Dordogne-Ram

I would like to submit this non football related question, but one that I feel on a human level should be asked.
Mel, how are you and how is your health?

Great place to be. 
 
Keeps us all sane really.
Its good to have diverse opinions.
Thoughts 
Up the Rams. 
 

Save from one J Greaves at the BBG springs to mind 

Try not to worry too much B4, have a look at @Ghost of Clough's post on our academy thread - we played a very inexperienced team and ended with some very young boys (some of them are half of your age and even younger!) against players who are much more physically developed, and much more experienced, players who would not think twice about kicking our players up the bottom and sending them flying through the air or trying to intimidate our players to gain an advantage.
Try to remember last season and that a lot of our kids should not be judged negatively because they struggled against Chorley  -  they should be be judged positively because how well they played against the youth teams of Manchester United, Manchester City and other big clubs last season.
It doesn't matter which league our first teams play in, men Vs boys will always be a mismatch and the men will usually win.
You're a big fan of Sibley and Knight and think they are worth at least £10m each, but even if they had played earlier today it is likely that  they would still have been on the losing side.
Some of the young players you have watched today could be players you value at £10m in 2 years.
Nobody needs to tell you to keep the faith in our lads B4, but please don't concentrate on today's game, our academy will face far more suitable opposition in the next year and I'm certain you'll see us win a lot of games.
 
 
 

I can't bring myself to hate Keogh.
He gave everything he'd got in every game he played for us.
Totally bizarre and avoidable end to his career with us aside, he never left anything out there.

I despair whenever I read notices in supermarkets asking customers to be kind and patient to staff and not to be abusive. What kind of society have we become?

Jeremy Kyle has a lot to answer for. I swear morals and standards slipped during his tenure on daytime television. 

Well, that is a word I have not encountered since school 67 years ago!

Blah blah blah, opposition not very good, blah blah.
Why is it that when something nice happens to England, it's not down to their own efforts and skill but purely down to the weakness of the opposition?

Thanks for the correction Rich - the glandular fever confirms it for me.

Although based on Preston at the time, my railway job at the time carried "all stations" travel facilities so got to see most of the North West group games.
Fortunate to see Pele, Eusebio, Colunna, Yashin, Torres play, three of them twice.
Semi final at Wembley  v  Portugal and Bobby Charlton's thunderous shot -was able to reminisce with him about that 25 years later at a football quiz night.
On to the final, fans on the pitch at our end as Geoff Hurst scored the foothills goal, the unbelievable chants for "Ramsey" at the end - hope it ends well for  Southgate this evening.....
Linesman Tofiq Bahramov, who confirmed England's third goal and became world renowned for the decision, I never expected to see again, but he was appointed to referee one of our European games at the Baseball Ground in the 70s.

Although based on Preston at the time, my railway job at the time carried "all stations" travel facilities so got to see most of the North West group games.
Fortunate to see Pele, Eusebio, Colunna, Yashin, Torres play, three of them twice.
Semi final at Wembley  v  Portugal and Bobby Charlton's thunderous shot -was able to reminisce with him about that 25 years later at a football quiz night.
On to the final, fans on the pitch at our end as Geoff Hurst scored the foothills goal, the unbelievable chants for "Ramsey" at the end - hope it ends well for  Southgate this evening.....
Linesman Tofiq Bahramov, who confirmed England's third goal and became world renowned for the decision, I never expected to see again, but he was appointed to referee one of our European games at the Baseball Ground in the 70s.

On Channel 4 this afternoon the whole match in colour, If you've never seen it before it will be worth watching. In 1966 I had been a Rams fan for 10 years all in the third and second divisions. I bought my first season ticket after we won. Something I particularly remember that I had not seen before was the German Helmut Haller, who played his football in Italy, rolling round on the floor in fake agony after being tackled .So I will watch it to make sure my memory is not playing tricks. Incidentally Haller was playing for Juventus when we played them in European cup semi final and Peter Taylor accused him of tapping up the German referee, It would seem that he was right about that ,as it was alleged the  ref had accepted a bribe of a Fiat car this information came out a few years later.

First of all we need to win tonight which won't be easy. Would rather have played Spain, Italy will play a defensive game to try and stop us from playing football, they will foul players all the time, there players will go down injured when it suits them. At the end of the day the Italians still know  how to cheat and gamesmanship. As old Derby fans will remember from the European Cup Semi-Final against Juventus in 1973, And if Denmark do beat us then I want them to win it, I couldn't support the Italians in anything, still haven't forgive them for 1973. 

What really stings and gives life to the allegations of a vindictive nature in all this, is the “the EFL reluctantly” .. why reluctant ? There was some wrong doing, the Independent panel gave a sanction .. so that’s it .. why “reluctantly” ? It stinks as an attitude and is fundamentally wrong on so many levels. You have a system where there is a complaint and a system that provides for an independent panel to adjudicate but somehow the The body that represents the clubs, that drew up the system in the first place isn’t prepared to accept its outcome in an appropriate manner .. Why would you appeal or even reluctantly accept a verdict given by a system you designed ? The independent committee is designed to give a balanced view, to remove the partisanship the EFL shouldn’t be showing in any case , but clearly is. 

I think he spoke well, its important to look at what he said.
- Rooney onboard
- Transfer plan for when the new owners arrive, I took its (my take) that this is going to happen very soon
- Only 1 debt (not sure how much)
- I also took it that the comment about small senior and talented youngsters was that we will not panic on getting in numbers but wait for the ownership to change
- After two cockups I don't blame them for for keeping stum over the takeover.
- Needing to build bridges - correct thing to do  
 
Next steps, complete takeover, sort out FFP and move forward, although I am far from convinced Pearce is the man to lead the Rams

Bit harsh on Steve and Ben who both had moments, whilst the other 2 were absolute tools.

Steve Davies was good, just made of glass 

The name probably only means something to Rams fans of my vintage.  He was the Rams captain when I first started going to the BBG around 1961 and played what was then called wing-half (No 4) having started out as inside forward (No.8).
He was that very unusual species - a one club man and I'm sorry to se him suffering from that dreadful scourge of dementia.
He was the epitome of the Rams in that era - solid and unspectacular just like his team mates Geoff Barrowcliffe, Ray Young, Tony Conwell et al.
Very sad situation for him and his family.
https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/battling-ex-Derby-county-star-5607389
One of the greatest characters and finest players in Derby County’s history celebrates his 90th birthday later this month, in a care home where he suffers from dementia.
Former striker Jack Parry can remember many of his ex-teammates from the 1950s - but often cannnot recognise his own son.
Adored by his family and Rams fans fortunate enough to have seen him play, Jack began his Derby County career in the days of Raich Carter and Billy Steel.
A measure of his longevity as a player was that he ended it when Kevin Hector was starring. By then he had amassed 517 first-team appearances – only one of them as a substitute – and had broken the club record for League appearances and scored 110 goals.
Jack was a one-club man who gave the Rams 20 years’ loyal years. Over 500 games, half of them slogging through the ankle-deep mud of the Baseball Ground, is testament to that.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
 
 
Bill
 

Hey! Those of us over 45 would like some more 'good times' aswell.

Sounds more like it's not the sort of manager we want at the club.

Unless that advantage was being one of the top 3 spenders on wages in each of the seasons being looked at we haven’t pished it anywhere.
We’ve ran an (unsustainable) wage bill that has probably ranged from top 4 to top 10 in the division and have more often than not been a top 6 team in that time period. Few unlucky defeats in play off games to teams that have spent more than us / have gamed the system to a greater extent than we have (delete as appropriate) has meant we haven’t gone up, so be it. When football comes down to one off games it can at times be luck based and that’s why we all love it. We’ve now tightened that wage bill, understandably, but I get the feeling that won’t or indeed hasn’t stopped you moaning that we will be less competitive in the league now.
Don’t think we are “victims” as such but it is curious that just winning one of those set of play offs would see our strategy highlighted as a great success story and have fans of other clubs saying “wow look how well Derby are run” like you see from some on here re. Leeds, Villa, Wolves, Bournemouth and so on.
Unfortunately by not going up due to these fine margins we have found ourselves in the cross hairs of the EFL who’s rules are so clear that they are now seeking to change or clarify the rules that supposedly found us guilty. We are not victims of other teams cheating, in my opinion, but we have been victim of the EFL going on a crusade after the football club and creating a narrative that we are the villains of football with their vindictive, unclear statements and obvious leaks to the press.
Yesterday’s news should have been celebrated across football, that no precedent was set to retrospectively relegate a team for off field matters that were signed off for three years by an organisation that didn’t understand their own rules. I get the feeling it wasn’t though, because a narrative has been created that if you push spending limits and do not get promoted, you are worse than those who push limits and do.

In 2014 I watched an exciting team, with a wage bill of £14.5m lose to QPR in the playoff final. They had a wage bill of £75million.
Next year it was Hull in the play-offs, with their parachute payments from the previous year, wage bill 30m.
Then a year off before having another go, losing to Fulham in 2018, wage bill £54m.
And then 2019 a loss to Villa, wage bill £65m.
There we have it; 2 playoffs semis, two finals, four loses, twice to teams that didn’t just break FFP but stamped on it, took it outside shot it from a cannon and then reversed over it with a steam roller.

Didn't Bolton have issues fielding a team after they were relegated in to League 1?

For them to use the word regrettably when their own legal counsel told them there are no grounds for appeal is ducking outrageous, unprofessional and proves they are out to get us based on some twits opinion rather than cold hard evidence.
bankers