Dordogne-Ram

I cant wait for peterboro game first away game of the season I am going rest up tomorrow try get my pain under control for a bit yes i will help my mum around the house for a bit but rest of the afternoon i am going to watch a film and just chill out.

Indeed, I couldn't have put it better myself. 
I suspect that I'm not the only one who feels a debt of gratitude to @David . He's created this wonderful place which is the defacto home of Derby County on the internet. Even though it's somewhat bitter sweet at present, my life is enhanced by his efforts.

Okay, so what sort of 'supporters' feel it necessary to start talking about relegation in a thread dedicated to the noise in our South Stand immediately after an inspiring win by our youngsters? Just weird.
I thought the South Stand were brilliant again last night. I don't know who you are, but you are going to literally be our twelfth man this season if you keep it up. ???⚽️

Did he walk in and say, if you don’t know me by now before demanding his refund?

Oh he is so cute .... now off to find the pets thread 
I'm new on here too and also just want to add my voice to the rest to say you have nothing to apologise for and appreciate you trying to add our voices to the meeting.  I have really enjoyed this forum since joining as well so thanks for running it and to all the moderators you do a cracking job! 

I think some people envisage Mel sitting in a darkened room, white furry cat on his lap, twizzling the ends of a long moustache and letting out little sinister chuckles randomly as he finds new ways to upset people. 
 


I’m sure none of this is the case. For all of Mel’s mistakes or errors of judgement (and for all the annoyances of the ticketing system and parking and everything else) I still refuse to believe that he or the club are doing anything to deliberately upset or inconvenience fans. There are probably good reasons for everything (or at least ‘reasons’) and anybody using things like this to find another stick to hit the club with is being a bit unfair imho.

Festy starts Saturday is my only takeaway

Plenty to pick through about that performance, but I'm really enjoying the us against them mentality that's being born out of adversity. I think Rooney has used it to his advantage. 
The performance was no classic, but the young players seemed to develop an entire year within 90 minutes. Watson, in particular, started with a few miss passes but then was pulling the strings towards the end of the game. Ebosele is far from a polished footballer, but my word - he has a go. All I see is the Michail Antonio that was at Reading all those years ago. If he can follow a similar trajectory that would be great. 
Hutchinson has a lot of technical ability. Similar to Bird in a lot of ways. I thought Brown showed a bit of promise, although I'd like to see him with Davies rather than Forsyth. Sibley is just unbelievably talented, but I wish we got him on the ball a bit more. The ability as soon as he touches the ball just jumps off the screen. The first touch, the way he quickly changes the direction of the ball. We need to develop him because he's got a special talent in a role that we need a special talent. 
Ravel showing a lot of maturity and that's probably down to the team mentality. He has a real chance here and what a start. It's the best possible start for him and he will no doubt start again on Saturday. 
The first 30 minutes were a rough watch, but after that we blossomed and a lot of the younger players deserve a lot of credit. It was on their shoulders and they showed a lot tonight. I'm really looking forward to Saturday now - I want to see what we can do this season! 

He's a general purpose traditional british midfielder.
He's not a defesnive midfielder, a creative midfielder, a wide midfielder or a transitional midfielder, he's just that general purpose box to box man who does a lot of stuff without being great at anything, but he's dogged and determined and we're going to need that this season. Anyone who doesn't see that is kidding themselves.
Is he going to be a key part of the next grat promotion chasng side? probably not. Is he vital to this rams side? yes.

but we were losing most games last season and he consistently looked one of, if not our best player. 

Actually disagree there, Buxton was a pretty good distributor of the ball. 

We shouldn't even be entertaining this. He was great last season, and in a relegation dog fight, he is the exact player you need. Bags of character and commitment to the cause. 

Very rarely post anything, but felt the need to chime in here.
Thanks for everything you do @David running this place and representing forum members.
As a ram living away from Derby, the forum really is the lifeline that keeps me connected to the club and up to date with the latest goings on - I’m sure many other longer distance rams fans would say the same.
No need to apologise & remember there’s lots of Derby fans & forum users (even the very quiet ones!) right behind you!
Up the Rams 

I've been away for a couple of days and so I'm 17 hours behind! Just wanted to post something before I read the replies from the wonderful forum fans, although I think I already know what they are saying. ? Thanks for your post and thanks for the detailed explanation, all of which is perfectly understandable. Not sure how you could improve on handling things better in the future. I thought you handled things fine this time round and not your fault that it was not all plain sailing due to things beyond your control. Certainly not your fault or DCFC. Really sad that you have had to put up with unwarranted crap. Totally out of order and undeserved comments, lacking understanding, moderation and common decency. Ignore! I don't respect those who are  abusive and I ignore their opinions which are more a reflection on themselves than those they choose to criticize. Keep well, David and thanks for this forum which is enjoyed by so many! 
 

@David nothing to apologise for, the longer the silence went on for, the more difficult the situation for you personally became apparent.
Although an infrequent poster on here, the value of the forum over my 10 years or so  of membership has been incalculable to me, and apart from the BBC match reports, is my ONLY way of keeping in touch with news of the Rams. 
In that context, I and many others on here owe you an immense debt of gratitude - long may it continue .
Athol

@David nothing to apologise for, the longer the silence went on for, the more difficult the situation for you personally became apparent.
Although an infrequent poster on here, the value of the forum over my 10 years or so  of membership has been incalculable to me, and apart from the BBC match reports, is my ONLY way of keeping in touch with news of the Rams. 
In that context, I and many others on here owe you an immense debt of gratitude - long may it continue .
Athol

Personally I don't think serving ads from the club counts as being affiliated or connected with the advertiser - But then I've spent over a decade now working in advertising so have a somewhat jaded viewpoint on it
Just because the supermarkets advertise on ITV doesn't mean they have any influence on what ITN News says, does or publishes - same with us
I think David and the Mods generally just don't like posting anything which would get the site sued - whether potential libel by anonymous posters for which the site would bear responsibility - or statements/information from the club that was under an NDA for whatever reason - I think both of those are very fair and I support the Mods in their approach ?‍♂️

@David nothing to apologise for, the longer the silence went on for, the more difficult the situation for you personally became apparent.
Although an infrequent poster on here, the value of the forum over my 10 years or so  of membership has been incalculable to me, and apart from the BBC match reports, is my ONLY way of keeping in touch with news of the Rams. 
In that context, I and many others on here owe you an immense debt of gratitude - long may it continue .
Athol

I saw what you nearly did there!

You lot are something else. ??
Appreciate all the messages, especially the one that said I’m young. Whilst I hear all the you have nothing to apologise for messages, I feel I did and couldn’t just swan back in here like nothing had happened.
Now I have addressed it and the football is back, hopefully we can all draw a line under this episode and move on.
This is a time when we all need to be together right now.

I’d love to know the average age of people who give abuse online. 
 
I preferred the world of waiting for the ‘Green Un’ paper to come out at 6pm on a Saturday than the social media craze that we will now have forever. 

I'm glad you are back, were far more concerned with how you were doing rather than reading any meeting notes.
You've let no one down, it's been a tough and emotional undertaking, as well as ever-changing. Thanks for all your hard work, and all the mods hard work too.

I just want to apologise for the delay, my absence, my handling of the situation and try to explain what has happened.
The meeting on Wednesday was scheduled to end at 8.45pm, my last train home was 9.33pm, I slipped out just after 9pm as I didn’t have clothes, medication, toiletries with me as I wasn’t planning on staying overnight.
When the meeting had finished, an agreement was made where one statement would be written and signed off by all groups, this is the first time anything like this had been agreed, I was under the impression we would be allowed to report back as normal.
Being completely unaware of this, whilst waiting for my train I saw a conversation take place on my Twitter timeline discussing the meeting minutes, when would they be out.
I replied, that the meeting minutes were not taken and we would be sharing the information ourselves, which as I say I was under the impression would be allowed, why else attend? I thought I was being helpful.
Now I can see on reflection I was clearly naive in not appreciating the number of fans waiting online for what was said at the meeting, would see the tweet whilst was part of a conversation, which was also public and could be seen and shared by others. The tweet blew up online having been retweeted, I’m not exaggerating when I say maybe hundred or more replies, some abusive to the point where I had to turn notifications off as my phone was freezing with as I came back into an area with phone signal.
On the forum I did pre warn members not to expect anything Wednesday evening, the minutes can sometimes take a few days to a couple of weeks before being released. I was going with the intention of asking the club if the minutes could be released within 24 hours or that we could release the information immediately. Obviously once we was told the minutes would not be taken all that went out the window and believed we was free to report back immediately, and that was the plan.
Again, I was clearly naive to the fact fans on Twitter would not be aware of this, so when I wasn’t replying to all the tweets with thumbs up or down if it’s good news, or are we going to have a club next week the levels of abuse increased, despite my plea for being understanding I wasn’t in the position to do so.
With my write up, I had no intention of adding any personal opinion, it would be just what was said and allow you all to read and take it as you will.
As you will be well aware, all fans see things differently and I didn’t want to raise any expectations or disappoint fans, then receive more abuse as it wasn’t what they were expecting.
I put myself in this situation through naivety, but I don’t accept that the abuse was warranted at all, I have removed the twitter account from my devices and will no longer be active on that account, opting now for a private account as I have no interest in twitter fame.
I would seriously urge anyone that did send me abusive tweets to have a think how they talk to people online and their demands, if this is this what celebrities have to deal with on a daily basis, I’m glad I’m just a nobody!
Punjabi Rams, who I honestly can’t thank enough stepped in and put some tweets out from their account to give some information in my defence. You guys are awesome, didn’t need to do that but again, I honestly can’t thank you enough. Quick plug www.punjabirams.co.uk, @PunjabiRams on Twitter, go give them a follow if you are on there.
On the train home I started to do the write up on my notes app, realising I need to get this out asap, first thing to defuse the situation I felt I had created.
Thursday morning, as I was consulting my notes and finishing off the write up, there was a few things I wanted to fact check with the club were totally accurate, there has been times where things have been misheard in the past (Boycie ahem) and needed correcting, I didn’t want this to happen. We’re human, mistakes can happen, I believed I had time to ensure there were none.
I decided, and this was not requested by the club but to send my write up to them, asking if they could read it over and everything I had written was totally accurate, leaving ??? <—— fact checks where I was a little cautious over.
They agreed and I again naively yet again assumed that this would be back with me in a few hours……despite the previous night listening to just how busy they have been.
Now whilst I understand and totally agree that this meeting is important, the club staff are as I’m sure you can imagine really busy, now I need to really stress here that this is in no way the fault of the club, this is on me 100%.
No tweet, no forum post, none of this situation exists.
Meanwhile The Supporters Charter Group are scratching their heads as to why I’ve gone it alone, I can only apologise to them also, as I say I was under the impression that we would all be reporting back ourselves which I have explained privately with them.
A single statement isn’t something I would have been personally happy with but that is what was agreed in my absence.
I haven’t felt comfortable coming back on the forum if I'm honest, ignoring the fact I insinuated what was said at the meeting would be out Thursday on the forum, I feel like I have let you all down and for that I’m sorry.
Just to add, this apology wasn’t asked for, it's something I feel is owed to you all.
Should someone have gone that could have stayed all evening? Ideally yes, although Paul (Boycie) was unavailable to attend. Since the formation of 2017 it has only been either myself or Paul that has attended, I didn’t feel it would be right to send someone new which in hindsight was the correct call, they may have also not been able to attend until the end of what I’m led to believe turned out to be almost a 4 hour long meeting, putting themselves unwittingly into a similar situation I have.
I know you are all frustrated, the accusations of attention seeking, sitting on information, teasing, trying to get more views, followers etc. and even censorship on the forum are simply not true, they come from people that do not know me or how the forum is run at all, which is disappointing hearing it said by members that have been on the forum for a number of years now.
Finally, I do want to say thank you to those who have sent supportive texts, PM’s, DM’s, tweets you name it over the last few days, despite asking to be given time, it’s you who I put the hours in for, I will learn from this and work on handling things better in the future.
I would also like to thank the moderators who have been trying their best to keep on top of the situation, without them this forum would have crashed and burned over the last few days so please be respectful to them, even if at times you do not agree with decisions they have made. 
David
 

........I don't think it's the club's problem, it's the modern world and how it's been dictated too, and how it has to operate, and how people operate in a sheepish copy cat manner, or are expected to operate with everything been operated by mobile phones, scanners etc or their equivalent. Most other clubs are operating in the same or similar ways, with cashless grounds, and the like and less revenue streams as per the current COVID repercussions etc.
Them pesky kids at apple and the like are the problem...............it will eventually get to the case, where I will not be able to go and watch a live game of football because I don't own the appropriate, necessary mobile phone that scans me into the ground, and let's face it, that is the day, when I happily stay away, as I don't want to be in a ground where the majority of the crowd sits, playing around with their miserable phones during the game, whereas some of us just want to go, and actually watch the beautiful game of football, without any of these poxy annoying things anywhere near us.
Such will be followed in a few years time by 11 v 11 robots watched by a ground full of mobile phones on seats, whilst humans are all in the car park, charging themselves with electric, instead of their cars!
It's the world, that is the problem, and all the suckers in it.
Bring back the turnstiles, employ humans to operate them and sell me a proper football ticket, that I can keep after the game, so I can have a physical memory of what I have really done in my life, God, Jesus and Steve Bloomer didn't waste their lives trying to get into a football match pressing thousands of buttons, sending e-mails, to the clubs, typing about it on forums, linking id's and e-mail addresses and on and on and on and ariston!
Simplicity is Genius!.........Long live my little Nokia phone........we live on, to fight another day!

Did we spend this much time speculating about Paul Simpson's worth? Jody Morris's? 
No.
Management teams are just that. Teams. There will be assigned roles that should bring out the best skills from each member. There will be one boss. The strength of the team lies in how the boss manages the team to support the objective. We'll see how that goes as the season progresses.