TomBustler1884

4 minutes ago, BramcoteRam84 said:

Cue random speculation. Is this person an Irish pop star? 

I should be clear, I don't have a name, I've been trying to guess myself too!!

Even if it doesn't end up being true, gives us something to do for a bit while we wait!

With regards to CK being overseas, different timezone etc, he has said, repeatedly, his team is working on the purchase of the club. He literally just needs to confirm or decline the purchase.

As for the stadium, if it is being purchased by a UK-based person and is separate from CK purchase of the club, I'm not convinced he would need to be too involved. From what I've heard on the rumour mill, this person is a very wealthy Rams fan, buying the stadium as a cash purchase, no lending involved. Not any of the LoG crowd either so no Gadsby, Horton, Kirkland, etc. Could be wrong, but that's what I've heard.

I'm going to be optimistic/naive and say come 5pm it will be a case of ducks being lined up in a row, with a completion and announcement this evening.  That's the plan anyway.

Either that or Big Mike is coming in with his painful, impassionate take over later this week.

17 hours ago, CBRammette said:

I always like the threads where forum members tell us how they got to be Derby fans. Have enjoyed following the Sport Bible thread on Twitter this week so thought we could waste some time with it on here as we're waiting (again). Added a couple as have taken out Your team which is a bit obvious

What is your...

- Grandad’s Team
- Dad’s Team
- Mum’s Team

- Everyone at your school's Team

- Your local Team now

- Your kids Team(s)

 

My family were never much into football, but if asked they would say

Grandad's team - Liverpool

Dad's team - Leeds

Mum's team - Forest

Everyone at school - Derby/Man Utd

Local team - Derby

Kids team - will be Derby

It's a miracle I made the choice I made!

I am taking the silence as a positive.

There are 2 bidders for the stadium, one from someone local, one from someone overseas. 

If either of these reach an agreement by Saturday, Kirchner is in.

If they don't it will be Ashley next week.

All second or third hand information I've heard from a couple of people who would know more than most but there we go. Not really new information, but reassuring to have it confirmed by people I trust.

21 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

Ricky P?  Birchy?  Jevers?  Ridsy, Boro' Bausor, & Jezza?  Those lads?    

March, not match. ?

?‍♂️

Morning all.

The lads who arranged the last match have another planned on Saturday.

The plan is to meet at 11.20 at the underpass onto Pride Park near the Alexandra Hotel.

14 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

Like we've just lost 10 games on the bounce away from home so who are you stating are thinking that we're going to walk League 1 next season?

Plenty of comments on here and on Twitter. I'm sure plenty of it is hubris and coping mechanisms, but it will inevitably get picked up on by fans of other clubs!

I'm glad to see people already in that mindset but lots of folk on social media and on here giving it the biggun already.

It won't help the club, the team or the fans.

Disappointed to finally have relegation confirmed tonight but it was always the most likely outcome.

Looking ahead to L1, assuming the takeover happens, I'd love us to avoid being that club who thinks we will walk the league and beat all comers.

We are set for the biggest squad overhaul we've ever seen which will be HUGELY unpredictable. We will have a target on our backs all season long, and there are some big clubs here who have more experience of the slog than we do.

I'm hoping that in August I am confident and think we can compete for promotion, but let's just temper expectations for now and keep the "everything is a bonus" approach, its contributed to the best season ever for atmosphere.

I'm amazed at all the negativity! We've been down since the 21 pt deduction kicked in, we gave it a fantastic go but this is where ive expected (hoped we wouldnt) be since the season started!

It's not a time to stay away or give up on giving the lads our full support so if you can, get down there and keep doing what we've been doing.

Giving the SW a go tonight!

I can't pretend to be a cricket aficionado, but Masood looks a cut above out there. 

Clearly he has been party to some catastrophic decision making at the club and he will have played a role in that. He, more than anybody, will be keen to move on to something else when the time comes.

However, just for a bit of perspective, he still reported to Mel. Anyone who thinks he had an equal decision making position, or was able to influence what Mel did to any great extent, is probably a bit naive. I'm sure he received many of the assurances and promises we all did.

This won't be a positive post, and I'm certainly not standing up for Stephen, he doesn't need me to! It's just good sometimes to take a step back, I don't think everything is always as clear cut as we think. Football clubs are murky places with lots of rumour, with no decisions made by committee. Could he have done more to prevent the mess we're in? For sure, but we will never know the ins and outs.

He will go, 100% and that will be the right decision. But ultimately, he isn't the main culprit in all of this imho.

58 minutes ago, Boycie said:

Are away grounds actually giving free wifi? Or do you mean just phone signal?
 

Are the away grounds holding >26k fans?  I’m interested because I was at a Charter Meeting when this was brought up.  Did you get a decent WiFi/phone signal at Wembley? 

He said he could spend a fortune getting wifi and signal improvements done and still have complaints.  I swap to 3G at pride park, it gives me half a chance of at least a text getting out.

But them you see others getting a signal no problem. Maybe it’s the big providers who struggle.  
 

Wembley was sponsored by EE and I couldn’t use my EE signal there ?

Don't give away the 3G tip - it's the only way to get phone signal at PP, don't want everyone doing it!!

20 minutes ago, Mihangel said:

Brighton have done it to an extent but they've been more focused on their 'in the ground' catering. That part of their stadium is definitely better than ours.

It was one thing that made me prefer Kirchner to Ashley, I was confident he would be looking closely at how we grow revenue to be sustainable, and the catering offering is an obvious contributor to that. Ashley would undoubtedly be looking at how we cut costs to be sustainable. I know whose stadium would provide a more pleasurable experience.

My only interest in Ashley is that he has done it before, and would be keen to get us promoted to the PL to make us profitable. The massive downside is that I think his ownership would make supporting DCFC a dour, miserable experience. I would expect virtually no off-field investment or engagement.

Thanks for the shoutout @Rev! 

A few years ago, we had a meeting with DCFC and were showed plans for a Pop Brixton-style fan park with shipping containers surrounding a central courtyard seating area, with seats on top of the containers too. All of them had food or drink offerings, music, etc. It looked BRILLIANT.

The problem we quickly found was that the club has contracts with, I think, DNC and whoever runs the food vans currently there, so if they put something new in, they have to use the same old contracts. Until that is sorted, there is no opportunity of getting independent or local operators doing something different. Perhaps that can change with new ownership?

On another note, its interesting when the stars align and Bustler is on the same day as a home match. We often get quite a few Rams fans coming in on their way to or from the match, but I know from experience, routine is a big thing for people.

If I was CK and looking to change things up, I would be speaking to whoever owns the underpass going from Siddals Road to Pride Park. Once you come through the underpass there is a huge concrete plaza under the PP flyover that would be perfect for music, food, drink and as a gathering area. You could even paint it up with DCFC murals. Put a few permanent containers down there with bar and kitchen equipment so that traders can change every match on a "guest" basis. Get people coming from town to meet there, get the atmosphere going (a la Ajax vids) then march all together to the match through Pride Park. It wouldn't change routines too much for people, improve pre-match atmosphere and get people up for it.

If the club could provide the permissions and infrastructure needed for that, I'm sure there would be interest in running it for them, whether that is from somewhere like Bustler, or whether you hand it to a fans group to manage if they are trusted.

Feels like a bizarre thing for BAWT to do if they aren't extremely confident they're right.

If Quantuma are following their own timeline (big if) then I would be shocked if we heard anything before Friday at the earliest.

They SHOULD be into a complicated and delicate, and incredibly important phase of all this now, getting the package clear to take to the EFL for approval. Why on earth would they make any public statement at this point?

EFL board meetings are on Thursday. IF Quantuma have done what they said they would, I think we will hear things Thursday PM/Friday, with official confirmation from Quantuma and the preferred bidder by Weds 6th at latest. For now we need to be patient, still.

If that doesn't happen, then yes, clearly the club doesnt have enough value to meet admin exit requirements and we can start the hysterical panic we are very good at!

Really gutted about this. One of those bands I've grown up with and still love listening to. He will be terribly missed.

2 minutes ago, Sparkle said:

I think Mickleover are due to play DC United very soon - I believe the price is £12 and they are expecting about 2000 to attend 

FC United?

45 minutes ago, CornwallRam said:

I wonder if we would be allowed to start next season still in adminstration? We would not be allowed to start 2 seasons in adminstration, but that wouldn't be the case.

It would obviously need the EFL to loosen the embargo, but if they allowed us to sign free agents and feeless loans upto a certain wage, maybe £3.5 k per week, we ought to be able to cobble together a squad for League 1. Maybe a wage bill of £8m? That should be covetable with our income from walk up tickets - assuming not allowed to sell STs, and TV money.

Hopefully it won't come to that, but better than liquidation if there is a bid still being negotiated. 

Unless MSD plan on loaning us more and more money, I don't think the club has the funds to go beyond the end of the season, unless a new owner is found.

It would be allowed, but without proof of funding, there's not a chance.

1 minute ago, LERam said:

Over the last few years we have (rightly) bemoaned the DCFC scouting office. Looking at some of the average underwhelming signings we made under Mels tenure, would some of these faired better, looked better, etc if they'd been bought into the squad this year? I use the term mediocre based on them not being total out and out fan faves

 

Simon Dawkins - YES

Raul Albentosa - NO

Nick Blackman - NO

Flo Jozefzoon - NO

Anya - NO

Cameron Jerome - YES

 

I haven't been on too much last few days, but a quick glance here and on Twitter, it seems Ebosele has gone from the saviour of DCFC to useless and someone we can do without very quickly.

Whether he goes on to be a world-beater or fades into obscurity, he has been a breath of fresh air, exciting and given his all this season. He shouldn't be blamed for securing a new contract at a Serie A club (regardless of whether he's loaned out to Watford).

I understand the deal was signed off 2-3 weeks ago, having turned down offers personally in January. That is entirely fair enough in our current circumstances.

I wish him well, thank him for his contribution to DCFC and hope to see him go on to greater things.

1 hour ago, hintonsboots said:

Nobody likes a grass. Apology accepted though mate.

Not so much a grass, more like just plain stupidity.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

1 hour ago, David said:

 

It's not a genuine tweet. 

Might sound like a boring bar steward here, but can we make it clear if posts are parody.

Thousands of fans reading this topic won't have the capability to check and take it as truth.

Sorry for getting you in trouble @hintonsboots. To be fair, it's the sort of nonsense he normally posts!