chadlad

Probably has another job lined up. DCFC couldn’t afford his wages in League 1.
Main thing is we get this takeover done.

Probably has another job lined up. DCFC couldn’t afford his wages in League 1.
Main thing is we get this takeover done.

Agreed. I have been a DCFC supporter for a long time and would be extremely upset if my football club, an original league member were be liquidated as a result of incompetent and irresponsible financial management.
Having said that if the result is a phoenix club, say a Derby United, renting and playing at Pride Park having purchased some of the DCFC assets and playing in the National League and owned by Derby supporters - I would almost certainly continue to support a Derby based team.

Agreed. I have been a DCFC supporter for a long time and would be extremely upset if my football club, an original league member were be liquidated as a result of incompetent and irresponsible financial management.
Having said that if the result is a phoenix club, say a Derby United, renting and playing at Pride Park having purchased some of the DCFC assets and playing in the National League and owned by Derby supporters - I would almost certainly continue to support a Derby based team.

Hello everyone.  Nice to meet you all.  Found this forum a week or so ago, and in the circumstances have been reading frequently.
I do believe there is, perhaps understandably, a mismatch between business reality and fans wanting to "save our club".  Some of the business people involved also care deeply about football, and some this club; but business comes first and their backers are not going to want to "donate" monies beyond the relative value of the proposition.  
I work in financial services and investment.  I have previously worked at a global accountancy firm, where I for a while sat next to a company administrator - no, not Q - so have some familiarity with how these processes work in general terms. 
My analysis: is DCFC has VERY large debts.  DCFC has virtually no tangible assets.  Those we do have are players (if very few!).  On liquidation, unlike with other firms in most normal industries, those assets can leave for free on liquidation - so valueless to a liquidator.  We have considerable brand value (30k matchday attendees), all those here etc etc.  That brand value dies on liquidation, if EFL does not allow re-entry at L2.  Unlike with most businesses, the name cannot simply be sold as a way to pay creditors.
There is an old maxim: if I owe the bank £10,000, I have a problem; If I owe the bank a £1billion, the bank has a problem. That applies here.  On liquidation, the creditors get nothing.  Think about it, the players have no value and we don't own the ground.  We are left with paying £100m or whatever it is from old replica kits from the Superstore.
Ashley knows this, too.  As do all the buyers.  The reality is someone needs to be screwed here.  Liquidation screws everyone, but the admins need to extract as much as they can.  And so along strides a wonderful American who will generously pay a nice amount to said creditors for a L1 club.  No points deduction.  Keep Rooney.  40 new players.  He might as well throw Bale in to the mix as well, and consider putting a bit in for Messi.  It feels - not saying it is - a little too good to be true.  He is offering to be the one financially screwed for the greater good of everyone else.  And on cue the money doesn't turn up... makes you wonder.
What, in my opinion, this club has needed since January is to have the real crunch liquidation point - the club will liquidate on x date without x monies.  At the moment, creditors are thinking "I can get a 'good' deal from some naive mug" and are not considering the real haircut they are going to need to take to get some monies back, maybe 5 or 10p in the pound.  Once a potential vulture owner decides to accept the points deduction, why offer the creditors any less than a completely derisory offer (you get them to their lowest point before they refuse on principle)?  The points deduction will be the same.
This is Ashley's strategy (and probably everyone else bar CK).  He is planning to screw the creditors.  But this only works if you are prepared to hold out to the very very very last minute; and you can act fast to prevent the reapers axe actually coming down. 
The idea he will take CK's terms like-for-like is for the birds.      
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 

Fair comments. Forum’s allow people to vent. He’s gone from Uncle Mel to bad smell but the reality is he was probably telling the truth when he said he couldn’t afford to subsidise the club anymore. After losing the play off final and the cupboard being bare the only option was to sell but Gibson, with the help of Maguire saying “looking here”, insisting the EFL re visit the amortisation policy scared off the Saudi’s 
It dragged on so long and Mel was losing so much, especially with no income and no loan, that he was left with no option but to act in his own interests at that point and put us into admin.
In his position many of us would have done the same thing and many of us would have even done it sooner.
How long would any of us go on chucking good money after bad. Would we be expected to do it indefinitely?
Any who says he shouldn’t have chased the dream and then was bouncing all the way to Wembley with Frank is a hypocrite.
Who’d be a football club owner.
 

Mighty. That was mighty!!! 
I was a little apprehensive because Barnsley were supposedly the form team, ripping up the league. So who were we playing today? There was a bit of a flash at the start where they zipped the ball around, but it was only a flash. Maybe the ref clamping down giving a free kick for a hefty challenge, then booking the next Barnsley Chopper nipped the heavy stuff in the bud. Its amazing what happens when a ref does what he is paid to do! From then on we controlled the game - Barnsley only had one real effort on goal in the first half. And our first goal was well deserved and was an absolute beauty. I really love goals when they are chipped over the keeper. And yes, it looked like Morrison was offside. 
So a ref clamping down on fouls early on, a dodgy decision going our way - it's almost as if Wayne's pointing out the refereeing deficiencies last week has had an effect! Second half carried on in much the same way, and Derby looked so comfortable, almost all match long. Oh, and suddenly the ball has started falling kindly for us - Tom rattled the bar and it fell right into the path of Ravel who dispatched his shot with aplomb. So how come Rooney, who has known Ravel for years, didn't know that he plays best further forwards? My hart sank when I saw that he was ahead of Sibley and Watson yet again on the team sheet when we have been crying out for someone who plays with a bit of forwards momentum. But that is exaclty what we got today!
I struggled about Man of the Match because just I had singled out Max Bird who was terrific from the start, I notice Ebosele was putting in a shift both attacking and defensively, or Ravel, obviously, or the unflappable Davis, or Allsopp came to my attention. Nobody had a duffer today, but I am going to single out Cashin. He misplaced a couple of passes, but he was up against a bruiser today, and the only reason he wasn't in Cashin's back pocket is that he was too big to fit in there. How many times Cashin pinched the ball in a tackle when he should have been well beaten reminded me of Colin Todd. He didn't seem to let anything go past him. A superb display.
And the ref - I wold dare to suggest he was the best we have had for maybe a coupe of seasons. Well done Wayne!

I want to ask.....but you know what nope, not worth it.
 

I'm getting a little concerned now. My guess is that MSD want at least £20m for the stadium and that HMRC want 100%, albeit with an extended payment plan. Throw in paying the football creditors in full and 25% for the unsecured, then any bid must commit to over £80m. Add in the sharks from Wycombe and Smogsville and the club does not look likely to find a viable buyer in its current form.
Hopefully, I'm wrong and Appleby can find a structure which works. Personally, I don't think a January fire sale would devalue the club. There are plenty of cheap players available, so going onto the summer with a clean slate and could be a positive, especially if it had reduced the purchase price by setting the football debts.
What I think could happen is that Gadsby and a couple of wealthy fans set up a new company and buy the name and the trademarks. Derby County then starts next season as a debt free club in the Conference North, training at the Rugby club and playing at Meadow Lane. Hopefully we retain a significant percentage of the fan base and quickly secure a couple of promotions. Then we move to regain Pride Park and Moor Farm for much reduced prices from MSD.
Meanwhile the existing DCFC company is liquidated with only a few million to give to HMRC.
Thank you Mel Morris. 

I thought it was soft. I think the contact (if there was any) was at hip level and was slight. But naive by Lee 

The level of debt he was carrying though is why he failed when covid hit. Morris had no wriggle room left to be able to cheat his way out of. He knew it was game up but instead of admitting he screwed up, he doubled down blaming everything on covid and the EFL! 

I am very pleased that we are appealing this - we have suffered a £20 million loss directly and factually from ticket sales due to covid from loss of sales of tickets - we were never in danger of administration prior to that - the EFL have stopped us from spending money because they know we simply didn’t have it coming in and they were constantly looking for guarantees of who is going to pay our bills before Administration. Our losses are provable due to Covid and what other clubs do is of no relevance to our appeal.
if the administrators believe we should appeal then they clearly believe we have a case and they are the money men! 
if the the EFL believe no one should ever win an appeal against administration then why have one available ?

Well first of all I think Derby (second highest attendance in the Championship in 2019-20) were most affected by covid than any other team (the team with highest attendance Leeds were promoted to Premier League so got access to a new  money tree) . Many other bigger teams were in receipt of parachute money (which did not reduce during covid) so were also much less affected. Smaller teams not affected so much as they were not relying on big gates anyway, so had smaller budgets. Also of course there is the covid loan that (for disputed reasons)  was denied Derby but not most other teams.
secondly, the club was up for sale, and yes that was probably because Morris was running out of money due to historic overspending. But like I say how do we know that a buyer would not have been found if covid had not come along?  
 

Anybody who follows the WAGS on Insta has a pretty good idea of what constitutes a fun on a night out involving Keogh. I cringe when I see some of those videos and feel for the poorly paid staff who have to put up with it all.
Must admit, it influences my opinion of his character.
I'm going to shut up now because I am just working myself up again. Didn't know I still felt so strongly about it after all this time.

Result
Nine players averaged over 7.0. Onto the honours boards go...
 
MotM:        Craig FORSYTH      7.91
Podium:     Ryan ALLSOP          7.84
                  Graeme SHINNIE     7.81
 
Full Ratings vs Reading (H)
Forsyth             7.91
Allsop                7.84
Shinnie              7.81
Knight               7.73
Byrne                7.21
Stearman          7.16
Davies               7.14
Bird                   7.14
Morrison           7.09
Lawrence          6.86
Stretton            6.60
Baldock            5.90
 
Just goes to show how we all see the same game so very differently. I didn't score anyone less than a 7.0 tbh and, without uprooting trees, I though much of Baldock's work was clever and helped us in attack. I also thought Lawrence was worthy of a notably better score than his average rating above. 
Thank you all again. Special mention to @bcnram and @TexasRam for submitting ratings in all 10 matches, closely followed by @Yani P (9) , @angieram (8) and @Carnero (also 8).
We shall reconvene in a couple of days. I shall have to set the thread up for the Swansea ratings on Friday night as I am away and mostly phoneless on the Saturday. 
A full update of podium finishes, top 10 performances, MotM awards and season ratings thus far for each player will follow the weekend match.

You and everyone else calling him have your opinions and I have mine. I don’t share the opinions of a lot of people. But I am an intelligent adult and I’m standing up to what I think. 

It seems to me that the EFL are worried that we might win an appeal and therefore want to commit us to an agreed punishment. They state there is no timescale so presumably they are intending to draw this out until we are forced to agree to their proposals.
Hardly seems fair and begs the question “who regulates the regulator”.

It seems to me that the EFL are worried that we might win an appeal and therefore want to commit us to an agreed punishment. They state there is no timescale so presumably they are intending to draw this out until we are forced to agree to their proposals.
Hardly seems fair and begs the question “who regulates the regulator”.

Still think this is ongoing because we've done something clever with the revised accounts and the EFL are not buying it - in which case you'd assume DCFC did that on the basis that they think DC3 wil clear them.
Any excuse

It seems to me that the EFL are worried that we might win an appeal and therefore want to commit us to an agreed punishment. They state there is no timescale so presumably they are intending to draw this out until we are forced to agree to their proposals.
Hardly seems fair and begs the question “who regulates the regulator”.

Rooney himself in the film calls it a documentary David. If it's behind the scenes and an inside perspective on what is happening then it's perfectly valid to label it a documentary. After-all documentaries often need sources that are beyond the reach of the common person to make their films and Rio is documenting things that are going on at the club i.e., a documentary. 

why shouldn't the win stat be carried over? Just because we're into a new season doesn't mean we automatically forget about past form and stats. It doesn't magically become a clean slate where all is forgotten unless you do that with every other manager and everyone is just judged on the season rather than prior history. Losing and winning are habits that are easily picked up and we're in a bad habit of accepting terrible results.  If you don't want it carried over our win ratio this season is 14%. 

we're on 1 point per game which is almost exactly where we were last season points wise and we've played 4 of the bottom 6 teams in that run. He'll be given a break when he starts winning games for me. Yes of course you can, I'm just giving my point of view which is that I'm not particularly sympathetic to this kind of video that glosses over what are severe problems at the club as Rooney's pal goes on about how great he is and how lucky we are to have him. 

I honestly think we should demand the same towel then use it the same and erode the game away from sides that want to to do this and they will soon learn not to use a towel very quickly 

Wow some seriously negative ratings. I didn’t think it was that bad, they just have a bit more than we do and think they might threaten top 6 this season.
Roos - 5 - Excellent early on but distribution got worse as game went on and really put us under pressure.
Byrne - 7 - tactics caused second goal. 

Jagielka - 6
Davies - 6
Shinnie - 5
Bird - 7 - our best player again
Morrison - 6 - need to think about where to play him, personally think he affects game better in a two and thrives on more defensive responsibility, needs to do more if he’s playing 10.
Sibley - 5 - couldn’t get in the game
Lawrence - 6.5 - when we did have good spells in the game he was at the heart of it, decision making and use of the ball is much better, didn’t he also have both our two shots on target - I’m adding balance to some of the ridiculously low ratings he’s been given that cannot be based purely on his performance last night 
Baldock - 5 - No service though
Stretton - 5 - like Baldock no service 
 
Rooney - 5 - we can’t play the perfect championship style tactics like Brum who have more squad options, I like the way he’s going about it and it can get the best out of this squad but needs tweaking, pushing both full backs on so high away from home when brum are playing 2 up is asking a lot of two centre halves at the end of their careers. Even just pushing one full back forward last night would’ve helped.

Having given it much reflection after yesterday I think the person who got the nail on the head best was Micheal Johnson. 
 
Even though both goals started from poor mistakes from our side, (Buches and Lawrence) and those players are the main reason we ended up conceding, we actually might not have conceded at all if we were more thoughtful with our fullback attacking positions before we have ‘secured the ball’ as Johnson put it. 
For both goals, coming at the back post that the right full back would have been covering, Byrne could have and should have been putting a challenge in on their player. 
For both goals he was no where near due to his taking up of an attacking position way too early. 
I have no problem with us playing the way we are trying and it is easier on the eye than all of the last two years, but if we are under pressure or haven’t even cleared our lines then that right fullback can’t be so out of position. 
similar situations happened v Forest when we lost the ball needlessly. Once he got back to challenge, the second time he got a yellow. It is definitely something we need to look at, especially if we still haven’t made the possession part of it ‘secure’ as Johno said. 

You need proper owners in football to succeed. It starts at the top if you are owned by clowns you end up being a circus. Leeds for example had a succession of joker owners and ended  up as a laughing stock for 16 or so years. A succession of small clubs like Bournemouth and Brentford have succeeded recently due to good leadership. If you get professional leadership who are invested in progressing a football club and the football club is their main focus and not personal agendas and ego trips that club will prosper. Match good leadership with a big club and  Derby are that and there is only one direction you go and that is up.