silhillian

He’s apparently go some personal guarantees out on his other properties  too. 

I was no Rooney fan when he became manager, really struggled with what we produced last season and felt that he got the job based on an owner who was checked out and needed the PR boost to sell the club. The whole thing stunk and before the season I had us down, that's prior to the knowledge of any point deductions or transfer embargos and everything else we've suffered. 
I would've been wrong, even with the transfer embargo, plus his conduct has been nothing but exceptional. He's brought players on, development players at an extremely high rate and managed to build an environment for players to develop correctly in an environment no player should ever have to play in. I don't think you can give him enough credit for that, honestly, especially when you look at the squad we have. 
Now, providing a takeover happens, I only want him here if we are giving him the tools to succeed. If we aren't in a position to do that then I hope he finds a good job for him to thrive. He's earned that much. 
Regardless of what happens, I just wish him well. I'd love to see him go to the very top!

See here's the problem. Objectivity is a door that swing both ways, except of course in your posts. I've had a quick catch up on the last 15 or so pages of this thread as I've not visited it much recently. Even before that, my overriding impression of you is that you struggle to find anything positive to say about anyone. Damning with feint praise seems to be as close as you ever get. Suffice to say, this quick review merely confirms what I thought in the first place and also that I'm far from alone in thinking as much.
Since a far greater level of sensitivity is clearly needed when addressing yourself than is evident in your observations on the many younger players you have so casually dismissed, I'll resist the urge to quote said comments and instead invite you to review them yourself. I'm sure if you do, you'll find your claims to objectivity and realism as risible as I do. You might also wish to consider how your comments might affect the mindset of the kids (and they are kids) when supposed supporters write them off before they've even got started in their careers, though I shan't be holding my breath on that score.
Suffice to say that an academy you clearly hold in such low regard is the sole reason the senior team has a hope in hell of remaining in the Championship, which one might be forgiven for thinking is a clear and unequivocal illustration of a total lack of... what's the word... oh yes, OBJECTIVITY. 

Pardon my French but duck Jack Wilshere! Turned us down in favour of better offers that never materialised and before IRC the £4.5K a week salary cap was applied. I'd venture that a guy who'd rather sit on his sofa unpaid than come play for us and put himself in the window in doing so, is exactly the type of player we want to be avoiding like the plague.
We've assembled a team of scrappers who are putting everything on the line for the shirt. Why upset that balance with a tackle-shirking, Billy Big Bolarks who think he's too good to roll his sleeves up? I'd take one Jags over any number of Wishere's.

Wind your neck in. Just because people cant always attend doesn't mean they havent contributed to help or bought tickets they know they cant use. Any figures for how many tickets sold v attendance? Could make you feel bad as to why I cant attend much this season but wont. Others will have similar reasons esp for a mid-week match

Happy New Year everybody. 
 
 

Happy New Year everybody. 
 
 

Evening chaps and chapettes. Not quite sure where to put this but thought it might be nice for a bit of nostalgia.
Working on a new book (as you do, more to come shortly. This one actually has nice footballing times in it) and met up for a reminisce yesterday with the legendary Graham Richards and Colin Gibson.
Graham is still in fine form and still sounds as iconic as ever. He came down to meet me in a scooter at Stoke Train Station, warned me his memory might not be great and then proceeded to reminisce about games we've probably all forgotten. Colin, well Colin is just fantastic.

On the book, watch this space. I promise this next one will cover more enjoyable times than Pride.

I could re-write that article saying CK is coming over to further demonstrate his commitment to buying the club and to see what he can do to help speed up the process. Nothing factual would have changed but it wouldn't get so much reaction.
As for him being shocked by what we owe, he had paid his money and would have known the financial situation weeks ago. The only person who is "shocked" (mock outrage) is the "journalist" (hack) who wrote the story. 

Some of these challenges to @David are a bit ridiculous, in my opinion. 
He owns the site, set it up, updates it, does all the technical stuff (except when he calls in @Boycie to switch it on and off again), keeps it online, listens to all the moans, arbitrates in disputes, lets the volunteer moderators cry on his shoulder, puts up with a lot more nonsense than I ever would. He always does this with good humour in a balanced way, in fact, he's probably too kind for his own good.
In the past several years he also tried his best to represent DCFC Fans' interests at various club-instigated networking events - and got nothing but grief for it from a small number of the self-entitled oiks who unfortunately frequent these pages alongside our wider wonderful membership - and most other internet sites, from what I see. I am not surprised he pulled out of this aspect of the role, for his own wellbeing!
I just wonder if some of you expect him to do this completely gratis? As far as I know, DCFC Fans is not a charity or a public company, as such David is a small trader who has to pay his bills, feed himself and live somewhere, jut like the rest of us. 
I am always amazed at the number of people who seem to think that the internet just happens out there, for free, without any time and effort being put into it.  
 
P.S. David, come and sit in the West Stand with us - you'll get no grief there, most of us have never heard of the interweb if the amount of fuss kicked up about having to print our own tickets is believed!!

Rooney will undoubtedly get an opportunity next year, if he wants it. 
I honestly don't know why he's still here. He's had so many opportunities to walk away with his head high. I'd love to see him do well, because he's stood by the club when I doubt I even would've done in his position. 
I do think at this point, we should look to do the right thing by the players who have stood by the club and what's best for their career. I believe Jagielka and Baldock are out of contract in January. I would allow both to leave - Jagielka should have an opportunity to play for a team competing to get in the play-offs for 6 months. A better situation for him than being surrounded by kids with nothing but to play for in possibly the last year of his career. 
We basically have a free punch for 6 months, an extended preseason where we can focus on our academy players and assess their ability going into next season. Results aren't important anymore, development is the only point of emphasis. 

You go watch who you want.
I'm a Derby County supporter.

Totally agree on CKR without him the ball just keeps coming back and Shinnie the effort is there but his passing and control is pretty poor he should never start in front of Bird.

Can’t win Rooney really.
Last season he was bemoaned for not having a system, and most matches trying to match-up with our opponents.
This season he has developed a system, agreed ill suited to a number of our players, but at least he wants to try to play football. However it seems a good few now want him to change things to match-up with our opponents.
He has 15 established players, a good number on low wages, and a large number of inexperienced youngsters. The team spirit looks good, and at times last night played the ball around nicely. 
We lost last night because of one horrendous mistake, one unfortunate bit of luck, and because most of our forward players were off their game (Sibley, Lawrence and Baldock didn’t really contribute a great deal).
Rooney should never have come to the Club, blame Morris for that. We should, a club of our stature, have a pretty decent playing staff. We haven’t, blame Morris for that. 
Now though is a time to get right behind Rooney and all the players. Nothing is going to change until Morris goes, so let’s back our team to the hilt not undermine everything they are trying to achieve.

We moan when we play Rowettball, we moan when we play intricate passes (which tbf does look kamikaze in our situation) we moan at the team shape,  we moan when we don't have width, we moan when our wingbacks are too high up the pitch, we moan .
We also will always be saved when (insert name of your choice for last ten years) returns from long term injury. 
BTW we also used to moan that wanchope was too unpredictable,  sturridge was mardy and we lack a dominant creative midfield player. 
Further back Hinton needed replacing and Gemmill didn't score enough goals.  
Rooney and the academy products are just about the best things we could have in our current situation , so cut out the moaning and get behind what we have .

Nonsense, tar them all with the same brush I say. Yam Yams stretch from Stafford to Redditch.

Got a lot of time for Blues. Know loads of them and they're a sound bunch. Never had any issues there with them, unlike Wolves who truly are a filthy lot.  Also, can our fans not call them yam yams? Really embarrassing and not accurate. If you want to chant it, save it for West Brom. 

I'll be watching it in my local surrounded by dirty, filthy brummies ?. I'll be in my Derby retro top winding everybody up when we win.

I'll be watching it in my local surrounded by dirty, filthy brummies ?. I'll be in my Derby retro top winding everybody up when we win.

I read this type of criticism often about Bird & I wonder what I'm seeing so differently. The modern game rewards players that don't go to ground when defending. This is exactly what Max is so good at...his positioning & sense of 'danger' is very good which means he often tracks the runner & either intercepts the ball or eases the runner off the ball.
I rate Bird's defensive work higher than Shinnie, who is old school, goes to ground but gets more plaudits from our fans because he's high energy & they equate that with 'passion'. Unfortunately the reason for that is because he's often drifting out of position & slow to react to danger so his only option is to do 'last ditch'.

I just want to apologise for the delay, my absence, my handling of the situation and try to explain what has happened.
The meeting on Wednesday was scheduled to end at 8.45pm, my last train home was 9.33pm, I slipped out just after 9pm as I didn’t have clothes, medication, toiletries with me as I wasn’t planning on staying overnight.
When the meeting had finished, an agreement was made where one statement would be written and signed off by all groups, this is the first time anything like this had been agreed, I was under the impression we would be allowed to report back as normal.
Being completely unaware of this, whilst waiting for my train I saw a conversation take place on my Twitter timeline discussing the meeting minutes, when would they be out.
I replied, that the meeting minutes were not taken and we would be sharing the information ourselves, which as I say I was under the impression would be allowed, why else attend? I thought I was being helpful.
Now I can see on reflection I was clearly naive in not appreciating the number of fans waiting online for what was said at the meeting, would see the tweet whilst was part of a conversation, which was also public and could be seen and shared by others. The tweet blew up online having been retweeted, I’m not exaggerating when I say maybe hundred or more replies, some abusive to the point where I had to turn notifications off as my phone was freezing with as I came back into an area with phone signal.
On the forum I did pre warn members not to expect anything Wednesday evening, the minutes can sometimes take a few days to a couple of weeks before being released. I was going with the intention of asking the club if the minutes could be released within 24 hours or that we could release the information immediately. Obviously once we was told the minutes would not be taken all that went out the window and believed we was free to report back immediately, and that was the plan.
Again, I was clearly naive to the fact fans on Twitter would not be aware of this, so when I wasn’t replying to all the tweets with thumbs up or down if it’s good news, or are we going to have a club next week the levels of abuse increased, despite my plea for being understanding I wasn’t in the position to do so.
With my write up, I had no intention of adding any personal opinion, it would be just what was said and allow you all to read and take it as you will.
As you will be well aware, all fans see things differently and I didn’t want to raise any expectations or disappoint fans, then receive more abuse as it wasn’t what they were expecting.
I put myself in this situation through naivety, but I don’t accept that the abuse was warranted at all, I have removed the twitter account from my devices and will no longer be active on that account, opting now for a private account as I have no interest in twitter fame.
I would seriously urge anyone that did send me abusive tweets to have a think how they talk to people online and their demands, if this is this what celebrities have to deal with on a daily basis, I’m glad I’m just a nobody!
Punjabi Rams, who I honestly can’t thank enough stepped in and put some tweets out from their account to give some information in my defence. You guys are awesome, didn’t need to do that but again, I honestly can’t thank you enough. Quick plug www.punjabirams.co.uk, @PunjabiRams on Twitter, go give them a follow if you are on there.
On the train home I started to do the write up on my notes app, realising I need to get this out asap, first thing to defuse the situation I felt I had created.
Thursday morning, as I was consulting my notes and finishing off the write up, there was a few things I wanted to fact check with the club were totally accurate, there has been times where things have been misheard in the past (Boycie ahem) and needed correcting, I didn’t want this to happen. We’re human, mistakes can happen, I believed I had time to ensure there were none.
I decided, and this was not requested by the club but to send my write up to them, asking if they could read it over and everything I had written was totally accurate, leaving ??? <—— fact checks where I was a little cautious over.
They agreed and I again naively yet again assumed that this would be back with me in a few hours……despite the previous night listening to just how busy they have been.
Now whilst I understand and totally agree that this meeting is important, the club staff are as I’m sure you can imagine really busy, now I need to really stress here that this is in no way the fault of the club, this is on me 100%.
No tweet, no forum post, none of this situation exists.
Meanwhile The Supporters Charter Group are scratching their heads as to why I’ve gone it alone, I can only apologise to them also, as I say I was under the impression that we would all be reporting back ourselves which I have explained privately with them.
A single statement isn’t something I would have been personally happy with but that is what was agreed in my absence.
I haven’t felt comfortable coming back on the forum if I'm honest, ignoring the fact I insinuated what was said at the meeting would be out Thursday on the forum, I feel like I have let you all down and for that I’m sorry.
Just to add, this apology wasn’t asked for, it's something I feel is owed to you all.
Should someone have gone that could have stayed all evening? Ideally yes, although Paul (Boycie) was unavailable to attend. Since the formation of 2017 it has only been either myself or Paul that has attended, I didn’t feel it would be right to send someone new which in hindsight was the correct call, they may have also not been able to attend until the end of what I’m led to believe turned out to be almost a 4 hour long meeting, putting themselves unwittingly into a similar situation I have.
I know you are all frustrated, the accusations of attention seeking, sitting on information, teasing, trying to get more views, followers etc. and even censorship on the forum are simply not true, they come from people that do not know me or how the forum is run at all, which is disappointing hearing it said by members that have been on the forum for a number of years now.
Finally, I do want to say thank you to those who have sent supportive texts, PM’s, DM’s, tweets you name it over the last few days, despite asking to be given time, it’s you who I put the hours in for, I will learn from this and work on handling things better in the future.
I would also like to thank the moderators who have been trying their best to keep on top of the situation, without them this forum would have crashed and burned over the last few days so please be respectful to them, even if at times you do not agree with decisions they have made. 
David
 

I’d let him go if we can get someone in instead. Great heart/battler but limited footballer. 

Agree with general sentiment, Rooney needs to find a place for Sibley. We need that direct running & unpredictability in the side.
Not sure a 4-1-2-3 with Shinnie sitting would suit him though. Firstly we need a better DM on the ball than Shinnie with CBs who are primarily defenders & not that confortable on the ball. Only one DM also limits our full backs from getting up the park (big part of our armoury). I also tend to agree with Rooney that Sibley isn't that reliable defensively & also wouldn't want his freedom to try things clipped by worrying about the opposition running onto a back 4/5.
Id play Sibley as a number 10 in a 4-2-3-1...he would have insurance with the sitting midfielders (so minimal defensive duties), be tasked to play as close as possible to Kazim & find those pockets of space just in front of their back 4 or run beyond Kazim.  As an aside, I'd like us to move away from Shinnie as a DM & to players who can control the game better....Bielik on his return obviously but like the look of Thompson & would be intrigued to see him & Bird sat in front of the back 4.

Harrumph 

Let me try this again, I was forwarded your post and just online replying to say thanks, and I appreciate the concern. Posted and the topic was merged and my post lost as I submitted it. Cheers mods.
I have an apology and what exactly has happened post which will follow the report from the meeting, I don't not can't want to go into detail now. 
What I would say is, this is not the clubs fault, anyone using it as a stick to beat the club with are doing so without the full facts, which is unfair and not helping myself personally as I try to fix the situation and get the information out to you.
I, David, has handled the situation poorly, been naive and been busy working my hardest to get back to you all with what you want.I would like to think that over the years we have built up some mutual respect, if you don't want to believe me that's fine, but please just stop until you have read what I put out.
You must also all understand that the club staff are ridiculously busy right now working long hours on other important issues, whilst I feel somewhat in limbo, I'm more happy that we have an extra 2 defenders in the squad than missing out as they need to read through my emails.
As for tomorrow, I am excited more than you will ever know, football is back, Derby are back, fans in the stadium, perfect.
I'm just gutted I can't be there, but I'm doing the next best thing, taking a flight out of here so I can watch on RamsTV with a. few beers that are chilling in the fridge.
Those that are going, regardless of your thoughts on the ownership, club, put all that to one side and get behind the team, we have a young team that doesn't deserve to play under a negative atmosphere. 
Drop any protests, Mel chants, anti EFL or anti and sarcastic Rooney chants, focus on positive support for the team, this is when they need us the most, the atmosphere is all on us nobody else, if we crush those lads with booing and all that baalocks, we will have to shoulder some of the responsibility.
I'm sorry for the lack of communication, I just didn't have anything to add and felt it would be best to stay offline. But please, regardless of what you think of me, the club, just read the above and take it from a fan that loves this club and wouldn't be saying any of this if I didn't mean it.
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