SillyBilly

This is cringe level embarrassing, just the thought of other supporters' (or the Gumps) reading the original thread title and jumping to conclusions was bad enough for me. I hope this isn't serious, talk about reducing yourself to tinpot status. He is doing a very good job under effectively no pressure to do anything when expectations for the season were rock bottom. I love Rooney at the moment but his job will be harder if and when we are relegated and the fanbase expects us to be competitive and to win most games. Lets not lose our heads in the love-in and embarrass the history of the club in the process...

6 hours ago, duncanjwitham said:

The problem is, by that argument, nobody should be allowed to own a company unless they can personally cover the entire companies operating costs themselves.  If you want to start a company, you basically need to be richer than the company can ever possibly be before you're allowed to start/own it.

So if you start a little bedroom company, and you get to the stage where you're doing well and have got a few employees etc.  Congratulations, the company is now potentially going to cost you more than your entire personal wealth if anything bad happens (like a global pandemic, maybe?). Should you be forced to close the company?  

Like it or not, Limited companies exist for very good reasons, and the upsides of having them far outweigh the risks.

And as for penalties on Morris, there won't be any (as long as hasn't done anything outright illegal, like stole from the pension fund or something, which I don't believe he has).  That's literally the point of limited companies.

If you want to start arguing that football clubs shouldn't be limited companies, then there's maybe some mileage there. But I guarantee you, we would have no bidders at all if the new owners were required to personally guarantee any future losses.  And neither would a lot of clubs.

Quite. I own an SME. With actual liquid cash to hand I could personally fund it for about 4 days before I'd run out of money given the numbers involved. If I was to liquidate everything I have (not actually possible within a short time frame), maybe a month. There is a point where a company becomes far bigger than the owner, where if the income drops off and the costs remain the wealth of a owner pales into an insignificance. Maybe not so the case with Mel here but the general point of why limited company exists is for this reason. And as unpalatable as it sometimes can seem it is this way for a reason.

8 minutes ago, Jimbo Ram said:

I am not convinced the Gibbon is worried about the money…more concerned with continuing the chaos as long as possible is what he is after…

Precisely so draw him out publicly. 

Option A: State what we already know, absolutely and unequivocally: Our bidders are prepared to settle a % of the debts of club and take us out of admin but not prepared to entertain paying a penny to Boro and Wycombe. So they pursue their claim in court knowing if they win we have no preferred bidder and we are liquidated. They get no money.

Option B: They pursue their claim in court and they lose. They get no money.

Put it to Gibson that these are the options, in full view of the media. So we'll then know what his game is when the money is well and truly off the table.

I'd now back a public statement saying the club will take them to court with the expectation of either defeating the claims in full or, if we lose, going into liquidation with us having no intention of paying a penny. Up the ante.

Then we'll see Gibson and co. for what they really are. They'd have to take us to court knowing they'll either win and liquidate us (something he claims he doesn't want to do) or lose and get nothing. 

Play it out in the media.

That red card could be a pivotal moment in the season for us, and not positively. Given how this has played out 11v11 we could have taken them tonight. Now looking like 0 points and a makeshift defence for 3 games. The mountain to climb just got taller tonight...

Simply superb support, making the match for me.

Where I saw a crime with my own eyes I'd not need a court of law to decide my own opinion. Respect the process but my opinions are my opinions. All this talk about social media trial, 21st century technology and smart phones have changed the game and whatever anyone says we can't put them back in the box. In 2022 we can effectively see unfiltered evidence a jury might only ever have seen in the 1990s. Personally I've heard/seen enough on this one, I don't need to state my opinion other than to say I'd pack up supporting DCFC if the alleged came within sniffing distance of a trial at this club.

Allsop          6

Byrne           6

Forsyth         3

Stearman      5.5

Davies        5

Bird               5

Thompson    3

Knight          6.5

Lawrence     5

Jozwiak      2.5

Plange         8.5

Ebosele       7

Kazim          7

Bielik            8.5

What an ending! Whisper it but if the Gumps do us a favour tonight we will have gained a point on every one of our relegation rivals which would be a good weekend's work.

Massive opportunity today to entice more revenue into the club over future games, just so disappointing to see this. Really hope we can produce something in last 30..

We've done well to keep it 0-1, Bowyer and Brum nailed their brief so far, we're in this for the second half. If we get some momentum the crowd will come into it. Playing in front of 30k+ can be a blessing or a curse, so far the latter. Need to get some spark to ignite the ocasion as there was absolutely nothing to get the juices going in that half.

Nerves of the team look shot, cant even some passes together. Occasion too much?

We're an old and illustrious club with more glory to look back on than most clubs...and yet Rooney will be able write his own chapter in it if he manages to keep us up, this might not be the most glamorous job in English football at the moment (to say the least) but I think Rooney knows how big it is to keep the Rams in the Championship, despite all odds. The world will be watching if he does. Achievement wise it is better level of performance IMO than Pep winning the Premiership or guiding Everton to midtable obscurity. If he manages the Great Escape he can seal himself into a Derby folklore immaterial of what comes after. The guy then could take any job and leave this club with legend status (hopefully later rather than sooner).

Brilliant effort. And to any Blues fans reading, brilliant effort also and thank-you. the revenue from a packed away end is much needed too. Blues have got excellent away support.

We know its personal between Mel and Gibson. Sadly the feud could cost us our club. And Gibson can claim what he likes about him not being responsible if Derby do or don't get liquidated, if he dropped his claim tonight, we could have a new buyer lined up by Monday lunchtime. He won't do it because he won't let Mel off the hook so we're at the impasse we are at. 

1 hour ago, Gritstone Ram said:

It surprises me when I read what some Middle Borough fans say about how we backed MM while he was doing his crooked accounting. Yet they are in support of Steve Gibson liquidating us because we deserve it. Did anyone know what MM was doing? Apart from the fans forums which we had representation from here where we were assured we were not breaking FFP. Strange how the Middle Borough fans know what happened.

They're a disgrace, I wouldn't ever wish liquidation on Boro under any circumstances, let them spew their bile. Judging our entire fan base by a minority of Twitter trolls. Were the vast majority of us winding up opposition fans on Twitter regarding flouting FFP? Get real...we're a family club for all generations for the most part, not internet keyboard warriors. Supposedly, according to some, total cessation of existence of a founder member of the Football League is appropriate punishment for *preventing a Middlesborough side getting a 6th place in the Championship with a side that had not a cat in hell's chance of winning those playoffs. *Contestable in itself. We're not bitter or suing QPR and Villa, both financially doped, who prevented us from promotion in a playoff final, let alone a 6th place finish. Life goes on...

I too only recall the fans forums where the fans were repeatedly petitioning Mel and Pearce for confirmation that the club was meeting FFP. We were given assurances not to worry our little heads and all was fine. We're not accountants - we're football fans and the majority took our CEO and Chairman for their word when they told us we were compliant. And supposedly we were all to know that the EFL would seemingly change their minds on an amortisation policy and then years after the fact (once events had caught up sufficiently to implicate themselves) would then decide the most satisfactory outcome, to deflect heat off their own incompetence, would be to set the dogs on Derby County. Most of my disdain is reserved for the EFL, and not Boro incidentally. Us turning on Boro or them on us was entirely preventable had the EFL done their jobs, starting about 4 years ago. They are ultimately responsible, Boro will plunge the knife but the EFL has set it up.

I don't think in our current state we could blame anyone for leaving. Perhaps a cynic as Wayne is certainly talented but the romanticism of Rooney/Everton would yet still end the same way as Frank/Chelsea ended. I can see why you wouldn't turn those jobs down in their positions but the achievement of both simply didn't/doesn't warrant the interest of either club concerned if you take away the personal connection. Everton have money and large ambitions, taking the manager of a championship team performing well (but 2nd bottom under extenuating circumstances) halfway through the season with nothing yet decided in final outcome...well, wouldn't happen if it was anyone else delivering it. But I guess football is sometimes heart over head, as we all know...

As is the case with any of these things, the end result is the only place where judgement can be made. If they secure a deal for the creditors and deliver a buyer at the very last dying minute their brief will have been fulfilled and it'll be job well done. Fail and I suspect hell hath no fury like a scorned city of passionate fans. Not knowledgeable in these matters in terms of market fees for such an assignment like Derby but their fee, on the face of it, doesn't seem particularly "light" to say the least. Questions would be asked if the worst happened.

Talk of him going to a League one club as a "step down" doesn't seem to account for the fact unless we pull off a miracle we're a few months away from being a League one club ourselves. So chances are if he stayed and renewed he'd have been playing there anyway. And with the recent ante being upped by the EFL the mountain to stay up gets bigger.

Good servant to the club. Had some ups and downs and came out with a fighting spirit. Sure he will receive a great reception on a return to Pride Park for his efforts, best of wishes to him.

Bizarre how Scotland's goalkeeper can be third choice at bottom of Championship Derby County. I am glad his wages are off the books, didn't rate him at all, and neither did it seem did Rooney.

Tickets now sold out.

Davies closely followed by Jags. We have a top 4 Championship defensive record with a pair of OAPs at the back, so as well as midfielders like Bird may be doing the defensive stats show an astonishingly high level of performance from that pair that can't be ignored IMO. I can only think of that mad second goal at Barnsley where they went to sleep where Jags and Davies have really made an out-and-out blunder, quite remarkable the level of consistency. I have total confidence in them every game.

Bird's time will come for the accolades, he is a young man.

1 hour ago, Jimbo Ram said:

What were the numbers, Readings effort pretty poor….

1503.

Massive point. Would have been a sucker blow to play that well and come away with nothing. Keeping the spirits up is essential if we are to pull off the great escape, granted if we don't play well and don't pick up points but today would've been a knock to the confidence after that effort. Fabulous point. 

And great backing for the boys too, hats off to you guys following us away this year, fans are sucking the ball into the net at times.