Tombo

I just want to say that I am a realist and I know the likelihood involved, but if we're admitting defeat and saying relegation is a certainty only 8 games into the season, we might as well fold the club now

You've got to believe it can be done. A bit of wild hope never hurt anyone. If we've got this defeatist attitude already, don't be surprised to get tonked every game now until the end of the season. How can the players have any belief if we as the fans don't?

Call me an idiot if you like but come on. Let's give it a try, no?

2 minutes ago, TooFarInToTurnRed said:

I read that as Gellaw Newco bought the ground but haven’t paid the money yet and owes the football club £73m this year?

Can we repo the stadium?

Plenty of standing room at Markeaton Park next year when the Mighty Rams take on some Lincolnshire postmen

"My Football Club Went to The Wall and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt"

39 minutes ago, sage said:

An interview with me will be on Radio Derby between 6 and 7 this evening. I'm not going to go into the gift a ticket idea, just going to encourage people to go and bring others 

Hark at you on the radio. Don't let fame change you

Don't get me wrong, I'm still in the fight to save Derby County. I just don't think being called City is the end of the world.

18 minutes ago, TheresOnlyWanChope said:

Appalling enough thinking of Derby City...It should always be Derby county. AFC Derby County etc. No idea how I would feel about a phoenix club. Might back it, might just lose interest in football for a while. But yeh, groundshare with Mickleover? Nah. Awful

I don't know, I mean we are a city club really, not a county one. We have fans across all of Derbyshire but I tend to find the strongest mutterings about the club from the city.

Plus we are still DCFC if it's Derby City.

Plus Bradley Johnson will come and play for us, he gave us his word

Beer is only £4.70 in the ground, which is actually quite cheap compared to some pubs where prices have lifted over a fiver.

Wouldn't bother me if the prices climbed a bit in the concourse if it helped us out at all

2 hours ago, Crewton said:

First thing I'd do is question your arithmetic ?

I meant to write 20k but I suppose factoring in interest and administration fees... ?

5 hours ago, atherstoneram said:

If you did manage to arrange some sort of crowdfunding the administrators wouldn't differentiate it and just see it as gifted money coming into the club and use it towards paying off the debt. Their primary focus is reducing the debt what the club owes

Correct, their responsibility is to the creditors that appointed them, not the club. However, a club is a business that generates it's own revenue. Asset stripping is a big part of what they'll do but it would be short-termist to just come in, sell everything off, only service a little bit of the debt, and fold the club.

Consider this - I owed you £10,000 and you appointed someone to go into my home and get that money for you. The guy comes in and takes everything from me, all my valuables, my car and eventually my house, so I'm destitute and on the streets. The guy goes back to you and says "well to get a quick sale, I only managed to get you £8,000 for everything he's got. And also, he's got absolutely nothing left and with no home, no car, no clothes, he's also lost his job so you'll just have to forget about the last £12,000 as his only revenue stream is no more". And then you'd be expected to pay that guy a fee as well???

Tell me how that would make you feel. Nobody benefits.

The primary responsibility is to the creditors, but that doesn't mean they don't have a sense of our operational costs and how important they are to the ongoing survival of the business

1 hour ago, Ambitious said:

I understand their grievances. I didn't last year because well it wasn't like we were anywhere near the team that broke P&S. Nevertheless, they do have a good case considering their losses. It would absolutely put us in the mire more so than we already are, so I would again go back to the point - liquidate the club and start again. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is more painful than all this off-the-field baalocks. 

Midlands Counties Division 3... whatever the level. I just want to focus on the football again. 

Unlike others, I don't think you're trolling or on the wind up because I've been caught feeling like this.

However, really give it some solid thought if that is what you want. I looked at it very closely and realised it isn't.

Yes, I would be first in line at the phoenix club. But we would be possibly decades away from the roar of 30,000 plus on matchday again.

I'd miss Pride Park, I'd miss good(ish) football, and I'd miss the buzz of DCFC. I think maybe you underestimate just how long it would take to get back to a decent pro level, and also how many fans we would lose in the process.

I believe that you mean what you say and it's not 100% flippant (although I'm sure there's a tongue in cheek element) but if we're not understanding what we're fighting for we've got no hope of winning. It's about to get very difficult so I'd urge you to rediscover whether you want to lose 137 years of history so easily.

Famously, the basis of every robust legal challenge begins with the accuser stating "I don't know if there is a viable claim".

I am once again asking for a thread title change

We will see players sold in Jan, but bear in mind that it makes no financial sense to just go "Jason Knight - 100k, Sibley - £200k, Bird- £200k" and get them gone dirt cheap.

Yes it will be low figures, yes we would get more in normal circumstances, but the administrators aren't stupid. We need money now more than ever, we'll get okayish money for them.

They won't sell the whole squad for peanuts, only make a tiny dent in the debt, and then have to fold the club.  They'll work with the footballing people at the club and do their own market research to do the right thing

I'm completely on board with crowdfunding if it needs to be done at some point. I'm willing to chuck in more than my fair share too.

However I think we should wait and see what happens first. If it needs to be done, I'm sure we'll hear about it.

I would expect any club to know they can come to the fans cap in hand as a last resort, but as it has been mentioned in this thread we already put our fair share into the club.

Long and short of it is....we'll have a whipround for the club but they've got to beg us for it

They're not even going to attempt to pull together the means and they want to waive the 28 day window.

Seriously, why do they even exist? If this isn't the opportunity for fan-led ownership, then when is?

Just now, G STAR RAM said:

We have already been cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to the ground sale.

Yes because they disputed the valuation. For us to buy the stadium back, there's no way the EFL will allow us to receive it for less without punishment

34 minutes ago, Rev said:

Mel could sell it back to the club for whatever he fancies, so long as he's not part of the ownership in any way.

The only reason he had to pay that valuation was because he was a related party to the transaction, which wouldn't be the case if ownership was elsewhere.

Could also be true. I don't think either of us know for sure.

He is of course free do to what he likes with his own stadium but the club would probably be punished heavily for the year we should have failed P&S but didn't because of the stadium

I don't think it's as simple as Mel handing the stadium back to us at this point.

For him to do that, after we avoided falling foul of P&S by selling it, we risk the EFL opening that case up again and positing that he has deliberately sold it back to us far under the market value (I.e. £0).

That market value was argued about relentlessly and now legally we know what it's worth.

If we want Pride Park back the price is £80million. Possibly more if the price of the land rises further.

We'll probably never own the ground again until we can get into the Premier League and get away from P&S.

Mel and Pearce navigating through our financial struggles

If we stay up, I'm going to say it now

Open top bus.

I'm serious as well. Clubs around us might mock it, but it would mean so much to somehow survive.

3 minutes ago, bimmerman said:

yeah...when you think about it..

no stadium

an over the top training ground and academy setup that costs £££

few saleable assets-bielik/bird/knight/sibbo/byrne. captain out of contract soon as well

threadbare squad and no real ability to slash costs any further

realistically,if no buyer is found short term and no fan consortium,we very well could be staring down the barrel of liquidation to pay off footballing debts to exit administration. it could end up being quite bleak

 

chin up though, could be worse,could support forest

2 minutes ago, sage said:

I agree, but could he go on £500 a week so the groundsmen, tea ladies and office staff keep their jobs.

 

For a serious answer, of course you have a valid point. Mel is quite rightly getting pelters tonight but Rooney is also a multimillionaire

That said, he never took on the burden of football club ownership only to bail out of responsibilities when the going got tough and some of his vast wealth started to deplete.

Just now, sage said:

I agree, but could he go on £500 a week so the groundsmen, tea ladies and office staff keep their jobs.

 

I've had too many wines for this sort of ethical and moral dilemma

13 minutes ago, Carl Sagan said:

The way to make a small fortune is to start with a large fortune and buy a football club. That seems to me what Mel has done. I have no idea how much is left but I certainly wouldn't believe the Sunday Times rich list figures.

Boo hoo, the guy in his mid 60s only has an 8 figure wealth instead of a 9 figure one.

He knows what he took on when he bought the club

I'm sure he won't be hungry tonight. He won't give a second thought to switching on the central heating when the weather turns in the next few weeks. He wants for nothing.