europia

I agree but isn't the primary way Championship clubs make money through player sales? weren't the changes in vision for the club down to necessity because we messed everything up in 15/16? Mel's vision seems to have gone:
14/15 - Trust Mac to go one step further than last season with a few signings
15/16 - Gamble everything and spend 30m with a rookie manager while continuing Mac's 4-3-3 style.
16/17 Part 1 - Throw the 4-3-3 out the window and hire Pearson while we still haven't been hit with the consequences of the 15/16 spend.
16/17 Part 2 - Sack Pearson then desperately try and replicate 13/14 by rehiring Mac, even though Pearson ruined Mac's old team.
17/18 - Abandon any form of footballing philosophy and hire Rowett to try and grind out promotion as the consequences of 15/16 begin to catch up.
Mel's had enough after his gamble fails and has decided to sell and can't/won't spend much more money.
18/19 - Gamble again with rookie Lampard and use his links in the loan market to paper over the cracks that are now in the squad
19/20 - The 15/16 season has now caught up fully and we're forced to rely on the academy players and hire Cocu to try and get the best out of them
20/21 - Mel has no visions left as Cocu fails and allows the club to drift under an "impending takeover"
The sad thing is we've been unlucky and these plans have almost worked on numerous occasions. The root of all our problems come from the 15/16 spend, Mel had no long term vision for the club then and every following seasons plans have been a reaction to that. 

I don't think it is all down to recruitment. We have signed some duds obviously and spent quite a bit but management & coaching still plays a big part.
For example, Nick Blackman came here in a hot run of form mainly playing through the middle at Reading but never got a look in there for us.
You look at the Sheff Utd team that Wilder got promoted from League 1 up to the Prem, whilst in League 1 they weren't Prem quality, as fans you would probably look at their players and think we had better but then once they go above us in the league and promoted to the Prem the players are better than ours. Same with Bielsa and Leeds, he has turned the likes of Dallas, Ayling, Cooper etc into decent Prem players when they are probably average Champ players performing above any level they expected, probably fit Bamford in there too who has struggled at a couple of clubs in the Prem. You could probably include McClaren in this who turned Clough's average Champ team into a free flowing top quality Champ team, after he left most of those players reverted to being average Champ players again.
So yes, recruitment has been poor but so has the coaching. 

I've been comparing Derby to Brentford over the last 8 seasons since the 13/14 season as we've almost completely swapped league positions in that time. In 13/14 Brentford won promotion from League 1 and Derby were in the Champ play-off final.
Total spend on transfers from 13/14 - 20/21:
      Derby: £84.9 mil
Brentford: £73.6 mil
Total income from transfer sales from 13/14 - 20/21:
      Derby: £57.8 mil
Brentford: £176.8 mil

Both clubs had a season where they had a push for promotion and spent 30m but the difference is when Derby did it we sold £0 worth of players the same season and had a -2 mil from the previous season, when Brentford did it they sold £36m worth of players the same season and had profit of £26m from the previous season. This is how you make a push for promotion. Brentford also didn't get promoted in there 30m spend season, but they had the cushion of previous profits and high value in there squad to cope. While Derby are still suffering from the effects of our 30m spend season now.
Our general recruitment has been poor, with players with little sell on value. We've also sold players at the wrong time.
Derby clearly gambled everything on the 15/16 season, hence why Clement was sacked despite being 4th. Why did we feel the need to do this? I know owning a Championship club is very unsustainable, but this was reckless. This terrible transfer policy added with our poor recent managerial appointments is why we're in the mess we're in now.
 

We've needed heroic performances in the last 3 or 4 games. These players just don't have the desire to win for the fans and they are obviously not playing for the manager. Sheff Wed and Rotherham are still up for the battle. All we have left to hope for is a massive dose of good luck. 

That doesn't even sound far fetched. 

Hmm win a game of football could be the awkward bit. 

Worst for attitude and effort by far, it’s even more worrying they had to be taken away to “get to know eachother” two games before the season ends, never heard anything like it! 

I just want a club that we can be proud of. If it takes a relegation to get that again, so be it. I'll still be there home and away, where possible, even if in the conference. Cut the circus, let's get back to players that care and fight and fans together.

That's the point though isn't it ?

Be nice to have them collected together though so Derby fans can consider just how far the Club has fallen under Morris' tenure. #COYR

Until Erik shows us the colour of his money I don't think his opinion is worth a dime.

Blimey, someone's baiting for replies aren't they? What an utterly pathetic suggestion, that there is some sort of hate squad that have an agenda against a club at the butt end of the Championship who haven't won anything for more than three decades. We are Derby County, a pretty insignificant club in the grand scheme of things. I am sure there are a few low life Forest or Leeds or Leicester fans out there who would be prepared to give you a thump because of the club you support but to suggest that whole newspapers or television channels or journalists have it in for us, sitting in ther offices plotting on what nasty thing they can throw at us today, is just bananas.
It's your view, you are entitled to it, but it's a bananas view.

It's all BS

The people who say that Sky, and David Prutton in particular, have some kind of personal vendetta against us are properly embarrassing.

Roos and CKR are looking quite relaxed. 

Can't see us winning another game, but we may well avoid relegation due others being slightly worse than we are. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for our players and management. 

After reading this cr@p from clueless Collymore, I am suddenly confident that all will be OK at DCFC. 

After reading this cr@p from clueless Collymore, I am suddenly confident that all will be OK at DCFC. 

I can't agree with this one as a criticism. Lampard got better loans because he was given the money to pay for them. Harry Wilson alone was reported to have cost a £1m fee + (probably not unsubstantial) wages. Given the circumstances of the January window, I wouldn't be shocked if the five loans brought in by Rooney will have cost us less than £1m combined. 
Lampard might have been an attraction to the players he brought in, but do you think Chelsea or Liverpool would have sent them here if we couldn't pay a loan fee for them and couldn't pay much towards their wages?

Come on Mel loves the publicity, so Rooney fits in with want he has always done, Mel has stars in his eyes, not a football thinking man at all
But yes Steve Mac had the experience we needed at the time to get us out of this mess. 

The more I hear of Evatt, from Evatt and see how his teams play I can't help but feel he's really worth taking a shot on and ticks a lot of boxes. All of the following seems true about:
Wants to play attractive attacking football and is doing it at a level notoriously which is not that Young, upcoming manager but has experience Has taken or looks like taking up both teams he's been in charge of  (Going off the rams interview) seems to recognise the value of a good academy Comes across as somebody who carries themselves with integrity  Seems to genuinely want to come here It's hard to not look at him as somebody who would be a cracking fit.
 

Also have a feeling Cocu would be a great Director of Football - he seems more a club builder than a first team manager & his record on both transfers & youth development were very good during his time here. 
My first choice for manager/coach would be George Burley (not seen that he's officially retired) - the only manager I was absolutely gutted to see leave. Loved the way his teams played football, loved the way he took a ragbag of kids & unknown European talent and turned them into a really good side. To follow him with Phil Brown seemed a deliberately insulting act.

Well said, sad that it is a shambles on and off the field...

If we are relegated, we are a L1 club. That's the reality.