New Gold Dream

I think at this point there’s too much we don’t know, such as what is the proposed deduction for? Is it for breaching the P&S limit in the years we had to restate? Is it for the next 3 year period that includes 2019? The one that includes 2020? (That one seems highly unlikely, given that Covid losses are allowable.) If we have breached the limit, is the proposed punishment purely for that or are they trying to claim for aggravating factors?
Saying that, if I’m reading between the lines of the article, it says ‘with a points deduction still possible’ - only ‘possible’ so not guaranteed? If it’s not guaranteed why would we accept it as though it was?
‘Under pressure from rival Championship clubs, the EFL is pushing for Derby to be punished’ - if we have obviously breached the limit why would they have to be put under pressure to try and punish us, and it wouldn’t only be ‘possible’, it would be written in the rules, so they’d just charge us with breaching it, let it go to another Disciplinary and be done with it, why would they effectively be negotiating with us? - unless they thought they would lose the case due to mitigating factors in our favour, so are trying to get us to accept something so they don’t lose face again?
It says ‘as expected’ about challenging the proposed punishment, ie. they don’t expect us to accept what they have proposed, presumably they think we’d accept a lesser amount, just to get it behind us, but why should we if it’s not guaranteed? If accepting a deduction doesn’t even get us out of an embargo, what does it get us? If we can’t add to the squad to mitigate the deduction, why not fight it, otherwise we’d have a small squad and a deduction, when we could fight it, have a small squad but maybe avoid a deduction. Why should we have to just accept both?
It, once again, points out ‘Derby have always maintained they did not seek any competitive advantage with their amortisation policy.’ which does make it look like as though it’s a limit breach, it’s in the years we’ve had to restate, they are trying to increase the punishment because of aggravation, trying to say that we deliberately went over the limit to give us an advantage, and we’re fighting our corner on it.
If it’s a small limit breach it may be that we’re trying to avoid a deduction at all, due to what was mentioned in the club statement post original charge, we can’t go back and retrace our steps to get back in line.
The DC made it very clear that we couldn’t have known at the time that what we were doing was going to be considered contrary to FRS 102. If it’s that we’ve ended up going over by an amount we could have sold a player for (so bid rejected) or played hard ball and increased what we sold a player for, not bought a player for, not paid a loan fee/signing on fee or wages for, as we couldn’t have known at the time that doing what we did would lead us to breach retrospectively, and different decisions would have been made at that time had we known, I don’t think we’d just roll over and accept it, and I wouldn’t want us to either.

Ed Dawes is a bit of a modern day Graham Richards and I have no problem with that. I do think that some of the anti Ed criticism on here is more to do with people wanting uncritical sugar coated coverage of the club rather than a general dislike of his match day delivery. Ed is a Rams fan and I like his passion for the club. If I want unchallenging coverage I’ll tune in to Rams TV.

As we're all aware, this season marks the 50th anniversary of our first League title. Had an idea for a while to mark it by doing a walk through the season as it happened 50 years ago (rather than just next May) - sort of a variation on the 'Derby on this day thread'
Whilst its stating the obvious to suggest a first title changed a club, this season in particular acted as a benchmark for Derby. It was the first season we had the Ram that we still see on our shirts today, it set the platform for our European Cup exploits the following season (and Brian Clough's obsession with landing the trophy after the Juventus semi-final) & our later title in 1974-75. It is also the breakthrough season which still affords Derby a lot of respect nationally from fans of a certain age & one often remembered for the nail-biting ending.
I wasn't around 50 years ago so my efforts will be confined to finding Youtube footage (if it exists), match reports, memorabilia & updated league tables as the season gets going. Where it probably needs fleshing out is with contributions from those who were there at the particular matches - what do you remember about particular games, what were the away fans like (good & lets face it, bad in a lot of instances) & any other memories/match rituals of the time
Anyroad, enough wittering from me. Exactly 50 years ago today we kicked off 1971-72 against Manchester Utd at the Baseball Ground. Youtube highlights below but we were actually 0-2 down in our opener against the Man Utd side of Law, Best & Charlton...
 

Nope.
That gets you toss like this

This

and this

instead of class like this

This

and this

Have you really forgotten Nathan Ellington? Cool as a cucumber. 
 

Bet you're fun at parties.

A noticeable difference in the pattern of play was when Andres Guardado was subbed off at half-time. He absolutely ran it for Betis in the first half, dropping deep and pinging 40-yard passes to the fullbacks high up the pitch. He supplied the pass for their one-on-one. Byrne and Buchanan had to tuck in, otherwise they could have just played through the middle. That deep-lying playmaker role is vital.
Derby have actually lacked once since Wayne Rooney pre lockdown and Tom Huddlestone. It’s partly why, IMO, Cocu struggled last season. Ironically, Cocu had Guardado at PSV.
As much as I like Shinnie’s tenacious tackling, Jason Knight’s energy and Max Bird’s simple ball retention, we desperately lack a creativity midfielder from deep. Krystian Bielik has it in his locker, and despite having a great defensive presence, his absence has hurt us immensely from at attacking/controlling perspective too.
 

And what makes you the expert to make such an astute observation?

My friend just sent me this mock up of a new kit in the colours.
he saw it on Twitter so I assumed it would have been posted on this forum somewhere but I couldn’t find it so thought I’d share it
 

After years of work and research here it is !
The Derby County shirt worn in the inaugural season of 1884 by the pioneers of our club, Cambridge Blue, Amber and Chocolate Brown the first colours of the Rams, it was thought that the early colours were blue but it was a shade of blue called Cambridge Blue which is actually more of a green. The badge was the badge of the Derbyshire FA that a player was permitted to wear if they had been selected to represent the Derbyshire FA.
we have had two made by a local tailor after we sourced the correct colours and the materials, the embroidery was done separately, even down to mother of Pearl buttons, it is to add further integrity to the book but moreover to show where the club evolved from, the team that wore these colours set the precedent for all those that have followed, the shirts will be on display at our Rams Heritage roadshows later in the year.
brought to life after 137 years by Phil Lowe & Jason Shardlow.

That video with Rosenior in the hotel room clearly shows it was an after party - there's a bunch of people, not just those women who got their arses out and tried to blackmail Rooney. I don't think adultery was necessary the proposed crime of the night, but I'll keep my powder dry before I begin to speculate...
Anyway, I reckon Rooney was being sensible and genuinely fell asleep. Victim of being high profile he gets taken advantage of.
Still unwelcome media attention for the club, which is the larger argument here, not the morals of a football manager committing adultery.

I think he might be worth persisting with for slightly more than than 70 minutes of a pre-season friendly.  

Overall, pretty happy with that.
First half we were clearly the better side & being 0-1 down really flattered them. Thought we moved the ball around with confidence, lots of movement & the 3 of Lawrence, Aluko & Morrison looked really fluid. Lawrence really should have scored with a header from 6 yards out & Heaton pulled off a great save to deny Jagielka. Instead a bit of sloppiness from Bird, a fortunate ricochet to their lad after Roos saved & we went into half time 0-1 down.
Second half, Man Utd started to press a lot higher & it became harder to play through them. They started getting ascendancy early part of the second half, scored again & Pallestri right side for them was becoming a real problem. The mass substitution enabled us to get a foothold again & whilst they continued to have more of the ball, we looked really dangerous on the break - Kazim really prominent with his strength on the ball & intelligent passing. Cracking finish too from the big man.
Of the new boys;
Morrison - was excellent I thought. Dropped into pockets of space in midfield, always available for a pass & seemed to knit the back line/deeper midfield with the final third with his passing/direct runs. Some real quality touches too. Just what we've been missing in the side. Assuming Rooney can keep on top of his workrate & attitude, I think he'd be an excellent signing Aluko - started slower than Morrison but after the first 15 mins started to show real glimpses of class. Drifted from RW into the number 10 role & found plenty of space. Very direct, great touches & looked threatening. Also helped Byrne out on a few occasions even though it was very warm out there. Definitely would like him to sign also Baldock - worked really hard & thought he protected the ball well when it came to him. He didn't have any clear cut chances but his presence was definitely felt in that final third. Bit of a David Nugent vibe to him. Jagielka - in all honesty, had little to do first half but looked comfortable in possession anyway. Pretty sure he stepped up second half to allow Pallestri the space to score the second but other than, very sound. Also a threat in their box first half from set plays & unlucky not to score

Bristol City played Celtic at their training ground last night, so no fans or atmosphere. TV Match pass £10. 
This moaning about absolutely everything Derby does by certain posters is beyond tedious.

I think the club should charge for the friendlies. We paid £16.50 to watch the "reserve reserves" at Matlock last night - sure their club welcomed the income. Derby are no different and I am happy to pay for friendlies. We did get free Rams TV last season on top of our ticket being rolled over, which I think was already pretty generous.
I would be interested in whether giving free tickets away would alter the mindset of some of the constant carpers on here? I very much doubt it! 

"Took a minute or 2 to realise the payment lettering was in white & not easily visible against the background."
Took me a lot longer to realise! Who designs a system that has white lettering on a white background!!  

I think realistically we need 5 additions in the short term, 2 centre backs, a midfielder and 2 strikers. That should make us just about competitive. Then strengthen further in January ?

Never simple. I work everyother weekend but I still have a season ticket have from when I was 10 37 now. and when my kids are old enough they will be coming. you don't choose a club you are given one 

Noticed some people having a go .
We are Derby fans and we should stick together and back the Club 
Its easy to be derogatory about the owners in this situation but the real enemy is the EFL 
They are an absolute joke of an institution and don’t get me started on Steve Gibson and Wycombe Wanderers

Something like this...
First Team (definite retained)
Roos, Marshall, Ravas, Byrne, Ebosele, McDonald, Buchanan, Forsyth, Bird, Bielik, Knight, Sibley, Shinnie, Watson, Lawrence, Jozwiak, Ibe, Shonibare, Kazim, Marriott, Stretton
First Team (possible retained)
Davies, Wisdom, Waghorn
First Team (released)
Carson, Mitchell, Jozefzoon, Malone (confirmed)
U23 (most likely retained)
Foster, Idem, Sykes,-Kenworthy, Cashin, JBrown, Archie, Dixon, LThompson, Hutchinson, Wilson, Duncan
U23 (likely released)
Yates, Wassall, Bateman, Minkley, JML, Cresswell, Trialist
U23 (new 1st year pros)
Bardell, Solomon, Grewal-Pollard, Clarke, Aghatise, Rogers, Matthews, SThompson, Plange, Cybulski
U18 (2nd year scholars likely released)
Jinkinson, Perez de Gracia
U18s (2nd year)
Roberts, Randle, Brailsford, Lissah, Rutt, Christie, Williams, Ibrahim, Borkovic, Kelly, Eze, Nicholas-Davies
U18s (from U16s)
Evans, Maloney, Sebagabo, Moore, Robinson, Fapetu, Aideyan, Amaefule, ZDixon, DBrown
 
New U16s (featured for U18s last season)
Cox, Ryan, Hawkins

Thanks for that feedback @ilkleyram! I really appreciate you taking the time to provide it. Absolutely understandable - I think we've all wanted to be as far away from this club for much of this season, so the release of the book definitely wasn't ideal. You're right on the labour of love side. It became a weekly question of 'why on earth am I doing this?' but I massively enjoyed it.
Thanks for the mention on the prose as well. Can understand that completely. I'll do my best to answer the questions:
1) So yeah, I always planned on doing it chronologically because it was going to run from 2000-2020, but the further on I went the more it developed really. I did actually toy with the idea of doing it as a season/chapter on a player sort of thing, but I instead to do the player focuses as blogs instead to raise a bit of awareness on the book in the end. Completely agree that there's loads more I didn't manage to fit in!
2) I made an initial list of about 80 or so people which changed massively over time. My original targets were more of the 'lesser' players without being disrespectful, but the further along it went on, the more strong connections I managed to make. Of the list above, Jewell and Clough both refused to take part. Tom Glick + Andy Appleby never responded to a few interview requests and Sam Rush legally wasn't allowed to speak, although he was really good to deal with and has read the book since it's release. Mel I pushed to get for a long time but it never happened unfortunately, though he did have to give final approval before the release of the book because it wasn't entirely complimentary. To be fair, I always tried to get the key people where possible. So even with the Amigos, I was really close to getting Jeremy Keith before he turned it down. Keogh too had agreed to take part but the longer his legal battle with the club went on, the more it became impossible. Billy Davies too had agreed before backing out. I tried to get a member of the coaching staff + management team as much as possible as well. I think the Lampard + Davies reigns were the only ones I didn't manage to grab anything from unfortunately.
The book has gone down crazily well, certainly way better than I expected, and has just had it's third reprint since publication, which is wild. So a big, big thank you to everyone who has read it! It's been in and around the top 20 on Amazon since release, which again is completely crazy. I'm giving away a copy over on a separate thread in case anyone is keen on a pre-Christmas 'treat' (not sure that's the right word)
Thanks again Ilkley, I massively appreciate that!

1977 ! The silver jubilee ! The sex pistols ! The Yorkshire ripper, The riots and then there was this beauty! What a time to be alive ! God save the queen ! the facist regime !

 

 
 
 

My first ever set of football stickers fks 1969/70  . Not my own originals but purchased off eBay 
In order as you look  
                           Les Green 
Ron Webster , Roy McFarland,  Dave McKay John Robson
  Alan Durban , Wille Carlin , John McGovern 
       Kevin Hector , John O,Hare , Alan Hinton 
The four stickers down the side Frank Wignall , Peter Daniel , John Richardson , and Arthur Stewart 

A very special shirt from the Derby County archives, back to the halcyon days of 1968/71, it also appeared for a one of game at white hart lane in 1973/74, it would have been worn by Kevin Hector.
https://youtu.be/hGREPY89u1o

The Patrick collection, elegant sophistication ahead of its time !