite my proof of purchase of the car park season ticket and the information from the club above. Fortunately, following appeal the council have now cancelled the ticket. However, they are saying that friendlies aren't included in the car park season ticket and a separate parking ticket is needed, when the club say that the car park season tickets are included.

The council's logic here doesn't make sense, if the club has got their terms wrong with the council and friendlies aren't included, then fair enough the fine stands and it's to be taken up with the club for false information (and letting me into the car park with the car season ticket). On the other hand, if the club is correct and the friendlies are included then why is the council saying otherwise and only letting me off as a seeming favour due to the facts I have presented to them from the club website?

Following the game, I saw a number of cars with tickets on and the car park steward said he'd had many people complain to him. Hopefully everyone can get their ones cancelled.

A goal is a goal, whether it's a tap in or a wonder hit from 30 yards, it's still worth the same on the scoreboard. If a striker is consistently scoring and getting us 20 plus goals I'm sure nobody will be concerned about them. In League One as has been proven over and over, teams that go up have a proven goalscorer in the 20's and someone else in the teens, a 40 goal return from two players. If Collins can be that main man great, I'm not complaining.

14 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

£16 behind the goals £20 corners £24 sidelines for both games.

This indicates that there will be a tiering/category pricing per game as my ten year plus season ticket behind the goal was £286. Over a season, £16 per game makes the discount only 22% not the 35% as advertised. The season average would be a little over £19 per game, so with tickets at £16 there will need to be higher pricing to counterbalance this. 

Iverson has just won player of the year at Preston, I can't see any reason why he would want to drop down a league regardless of club size.

1 minute ago, EnigmaRam said:

I agree mate. Seems we are actually signing players for roles that they’re good at. But just signing someone off a purple patch and shoe horning them in out of position. Well done to LR and the team

The obvious one is Vydra, buy him for big money then immediately push him on the wing, he flops. We start playing him as a striker down the middle and he's top scorer with 20 odd. I'm surprised we didn't buy a goalkeeper then play him left back.

22 minutes ago, SamUltraRam said:

Maybe we could adopt the old Jim Smith style of attack when Ron Willems sat behind Gabbiadini & Sturridge - that attack was devastating in our promotion season .

For today, switch McGoldrick sitting behind a more central Barkhuizen & James Collins

Isn't it lovely to have a squad with different options not just in the first eleven but in the formation and everything. It's so refreshing to see a balanced squad with options to have several different match plans that wouldn't look out of place being the main plan, not just shoehorning players left and right for the sake of it.

It isn't player recruitment but it is club recruitment. I've just noticed Todd Holt, Head of Finance, has returned to the club this month after leaving during the admin redundancy period. Having listened to the Ramswriter podcast with the club employer telling the inside story, the finance department we're heavily restrained in what they were allowed to do for years despite their expertise. Hopefully he'll be able to put things right financially with support of sensible ownership. 

28 minutes ago, Rammy03 said:

Finally, it's looked a bit dirty outside for ages 

Just shows that the smallest of jobs makes a huge impact. The place was covered in grime and filth, so sad to see it go unloved for many years. Under the American's they jet washed the stadium 2-3 times a year, it's probably never been done by Morris despite the millions wasted elsewhere.

3 minutes ago, Unlucky Alf said:

Taking on the EFL with TV rights, Breakfast club, Selling the ground to himself, Keogh, Rush cases lost, Sacking managers when it suited, Keeping players on as they are a financial product but sacking the other, Settling with Boro, Going head to head with Pearson, Fibbing when telling all he's been a lifelong DCFC fan, Trying desperately to sell to those who aren't the real deal, Getting involved in a Video with a man who's not averse to screwing those over when looking after himself, Giving scarves away to the supporters, Been seen with supporters at away grounds with pint in hand, Lauded by us the supporter, Disliked by us the supporter, Employs 3 managers...Lampard, Cocu and Rooney who were excellent players in their day, Puts DCFC into Administration, He tried to catch the Moon...but it got away.

It must have cost him 10s of Millions of £s?‍♀️

 

Over £200m if all finance boffins are to be believed. Nobody is stupid enough to deliberately go into anything wanting to lose hundreds of millions. Whether you're loaded or not, losing what a third to half your net worth in a few years is madness. As someone put, we we're so close to promotion twice, QPR then Villa. If we'd had won either of those games, this wouldn't be the issue now and Mel Morris would be the hero.

I've met Mel on various occasions at work conferences over the years before and during his reign at the club. He's always come across to me as someone trying to be on the edge of the next big thing, similar to Elon Musk in a way. He struck gold with the dot.com boom for the dating website and then again with Candy Crush, you could call it luck certainly but the old adage 9/10 businesses fail is true. He's been there and failed many a times, but the riches gained from successes far outweigh the losses....until now.

The smug aura as others mentioned grew exponentially during the Derby years as result from lack of any challengers, apart from Sam Rush and we all know how that ended! If he'd been humble/modest enough to accept that he didn't have all the answers and let the superb executive professionals he had under him manage the club, we definitely wouldn't be in the position we are now. If your face fit - great, however if you toed ever so slightly out of line it didn't matter who you were, it was P45 time.

@ramswriter podcast recorded a brilliant podcast with Chris Holt a couple months ago about the atmosphere working under Mel Morris and the administrators. Definitely worth a listen if anyone hasn't, it's very honest and revealing to what really went on behind closed doors.

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9iMzVhZmQ4L3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz/episode/MjliZjQzZDAtZjExMi00NGI3LTg2MzktZDEyYzUzODIzOGUy?hl=en-GB&ved=2ahUKEwjSvbzVhfP4AhVTkFwKHbqKBf8QjrkEegQIAhAF&ep=6 

14 hours ago, Charlie George said:

Jon Howard (Scout 24) has been working for and alongside Derby County for many years.

Also shows the wonders of having a former professional footballer doing the recruitment, they know what's needed. Not some young lad in a job purely through relation to the owner or manager. I know a few lads who used to work with him in Worksop when he did driving instructing, very hard worker and attention to detail was to death.

For you oldies, he's a member of the FA Cup semi final team for Chesterfield, cracking tie at Old Trafford - with VAR now he would've scored and they would've won. Seen at 3.20 in the video below, I went with a old school friend - was right behind the goal here. Obvious goal for sure. 

2 hours ago, Gerry Daly said:

Just move you and your lad into those 7 seats. Easy to do online  

Absolutely hadn't thought of that. Got too caught up in the frenzy! Good idea.

My two tickets are now renewed, tried to get my lad one next to us but it's currently taken despite being empty for the whole season. Hopefully it's just a random season ticket (single seat, 7 seats vacant next to it) that was forgotten about and not renewed this season. Can't wait for the new season, bring it on!