Leicester Ram

Good point. I think his vision is some sort of English version of PSV/Ajax. It’s quite similar to what the infamous ‘Derby way’ initially started as, which was inspired by Dutch football and came off the back of Steve McClaren’s 4-3-3. What it really comes down to is that Phillip Cocu’s won multiple domestic titles in a strong league. I’m not Phillip Cocu so this is just my interpretation of what his vision is but I’m sure he can actually back up the talk. I don’t think it’s just spiel and David Brentesque managerisms, he’s played a massive part in the way a club like PSV has remained relentlessly successful. I don’t think anyone else as qualified is coming along anytime soon to lead Derby County, so I’m backing him. I think he wants to bring a style of play that is considered from the youngest teams in the academy to the first team as the “right way” to play football. A style that prioritises technical ability and seeks to dominate teams through control of possession (note his preference for Huddlestone and Martin, while also acquiring Bielik, Clarke and Rooney, all players whose technical skills outweigh their athletic ability) What I think the real vision is leading the first team to a resounding promotion rather than having that one magic season in the play-off’s where everything falls right for you. I think you can already see it through Cocu’s actions in his short time here. The way to really maximise Derby’s resources is to build a system where the first team is a mixture of academy graduates and high calibre signings, such as Bielik. Instead of investing a lot of money trying to fill lots of short term holes in the squad, you invest your capital into someone like Bielik who can fill one important role in the spine of the team for years to come while gaining value. That’s something we’ve neglected the past few years, while you can see the attraction of perceived bargains like Davies/Huddlestone or loanees like Mount/Tomori/Wilson, they ultimately leave you with nothing to show for your investment if you’re not promoted. Also, the amount of times we’ve spent good money on squad depth/competition like Nugent, Baird, Johnson, Blackman etc is why we have a perennially bloated wage bill that won’t let Mel invest in the squad. Taking the academy seriously and using players like Buchanan, Bird, Knight, Whittaker, Mitchell-Lawson to fill out the match day squad is financially astute and increases the chances of finding the next talent from the academy. If we continue that trend of bringing in key signings while developing academy players alongside them, it should hopefully culminate in a really good team that can actually win the league rather than be content with a pop at the play-off’s every year.

Standout quote for obvious reasons but it’s gathered so much traction with the fans because Cocu is the first manager we’ve had (at least in my time) that isn’t talking out his arse when he says something like that. Clough knew how to cut costs, work with a limited budget and install the right culture but tactically was poor. McClaren had success when he took over Clough’s team and coached them up, but he’s never had a sustained period of success at a club. His focus was always the pitch and the training ground. Rowett spent more time talking about doing stuff like this then he actually did doing anything. I swear the bloke spent more time in front of cameras chatting absolute poo then he did coaching the team. My suspicion is Gary was more about Gary than anything else, getting to the PL and making a name for himself was the priority, hence ditching us for Stoke. Lampard was great and will be a great manager but he was seriously inexperienced, which showed at times. I just think Cocu has everything you could want in a manager, particularly at this level. Coaching, culture, experience, respect. He knows what he’s doing, he has a vision that he knows he can deliver given time. The point is we’ve had some decent managers here but they’ve all had their flaws, I can’t buy their “vision” the same way I buy Cocu’s. The Lampard buzz papered over a lot of the cracks last season, we made 8 summer signings and escaped the claws of FFP with some creative accounting. Really we’ve still got a weird squad of a load of different managers signings and have paid the price for buying players for promotion pushes rather than long term value. There’s no pressure on this season from me and no one’s deserved our patience like Cocu.

Disagree, I think Wisdom looks weak on the ball for a RB (particularly when the other RB in the squad is Bogle) but would actually be quite decent on the ball for a CB. I’ve seen Wisdom look really strong on the ball during parts of his Derby career, usually when he’s had a run in the team and built up some confidence. I’d like to see him given a couple games there, he’s a lot quicker than Davies/Clarke and is ridiculously strong. Could compliment Clarke really well, particularly as Bielik’s position is becoming more of a hybrid CB/CDM in the diamond, Wisdom suits that faux back three.

Fingers crossed for Pards, I can always do with more Pards in my life. Easily the funniest option.

Kingsbury’s run design has been great, we look really dangerous when we line-up with two RB’s which I think is a big part of the trade for Drake. Having a rotation of DJ, Edmonds and Drake allows us to play out of that personnel a lot more successfully. I’d also point towards the fact we only have 4 turnovers on the entire season and not a single fumble. That’s good coaching. Yes, he’s having some rookie moments because he is in fact a rookie, but there’s been a massive improvement in AZ considering we were literally the worst team in the NFL with a historically bad offense. My instinct is we’ve leapfrogged quite a lot of teams this season (I.e. Giants, Falcons, Bucs) and we’ll see a similar leap next year if we can get some talent in around Kyler. It’s a shame we’re in the NFC really, particularly the NFC West, I think we’d have a good chance at 500 this year if we were in one of the weak as piss AFC divisions.

I'm not reading through 51 pages of this so I know what I'm going to say has hopefully already been said. People who see Richard Keogh as the victim here are wrong, Derby County are the victim. I'll preface this by saying I think all three should have been sacked. I would rather that have happened but I think Keogh is fully deserving of the sack. Keogh's 33 years old, I've worked with/been responsible for young people in a professional capacity who have the same age gap between me and them as Keogh did to Bennett/Lawrence. He should have known better. He got into Lawrence's car inebriated, knowing full well Lawrence was well over the limit and then didn't even put his ducking seatbelt on. The club captain. "Mr Derby County". By doing that he's pretty much ended his career, he can't perform his job and he should consider himself lucky to be alive. Derby are right to sack him. I just don't have any sympathy for him. I think they were generous to offer him a chance to stay on a reduced contract. Just because he wasn't driving doesn't mean he's the victim in any way. He's dug his own grave by getting in that car let alone not putting on a seatbelt. It's not a situation where you can say 'well if Lawrence wasn't driving drunk Keogh would never have got injured!'. Keogh could have still got himself a taxi, the bloke can't drive, I'm sure he knows the number for a taxi company. He's damaged the club in a way the other two simply haven't. He's completely eradicated himself as an asset to his employers through his own irresponsible actions. I'd rather we'd have let Lawrence and Bennett go as well but if you see it from the clubs perspective, while their actions were equally as irresponsible they didn't go as far as to injure themselves. I don't know if they were wearing seatbelts or not but they can still do their job. The fact they were driving doesn't make them more responsible than Keogh. It's upsetting because Keogh was easily my favourite Derby player of all time. Shame he's been such an absolute clown.

Makes me laugh when people talk about getting the OL sorted. AZ are destined to never have a good OL, we’ve literally tried everything. High draft picks, day 2 draft picks, day 3 draft picks, big free agency signings, trading for vets, taking chances on guys with injury histories... None of it’s worked. Getting a good OL is the most difficult thing to do in the league, there’s simply just not enough good lineman to go round. You need to invest capital into it AND get lucky. Look at the Rams. Lost a few lineman and they’ve fallen apart. Cowboys have a lot of first round picks on their OL but it falls apart regularly with injuries. Only team with consistently good OL? The Patriots. Their OL coach Scarnecchia is some kind of Faustian figure who’s sold his soul to the devil for the ability to turn 4th round picks into stars.

Glad that Mel’s clearly been waiting this out to get the right deal. Investment was always the way forward, you get to keep the club in Mel’s hands but take some of the financial burden off him personally. Looking forward to this, the club needs some good news and optimism at the moment. This and Rooney showing up in December could be massive.

Great news, this removes the personal nightmare scenario of Cocu getting prematurely sacked and Rowett coming back for his second spell as Derby manager. Not a bad manager by any means but just remember that Will Hughes is ‘not his type of player’.

It’s kind of sad because all we did was squeeze past a woeful Falcons team but this was the most excited I’ve been watching the Cardinals in the last 3 seasons. I was actually gutted when the Falcons missed the extra point because I wanted to see one last Kyler drive to win the game. But Kyler’s legit and Kingsbury’s getting better. Might be able to compete for the wildcards next season if we have a good offseason. Thoughts go out to @Ambitious who has to suffer underwhelming Rams on two continents instead of just one like the rest of us.

49ers looked the best they’ve looked all season last night but it was a bye week game. I honestly think their record is a bit misleading. They’ve beaten the Bengals and Mason Rudolph’s Steelers, then the inconsistent Buccaneers. Browns is their first big W and you back a coach like Shanahan to scheme something up off a bye week. My instinct is the Rams and 49ers will eventually have similar records. Seahawks will take the division and unfortunately the Cards will be lucky to get 5 wins. I think the Cards could potentially grab a win against one of the 49ers/Rams and damage their playoff hopes but that’s about as much as they figure into any sort of playoff picture.

Redskins are one of those franchises that make supporting the Cardinals less depressing. Big shoutout to the Bengals also.

Take a lot more than this to make to stop following Derby. It’s been difficult though and I don’t blame people for taking it badly, having Keogh taken away like this has been honestly really upsetting. For the past 7/8 years the majority of us have gone down to PP every other week or travelled across the country and seen crazy eyes playing for us. Usually playing pretty well as captain too. He was honestly my favourite Derby player of all time, he was passionate, a bit mental and at times pretty flawed. But he was ducking consistent. But the clubs so much bigger, if you were at the Birmingham game, you’ll have felt it. And if you were at Barnsley game, you’ll know we went straight back to being the same old Derby County.

Remember when everyone convinced themselves Gary Rowett was a decent manager and Chris Martin was crap?

Yeah, edited the post. Off to take a bath with a toaster now.