San Fran Van Rams

What is your relationship like with Mr Gibson at Middleborough? How about the other chairman in the league, e.g. Wycombe, Preston, Sheff Wednesday?

Can you provide more insights into your and the club's relationship with the EFL? There is a strong perception amongst fans that it is poor, with the EFL out to get Derby. Is this your view too, what are you and the club doing to amend that and what changes would you like to see amongst the EFL/Championship?

Those saying calm down, a win is a win, winning mentality is important. You can only beat what is infront of you, and after losing at salford we have improved and beaten a very good real betis side, followed up by a good away win with many youngsters starting the game. It seems like damned if you do, damned if you don't with some fans. Loads of positives to take from the last 2 games, going to be a long season ahead of course, but we have to have faith or we have nothing. UTR

Can you provide more insights into your and the club's relationship with the EFL? There is a strong perception amongst fans that it is poor, with the EFL out to get Derby. Is this your view too, what are you and the club doing to amend that and what changes would you like to see amongst the EFL/Championship?

What are the expectations for this season?
With the current thread bare squad, reliance on academy players and a number of trialists, is the aim just to stay in the championship, positions ourselves for a more successful 22/23 and remain attractive to a potential buyer? Or do you expect more from Wayne and team?

The name of Derby County has been radically sullied in the press of late, some of it very unfair. Does the Club have a communications strategy to set the record straight over some of the issues eg how we cheated relegation? How we fixed our accounts? How we sold the ground to ourselves? What we value as a Club eg fairness, community spirited, ambitious. 

It would appear that insufficient due diligence was carried out on the prospective sales to BZI and Erik Alonso.
Who carried out due diligence and what measures have been put in place to ensure that we are not sold to such an unprofessional outfit?

Have you considered selling a small shareholding of the club to fans to bring in immediate capital while continuing to make the club attractive to majority ownership buyers. 

Supporters are aware that the club is very much up for sale, but what is the plan for the next few years should a takeover not come to fruition?

I would like to submit this non football related question, but one that I feel on a human level should be asked.
Mel, how are you and how is your health?

I’ll also add that I firmly believe Mel brought in Wayne Rooney in a bid to raise the profile of the club in order to sell it.
Rooney the player was never going to come in to the Championship and single-handedly turn Derby into serious promotion contenders. We didn’t sign him as a player for football reasons, despite being arguably England’s greatest ever player. 
Mel then doubled down on him by naming him manager. And he’s still yet to sell the club. It was a bold move which ultimately backfired.
With hindsight, I wonder if Mel wishes he never brought Rooney to the club.
I firmly believe if we had never brought Rooney in and stuck with Cocu, signing a few of his targets such as Dursun, Panzo, Dykes, Moore and Dickie, we’d be in a far healthier place now, on and off the pitch.
Cocu was our Nigel Clough. Maybe he would have never have gotten us promoted, but he was exactly what we needed while clearing the decks.

I’m torn on Wayne Rooney.
On the one hand I despise the fact he signed with talk of him as an understudy to Phillip Cocu while winding down his career. I felt his presence immediately undermined Cocu who didn’t deserve that at all, and his post lockdown performances on the pitch were horrible. We were stuck with an out-of-shape superstar who was seemingly undroppable, and his presence in the team made Cocu’s job of getting results all-but impossible. I then hated the fact Rooney benefited from Cocu’s exit with the managerial job despite his evident lack of experience. His ensuing results towards the end of the season did little to sway that opinion.
However, on the flip side, none of the above was Rooney’s fault. As a player he was on a natural steep decline. Anyone in his shoes would have done the same. The club signed him on ridiculous terms with a stepping stone into management. A big Championship club may I add. And the club later appointed him manager. I can’t hate him for simply taking up the opportunities which have come his way, as much as I disagree with it all. 
My displeasure is directed more at those who made the decisions. Simply terrible.
We’re stuck with Rooney, and he and the players need all the support they can get.

If one person on the forum buys a printer, we can all chip in and then we can all send our tickets to them to print out.

Can’t go to the match, but does anyone know where the after party is happening?
Should we just check out where Liam and Wayne go after the match?

What really annoys me most - about Wayne and those in a hurry to stick up for him - is the complete double standards. 
'Oh poor Wayne, if it wasn't him no one would be interested, it's a non-story' etc etc. 
What a pile of rubbish. He ONLY has the job in the first place because he's Wayne Rooney. He only got the massively inflated player's wage because he's Wayne Rooney. He only got taken on as a coach because he's Wayne Rooney...or got away with disappearing on other ventures or having to self isolate because he's Wayne Rooney. 
He only got the manager's job and survived the season because he's Wayne Rooney...no other criteria would justify him being manager and getting the platform after the end of season we had, to talk about getting support from the club and them acting with a bit more dignity. To then go and shoot himself in the foot and seem to claim its victimisation because of who he is, really shows no self-awareness of any sort. 

Well lots of fans don't want John Terry because of antics that are ancient history. Wayne is getting caught out again and again and this time almost whilst he is away on work business. 
I'm not overly interested in the morality, it's just the attitude he has to being a professional. Surely, at the end of the game they talked about being professional about warm-downs, about thinking about the game and things to improve... And as a manager I would expect his part in that would be him working with the other coaches, looking at the videos /reviewing the game, contacting people to enquire about players, reviewing the tactics etc.. All you ever hear about is that it's a 24-7 job being a manager. 
Apologies if I'm wrong, but the perception I'm left with is he dismissed the players, grumbled to the press, said 'off to bed' to the other coaches.. and then 'got on it' with some mates, presumably explaining away that he wouldn't be home as he would be working late into the night. No one says he can't go for a meal, a few beers to relax but if he hasn't learned yet that if he doesn't and instead ends up in slightly compromised situations its going to be news, then when will he? 
If he was my mate, I would probably laugh and say he was an idiot.. but he's not, he's the highly paid figurehead of the club I have supported for 40 years and he did a pretty poor job on the pitch, has done a terrible job from the sidelines and now is getting us press for the wrong reasons, it's just portrays a really disappointing attitude for me. 
 

On its own, Rooney being pictured in a hotel room with women would just be a matter for him and his family. It's embarrassing for him.
Thing is, the timing of this is shocking. We're at our lowest ebb for a number of decades. Both on and off the field. The last thing Derby need is more negative press. We've got an owner trying to sell the club, negotiate with the EFL and deal with increasing debts at an uncertain time for revenues due to COVID. Add this into the mix, on top of this Jason Knight debarcle and you've got to ask yourself, what was he thinking? Or not thinking.
We're less than two weeks away from the first game of the season and our manager thought it a good idea to go and get rat arsed after loosing a friendly. That's the bigger problem for me, I don't care about the photos and hotel room. I care more about the complete lack of professionalism and focus at a critical juncture in the clubs history. Whether its Rooney's fault or not that we're in the mess we're in, he should be making sure his actions are only for the better of the club. His have not been.

John Percy who wrote the story is a well regarded journalist that many trust. Tbh, for Derby county he's probably the best source we actually have. Do you think Rooney should be putting himself in a position where he could be injuring one of our few assets? Do you really think he can't recognise a 50/50 when it presents itself? Yeah, I'm sure Knight is to blame for his own injury and the manager shouldn't be level headed and realise what he should or shouldn't be doing on the training pitch... 

I think we're unlikely to see eye to eye so I'll leave it here. 

On its own, Rooney being pictured in a hotel room with women would just be a matter for him and his family. It's embarrassing for him.
Thing is, the timing of this is shocking. We're at our lowest ebb for a number of decades. Both on and off the field. The last thing Derby need is more negative press. We've got an owner trying to sell the club, negotiate with the EFL and deal with increasing debts at an uncertain time for revenues due to COVID. Add this into the mix, on top of this Jason Knight debarcle and you've got to ask yourself, what was he thinking? Or not thinking.
We're less than two weeks away from the first game of the season and our manager thought it a good idea to go and get rat arsed after loosing a friendly. That's the bigger problem for me, I don't care about the photos and hotel room. I care more about the complete lack of professionalism and focus at a critical juncture in the clubs history. Whether its Rooney's fault or not that we're in the mess we're in, he should be making sure his actions are only for the better of the club. His have not been.

When I heard the Knight news, coupled with the weekend pics, I just thought with all that’s affecting us, if we start as poor as most seem to think, he”ll soon be gone. Always look on the bright side or put another way.
 

On its own, Rooney being pictured in a hotel room with women would just be a matter for him and his family. It's embarrassing for him.
Thing is, the timing of this is shocking. We're at our lowest ebb for a number of decades. Both on and off the field. The last thing Derby need is more negative press. We've got an owner trying to sell the club, negotiate with the EFL and deal with increasing debts at an uncertain time for revenues due to COVID. Add this into the mix, on top of this Jason Knight debarcle and you've got to ask yourself, what was he thinking? Or not thinking.
We're less than two weeks away from the first game of the season and our manager thought it a good idea to go and get rat arsed after loosing a friendly. That's the bigger problem for me, I don't care about the photos and hotel room. I care more about the complete lack of professionalism and focus at a critical juncture in the clubs history. Whether its Rooney's fault or not that we're in the mess we're in, he should be making sure his actions are only for the better of the club. His have not been.

On its own, Rooney being pictured in a hotel room with women would just be a matter for him and his family. It's embarrassing for him.
Thing is, the timing of this is shocking. We're at our lowest ebb for a number of decades. Both on and off the field. The last thing Derby need is more negative press. We've got an owner trying to sell the club, negotiate with the EFL and deal with increasing debts at an uncertain time for revenues due to COVID. Add this into the mix, on top of this Jason Knight debarcle and you've got to ask yourself, what was he thinking? Or not thinking.
We're less than two weeks away from the first game of the season and our manager thought it a good idea to go and get rat arsed after loosing a friendly. That's the bigger problem for me, I don't care about the photos and hotel room. I care more about the complete lack of professionalism and focus at a critical juncture in the clubs history. Whether its Rooney's fault or not that we're in the mess we're in, he should be making sure his actions are only for the better of the club. His have not been.

On its own, Rooney being pictured in a hotel room with women would just be a matter for him and his family. It's embarrassing for him.
Thing is, the timing of this is shocking. We're at our lowest ebb for a number of decades. Both on and off the field. The last thing Derby need is more negative press. We've got an owner trying to sell the club, negotiate with the EFL and deal with increasing debts at an uncertain time for revenues due to COVID. Add this into the mix, on top of this Jason Knight debarcle and you've got to ask yourself, what was he thinking? Or not thinking.
We're less than two weeks away from the first game of the season and our manager thought it a good idea to go and get rat arsed after loosing a friendly. That's the bigger problem for me, I don't care about the photos and hotel room. I care more about the complete lack of professionalism and focus at a critical juncture in the clubs history. Whether its Rooney's fault or not that we're in the mess we're in, he should be making sure his actions are only for the better of the club. His have not been.

On its own, Rooney being pictured in a hotel room with women would just be a matter for him and his family. It's embarrassing for him.
Thing is, the timing of this is shocking. We're at our lowest ebb for a number of decades. Both on and off the field. The last thing Derby need is more negative press. We've got an owner trying to sell the club, negotiate with the EFL and deal with increasing debts at an uncertain time for revenues due to COVID. Add this into the mix, on top of this Jason Knight debarcle and you've got to ask yourself, what was he thinking? Or not thinking.
We're less than two weeks away from the first game of the season and our manager thought it a good idea to go and get rat arsed after loosing a friendly. That's the bigger problem for me, I don't care about the photos and hotel room. I care more about the complete lack of professionalism and focus at a critical juncture in the clubs history. Whether its Rooney's fault or not that we're in the mess we're in, he should be making sure his actions are only for the better of the club. His have not been.

On its own, Rooney being pictured in a hotel room with women would just be a matter for him and his family. It's embarrassing for him.
Thing is, the timing of this is shocking. We're at our lowest ebb for a number of decades. Both on and off the field. The last thing Derby need is more negative press. We've got an owner trying to sell the club, negotiate with the EFL and deal with increasing debts at an uncertain time for revenues due to COVID. Add this into the mix, on top of this Jason Knight debarcle and you've got to ask yourself, what was he thinking? Or not thinking.
We're less than two weeks away from the first game of the season and our manager thought it a good idea to go and get rat arsed after loosing a friendly. That's the bigger problem for me, I don't care about the photos and hotel room. I care more about the complete lack of professionalism and focus at a critical juncture in the clubs history. Whether its Rooney's fault or not that we're in the mess we're in, he should be making sure his actions are only for the better of the club. His have not been.