Carl Sagan

At the current stage of pre-season my starting 11 would have to be:

Wildsmith

Byrne      Bielik      Cashin     Thompson

Bird

Knight         Sibley

Barkhuizen     Stretton     Mendez-Laing

I suspect we'll lose Knight. I'm not sure anyone will take a risk on Bielik. If that's the case but Davies signs a new deal, then Bielik moves up into midfield. I can actually see Thommo as a Kenny Sansom-style left back. If Fozzy also signs then we have competition for places which is what a promotion-challenging team will need. All these players will want to be starting in League One. I hope that Rosenior understands that if we're to have any hope of challenging we need to carry a goal threat and cannot take the same safety-first approach as last season. Which means Sibley has to start.

Waiting for that next announcement from the DCFC Twitter feed...

15 minutes ago, big bad ram said:

6pm tweet incoming. 
 

NML’s interview video

Definitely looked an afternoon of scheduled tweets from the social media team. Next up at 7pm, do we go live or is it the additional deals rumoured from yesterday?

Icing on the cake would be Chester and Hourihane, two players I've always rated very highly. Surely both too good for League One?

3 hours ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

Can someone let us know? I'd rather rip my own ears off with a claw hammer than listen to talksport 

Why don't you like Talk Sport? Seems to me they've done an amazing job of competing with the BBC channels despite not having a vast pot of taxpayers' money to draw from.

Interesting. A lot of managers appear to have seen something in him that I haven't. Feel he never quite had the composure, technique or football brain. Not a bad player by any means, but I always thought Max Lowe and Dylan Williams were streets ahead. 

We only want people at Derby who are fully committed to the cause and building something new and special. Given we've been robbed of players left, right and centre, £400k is shabby but it's better than nothing. Auf wiedersehen, Lee.

Hope not.

One of the biggest questions for next season is if Stretton is finally able to stay fit. If so, we will set the division alight with his goalscoring ability. If not, we'll need someone else to give a regular supply of goals and that is definitely not David McGoldrick. There will be young, hungry, pacey, powerful strikers in the lower leagues who will be champing at the bit to come to a club as big as us to show what they can do.

Never go back. We can allow ourselves to ignore Mount, Tomori and Wilson as they were never ours. If any were prepared to actually sign for the wages the EFL is restricting us to, then I'd go along with it, but the ship has sailed for the rest. As @jonosays, it's time for new heroes under a new regime.

2 hours ago, RIMBAUD said:

When did his technique cost us?  

Numerous times the ball would bounce away from Johnson to an opponent and it would lead to a goal. Inability to control a football is surely a problem, even in League One. We have some great youngsters who can play midfield in Sibbo, Knight, Bird and Thommo, not even counting Bielik. Even if Bielik and Knight go, I would prefer all of the other three by a country mile rather than have Johnson come in and not allow one of those lads a game. If we're trying to continue in Rooney's image, this team should be about technique and comfort on the ball. It was the wrong decision to buy Johnson before, simply because "he was available", when his method of play didn't fit at all with the team ethos. All these on let's not compound the mistake.

34 minutes ago, Dean (hick) Saunders said:

Bradley Johnson Hmmm. What would we think on that?

I got the impression he was quite settled in the area (maybe still lives here?). I think this  would only happen/make sense if Beilik and or Bird were off.

Think he would be a good player in L1 (adding some teeth to the midfield ?)

Looks as if I'm in the minority, but I'd be very disappointed if Johnson re-signs. Never rated him. The worst technique of any player in the squad, which at times cost us dearly. And I suggest "Derby City" was unforgivable. Not for me. I don't understand this weird fixation with bringing players back - Shinnie would be madness too. Move on, please.

Nathaniel Mendez-Laing is potentially a great signing at this level, but he does come with baggage. I hope there's a clause in his contract that if he tests positive again the club has the right to dismiss him and he has to repay the wages paid out to him.

It may well be he's learnt his lesson and is a reformed character and can be a good influence on the youth. Let's hope so.

What a lovely, lovely thread this is tonight. After everything we've had to put up with. Brings a tear to the eye and makes you think there is some loyalty in football and players like Cashin and Thommo genuinely love this club. Hopefully the brand new signings (Barkhuizen and Wildsmith etc) will come to feel the same. 

Derby are back!

Hope it will help in some ways having friends in high places. 

2 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

I could name 5, but then I'd be ignoring the rest. Full list is here: https://www.efl.com/clubs-and-competitions/efl-retained-list-squad-numbers/

Thanks for the link.

For those wanting to check, the Derby squad is on p. 16 (with an (o) for <24 players with contracts expiring who we've been allowed to offer new ones to) and those available for free transfer on p. 96 (either willingly released or we'd like to offer a contract but the EFL didn't allow it at the time).

Of those listed here, but out of contract, Ebosele, Ebiowei, Ravel, Roos, Allsopp, Watson and Hutchinson seem to have found new clubs.

I hope Ahgatise, Cashin, Dixon, Foulkes and Thompson will accept the offers and decide to stay with us. That would give us 20 contracted players, but that number includes Bobby Duncan who presumably isn't ever going to play again.

Our friends at the EFL didn't take long to point out we remain under embargo.

https://www.efl.com/news/2022/july/efl-statement-derby-county-exit-administration/

The relevant extract reads:

"As part of the conditions of continuing membership in the EFL, the Club, whilst remaining under a registration embargo, will be permitted to sign new players in accordance with the terms of a business plan. The plan, which has been jointly agreed by the new ownership and the EFL, includes restrictions in respect of transfers fees, player wages and agents’ fees. Any application to register players must comply with the terms of those agreed plans."

I guess we all knew this was coming. What the statement does not say, is how long this will remain for. Is it the whole season? Is it the following season as well? 

And what the terms are will dictate how competitive we can be. As before, we cannot even extend registrations for existing players without meeting the EFL's demands. While I'm grateful we still have a club, I will never forgive the EFL for what they did to us. 

5 minutes ago, Gritstone Ram said:

I would like to publicly thank Mr Clowes for saving the football club I have supported all my life. 
Here’s looking forward to a good season and many more.

Hip Hip Hooray 

Love the letter he's written, which you can find on p.12 of the Daily Updates thread. Gives confidence that we're in good hands. Thank you very much, DC.

Edit: decided it didn't do any harm to add it here.

5 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

They should employ Rod Liddle to do this job. Someone who actually cares about our club. He could also allow racist posting from his anonymous accounts, like he did on the Millwall forum.

Have the mods given up on the Daily Update thread? I hope not, but there's nothing for the last day, despite having had another statement from Quantuma and a thread of Tweets from the EFL. And probably more.

For people coming home from work it's great to quickly be able to see what's happening without wading through the hundreds of (obvs insightful) messages in this thread. Thanks

43 minutes ago, mwram1973 said:

Oh, yes...

On 27/06/2022 at 21:37, CornwallRam said:

We need to adopt this as our new anthem. Perfect tribute to our new owner.

A great excuse to post this version which gives a hint of what it would be like for the whole of Pride Park to be singing Learn to Fly:

So many contenders, but it has to be Gary Lineker, the most overpaid presenter in the history of BBC overpaid presenters. And this is our money. 

Lineker's "I was bullied for being black" comment the other day was extraordinary. Here's Rod Liddle's response in The Sunday Times:

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow, you're only a day away...

Unless it takes longer...

2 hours ago, Charlotte Ram said:

OK having attended many closings on deals like this, this is what happens,

1. The closing will take place at a lawyers office

2. All the documents to be signed are laid out on a big table typically 20ft x 8ft 

3. Most documents run to many pages in many cases up to 50-60 pages each document, each page has to be read and signed and then countersigned by a witness , typically the lawyer handling the transaction.

4. All of this takes many hours, I have completed S+P agreements at 4.00am having started before lunch the previous day.

5. Only when all is signed does the money get transferred, as there is a charge holder , MSD then they will have their legal team there too.  

I do not expect the deal to be completed today.

For this sort of legalese nonsense, I love the idea of slipping something fun in, say halfway down p.48, such as "and we hereby state that Roy McFarland is the greatest centre half to have ever lived"  to see if anyone does actually read it. But if anyone did actually find that then the documents would have to be printed again and everyone would read even more carefully next time, so maybe best not to?

2 hours ago, BaaLocks said:

I loved Spirited Away, love all those Studio Ghibli.

If you're doing film club choose The Lobster - if you can get through that without wondering what way is up you are a better person than me. Or do Tyrannosaur if you don't want people to talk much afterwards, about as dark as it gets - though the acting is beyond great.

Cheers. Remember all the hype about The Lobster when it came out, though some said "great concept but it loses its way". It did sound intriguing. But since then he's done The Killing of a Sacred Dear and The Favourite which I thought were terrible. Life's too short to watch movies from directors whose work you don't like! And if the film club is watching and laughing at Spirited Away I'm pretty certain Tyrannosaur isn't for them! :)

Spirited Away - a famous anime we watched at the inaugural work "film club". It was odd as most of the other members of staff were rolling about laughing, when I was wondering what on earth anyone saw in it. Derek Hales/10.

I have nominated:

• Colossus: the Forbin Project
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

for future screenings.

15 hours ago, desirelines said:

I always liked it when BBC Radio Derby would play the Athletics theme tune. A trimmed/edited version of that could work in a strange, timeless kinda way. 

Written by the genius composer Keith Mansfield, who also penned the theme tunes for Wimbledon and Grandstand. Just saying...