Carl Sagan

On the train back to London reading this thread and getting weird looks because it's so emotional. And I'm so sorry he's not here to share it with us and say "I told you". He kept the faith when many of us doubted. Be more B4! 🐏🐏🐏🐏

"Prepare yourselves for the worst, and hopefully enjoy the best" 

Summer window:

Curtis Nelson 8
Callum Elder 4
Joe Ward 6
Sonny Bradley 5
Josh Vickers 5
Kane Wilson 7
Martyn Waghorn 6
Conor Washington 5
Tyrese Fornah 4
Elliot Embleton 1
Ryan Nyambe 8
Tyreece John-Jules 6

Winter:

Ebou Adams 9
Dwight Gayle 8
Corey Blackett-Taylor 5
Max Bird* 6

*I've included Max, as I feel it was crucial we had him to the end of the season.

Extensions:
Nathaniel Mendez-Laing 8
Eiran Cashin 10
Jake Rooney 6

57 minutes ago, VulcanRam said:

With respect I'll be saving all this for when, or if, we ever get promoted to the Premier League. Or win the FA Cup. Something that really signifies over-achievement or something truly special. I don't think this is it.

Don't get me wrong, I'll be delighted come 5pm when we're out of this lousy league but we're only going back to where we should always have been except with a poorer squad and - from what I've seen this season of the Championship - a higher standard of football generally than when we were last in it.

We should never have been docked 21 points imo, and never have been relegated. But we were, and massive well done to Paul Warne and the players for getting us out after two seasons. With the squad we have we should be challenging at the top of the table. I went to the end of season awards last night and it was great to have such a positive vibe in the room.

But, in my humble opinion, it's not worth some of the overly emotive stuff I've read on this forum in the last few days. 

I'm embarrassed to be in League One and can see where you're coming from. But given the league tried to drive us out of existence, and almost succeeded, if we do return to the Championship I will celebrate it. And hope we can right on through to the top tier. 

As we approach the Carlisle game, I wonder what Warne will say to the players? I'm reminded of this fantastic pre-match speech to his Rotherham team. This is the best of Paul Warne. Expect we'll see it on Saturday:

After 45 games it all comes down to this. Us or Bolton? The Rams the red hot favourites, with the best defence in the division playing the team bottom and long-since relegated. And needing only a draw. You can see why the bookies have us 1000/1 on but as a Derby fan I'm still nervous and feel it's going to be a long week.

Thrilled to be there. Will be thinking of Daniel who I never met, but who I exchanged posts with on this forum, and whose calls to arms I always loved. Will be remembering being at the BBG 49 years earlier to see the Rams lift the First Division title against Carlisle. Am with some of the same friends who came to the Derby Crystal Palace game with me, and we recreated Robbie van der Laan's header with on the pitch afterwards. Will be remembering the time Stephen Pearson scored his goal to send us into delirium at Wembley.

Will be thanking David Clowes for saving our club when all seemed lost. Darkest before the dawn. He deserves a fantastic day in which, yet again, and for only the third time in our history, Derby lift themselves out of the third tier after a two-season stint. But we have to do it first. Let's hope the players keep their eyes on the prize, backed all the way by long-suffering fans who do deserve some joy after the last few years.

Come on you Rams!

I love that Wildsmith is impervious to embarrassment. Which means he is our best asset in game management. If it's 0-0 on Saturday and we're under the cosh, he will find a way to take the sting out of the game and allow us to regroup. A vital part of the modern game but not anything our keepers have embraced before. 

Hope you bring us home @Comrade 86. Not sure I agree with wanting Peterborough to drop points midweek. It seems so unlikely they can catch us, but if they don't win on Tuesday won't they rest their players against Bolton, saving them for the playoffs?

A couple of us are treating another mate to hospitality in the Baseball Lounge so shout if you're there too. 

Might Gayle make the bench? 

I figured automatic promotion is worth £25 to me, so I've hedged too! Too many times it hasn't worked for us on the final day of the campaign, but let's hope it's different. And well I remember being at the Baseball Ground to see us draw 0-0 with already relegated Carlisle and lift the First Division trophy. It would be kind of fitting to repeat the scoreline, though I'd also like to see Max Bird score in his final game for us.

On 20/04/2024 at 21:48, Bris Vegas said:

The reason why it’s more evident with Warne is because he won’t get more out of players. He isn’t a top coach like a Farke or Bielsa.

If our team is bottom three standard, then we will go down with him.

If our team is bottom six standard, then we will finish bottom six with him.

While some managers can get more out of players and have the team achieving more than their actual ability (Neil Warnock as an example), Paul Warne doesn’t fall into that category as shown by his Rotherham spells.

 

13 hours ago, Tyler Durden said:

See I take that as a snide comment against Warne as if you follow the logic of your post to the other extreme then Warne only managed to get us in this position as he has better players at his disposal than the other managers in League 1, not for any other reason. 

I agree with Bris and Tyler's logical assessment of Bris's comments. Indeed Warne only got us into this position because he has the best players at his disposal. Before the season began, like many (most?) on the forum I thought we should finish 1st or 2nd given the players we had. Let's hope we finish 2nd.

Has he used the players to get the best out of them? I think we've got decent midfielders, but Warne's tactic is not to use them, and to get the ball wide as quickly as possible and then bang in an early cross. It only works at all because we have better players - otherwise it would have been too easy to defend against. But Warne identified it as a way to win matches and we have won a lot of matches. Was it the best way of playing? Is the proof of the pudding always in the eating? Does the end justify the means? Maybe - it has been vital to get up this season, so let's hope it was worth it and we do.

That if you vacuumed over the cord you'd get electrocuted.

That if you swallowed apple pips an apple tree would grow inside your tummy.

That Derby would continue to always be the best team in the country.

25 minutes ago, Highgate said:

Yeah you can never be sure if the action has been stopped at precisely the right moment or not.  But if you introduce a margin of error, won't the debate just switch to whether the toenail was within the margin of error line or not, rather than whether it was ahead or behind the last defender?  Whatever criterion is used, whether it's offside by any amount, margin or error or 'clear daylight' between the players, the decision will often come down to judgement calls based on millimetres. 

I'd be happy to bin VAR altogether and go back to best guess by the officials.  At least then people could go back to celebrating goals naturally when they occur.  

You're right I'm just shifting the goalposts. As has been said many times, the only way to make VAR work is to have it on the big screen while officials discuss the decision with the fans listening to the conversation. If they're not even prepared to do that, we're much better off ditching it. 

Not convinced they stopped the action at the right millisecond or that they were correct drawing them from the defender's foot when other ball-playing parts of his body looked closer to goal. Very cruel. The system cannot be accurate so should there be some sort of margin of error? 

31 minutes ago, Poynton ram said:

Whilst I appreciate we don’t know the retained list yet with so many players out of contract we ought to have a reasonable kitty to fund a rebuild. I am sure it has been reported that Hourihane is on 12k PW and he’s leaving. If we do go up how much extra tv revenue is there in the EFL? Off topic I have seen some bookies offering 100/1 on Bolton finishing second and 1000/1 on Peterborough finishing second- tasty odds

Thanks for the "off topic". At those odds (which proved correct), madness not to have a small insurance bet. I'm much more confident now we'll finish second and I'll not get a few grand.

Sounds as though the National League has been supporting Gateshead against the EFL, but the EFL won't budge, despite Gateshead playing at their ground since 1971. However, Gateshead Council has refused to guarantee they can stay there for 10 more years. 

The stadium is obviously a huge community asset but from my experience of seemingly perverse council planning decisions, I'm making an educated guess as to why the council has refused. If it's up for election in May, I hope the club organizes a local campaign and they're all voted out. 

The club claims they're still preparing for the game, but I don't see what avenues are left to them. 

Very much hope @DarkFruitsRam7is right with this fine thread and hasn't gone too soon. And, yes, I was going to post Martine too, but beaten to it. And a big happy birthday to @Ellafella! 

Our moments seem so very rare because we do have an amazing propensity to throw it away at the death. Because of which I'm a little surprised at the confidence on the forum this last couple of weeks - but so far justified. I'm not counting any chickens until the fat lady has sung at Pride Park on Saturday. After which I hope to revel with the rest of you in a perfect moment. I've only seen two promotions live before - Palace and the playoffs. Very much hoping for a hattrick! 

As I can't post Martine, here's a much more inspiring vocal to get Rams pulses racing. For this one moment in time... 

With one game to go, we can't finish lower than third. Please let's not finish third! 

11 minutes ago, hintonsboots said:

Attacking bench, no defenders.

Was a bit shocked by this. I guess if we lose one centre half we switch to a back 4, and if we lose a wingback then, NML, CBT, Barkhuizen or Smith drop in. 

8 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I'm 4 days younger than Leighton.

This one really hit home.

I didn't know what reaction to put to that, so replying instead. Miserable isn't it? Saw on Twitter Leighton had been ill - no more details. Wishing all Rams health and happiness, but this does hit home... 

Didn't Mackay call him "the final piece in the jigsaw"? 71 feels no age nowadays. RIP 

Even though Musk didn't buy Twitter to turn a profit, it's extraordinary real-time massive data, feeding into Grok, will likely end up turning it into the most valuable AI company there is. No one else has anything remotely comparable. All the other large language models have cutoffs when their training data ends.

1 hour ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

Over here in pedants' corner, we'd like to point out that Space X still hasn't worked.

SpaceX is the most successful space company there's every been. It launches 90% of the entirety of the world's mass to orbit each year. It's only mid-April and it's already launched and landed 40 orbital missions. And is the only private company (not a nation) to ever fly people into low-Earth orbit, to the space station and beyond. Nearly 50 astronauts have flown this way. Then it has more than 5,500 Starlink satellites in orbit, more than half the total number of satellites there are. Yours is some very strange new meaning of the term "hasn't worked" with which I was previously unaware.

Has Evatt thrown in the towel? 

Congratulations to Portsmouth who are promoted as Champions after tonight's results, which were:

• Portsmouth 3 Barnsley 2
• Bolton 2 Shrewsbury 2
• Peterborough 4 Fleetwood 1

A fabulous draw by Shrewsbury means we only need 4 points from the final 2 games to guarantee promotion. Goal difference not quite enough to rely on just the 3 points. But if both Bolton and Peterborough drop points on Saturday, victory at Cambridge would see us up.

The other Saturday fixtures are:

• Bolton vs Port Vale
• Bristol Rovers vs Peterborough

My take is that the Warne future discussion remains premature. With all my heart I hope he succeeds and gets us over the line, fulfilling what in the summer were the minimum expectations of the majority of the forum (in the days when polls were allowed).

We know we are guaranteed a chance of automatic promotion going into the final game. Even with the possibility of being promoted before the final game. I say let's watch it play out and then discuss what happens next. By that point, @Davidmight even allow us to have a poll again? 

8 hours ago, Srg said:

I love Sibley as much as anyone, but he couldn’t do CBT’s role. Sibley runs in treacle, which is frankly why he hasn’t hit the heights we thought he might when he broke through. 

I find posts like this just weird. One of Sibley's many strengths is his ability to run with the ball at his feet, at speed, leaving midfielders of defenders in his wake. He's absolutely no slouch. We are a team whose instructions are to bypass central midfield and play the ball wide at the earliest possible opportunity. If we were prepared to vary our approach and played Sibbo in midfield, then we'd have the threat from the wings and also the threat from the centre.