Leicester Ram

Do think people are proper daft when they write off bringing back former players, particularly when a lot of them are of a decent Championship standard and (if you hadn’t noticed) we’re in League 1.

Don’t see us as a club in a position to turn our nose up at any signing but I do think we’re fairly stacked in midfield as of right now though.

On 05/05/2022 at 16:25, Mostyn6 said:

I’d never heard of him a year ago and had never seen him 6 months ago. I’m not attached to him and haven’t seen him do anything special. 

Potentially might not see a player that talented play for us again in the next few years, I’d appreciate him while you can.

Take over going through, a few more free agents, hanging on to Shinnie/Jags…

Any of those could have seen us out of this, such a valiant effort regardless. Would you be that surprised if we now won 4 in a row?

Hard to not be cynical.

Not our day but hope Rooney come out after and says it how it is.

Mike Dean a disgrace whose leniency encouraged Boro to take chunks out of Derby and Boro are a completely shameless club from top to bottom.

How they’ve brought in the most experienced referee for this game and he’s completely crumbled is ducking beyond me.

This has always been an open and shut case, we just needed someone to lay it all out for everyone to see.

I thank Mel for the experience I had reading that, it was incredibly cathartic to see Boro/Wycombe/EFL “destroyed by facts and logic”, seeing as they’ve had more statements than dumps recently.

However, I do wish he’d just come out with a statement saying he’d take the claims on for DCFC rather than using it as an opportunity to get digs in on his arch nemeses, like we’re part of the season finale of the Mel Show. He’s clearly trying to hit some home run that will restore his reputation, which isn’t happening.

He should have offered to do that months ago, at the very latest when we were slapped with the latest transfer embargo and Jags was off. We all know it’s an easy win case, the only possible excuse is his health.

It was nice to remember what it was like to have an owner fighting your corner and he’s proving a point; if the EFL don’t take him up on this, the heat on them from the public might finally outweigh the heat from Gibson.

Gutted with that regardless of any loan, we shouldn’t have been forced into ANY of this in January.

Should have been a takeover underway weeks ago, Boro & Wycombe should have been sorted months ago and that Diallo should have been scoring a winner for us this weekend

Plange possibly worth tens of millions later down the line and twitter’s bending over backwards to thank the Palace chairman for saying something nice about us. They tried to buy him off us for 300K!

For us to be so close to getting in the survival race is immensely frustrating. Those lads will fight their hearts out to keep us up and may well do it but they didn’t deserve to have the task made even harder. Couldn’t even keep Jags on 3.5kpw, disgusting from the EFL.

If the club survives the month and the squad remains relatively intact then they can stay up regardless.

Will take another points deduction to send us down.

At home with COVID today but screaming at my laptop, up the ducking Rams.

Leaking to East Midlands Today is huge boomer vibes 

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

Do I need a science degree to read this topic?? 

A science degree

Having football on Boxing Day and New Years Day is important, often a time of year that people can get to the games and it should be preserved. Football’s about the fans and they come first…

But we should have a break after.

Don’t ever really hear any convincing arguments against a mid-season break that aren’t “it’s tradition” and “stop moaning, you’ve got a big squad”

You can argue it makes fixture congestion worse after the break, to which I would say get rid of Man City’s League Cup and stretch out the FA Cup over the course of the season.

League Cup is a waste of time, it’s been won by City the past fours years in a row with them playing in six of the last eight finals. Even now City are out, the Semi-Finals this year feature Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. 

Half those clubs don’t even want to be playing in those games!

As far as the rest of football goes, most people skip the fixtures and say it’s a good thing when their team gets knocked out.

Also, how many times have we seen a Derby team have a January/February slump! We’d have been promoted ducking years ago if we’d had a break.

Have a break after the New Years Day set of games and make it so the big clubs can’t tour during that period. Trial it until the 2026 World Cup, if it’s not working then change it back.

So many of them deserve a mention but it says everything about how well Curtis Davies has played that he's the easy choice.

If the club survives I think Rooney has the potential to be the most influential Derby manager of my lifetime (I should mention I'm only 24 before you start twatting the keyboard). Even if this is his last season with us, the siege mentality he's created could have a lasting effect on the club.

I'm particularly thinking about the relationship between the club and the fans when I say this. I'll leave the tactical stuff to our resident football geniuses.

I hate Leeds and their fans as much as the next Ram but the relationship they have with their teams is almost second to none. They went to hell and back but on their way down the divisions they gained a siege mentality. They have a bravado/arrogance to their fanbase that can seem distasteful to the outside but is incredibly galvanising for the players/staff. They also don't boo them.

Pride Park is different this season, the fans still showing up are generating the best atmosphere I've been a part of and there's 10,000 less of us. If we keep that, a club the size of ours will be successful without having to chuck too much money around.

If we're getting results now with washed up free agents, academy players and 39 year old CB's, imagine what it's going to be like when we have a decent team again. The supporters getting an extra 10/20% out of the players will only get us so far and affect the table so much now but if we'd had more of that in those season's with promotion potential (13/14, 14/15, 15/16, 17/18, 18/19) maybe we wouldn't be in this mess.

I don't take what Rooney's doing this year for granted, under the leadership of a lesser man the atmosphere could be utterly toxic the way it has been in recent tough periods. No offence to a great servant to the club but imagine if Darren Wassall was in charge of this team! Rooney's got this hopeless team in a hopeless situation playing with more guts than anyone else, if he wasn't doing that we'd be gaining nothing from our fall. 

Maybe Rooney isn't a tactical mastermind but he's used what he has got to keep everyone's heads up; despite everything going on we feel like a "big club".

I'm an optimist but I'm hoping we'll look back at the Rooney years as the period in which our support went from quite good to up there with the best in the country. That's something that will attract players, get us results we don't deserve and make the experience of watching Derby simply more fun, even if we're poo.

Can't say I'm gutted it didn't work out with Kirchner, wary of someone so keen to be in the spotlight and figured there was a tactical reason for drumming up public support. Looks like he maybe didn't have the cash some of these others do and with such a glaringly attention seeking/inexperienced figurehead it would have felt like Groundhog Day until he proved the doubters wrong.

Anyone looking to take over now will do well to keep their mouth shut and stick to the background, I know I've had enough PR stunts for a lifetime. Quite enjoyed the fan forums at the time but they make me feel queasy now. So much ******** for an optimistic/naive fan can lap up.

Christmas is well and truly over, no more ducking messiah's thanks.

No doubt Kirchner's spot on about Mel though, even if it was unprofessional to say that. Grateful to have his party interested (any party for that matter) but fingers crossed the administrators know what they're doing.

If it is Sam Rush and friends, as some are suggesting, I'm very interested to see if we ever get his side of the story with Mel. My gut instinct Rush's probably not the villain I thought he was but just as complicit in some of the reckless overspending. The hideous clause in George Thorne's contract and a whole load of other poo was all on his watch.

He still has that dead, glassy eyed smile too which is as big of a red flag as going after Forest fans on twitter. I wouldn't trust Sam Rush to help me get the shopping in when he's doing that "smile", let alone run the club.

Peter Jackson's King Kong can be left alone for a good hour or so before tuning in. 

9 hours ago, Gaspode said:

Folk need to remember that the administrators have to follow a set process and are bound by rules that ensure they do their best for the creditors (not the fans!). If they breach those rules they’d be in deep do-do with the authorities and wouldn’t be able to practice again. They’re not allowed to drag the process out to line their own pockets (as some are suggesting), they’re not obliged (or allowed) to make all of the details of bids public, nor are they allowed to sell the club to the loudest bidder just because some supporters think he’s the messiah…. If we end up going bust, it’s Morris that’s to blame, not the admins….

You wouldn’t fit in on Twitter

A lot of people who are still criticising Tom now will be missing a player of his quality  in a couple years time when we’re still in League One and have someone we’ve signed from Yeovil on the wing. If you saw the state of Blackpool’s wingers on Saturday, you’ll get what I mean.

He’s done well this season but has benefitted from being a focal point in an otherwise featureless attack, his stock’s actually been helped by the situation.

He’s also matured a bit. I always have said he’s a player who has an amazing talent for shooting when he should pass and passing when he should shoot. He’s cut that out this season and now when he’s direct it’s so much more clinical.

I think whoever ends up with him after us will have one of the better inside forward type attackers in the Championship for possibly next to nothing.

Can’t say I’m an F1 expert, I’m a very casual fan but what’s struck me about this is how the money, technology and outrageously detailed coverage involved in sports these days shines such a glaring light on poor officiating.

There needs to be way, way more money invested in training the referees/race directors etc that have so much power over an entire sports reputation, the livelihoods/legacies of athletes and, ultimately, the happiness of so many fans across the globe.

Lewis was clearly robbed and Max’s first championship is clearly tainted; there will always be an asterisk. No one really wins and now everyone will argue about it forever, worst case scenario for the fans and FIA.

Imagine Derby somehow got into a position to stay up this season and it all went to pot on the final day of the season because some unfit, unqualified championship linesman couldn’t keep up with play? Bit too easy to imagine going off what we saw on Saturday (the fat lino, not Derby staying up).

Quality and consistent officiating is part of the “product” as much as the athletes, it’s so boring to spend all of MOTD talking about refs and even more boring to be talking about ducking rule 34.4b of the FIA handbook or whatever’s it is after what was supposed to be the most exciting race in a generation.

Technology can help them but they need to be smart, capable and accountable, not dithering old men who can’t handle the pressure. I’m 100% positive that we will look back on today’s officiating in 20/30 years and shake our heads at how laughable it was.

Also goes without saying that Christian Horner is one of the biggest cockwombles on the planet. How anyone can like that horrible little man is beyond me, if there are any fans of him on here then please try to explain why you like him to me.

1 hour ago, Ambitious said:

Rams and Bucs last season proved to be the turning point for Brady & Co. 

Goff came into their house, put the offense on his back and led the Rams to the win. He outplayed Brady in every sense of the word and it seemed to piss of their organisation enough that they ended up ripping everything up, going into the bye week, then came out a completely different side. 

I think the Bucs will be well up for a 'put-right' performance, but (special teams aside) we've looked good on both sides of the ball. We've still got a bit of development to go, but we're at a good level at the moment. 

Rams are slightly favoured for the game next week. I'm going to back the Bucs as a safety bet, but it's going to be one hell of a game! 

Amazing how Jared Goff is responsible for Brady winning two Super Bowls. What a player, whatever happened to him?

Might even buy one of the disgusting pints available in the concourse.

You can’t walk the tightrope and complain when a gust of wind blows you off.

I need Billy Davies back like I need air

6 hours ago, Donnyram said:

That's down to Sky pundits nailing him

The amount of poo that gets missed in this league if the sky cameras aren’t there is mental.

The incident is 50/50 but it’s in Sky’s interest for there to be drama, so it’s played up.

Also, if you’ve ever seen Craig Forsyth move, you’ll know he’s just gangly and clumsy.

My first game back since March 2020

Figure that’s my longest break from Pride Park since I was probably 7/8 years old.

If you’re on the fence about going, bloody get down there, life is too short. How often do you get to see Robin Williams’ seminal Mrs Doubtfire and Wayne Rooney going head to head on the touchline?