eccles the ram

For a winger, turned wingback, turned fullback, turned centre back he reads the game very well. In an ideal world we strengthen at the back with younger legs and use him as cover and rotation, but he's certainly good enough for another season if needed. Plus he seems like a top guy.

I'm actually more upset that Curtis is leaving than I was at not making the playoffs.  I get, it makes sense, but it's just sad.
Go well captain and thank you for the memories.

And mine… 
 

Sad day for all who follow the Rams. Curtis has put so much of himself in the club, I really hope he stays in some capacity. Stears and Chester thank you both. Great professionals who hopefully will get another gig. Something was lost today. Be it part camaraderie or what. Thanks guys for what you have done for this great club of ours. I will raise a glass or two for you tonight. UTR!
 

Right decisions but sad for different reasons.
Curtis has been a colossus for us through some of the lowest points in our history, on and off the pitch.
Spoke very eloquently about the pain of administration from the players' point of view. 
His goal at Reading - wow! 
Always has a smile and a chat with the fans, wherever we may be. 
Represents our club so well. I think he'll be back in some capacity at another stage in his career. Hope he gets a swansong season at the Orient before he hangs up his boots. Go well, captain.
The Steargoat has been our cheerleader, often geeing on the team from the sidelines right below where I sit. He's a strong influence on the young lads, and I was hoping he might take up a coaching role in our academy. Hope he gets fixed up somewhere if not with us.
I feel for Chester - a whole season without any significant football. Devastating for a player at this stage of his career. The little we saw of him I thought he looked solid and could do a job for us if only he was fit. He looked close to tears when we chatted to him about it at the Awards evening. 

Had to be done. Curtis playing in the Championship finale against Wednesday, signing the waiver to do his bit, really demonstrated his commitment. Such an eloquent spokesman for the club, and always a great listen if lucky enough to be in hospitality when he's there.
And here he is on Wembley Way, discarded by Lampard but supporting the team and bonding with fans before the Villa game.

Shout out to Richard Stearman too, who I feel knew his role and played it very well, never letting us down.

Sad day for all who follow the Rams. Curtis has put so much of himself in the club, I really hope he stays in some capacity. Stears and Chester thank you both. Great professionals who hopefully will get another gig. Something was lost today. Be it part camaraderie or what. Thanks guys for what you have done for this great club of ours. I will raise a glass or two for you tonight. UTR!
 

Sad day for all who follow the Rams. Curtis has put so much of himself in the club, I really hope he stays in some capacity. Stears and Chester thank you both. Great professionals who hopefully will get another gig. Something was lost today. Be it part camaraderie or what. Thanks guys for what you have done for this great club of ours. I will raise a glass or two for you tonight. UTR!
 

Part of me hoped Curtis would stay.
Top, top pro and seems an all round great guy. He'll definitely be missed as he's been a cracking player for us over the years and has never let us down. 
Good luck to all three of them!
 

Feels a bit lowkey for Davies' departure after years of solid service. Hope he joins Orient next season then I can go on odd match days to cheer him, and also give him a round of applause when we play them.

Sad day for all who follow the Rams. Curtis has put so much of himself in the club, I really hope he stays in some capacity. Stears and Chester thank you both. Great professionals who hopefully will get another gig. Something was lost today. Be it part camaraderie or what. Thanks guys for what you have done for this great club of ours. I will raise a glass or two for you tonight. UTR!
 

Well that's another season over. It's been extremely eventful, some good times, some bad times but football will continue no matter what. I know there has been contentious issues throughout the year. Poor officials, bad decisions, missed goalmouth opportunities but it's balanced out by the sheer euphoria of seeing my beloved team playing in a stadium fit for the Premiership. Gutted we didn't get in the playoffs but, in my heart of hearts, I think we would have struggled big time in the Championship with what the EFL have still imposed on us. We have the stability at the helm for once, we have a financial structure which we still need to adhere to (for the time being) and we have a manager who WILL get us out of this league sometime soon. August can't come quick enough for me. Will get me season ticket asap, will look forward to the fixtures coming out, and will turn up to bellow my support at PP and elsewhere. I will be a year older then, creeping towards my 70th birthday, but it's what I do. Football and anything to do with Derby County, is special to me and countless other thousands of DCFC fans. Very proud to be a Rams fan. Always was,always will be.UTR!

Well that's another season over. It's been extremely eventful, some good times, some bad times but football will continue no matter what. I know there has been contentious issues throughout the year. Poor officials, bad decisions, missed goalmouth opportunities but it's balanced out by the sheer euphoria of seeing my beloved team playing in a stadium fit for the Premiership. Gutted we didn't get in the playoffs but, in my heart of hearts, I think we would have struggled big time in the Championship with what the EFL have still imposed on us. We have the stability at the helm for once, we have a financial structure which we still need to adhere to (for the time being) and we have a manager who WILL get us out of this league sometime soon. August can't come quick enough for me. Will get me season ticket asap, will look forward to the fixtures coming out, and will turn up to bellow my support at PP and elsewhere. I will be a year older then, creeping towards my 70th birthday, but it's what I do. Football and anything to do with Derby County, is special to me and countless other thousands of DCFC fans. Very proud to be a Rams fan. Always was,always will be.UTR!

Well that's another season over. It's been extremely eventful, some good times, some bad times but football will continue no matter what. I know there has been contentious issues throughout the year. Poor officials, bad decisions, missed goalmouth opportunities but it's balanced out by the sheer euphoria of seeing my beloved team playing in a stadium fit for the Premiership. Gutted we didn't get in the playoffs but, in my heart of hearts, I think we would have struggled big time in the Championship with what the EFL have still imposed on us. We have the stability at the helm for once, we have a financial structure which we still need to adhere to (for the time being) and we have a manager who WILL get us out of this league sometime soon. August can't come quick enough for me. Will get me season ticket asap, will look forward to the fixtures coming out, and will turn up to bellow my support at PP and elsewhere. I will be a year older then, creeping towards my 70th birthday, but it's what I do. Football and anything to do with Derby County, is special to me and countless other thousands of DCFC fans. Very proud to be a Rams fan. Always was,always will be.UTR!

Well that's another season over. It's been extremely eventful, some good times, some bad times but football will continue no matter what. I know there has been contentious issues throughout the year. Poor officials, bad decisions, missed goalmouth opportunities but it's balanced out by the sheer euphoria of seeing my beloved team playing in a stadium fit for the Premiership. Gutted we didn't get in the playoffs but, in my heart of hearts, I think we would have struggled big time in the Championship with what the EFL have still imposed on us. We have the stability at the helm for once, we have a financial structure which we still need to adhere to (for the time being) and we have a manager who WILL get us out of this league sometime soon. August can't come quick enough for me. Will get me season ticket asap, will look forward to the fixtures coming out, and will turn up to bellow my support at PP and elsewhere. I will be a year older then, creeping towards my 70th birthday, but it's what I do. Football and anything to do with Derby County, is special to me and countless other thousands of DCFC fans. Very proud to be a Rams fan. Always was,always will be.UTR!

Well that's another season over. It's been extremely eventful, some good times, some bad times but football will continue no matter what. I know there has been contentious issues throughout the year. Poor officials, bad decisions, missed goalmouth opportunities but it's balanced out by the sheer euphoria of seeing my beloved team playing in a stadium fit for the Premiership. Gutted we didn't get in the playoffs but, in my heart of hearts, I think we would have struggled big time in the Championship with what the EFL have still imposed on us. We have the stability at the helm for once, we have a financial structure which we still need to adhere to (for the time being) and we have a manager who WILL get us out of this league sometime soon. August can't come quick enough for me. Will get me season ticket asap, will look forward to the fixtures coming out, and will turn up to bellow my support at PP and elsewhere. I will be a year older then, creeping towards my 70th birthday, but it's what I do. Football and anything to do with Derby County, is special to me and countless other thousands of DCFC fans. Very proud to be a Rams fan. Always was,always will be.UTR!

I touched on part of this in the match thread, and I am gutted to miss out although I feel like I'm less disappointed because of the circumstances. It's strange, if we'd completely capitulated and looked gutless, then I'd be fuming, but because it was down to an individual error/officiating error (again), it almost feels like well what could we do... We actually played really well, given the circumstances, deserved at least a point and showed a lot of fight. For me it's a lot different to previous seasons where we've just missed out on the top 6. I don't think "bottling" it comes into play this year. We just couldn't finish our chances, we could've won a hell of a lot more points without playing any better or any worse, just by putting away our chances. I also don't care what people say about bad decisions evening themselves out over a season, I think if someone did a case study on our season, it would show that's very far from the truth...
But other reasons to be positive:
- We'll have our first season in a long time where we can go into the pre-season with a bit of stability and certainty. We can look to build on the squad we do have with a manager who has had long enough to decide what we need to go up a level. It's not going to be perfect because of the circumstances we find ourselves under, but I think we should be in a much stronger position come August than we were last year. At least we won't have to wait another 2 months to know if we're going to be taken over, and start from scratch then. We won't have to miss out on signings and we can get started right now.
- The circumstances... we'll still be under the business plan, but we'll be into our last year. There's talk it'll be 'relaxed', Nixon (yes I know) has linked us to actually spending Great British Pound Sterling on a player, whether we will or not, when was the last time we even could?
- We're still a bigger fish in a smaller pond. I know we can't take anything for granted and big teams get 'stuck' down here. We have to take any opportunity we can to get out of this league BUT, we will be in a position where we are going to be a much bigger draw for players at this level than 90% of the opposition, and will be able to afford to pay them more too. In the Championship where we still have restrictions, I think we'd really struggle to build a squad and pick up results at the same time. I hope that just one more season at this level will set us up to have a much stronger future than a season of probably scrapping to stay up.
- Experience at this level. The novelty will have worn off a little, for us, and for the opposition, the first trips are mostly out of the way. We can learn from naivety, errors and mistakes made this season where we've dropped silly points. Wigan, Reading and Blackpool shouldn't pose as much of a challenge, the competition this year has been fierce. Wednesday getting 96 points and only finishing 3rd is crazy, the top 3 in League 1 are far stronger than the bottom 3 in the Championship this season in my opinion.
It's naturally disappointing to miss out however it happens, but I'm already looking forward to a busy summer and August rolling around again. It's been a long time since we've finished higher than 3rd in any division, wouldn't it be nice if this time next year that changes.

Massive game. Start on the front foot straightaway as the crowd will be up for it. Really looking forward to what is THE defining match of a very enjoyable (mostly) season. Win and we are in the box seats, draw, we still have a chance. I am not contemplating anything else. Have a distinct feeling that this is the PENULTIMATE home game . In the South stand with my sprog instead of SW. Will be bouncing? You bet I will. From a very optomistic pensioner.Come on you rams!

Massive game. Start on the front foot straightaway as the crowd will be up for it. Really looking forward to what is THE defining match of a very enjoyable (mostly) season. Win and we are in the box seats, draw, we still have a chance. I am not contemplating anything else. Have a distinct feeling that this is the PENULTIMATE home game . In the South stand with my sprog instead of SW. Will be bouncing? You bet I will. From a very optomistic pensioner.Come on you rams!

Massive game. Start on the front foot straightaway as the crowd will be up for it. Really looking forward to what is THE defining match of a very enjoyable (mostly) season. Win and we are in the box seats, draw, we still have a chance. I am not contemplating anything else. Have a distinct feeling that this is the PENULTIMATE home game . In the South stand with my sprog instead of SW. Will be bouncing? You bet I will. From a very optomistic pensioner.Come on you rams!

Massive game. Start on the front foot straightaway as the crowd will be up for it. Really looking forward to what is THE defining match of a very enjoyable (mostly) season. Win and we are in the box seats, draw, we still have a chance. I am not contemplating anything else. Have a distinct feeling that this is the PENULTIMATE home game . In the South stand with my sprog instead of SW. Will be bouncing? You bet I will. From a very optomistic pensioner.Come on you rams!

Massive game. Start on the front foot straightaway as the crowd will be up for it. Really looking forward to what is THE defining match of a very enjoyable (mostly) season. Win and we are in the box seats, draw, we still have a chance. I am not contemplating anything else. Have a distinct feeling that this is the PENULTIMATE home game . In the South stand with my sprog instead of SW. Will be bouncing? You bet I will. From a very optomistic pensioner.Come on you rams!

Massive game. Start on the front foot straightaway as the crowd will be up for it. Really looking forward to what is THE defining match of a very enjoyable (mostly) season. Win and we are in the box seats, draw, we still have a chance. I am not contemplating anything else. Have a distinct feeling that this is the PENULTIMATE home game . In the South stand with my sprog instead of SW. Will be bouncing? You bet I will. From a very optomistic pensioner.Come on you rams!

Massive game. Start on the front foot straightaway as the crowd will be up for it. Really looking forward to what is THE defining match of a very enjoyable (mostly) season. Win and we are in the box seats, draw, we still have a chance. I am not contemplating anything else. Have a distinct feeling that this is the PENULTIMATE home game . In the South stand with my sprog instead of SW. Will be bouncing? You bet I will. From a very optomistic pensioner.Come on you rams!