Dordogne-Ram

Watching Kevin Hector’s first home game and thinking “wow - how have we managed to sign him - and for £40,000”
Electric!
 

Spurred on by a lack of football, a thread in The Jim Smith Room about celebs, and a need for recognition and validation, what Derby players were/are fabulous people?
Not necessarily good players (although they could be), but great human beings?
I'll kick off with Roy Mac, Big Roger, and Ron Webster. 

All the best, Conor - right move at this point in his career. 
Was a good signing for Derby, experienced head supporting the younger players and much respect for him in the dressing room.
Admire that he knew when he needed to look elsewhere- many don’t. 

Hard to beat that recently after the trials of administration. But as others mentioned bielik goal after the march and marriott goal at elland road (wasnt there even)
but for pure emotion just walking out into the ground first game after we were rescued from administration has it for me

Mine also, my first game.

Rams v Chelsea in 1968 Cup game at BBG 

Be far better to scrap VAR and make the audio of the official’s discussions public - at least folk would then know why decisions were made (and it might additionally make players show more respect to officials - particularly if there was the threat of retrospective punishment for abuse)

Bolton pushed us all the way, nobody else really
Nobody pushed Portsmouth, us included. They went top in September and never budged an inch. Nobody laid a glove on them, let alone Peterborough of all teams
People made fun of our runners up trophy but I promise you Darren old chum, they don't give out trophies for giving it a jolly good try
Have a nice season next year. Couldn't happen to a more deserving bloke and club. Really weird bunch over there

You’re probably right but this latest action feels as if it could be seismically shifting of the game itself, whichever way it goes.
The soul of the game in the sense of relatively equal competition that allowed, for example, us as an East Midland club with a proud and long history to reach the pinnacle of the game in this country and, importantly, stay there for several years, is long gone. Likely never to return. When clubs are owned by countries and extraordinarily wealthy ones at that, with aims of a financial free for all and overturning the status quo, ignoring the rules that don’t suit, then the whole sport had better be wary. Today the PL, tomorrow UEFA, the day after FIFA, or control of their competitions anyway.
If the PL lose then the domination of the wealthy few gets worse and worse; if they win they will not only create the most godforsaken administrative mess as they work out who really won what over the last 10 years (and generate endless other disputes in the process) but they will also have to cede authority in a number of areas to keep the other major players happy; if it’s a PR draw, and all the charges are dropped, then the richest get stronger.
I am so glad I have lived my era, seen my football, seen a game and sport with some reasonable approximation of soul.

The old adage still applies for all but the big 5 or 6: How to make a small fortune. Start with a large one and buy/invest in a football club.
A Swedish group has bought Burton Albion. What do they get out of it? Unless losses are tax deductible what does any outside investor hope to gain? DC did it for love and the same for Robinson at Burton. These people are as rare as the Dodo these days.
 

Now you see that’s interesting as a statement, I think you’re wrong. I agree, I would not be comfortable paying big fees for 30+ players but, would be very happy to get the odd quality 32 year old on a FREE. Everyone needs and earns wages. Their age is unimportant if their ability is useful. The difficult bit is the capital outlay. If it’s a free then the equation is very simple. Is player X at 32 worth his  pay cheque ?. .. it’s a whole different game if the statement is .. is he worth his paycheque and the 500 grand that we will never recoup because he isn’t going to improve and have zero resale due to that and a shortish contract length. Nothing wrong with older players. It’s the balance of cost and contract length. Youth and experience it’s all about the blend/mix/balance/cost. 

Not sure about mileage, but in journey time, it looks like it’ll take at least 14 months to get to Southampton. 👀

Leicester built themselves some headroom by selling far east marketing rights for £9.5m to a £1 company owned by former FA boss Sir Dave Richards and his son which had never traded before. This meant their FFP figures were compliant. Shortly after, Leicester's owner bought those very same rights off SDR's company for the same price. 
When the EFL eventually twigged and charged Leicester with breaching FFP, Leicester's owner threatened to sue the EFL out of business (sound familiar?) After about 2 years of wrangling, Fester accepted a reduced fine with the EFL acceping that "there had been no intention to deceive", which is a bit like saying that Ronnie Biggs didn't intentionally abscond from prison. By that stage, they'd won the PL and none of their fans acknowledge the bleedin' obvious: that the whole Marketing Rights deal was a fraud.

The football authorities having a concern for fans travelling to away games? That'll never catch on. 😀
I do seem to recall listening to, or watching, a short programme about how the fixtures are initially generated automatically but then someone spends hours manually amending it in order to take account of major events and local rivals not playing at home at the same time.

Leeds prevented a promotion pitch invasion...yes you're right there 😂

The football Rooney and Rosenior managed to have the team playing, and some of the results achieved, under the circumstances of having a squad comprising mainly youth players and veterans, was remarkable.
I'll go as far as saying that if we'd been allowed to extend Jagielka's contract, we'd have stayed up. Whether Rooney would have stayed on in that event is questionable, as is whether he would have been any kind of success had he continued, but dissing what he did that season is utterly churlish.
 

My recollection is of Charlie being clattered - a technical term meaning deliberately taken out - by Denis Smith who had been trying to get close to Charlie all evening without success until that point. 
With Charlie’s injury went our very realistic hopes of the double that season such was his form and influence. A time when doing the double assured a club of footballing immortality so hard was it to achieve. 
Charlie was a football genius and was playing that season at a level to match that description. Denis Smith struggled to match a description of footballer. 

103.
Place of birth: Heredia
Signed for Derby: 1997
First club: Herediano
Last club: Chicago Fire
Position: Striker 
Full caps: 73
Fun fact: His father and both brothers were also capped for their country

It was stated at the time that he was in tears when he was sold as he did not want to leave the Rams. 

I did, Hartlepool away in the FA Cup around Oct/Nov time, Their pitch was worse than the BBG, Coop came off the pitch cleaner than when he ran out of their tunnel at the start of the game...an absolute turd of a player for DCFC 🙄 

Tony Macken

Nice. I couldn't for the life of me remember his first name.