IslandExile

I'm more than a little disappointed I have to be honest. I've just seen I've ran out of milk and someone has fingered my butter.
However, the news about Clowes is absolutely fantastic. I wanted Ashley, but reservations about how our academy would fair. I would have been happy with Appleby, but reservations about his backers and how reliable it all is.
I know nothing about Clowes, but it just sounds right. He was willing to buy the stadium just to help move a deal forward, now he is willing to go one step further and take the lot.
As a fan (and not a fake one like MM), i feel/hope the stadium will remain Pride Park, the academy will remain as one of the best in the country and the future of the club will be secured. Also as a fan, he won't want to see his club in league 1 for long.
Sod the milk, I'm opening the Stella.
 

Ah but does that Ram have an eye?

Ah but does that Ram have an eye?

I know nothing about Clowes and have no inside information.
My gut instinct tells me that Clowes, if he rescues the club, is doing so out of love and duty for the club, and not to massage his own ego or reputation. 
I can get on board with him being a reluctant owner, a bit like someone becoming carer for a poorly relative and if it goes through and he owns the club, I hope sincerely that the toxic element of our 'fan' base either stay away or grow up.
I very much doubt the EFL would allow us to anyway, but I also instinctively feel that this is more about saving the club than splashing out on players and chasing a dream.
The club/team COULD find inspiration from any feel good factor from the terraces, so I hope that the fans give it.

Interesting people talking about possible link ups. Clowes was definitely in with Appleby a couple of weeks ago. Would make a lot of sense to utilise AAs sports network. The person who suggested bringing in Gary Cook as CEO is a good shout. He could have his own ideas. 
 
Short term - we must keep Rooney and as much of last seasons squad as possible, this will give us our best chance of a quick return to the championship. We must give Rooney some headroom to get some players in, we’ve already missed out on our no 1 targets. Hopefully we can use the loan system to good effect. We need the right mix of energy, exuberance, talent and experience. We won’t have much of a budget so focus has to be low cost short termism to be competitive, no committing to long deals unless it makes sense.
Medium Term - Sort out the club mess, the structure etc. Recruitment needs an overhaul and if we are to ever get back to the premier league we’ve got to box clever when it comes to recruitment. Smart signings with resale value, good academy signings (we’ve been quite good here) and continue to keep the academy at the forefront for our development, this is probably even more important now given we won’t be making record signings until we are in the Premier League again, which let’s face it could be a long way off.
Hopefully this chastening experience has reset expectations amongst fan base and made people realise what’s important. It certainly has for me. It’s not chasing to be in a Premier League which all becomes about the big 6 and you are irrelevant, it’s about being Derby and proud to be Derby and enjoying the success and rolling with the punches in more depressing times.
 
A huge positive is this is probably the lowest point in our history, not much lower we can go therefore we’re going to see some success in the next few years, maybe even a successful Wembley final or two!! Can’t wait.
??????????????

Quick bit of research yields the following:
The combined cash at bank value for all businesses where DAVID CLOWES holds a current appointment equals £30m, a combined total current assets value of £536m with a total current liabilities of £137m and a total current net worth of £346m. My guess would be that while David is the front man, the new owners will effectively be the Clowes family as a whole.
For those already worrying that he / they have insufficient net worth to run a club like Derby, consider the relative wealth of Brentford owner Matthew Benham, a tiny fraction of the Clowes fortune. Consider too that Benham had to borrow £700k to fund the majority shareholding he took when he bought Brentford in 2012. Like Clowes, Benham too, is a lifelong fan of the club he has now established in the Premiership. Not all 'fan-owners' then are of Morris' ilk, so let's be balanced in our thinking. Some may say Benham is an outlier and an anomaly but the facts do not bear out this opinion. My view is rather that he simply adopted a model by which even clubs with modest fan bases can operate without losses AND enjoy success. For interest's sake, some net worth figures for a few Premiership club owners, correct as of 10/2021:
Brentford – Matthew Benham (£3m)
Norwich - Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones (£23m)
Burnley – Mike Garlick (£62m)
Watford – Gino Pozzo (£93m)
Leeds – Andrea Radrizzani (£344m)
If Clowes is successful in his bid, then let's then give the man a chance to show that he intends to run the club in the way it could and should be run. There is absolutely no reason that DCFC can not break even within a few years and then turn a profit from then on. Look at the 30K +++ crowds that turned up towards the end of a post-Covid season with the team nigh on certain to be relegated. There are few clubs in the entire league that would top those numbers and the willingness of the fans to get behind the club, aligned to a measured and analytical approach to recruitment, can prove to be the cornerstones upon which a resurgent Derby County can be built. Our support was the absolute envy of the League last season, despite 3 years of ever gathering gloom and ill conceived hostility from outsiders who chose to hate before they thought. Let's not forget that. Equally, let's be respectful to and supportive of the players who ran through walls for us, even those who now choose move to pastures new. We should be, and I believe most are, grateful for what was a herculean effort from a team where a good few were earning a fraction of the wages they could command elsewhere and all played week in, week out under immense levels of pressure and uncertainty. They gave us all they had and IMO, they now owe us nothing.
Let's also look out for each other; I've tried to remain calm and upbeat throughout the last couple of years as have most, but the strain of the last few months has understandably stretched nerves to breaking point. A lot of us have expressed anger and lashed out and I'm one of them, but the truth is that lashing out at those around the process, or worse still, at other fans, serves literally no purpose. I should know better.
As we now look to the future then, akin to most fans, I suspect, I remain concerned that this may prove yet another false dawn, but this does have a rather different feel about it. We will know by this time next week whether the deal has legs, at which point we can hopefully once again begin to dream about a more positive future for the club, the fans and the wider community. In essence, the healing process can begin. Of course I am hugely biased in my view, but it's something I strongly believe; there is something quite unique and special about this club of ours, even in the darkest of times. They say that it's always darkest before the dawn and I'm sure I can see some narrow slithers of light ahead and this for the first time in several years. Perhaps a bright and beautiful new dawn will follow, perhaps something less than that, but let's try to be present, upbeat and supportive and not simply look to others. We have a huge role to play if we choose to accept it and these next few years could be some of the best in long while if we temper our expectations and rediscover the unity and passion we showed when times were hardest.

So if Mr Clowes is a fan, the real question is is he a poster on here?!

Indeed.  The fact that the vulture-buyers, i.e. doing it on commercial terms, have been overlooked suggests he is going out on a limb.  I suggest he is doing this to save the club as much as anything.  
I don't think we can expect initial glory days.  He will likely want to get promoted, pay down debt, run a tight ship for several years - and then sell at break even.  
I just hope fans don't turn on him for not turning on the taps.  
 

From the article.
'This week Ashley ramped up his bid by depositing £50 million to acquire the club and Pride Park.'
The problem is Mike, you need to deposit that money with the administrator's, not with your own solicitors. 

Be grateful he is willing to fight to save us and plus he is a derby fan.

I think he probley already teamed up with someone already but this is very very very postive if it is allowed could he give rooney 20m war chest get some players in with.

Well I think we can finally say this horrific saga is over. Have no reason to doubt Clowes will get it over the line. He’s a Derby fan this will mean a lot to him, he’s not going to stick his head above the parapet and not get it done. 
 
As for whether this is good long term, we have no say in it unfortunately. There are other bidders with much higher net worth but would they splash the cash on us given they’re businessmen with no connections with the club. I think we should be grateful that a fan who can do something about our situation has done something about our situation. If we’re run correctly we don’t have to splash the cash, he’s richer than Delia and Norwich are competing at championship sharp end. 
 
Immediate question once this gets done, presumably we’ll avoid -15, and then how quickly can Rooney get a squad together, from facing the despair of potentially having a Bolton season, it might not be too bad after all. 
 
Hope again!!!!!! ?????

Isn't everyone missing the point here? 
As of now, there is no contract offer on the table for the lad to sign, he's a few days from being unemployed. 
Why on earth wouldn't he sign a 5 year deal, for more money, closer to home and at a much higher level? 
He'd be a moron to say hold on, could you give me a few more days to see if my current employer can sort out their arse from their elbow, and offer me a shorter deal on far less money.

Understandably there’s a need for caution, and I’ve already noticed posters on here and online voicing doubts and concern….but we can be cautiously optimistic can’t we? 
He is a wealthy man, willing to attempt a takeover of this stricken club. He might not be as wealthy as Mike Ashley but neither is Appleby right? And CK definitely wasn’t. At least we know he is a legitimate businessman with legitimate wealth, something he will be able to evidence to the EFL. As some other posters have mentioned his wealth shouldn’t be the defining factor in his potential stewardship of the club anyway, the club NEEDS to be ran sensibly after the last few years and will have to work to EFL imposed restrictions so sorting the stadium and the debts then carefully rebuilding the club on a budget is the ideal scenario in my opinion. 
I mentioned it in another post, he’s well placed to action the takeover sooner than other parties having already (allegedly) done the work to buy the stadium, any other bidder would be weeks behind in the process for this.
I’m hopeful we’ll get official word tomorrow and things will start to progress further next week. 

Please can nobody suggest that it's a good thing he's a local businessman and Rams fan.

Can’t believe THIS …. Sent my dad the SSN tweet and he came back and said “yeah I was talking to someone yesterday at my golf club and they said it’s close”.
The one time I could of been ITK and he didn’t even bother to tell me!!! 

The Clowes group are wealthy .
Anyhow I hope it happens 
Goodnight folks 

Well. If he can cobble a team together for Wayne to get us out this league, frankly, I don’t give a damn.

To be given preferred bidder status he must be paying a lot to get the club and satisfy the creditors. That's why Kirchner was named preferred bidder. This is good news. It just needs completing don't care who it is anymore