StarterForTen

Tick! Me and my 40-year football buddy are on the train from York now and not even remotely tempted to stay on it to Blackpool!

That’s because you are a rock; you are an island.

Absolutely none. But we're adept on this forum at stitching a coat to a button...

Based on pure guess work, that's what! Clearly I'm a bit off the mark. You've forced me off my lazy chair and to do some research! In the PL era, our average league position finish within the pyramid is 6th in tier two, so a bit better than a mid-table team in all fairness. Historically, the club have spent more seasons in the top tier than out of it, so again I've been pessimistic in my guess. However... (and in my defence!)... since I became aware of DCFC as a seven-year old boy, in the near 50 seasons that have played out since, the majority have been played outside of the top flight (31 tier 2or 3, compared to 18 tier 1). Even since our (only) FA Cup win in 1946, well over half of the campaigns have been outside of the top division (46 outside; 29 inside).

But to be 'better' they need to be competing in the top six don't they, which would require hundreds of millions of pounds of expenditure (I won't call it investment as that alludes to a notion of getting a return!). They could go out and spend £100m in each of the next three transfer windows and quite feasibly STILL be a mid-table Premier League club - only now one with a huge debt. Ambition is lovely but - as we Rams know all too well - can be a very dangerous thing.

Thank you Mr Beard, what an excellent post. This idea that Newcastle are under-achievers is poppy-rooster and their fans' right of entitlement is, and has always been, wholly misplaced. They have potential to be greater - but none more so than Leeds, Everton, Villa, West Ham... the list goes on. And of course, if you did the same exercise on Derby County, it would show our natural position to be a mid-table second tier side I expect.

Very good point. But could he not just turn it upside down...?? That wouldn't work for that tie though, would it? Oh well, best call the whole thing off.

It's fair to say that Mike Ashley does not project a likeable persona, but the 'Mike Ashley Ownership Model' is exactly what Derby County need if the club is to avoid another boom or bust ownership tenure. If Mike Ashley did buy the Rams - and let's be honest, this is all absolute pie in the sky - he would probably do a decent job of getting them stabilised through some reasonable upfront investment, and then expect the club to punch it's weight - which in the current EFL set-up that is skewed massively by parachute payments means being a top ten Championship club. That is Derby's reality without once again rolling the dice on an ownership that gambles on glory. Football is broken.

Just as a matter of interest, what's your view on paying the other debts the club has accrued? Should they all be paid in full too?

We have to remember that the role of HMRC is a revenue gatherer and they will always seek to bring in what they are owed, or as much of it as is possible. They are not the police or the judiciary; they don't seek to 'make examples' of failed businesses. They aren't even (overtly) political. They will only ever move to liquidate a business if that was the only way of recouping more of the debt owed, so with a heavily indebted business with restricted asset value that doesn't look to be a very good option for them. Of course, they won't just roll over. I suspect they will be the last injured party to yield and may well push this well into January to put pressure on a buyer who will be eyeing the Transfer window closing.

....or if it's a 6.6% Belgian special it could be called 'Cup Tie' Two rounds and you're out.

A pint of Bald Eagle, a chaser of StevieMac and an 'alf a Cox for the lad... Hell of a round.

RamShackle

Bit not for long...

I really hope that the historical financial breaches can be bottomed out during the current international window and the Administrators are left with a clear picture of exactly what they are selling. You'd hope that interested parties would be in position to make their offers within the next couple of weeks and finality on any further punishments would be really useful. It's hard to envisage what else there is to debate on this, it's been going on for so long. Surely the EFL need to 'empty their bowels' or get off the pot!