GB SPORTS

I wouldn't want him.....not after he gave Dave Nish offside at Hillsborough......🤣

Hate to say it and it makes me feel sick, I'd back Forest over that pub headed p****.
I wish nothing but misfortune on him and his club.

Clowes Developments makes in the region of £20m profit a year looking at their accounts. It’s an extremely well run business.
That company is pumping £5m a season roughly so far into the club to break it even. They have the money to do this whilst we operate on that structure. The Championship increases our revenues by circa £10m but so also brings a huge increases in costs. 
 
DC (through his company) buying the club is 100% a sentiment thing to stop us going under. There is no way in any business sense he buys us as a business to make money. I honestly don’t think people truly understand just how much he has saved us.
My curiosity is that when you ‘look for an investor’ - what does that look like? Clowes Developments sells 49% stake in DCFC (not the stadium) for X amount to an investor and in return the investor agrees to invest an additional sum of money into the club, possibly spread over a certain time frame?
Again, I don’t see anyone doing this to make money - more they see DC as someone they can work with and trust. My issue with joint ownership models is how well they work out when conflict occurs.

We are all expressing our own opinions on here. They are often opinions without background knowledge.
We have no idea how players have performed in training, what’s going on in their personal lives, who’s a good influence and who isn’t.
So there is every possibility that we are wrong. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have our say, or indeed that other ’experts’ should tell us we are wrong, or even stupid.
I am quite happy to admit that I was a complete arse in doubting Collins’ ability to score goals this season. 
I have been a strong critic of Sonny Bradley, and whilst some of that was justified, I’m delighted at the way he has played at the end of the season.
We’re all fallible but please let’s be more respectful of other opinions. Just as we don’t know much about the players’ private lives, you never know what posters on here are going through and how a casual slur can affect them.
 

I've been called all sorts too. Like you, I'm happy to brush it off, but it was getting pretty toxic in here. Rather than stop posting, I just reeled in my thoughts on things for a while. Tried to focus on the positives. Tried to have a laugh when things were bad, as well as good.
I think most of what you say is absolutely spot on, for what it's worth.
 

Fa cup at city ground being 2-0 down and winning 3-2. Gets eclipsed by other Derby games. Echo the soton semi; epic night of football that had everything.

Derby 2 Birmingham 2 was a great game, just as we were on the brink of going under. 
 
I remember the atmosphere at Pride Park being immense. Was my son's first Derby game too.

Millwall away play off semi final, everyone that went had a story to tell after; the football was pretty good too.

Cup 1/4 Final in 1976 V Newcastle . 4-2 win one of my favourite games and 4 cracking goals 
 

1968 chelsea cup match.Who could forget  night matches at the Baseball ground, smoke swirling round from Leys. It was my first match, we won., loved the rams eversince.

1-0 Sheff U away 1987, Phil Gee nutmegging John Burridge 10000 Derby fans rammed in the away end. 

You’re correct, with my patient optimism I have always been right! And some people have also always been correct in their concerns. But mainly I was right 😉 
I think the door has swung both ways with the more vocal minority on either side of the argument quick to goad, dismiss, mock, label all season long. Looking at it objectively the following concerns have been raised, some of them are valid and some were clearly short sighted and spiteful, the evidence is there if you go looking from all sides. These are summarised/paraphrased points to try and capture all sides ;
- “Warne doesn’t have any pull” (disagree here as we’ve signed some effective players this season… and gambled with some injury prone ones)
- which brings me to point two, “he’s been operating with restrictions so we should be patient.” I always felt there was some logic to this and also agree with the points made that we still could have recruited better when you look at some of the other free agents signed up by our rivals. Overall the group we had were effective and got the job done, hindsight being the wonderful thing that it is I can’t help but wonder if we’d have won the league with a couple of different options.

- “he only signs old players/cloggers/former Rotherham players” biggest short sighted load of nonsense out of all the criticism for me and one point I’ve been at pains to counter for the last 2 seasons. It’s a generalised and ill informed view that ignores the restrictions at play and also the likes of Nyambe, Adams, Nelson, Wilson, Elder, Ward, TJJ, none of whom are ancient or cloggers or former Warne players.
- “players don’t want to play for him/he’s a glorified PE teacher/fitness coach” always felt this was unfair and it’s clear by the end of the season that this squad did want to play for him and he’s got a little more about him than some would credit. His man management seems to be a big strength and one people have been quick to dismiss, surely he deserves credit for getting the team over the line even if they are “the best players in the league” and he’s “just done what’s expected of him” 😉 
- “he’s tactically limited” this is one of the big ones and hard to fully pick apart without a good dialogue from all sides. Part of me agrees and sees it from the football purists point of view that we don’t typically control the ball and control games so see why folks have issues there. But also he has adapted all season, used different shapes, different combinations and still got the job done. It seems to be a case of pragmatism over style which then comes down to preference as many have expressed, it’s not for them that’s fair enough, and others (like myself) are happy seeing us score goals and win regardless of style (which is also fair enough). Though my biggest and remaining complaint with him will seemingly always be his timing of subs, a couple of times this season he’s nailed it (can’t remember specific games) but there have been others when a change was desperately needed and he’s done nowt….come on Paul, save my blood pressure next season please. It’ll be interesting to see how he adapts in the championship with Derby, but I think he’s earned that right.
- “the football is dire”, another difficult one to reconcile personally for me as I’ve enjoyed it but I get that people want more control in midfield, more passing etc so again it’s a complicated point to discuss with more nuance. Personally I’ve enjoyed winning lots, scoring plenty, improving away and ultimately going up automatically but it could have been smoother sailing for sure.
- “he doesn’t trust young players”, another of the biggies that so far seems to be evident and is more a wait and see thing for me. He definitely could/should have used the pizza cup to blood a few more youngsters this season then perhaps they’d have been ready to plug gaps when injury struck. However I also see Warne’s point about not throwing them in and “ruining them”, he’s essentially done the job this season but given the investment in the academy and his key it in theory will be to the clubs future this is one he must do better on.
- “his interviews are *insert positive/derogatory comment*” this is all down to personal preference, some like his interview style and some don’t, if that’s how you feel it doesn’t make you factually wrong it’s just an opinion. 
 
- “give him time”, seems so far to have been the right shout, earlier in the season understandably more and more people had concerns, I even had my own mini wobble, but essentially the patience appears to have paid off (for this season at least….what happens next we have to wait and see).
There may be other points but I’ve got to do the school run so feel free to pile on and tell me what I missed and where I’m wrong. My point here is that there are valid concerns all round, and plenty to discuss respectfully, we all want what’s best for the club. 

Well it seems from this the only one name calling is you. 
You started on about bullying and alleged people were being shut down I responded with my take on why that wasn’t the case. Can you honestly say you have reasonably addressed my various counter arguments. Nope just suggested I am not an adult. 

There must be other older fans in a similar position. Could there be way of getting them to the ground and sitting together?

I gave up about 4 season ago, you may not be going to any more games but you’re still a Ram for life.
I’ve been sitting here watching the game with my black and white scarf on, the tea and pies are better at home but I do miss the ritual and atmosphere of the match. 🐏🐏

Look up into the night sky and you'll see a star twinkling, that'll be B4 starting the bounce in the heavens.
We couldn't have done it without you, mate.

Well done lads. Jokes aside that league can be tough to get out of.
Wish you the best of luck in your relegation fight next season x

Sadly this will be my last match today. My first was in 1956 as a 13year old, My dad used to take me before that but he stopped going when we went down to the third division north. My mate and I would catch the 12 oclock bus from Melbourne and be the first in the ground. We stood in the Normanton end pigeon loft, I think it was 3 shilling. To this day I remember that team. We were champions in 1957 and I ran onto the pitch after the last match against Southport, Ray Straw scored 37 goals that season, The next ten years saw me start work, get married and have two children, I had moved to Derby, and after my family, the Rams were the most important thing in my life I never missed a home game in those ten years even though we were only an average second division side. And then in 1966 after England won the world cup my mate and I decided to have a season ticket, Little did we know what would happen that season, I was at work one day and a Rams supporting work mate told me we had signed a player from Bradford Park Avenue, his name was Kevin Hector I'd never heard of him but he was without doubt the most wonderful footballer to grace the Baseball Ground I had ever seen, and because of this we wanted to see more players like him which led to Tim Ward getting the sack and BC becoming Manager, what followed was ten years of unbelievable success and enjoyment. And then things started to go wrong off and on the pitch and I stopped being a season ticket holder during Peter Taylors time as manager, i still loved The Rams of course and when I turned 65 and retired my old mate from Melbourne and I bought season tickets again. But sadly covid left my best friend of 80 years with a dementia problem and he know no longer knows me. For the last two seasons I have been going alone to the match but its just not the same for me. Therefore I am calling it a day, as I write this I am welling up as I will do this afternoon. Thank you Derby County for every thing I will love you till I die.     

Respect

Good luck for this afternoon, I hope you get it over the line for a number of reasons, and the odds are in your favour.
I hope you don't mind an outsider saying this, and I'm sure you all know this, but regardless of any euphoria or disappointment tomorrow, you'll all still be proud supporters - as b4 was, and is. As someone who read on here for a while before I registered/posted and saw lots of his comments when you were in a bad place;  I stand by the fact that whoever we support, we could all do well by being a bit more like him, when it comes to our clubs.

As a side note, some lovely words from @Owen87ITK too, to go along with that displayed message. Well done that man. A deserved and fitting tribute. 👏 

Put as much as you can afford in and then pray Liz Truss or Gordon Brown doesn’t become PM again  ftfy
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-13041677/HAMISH-MCRAE-Time-fix-Gordon-Browns-pension-errors.html

I retired at 53 from RR, Took my pension and chilled out for 6 months, Then re set, I went and worked part time, I did this for 13 years, Chilled out between jobs when I felt my time there was up so moved on to other PT work...mostly cleaning or supervising cleaners.
Now retired fulltime...I'm 68 today 😊 🎂 and I find life is great and I enjoy everyday 👍