Duracell

I’ve been worried about our existence since we went into administration. This news hasn’t made me any more worried than I already was.
Personally, I don’t understand what was so magical about Kirchner. To me, he was just another Alonso, only slightly more effective in that he was doing it all in his first language. How many sensible people do you know whose first thought in a business deal is to go on Twitter and swear at one of the other people involved? I think he was only ever serious about one thing - getting some attention from some English football fans. Even the way he tweeted his doubts like some sort of pretext and then hours later, he announced he was pulling out. I think we’ve dodged another chancer. 
To put a positive spin on it, I’m sure anyone serious is much more likely to be anonymous at this point. 

I’ve been worried about our existence since we went into administration. This news hasn’t made me any more worried than I already was.
Personally, I don’t understand what was so magical about Kirchner. To me, he was just another Alonso, only slightly more effective in that he was doing it all in his first language. How many sensible people do you know whose first thought in a business deal is to go on Twitter and swear at one of the other people involved? I think he was only ever serious about one thing - getting some attention from some English football fans. Even the way he tweeted his doubts like some sort of pretext and then hours later, he announced he was pulling out. I think we’ve dodged another chancer. 
To put a positive spin on it, I’m sure anyone serious is much more likely to be anonymous at this point. 

The fact Will Hughes hasn't properly made it in elite football demonstrates I just don't understand the game.
Can't fathom it. To my uncoached eye he is the most intelligent and naturally talented player I've ever seen play for Derby. A joy to watch. 
 

The fact Will Hughes hasn't properly made it in elite football demonstrates I just don't understand the game.
Can't fathom it. To my uncoached eye he is the most intelligent and naturally talented player I've ever seen play for Derby. A joy to watch. 
 

Despite what happened, I actually feel for Masi a little bit. F1 used to be about big personalities doing the jobs of a few different people, like Bernie and Charlie Whiting.
There's too much data, too much riding on it now, and the world is too open for us still to rely on one human to make such big calls, rather than relying on a process and a system. Masi had a few minutes to make a call at his discretion, and there's no way he made that huge mistake with anything other than the best intentions - but human error is way more likely when you put someone in that position.
 

Despite what happened, I actually feel for Masi a little bit. F1 used to be about big personalities doing the jobs of a few different people, like Bernie and Charlie Whiting.
There's too much data, too much riding on it now, and the world is too open for us still to rely on one human to make such big calls, rather than relying on a process and a system. Masi had a few minutes to make a call at his discretion, and there's no way he made that huge mistake with anything other than the best intentions - but human error is way more likely when you put someone in that position.
 

The fact Will Hughes hasn't properly made it in elite football demonstrates I just don't understand the game.
Can't fathom it. To my uncoached eye he is the most intelligent and naturally talented player I've ever seen play for Derby. A joy to watch. 
 

I don't think the "moving abroad" thing is about lack of pace, so much as footballing-culture.  Fans and managers in countries like Spain are much more accepting of midfielders that just pass the ball.  And he's not that slow for a central midfielder anyway. His slight lack of pace is only a real issue if he's being used out of position as a winger or something.
I have no doubt that Hughes would be fine played further forward. But I genuinely think his best role is the one he played under McClaren for us - a sort of midfielder facilitator, just keeping it moving, knitting things together and so on.  Having someone do that means you can afford to have much more specialised players around him, you can have a holding midfielder just sit, you can have an attacking midfielder bombing on and so on.  Every single other player in the team is going to play better because Hughes is making it easy for them.  
The really frustrating thing for me is, he would be absolutely perfect for the current Liverpool setup - 3 midfielders just keeping the ball and springing that front 3 whenever they get a chance would suit him so well.

The fact Will Hughes hasn't properly made it in elite football demonstrates I just don't understand the game.
Can't fathom it. To my uncoached eye he is the most intelligent and naturally talented player I've ever seen play for Derby. A joy to watch. 
 

Completely agree with you here and we've been here before with topics on Hughes, and the lazy cliche here is to wonder if he wasn't better off moving abroad, where his lack of pace would be no hindrance.
My feeling about the 'he doesn't even do nuffin' criticism is that he would do more if given the freedom to. His intelligence and footballing brain so often means he is sacrificed to do things that are much less glamorous. If you think about the goals and assists he produced for us, the potential to do more was always there.
I also take @Dimmu's point that he's done alright at Watford, which isn't bad. Still think his potential was much more than performing well in a yo-yo Premier League/Championship team.

The fact Will Hughes hasn't properly made it in elite football demonstrates I just don't understand the game.
Can't fathom it. To my uncoached eye he is the most intelligent and naturally talented player I've ever seen play for Derby. A joy to watch. 
 

Weirdest thing about Marriott is there is a) an incredible amount of vitriol about the fact his career fizzled out and the general view that he was overrated and that b) an incredible amount of vitriol towards Lampard for not starting him in the playoff final, and that contributed to the final outcome.
How can he be both not good enough, and the most important player in the biggest match in recent history?

I saw that as a moan about the team, not the rules.
In all the chaos, it's been forgotten that it was a bad call to pit Lewis so early. They knew a red flag was likely and that track position was key, and they know the rules under red flag conditions. Half the nonsense of the race could've been avoided if they kept Hamilton ahead.

I saw that as a moan about the team, not the rules.
In all the chaos, it's been forgotten that it was a bad call to pit Lewis so early. They knew a red flag was likely and that track position was key, and they know the rules under red flag conditions. Half the nonsense of the race could've been avoided if they kept Hamilton ahead.

Unfortunately i think it'll be Bird dropping out for the three games Bielik is fit 

But at least we had an enormous amount of fun and success along the way and get to tell the grandkids we saw these players in the flesh, right?
 

I've said before that I admire any fan with emotional capacity left to care about what team we play, or engage in discussions about tactics. I feel a little bit about the points deduction too; I always thought it was coming.
My main worries are:
1) How much of the above will be sorted before January? Because if it's not, there could be a firesale of not just the first team, but all the very clearly talented U23s who could be the key to our return to this league. If they go, then we'll be scrambling around to field a team that can stay up in League One next year, let alone any talk of promotion. And perhaps a tad more pertinently;
2) Are we going to exist????????????????*
 
 
*I can't believe how many fans are not obsessively stressed by this question.

But at least we had an enormous amount of fun and success along the way and get to tell the grandkids we saw these players in the flesh, right?
 

Where was this energy from the football authorities when QPR went up in 2014? 
It seems that because we weren't promoted as heroes in that playoff final, we lived long enough in the Championship to become the villains. Although we may have got a lucky escape like QPR if not for Roos' cabbage hands which he saves for special occasions.
I'd wouldn't find this such a bitter pill to swallow if I believed this was part of a wider project to completely shake up finances in English football, but it really isn't. It's a case of punishing the scene of the crime, rather than the criminal. The individuals whose terrible decision making led us to this position will likely financially recover long before the club and community does. 
It seems the EFL believe that this points deduction will send some sort of message, but there will be another Derby. And another Derby after that. The kind of ego and personality willing to put a club in financial jeopardy in the name of promotion to the Premier League is plentiful in the world of business, and such personalities don't think "better not, this club could be on its knees after I'm gone."
So long as the football authorities pretend that this sort of financial mess is the actions of a few errant individuals rather than symptomatic of a broken financial model in the game, nothing will change. There will keep on being MMs, fueled by ego and enabled by dubious accounting, trying to compete with parachute payment clubs. 
 

Where was this energy from the football authorities when QPR went up in 2014? 
It seems that because we weren't promoted as heroes in that playoff final, we lived long enough in the Championship to become the villains. Although we may have got a lucky escape like QPR if not for Roos' cabbage hands which he saves for special occasions.
I'd wouldn't find this such a bitter pill to swallow if I believed this was part of a wider project to completely shake up finances in English football, but it really isn't. It's a case of punishing the scene of the crime, rather than the criminal. The individuals whose terrible decision making led us to this position will likely financially recover long before the club and community does. 
It seems the EFL believe that this points deduction will send some sort of message, but there will be another Derby. And another Derby after that. The kind of ego and personality willing to put a club in financial jeopardy in the name of promotion to the Premier League is plentiful in the world of business, and such personalities don't think "better not, this club could be on its knees after I'm gone."
So long as the football authorities pretend that this sort of financial mess is the actions of a few errant individuals rather than symptomatic of a broken financial model in the game, nothing will change. There will keep on being MMs, fueled by ego and enabled by dubious accounting, trying to compete with parachute payment clubs. 
 

Where was this energy from the football authorities when QPR went up in 2014? 
It seems that because we weren't promoted as heroes in that playoff final, we lived long enough in the Championship to become the villains. Although we may have got a lucky escape like QPR if not for Roos' cabbage hands which he saves for special occasions.
I'd wouldn't find this such a bitter pill to swallow if I believed this was part of a wider project to completely shake up finances in English football, but it really isn't. It's a case of punishing the scene of the crime, rather than the criminal. The individuals whose terrible decision making led us to this position will likely financially recover long before the club and community does. 
It seems the EFL believe that this points deduction will send some sort of message, but there will be another Derby. And another Derby after that. The kind of ego and personality willing to put a club in financial jeopardy in the name of promotion to the Premier League is plentiful in the world of business, and such personalities don't think "better not, this club could be on its knees after I'm gone."
So long as the football authorities pretend that this sort of financial mess is the actions of a few errant individuals rather than symptomatic of a broken financial model in the game, nothing will change. There will keep on being MMs, fueled by ego and enabled by dubious accounting, trying to compete with parachute payment clubs. 
 

Where was this energy from the football authorities when QPR went up in 2014? 
It seems that because we weren't promoted as heroes in that playoff final, we lived long enough in the Championship to become the villains. Although we may have got a lucky escape like QPR if not for Roos' cabbage hands which he saves for special occasions.
I'd wouldn't find this such a bitter pill to swallow if I believed this was part of a wider project to completely shake up finances in English football, but it really isn't. It's a case of punishing the scene of the crime, rather than the criminal. The individuals whose terrible decision making led us to this position will likely financially recover long before the club and community does. 
It seems the EFL believe that this points deduction will send some sort of message, but there will be another Derby. And another Derby after that. The kind of ego and personality willing to put a club in financial jeopardy in the name of promotion to the Premier League is plentiful in the world of business, and such personalities don't think "better not, this club could be on its knees after I'm gone."
So long as the football authorities pretend that this sort of financial mess is the actions of a few errant individuals rather than symptomatic of a broken financial model in the game, nothing will change. There will keep on being MMs, fueled by ego and enabled by dubious accounting, trying to compete with parachute payment clubs. 
 

Where was this energy from the football authorities when QPR went up in 2014? 
It seems that because we weren't promoted as heroes in that playoff final, we lived long enough in the Championship to become the villains. Although we may have got a lucky escape like QPR if not for Roos' cabbage hands which he saves for special occasions.
I'd wouldn't find this such a bitter pill to swallow if I believed this was part of a wider project to completely shake up finances in English football, but it really isn't. It's a case of punishing the scene of the crime, rather than the criminal. The individuals whose terrible decision making led us to this position will likely financially recover long before the club and community does. 
It seems the EFL believe that this points deduction will send some sort of message, but there will be another Derby. And another Derby after that. The kind of ego and personality willing to put a club in financial jeopardy in the name of promotion to the Premier League is plentiful in the world of business, and such personalities don't think "better not, this club could be on its knees after I'm gone."
So long as the football authorities pretend that this sort of financial mess is the actions of a few errant individuals rather than symptomatic of a broken financial model in the game, nothing will change. There will keep on being MMs, fueled by ego and enabled by dubious accounting, trying to compete with parachute payment clubs. 
 

Where was this energy from the football authorities when QPR went up in 2014? 
It seems that because we weren't promoted as heroes in that playoff final, we lived long enough in the Championship to become the villains. Although we may have got a lucky escape like QPR if not for Roos' cabbage hands which he saves for special occasions.
I'd wouldn't find this such a bitter pill to swallow if I believed this was part of a wider project to completely shake up finances in English football, but it really isn't. It's a case of punishing the scene of the crime, rather than the criminal. The individuals whose terrible decision making led us to this position will likely financially recover long before the club and community does. 
It seems the EFL believe that this points deduction will send some sort of message, but there will be another Derby. And another Derby after that. The kind of ego and personality willing to put a club in financial jeopardy in the name of promotion to the Premier League is plentiful in the world of business, and such personalities don't think "better not, this club could be on its knees after I'm gone."
So long as the football authorities pretend that this sort of financial mess is the actions of a few errant individuals rather than symptomatic of a broken financial model in the game, nothing will change. There will keep on being MMs, fueled by ego and enabled by dubious accounting, trying to compete with parachute payment clubs. 
 

Where was this energy from the football authorities when QPR went up in 2014? 
It seems that because we weren't promoted as heroes in that playoff final, we lived long enough in the Championship to become the villains. Although we may have got a lucky escape like QPR if not for Roos' cabbage hands which he saves for special occasions.
I'd wouldn't find this such a bitter pill to swallow if I believed this was part of a wider project to completely shake up finances in English football, but it really isn't. It's a case of punishing the scene of the crime, rather than the criminal. The individuals whose terrible decision making led us to this position will likely financially recover long before the club and community does. 
It seems the EFL believe that this points deduction will send some sort of message, but there will be another Derby. And another Derby after that. The kind of ego and personality willing to put a club in financial jeopardy in the name of promotion to the Premier League is plentiful in the world of business, and such personalities don't think "better not, this club could be on its knees after I'm gone."
So long as the football authorities pretend that this sort of financial mess is the actions of a few errant individuals rather than symptomatic of a broken financial model in the game, nothing will change. There will keep on being MMs, fueled by ego and enabled by dubious accounting, trying to compete with parachute payment clubs.