Patrick Rams

Yeh, come Derby. It’s “only” 8 weeks until the game, people need to know now. #shambolicclub. 😀

Mine also, my first game.

Because we spent most of the last season being told how useless and tactically naive our manager is?

Had a corker against us at Fulham. 

Its just madness the money and the way the prem clubs are run! I hate the bussiness side of football! I dont see how clubs can really compete unless they go into big debts! 
 
The prem just want to turn it all into a franchise and open shops all around the world and sell merchandise for the so called "big" clubs to get even more money!
They moan theres too many games but f off for tours during the winter beak! They get rid of the fa cup replays but newcastle and tottenham do a 24 hour flight to oz a week after the season finishes to do a tour! Drives me mad 😡🤬😤
I hated the idea of a european super league when it was floated a few years ago but the more i think about it the more its growing on me! Take the franchise clubs and f off on your european greed train and let the proper clubs sort out a proper league where footballs run sustainably! 

Why punching above our weight? 
We’ll be one of the top six supported clubs, in a fine stadium, pretty fanatical support. Great history. 
We’ve had our issues, but so have other clubs. We have a wonderful owner and are on an upwards trajectory. 

Someone along the lines of Dave Mackay, Dave Mackay?

Attendances don’t determine league position. Otherwise, Sunderland would have made automatic promotion (or at the very least the play offs) and Bradford wouldn’t be in league 2.

"Punching above our weight"???!!!
We are Derby County. 
There are no such limits to what we can achieve 🐏 Believe. COYR.

The Championship is a crazy league. I think the only aspiration you can have is to be the best you can be and see where that takes you. There are 23 other clubs who will be fighting tooth and nail so nothing is really a given, for better or worse.
We could be relegation candidates, we could be mid table, we could be top half and we could even be top six.
It’s difficult to predict and difficult to gauge as there are always teams that perform better or worse than their squads / managers / budgets suggest.
Do we expect to compete with Luton, Burnley, Sheff Utd, WBA, Norwich, Hull and Coventry? Probably not, but could we? Possibly. Do we expect to do better than Oxford? Probably, but could we not? Possibly too.
I don’t see the point in getting wrapped up in expectations. We want to see Warne, Thomas, Hale and Clowes with a plan and working well together and doing their absolute best. Surely that’s all we can really expect? Where that takes us remains anyone’s guess.

Coventry should be our model, not Ipswich. They haven't spent a fortune, have a decent if unsexy manager and came up from league 1. In their first season, they finished 16th then 12th then 5th then 9th with an FA Cup semi-final achieved as well. It is possible to be successful in the championship without spending a ton of money but it requires an ethos, properly planned management and consistency.  For my money anywhere between 12th and 18th is a solid achievement. Any lower than that and depending on the budget then questions should be asked. Anything higher than 12th and it's an extremely good season but I'm not expecting it. 

Why can't we expect a good run at top 6? We'll have a good budget and will be an 'attractive' and ambitious club, with a 'successful' manager wanting to prove himself.
Why on earth would we settle for bottom half of the Championship? 

It would be great to sign Adams and even better if he wouldn't be signing of the season.
I hope for a playoff push with more exciting football and as a bonus, more financial stability.

You have to make assumptions on recruitment to be able to set expectations in reality.
In worst assumption no doubt a relegation battle, but it is not unreasonable to expect an outside playoff interest if things go really well in recruitment. Look at when the tree humpers got promoted, they went from relegation battlers to playoff winners, to a large extent on the back off a few top quality loans and a decent manager who got the best of what he had.

The forum equivalent of ‘I have a girlfriend but she doesn’t go to this school and you won’t know her’.

We’ve got to be ambitious 
every Derby team that ever got promoted was in the past. 
it’s a good place to be a positive mind set.
With an owner that is ambitious and wants success because he’s a fan, and because he’s intimated that there is a Championship investor lined up, I think we will surprise a few.
it all depends on the quality of the signings and how they integrate and settle-in to the squad/area/expectations
im betting on Derby strengthening with top end Championship additions. 
 
I think we’ll do very well indeed, without knowing who these additions will be but since I’m expecting some high quality, I’m going for a top six finish. We’re on an upward curve, the crap is firmly pushed behind us. COYR 😃

I'm thoroughly depressed reading that lot.."21st...not flirting with relegation...12th -16th..etc..Me? I fully expect us to be challenging for a playoff position. Ipswich Town finished 2nd in League One...We finished 2nd in League One. Did the Tractor Boys really spend that much money to get to the Premier League? 

I'm thoroughly depressed reading that lot.."21st...not flirting with relegation...12th -16th..etc..Me? I fully expect us to be challenging for a playoff position. Ipswich Town finished 2nd in League One...We finished 2nd in League One. Did the Tractor Boys really spend that much money to get to the Premier League? 

I'm thoroughly depressed reading that lot.."21st...not flirting with relegation...12th -16th..etc..Me? I fully expect us to be challenging for a playoff position. Ipswich Town finished 2nd in League One...We finished 2nd in League One. Did the Tractor Boys really spend that much money to get to the Premier League? 

I'm thoroughly depressed reading that lot.."21st...not flirting with relegation...12th -16th..etc..Me? I fully expect us to be challenging for a playoff position. Ipswich Town finished 2nd in League One...We finished 2nd in League One. Did the Tractor Boys really spend that much money to get to the Premier League? 

Eh?
What's it got to do with either Boro or Wycombe what our budget is and why should we be checking it's OK with them?
Unless of course you believe the conspiracy theory that Gibson controls the EFL. 😀

In any season where you're not starting in the top flight, promotion is the goal. That's the beauty of football - we all begin equal, and there are always surprises. That's why we have hope, even if it's the hope that kills you. I get that many don't like them, but the genius of the playoffs if that it maintains interest for so many teams all the way through to near the season finale. I'd hope we would still be in with a chance of making them with a very few games to go, even if we don't quite get over the line. I'd really hope we do get over the line.
Between 5th and 12th for me. 

Who would have guessed that a few years later he would become a Rams Leg End!🥴

Madely at Burnley for me.  So much so that I wrote a blog article about it.  It helps no end if you have seen Truly Madly Deeply, the 1990 Romcom, but you'll get the gist.  https://www.simontruckle.com/post/truly-madley-deeply

I rated Jack Taylor as probably the best / fairest referee in the country, this game and his decision totally blew that theory out of the water, and most likely cost us the chance of ever lifting the cup in my lifetime. Still hurts, 48 years later..