archram

👏👏👏

So I’ve not been on the forum for ages. I didn’t know B4 other than on here. I’m an ex season ticket holder and have moved away from Derby although I pay my subs and listen online.
However B4 was a legend on here, a great positive influence and in his own unique and wonderful way represented us as Derby fans so well. I am sad to read of his passing but heartened to read the outpouring of love for this legend. 
RIP B4 thanks for being you.

He'd always convey his meaning though. Reading some of less than positive stuff on here sometimes, I'm always reminded how he'd scold folk saying, 'don't be so bloody nagative', cunningly combining the words negative and nag 😂

I have tendency to spout polemics when it comes to sporting heroes. Not many spur me to this. A few handfuls over a lifetime but the good ones need to be recognised. The world has become very cynical. I just like remembering what it’s like to have ideals I suppose 😊

We once had a poll which included a Mr Charismatic!
I won this in 2012 and the title has not been contested since!
In recent years Daniel would have won it by a Cornish mile!
His charisma shone through the posts and topics he put on this site.
He will always be loved and respected as he epitome of a true fan!
’Who being dead yet speaketh!” (Hebrews 11 vs 4)

"Derby win cherried me up no end"
Thank you B4 for this classic quote from October 2023.

Signing a new contract extension to protect his value for the summer

Wish folk would stop quoting this absolute toilet of a human being, thereby giving him the attention he so obviously craves. Just ignore the ***t. 

I don’t care if it’s a tinpot cup we shouldn’t be losing at home to teams like Crewe and Bradford. When players put on the Derby shirt they should play with pride and passion.

By the end of the 2026 season, he’ll be 34. I think being a mid-table(ish) Championship side should be a realistic target for then, given our current position.
I’d imagine his weekly wage on a 2 year contract will be less than if we only extended to 2025, but gives him that guaranteed income for an extra year. Even if he’s just a squad player by the end of his contract, I think it’s a smart move for all involved.

I personally don't like the terms Warneball or Hoofball - I don't think they exist and think they are derogatory.
We were all disappointed with the way we started the season, after doing pretty well in the pre-season friendlies. But maybe there were reasons for the poor start:
We have added 12 new players to the squad this season - time is needed to bed in, get used to other players, how the manager wants to play, get used to the demands of the supporters. This was not helped with injuries (pre-season & since) to Elder, Ward, Wilson, Rooney, Barkhuizen, Bird, Washington, Waghorn, John-Jules, Smith Thompson, Sibley & Embleton.
Selection was limited at times, especially early season. Individual errors in the first few games (Bradley, Nelson, Wildsmith) didn't help to breed confidence. Pressure built on the team and management from the fans, due to some very unconvincing displays. Warne likes to play with pace, athleticism, aggression with lots of crosses into the box and pressing high to win the ball back  (Liverpool, Man City Arsenal spring to mind as good examples of this), Unfortunately, he didn't have the players to produce this,  especially with all the injuries. The players struggled and above all else our passing was terrible.
Gradually, as some players have returned from injury, our performances have improved, our passing has greatly improved (but still a way to go yet). For all the criticisms we are the second highest scorers in the league with 47 goals (averaging nearly 2 a game) and the second best (equal) defensive record. Still - as everyone says (Warne, players & fans)  there is still scope for significant improvement in performances. 
There have been 2 or 3 really disappointing results or performances - Cheltenham (new manager syndrome and look how much they have improved since - ask Portsmouth) - Stevenage where we were out-bullied and Peterborough who beat us with athleticism, pace and the quality of their passing.
But we are doing ok and I hope we have a good transfer window to fuel improvements.
Despite all his detractors, I think Warne & his team generally get "it right" - they obviously look very carefully at the opposition before we play  (Forest Green the latest example with high balls into the box) and try to counter this. Whether that was the real reason he went to 3 at the back, or because of Nyambe's absence only he will know but it did help bolster the midfield which was badly outrun by Peterborough in the previous game. A bit shaky at times but it worked out well in the end. It could be argued, I suppose, they take too much account of the opposition instead of just concentrating on our own game, but generally they get it right.
We are doing well enough with the current squad we have. We all want great performances every week with a 5-0 win, but we need to be realistic with the current squad we have - still lack of pace and aggression in some areas. A bit of patience is required.
Lets all hope we have a great second half to the season and get behind all the "team" (particularly the non-favourites Bradley, Collins, Warne, Hourihan et al)

It is a delicate balance. But everyone that argues against this positive discrimination seems to think that it’s going to directly affect their kids’ prospects. In the grand scheme of things, Sol Campbell getting an interview for a managers job, or Eni Aluko on the tele is not going to make a difference to the average person’s job prospects either way.
i have sons and daughters. I don’t feel like my daughters having more opportunities specifically means my sons have less opportunities. I’m not worried about that at all. I’m just glad my daughters have more opportunities in a fairer society.
positive discrimination is not going to bring down society. It will bring more positivity than negativity, but the joey Barton’s of this world would have you believe it’s the end of the world.
the other problem is, people are too quick to say ‘I didn’t get that job, some black lady with one arm got it because they had to tick a box, I’m against positive discrimination.’ It doesn’t work like that. The black lady with one arm is just better at the job, but people are too willing to blame society for their own deficiencies.
joey Barton will miss out for a managerial role to a black manager, and he’ll blame society, not considering he might just be a shot manager (unless it’s Paul ince, then there’s something dodgy going on).  

Personally think Barton's assertion is wrong, although I agree that it annoys me more when women commentating on the game. I'm not afraid to say though that's probably a generation thing, as the rest of my family dont have an issue with it.
 
That's why I think he is wrong though, it's not a box ticking exercise, the world has moved on, football has moved on, a lot more girls play the game now and therefore a woman commentator is more appealing to the wider target audience than it used to be. 

Fleetwood 1 - 3 Rams.  Rfgs NML

But then you still had Jim Crow, and the tulsa massacre. And Rosa Parks and segregation. Some people will never accept a change to status quo, when the status quo benefitted them. 

It’s weird, it’s like you’re arguing against me, but proving my point at the same time.
a white kid, or a white male kid from a happy family, is statistically more likely to find it easier to find well paid jobs and have a happy successful life.
have you never seen that exercise where they give kids a head start on a race if they meet certain criteria and there’s some poor kids still sat on the start line when some others get a 50m head start.
thats the advantage your kids have. I don’t know you or your kids, maybe there are other reasons that they are disadvantaged, but even if a white kid has dyslexia, for example, they’ll still find life easier than a black kid with dyslexia. There are just generally a lot less barriers in the way for white kids. Maybe it’s not about having an advantage, it’s about not having hurdles to jump over. So a better analogy is two people running 100m, but one has hurdles on his track. It’s no fault of the other person, but it’s clearly not fair.
yes, if your white male kid goes for a job as a football pundit, and they’re up against a black female candidate, and they’re equal in every way, but the company needs to tick a box, your kid might miss out. That’s just a fact of redressing the balance. As I explained with the scales, there has to be some disproportionate representation to enable minorities to catch up. As with many things, past generations have screwed it up for our kids. It’s not a perfect situation. But if you were a black family, or if one of your kids comes out as transgender in the future, wouldn’t you fight tooth and nail to allow them to have the same opportunities as anyone else?
There doesn’t need to be campaigns for representation down coal mines, the point is to enable kids to aspire to anything they want to be. Imagine if there was a campaign that said ‘if you work really hard, maybe you can aspire to be a dust man’ (no offence to dust men). Lower paid jobs and manual labour are already open to all, ahead of their time really. Probably over represented by minorities. That’s specifically the imbalance that needs to be redressed. 

Of course we see people in the street, at work, at school of different minorities all the time these days. It’s about representing them in attainable positions.
Like it or not, your kids were born with an advantage over their minority class mates. And the fact that Ian Wright is a pundit with two women, doesn’t reduce that advantage. But it does let little black boys and girls see that there is hope for them, they can attain and have the same ambitions as anyone else.
As I said, I like to think I don’t see colour, I don’t care either way, and I’m positive my kids certainly don’t. And isn’t that great. But it’s like taking anti biotics even after you start feeling better. Or advertising for Pepsi (we all know what Pepsi is now, why do they spend so much on marketing). If this awareness raising just suddenly stopped then we’d quite quickly be back to square one. It’ll take a generation of effort before it can start to dial back.
and joey’s comments just help to set it back. 2 steps forward, 1 step back. So guess what, as long as there are people like joey Barton, and people liking and perpetuating his messages, the problem isn’t fixed, and there will be initiatives against it. And if one thing doesn’t work, they’ll try another.
Over representation of minorities might not be the answer. But they’ll keep trying things. And I’ll tell you what, things like doctor who, super girl, more representation of women in football etc. it has helped to normalise it in my head, and it has helped my kids to normalise it. So I genuinely think it does help.
If you watch super girl, you’d think that every second person in metropolis is somewhere in the rainbow spectrum. It’s clearly over represented. But before long, it’s not a thing anymore, they’re just characters. And that’s fine.
it was a bit weird when I heard my first female commentator. But now it genuinely doesn’t even register with me. They all know more than me, so it’s all good insight.

That’s the point. Representation isn’t proportional. It’s meant to skew the balance. That’s not a mistake, that’s part of the design. 
As I said, it’s about giving the under represented communities a chance to catch up. The kids of today don’t need to see white men on tv. There’s plenty of those. They’ve been seeing those for generations.
its not that if 10% of the population are black, we have 1 out of every 10 pundits is black. That’s not how it works. It’s about flooding our screens with positive images of black people, to try to make a dent in the generations of negative images we’ve seen so far.
Then, eventually, when people genuinely don’t see colour, gender etc. there won’t be a need for things like the Rooney rule and reverse racism and box ticking. But that will take a generation. 
meanwhile, lots of white men get butt hurt because they’re living in the era when they (we, as I am one) are being represented as a minority. And guess what, it’s not very nice, and we don’t like it much.
well I think we can put up with it for a generation to bring everything back into balance again.
oo, I just thought of an analogy. So if there are 1 in 10 of a certain minority, for 100 years we should have been seeing every 10th person on tv is of that minority. But that’s not been happening. So imagine a scale where we’ve been putting 10 white men in one side, every day for 100 years. How many of the minority do we have to put on the other side to bring those scales into balance? Not so it’s even, but just so that it’s all in the correct proportion. Just putting 1 in 10 on the minority side isn’t going to do it. 

What’s wrong with a box ticking exercise though? It’s about representation. It would be nice to say ‘let it happen organically’, but you have to force the issue sometimes and force representation to kick start it. In a generations time, hopefully it will be organic. The backlash these days is because it’s forced. But that’s necessary to make things happen and break the cycle.
I've got daughters, and there is so much more positive representation for them these days than when my sisters were kids. And I’m very happy about that.
i wonder if joey Barton has daughters or nieces, and if he expects them to shut up and cook his dinner, or if he hopes for something better for them.
its just very sad that as much as he may truly believe these things, what he’s really doing is putting on a character, like a heel in wrestling, because that panders to a certain audience, and that gets more likes and shares. And far from representing those that need the leg up, he gives a voice and representation to the bigots and small minded people who have ruled the world for thousands of years. Those that really need to fade away and make way for the kids.

31Vickers: 6.5 - Did ok despite a hair-raising attempt at playing sweeper, but while not wishing to be unkind, Joe is still the #1 for me, even after a sloppy game last time out.
35Nelson: 7.0 - Solid enough, though not at his brilliant best in a 3 - might we have tried him at RB in a 442? I don't think not having Nyambe available fully warrants the change in formation, but we've won well enough in the end, so WTF do I know!
5Bradley: 6.5 - Continues to get pelters but I thought he looked better today. He does still look a little nervous and I think if someone could just calm him down a bit, I think there's s till a player in there. I think he'll get a few more games with Ryan away and I think it's now make or break for him. Having him back in form as well as the regular starters would be huge.
6Cashin: 7.5 - Held it all together at the back and is improving leaps and bounds this season - I think playing in a settled unit with Nyambe and Nelson to learn from has improved his consistency significantly. £5.5M, 20% sell on, full season loan back please Brighton. That or you can buy him for £8M +++ when we're promoted, or you could just feck off completely.
2Wilson: 7.5 - I'll get pelters for this but was trying to think whose style he reminds me of and it's Lauren James of Chelsea and England women. Like her he has this knack for just gliding past players and I'm really not sure how he's doing it. I think it's probably some for of football juju as slowmo's reveal nothing. 
8Bird: 8.5 Received a deal of criticism for his last performance, not all of which was fair IMO as he and Hourihane were overrun in a 2-man midfield. Banished that memory today in no uncertain terms, making critical interceptions in midfield and turning provider for 2 of our 3 goals. Only Collo ran as hard. MOTM for me.
4Hourihane: - 7.0 When we were good, so was he. Coincidence? I think not. Quietly effective and probably grateful for some extra bodies in midfield this time out. He's improving his consistency which for me has been the bugbear, rather than his ability.
22Fornah: 6.5 - Limited evidence but ran hard hard and did nothing wrong. Not entirely sure why he didn't start against Boro IMO.
3Forsyth: 6.5 - Didn't look comfortable at all and was duly hooked at HT. It seems like he's got a niggle so I'm hoping it's minor and we have him available again v. soon as he's a talisman and we need him.
20Elder: 7.0 - Don't know too much about this lad and obviously seen little of him at Derby as yet. That said, I really like what I have seen. One of the few to play his football against Boro and again looked promising today. Handy if Fozzy is injured I reckon and I can see PW rotating the two players a bit moving forward which will be one less thing for him to worry about.
19John-Jules: 6.5 - A little non-descript today, but it's his first start and he'll be sharper for the extended game time. I've noticed that both Boro and this lot targeted him a bit too and I do wonder whether that's out of respect for his latent ability. I hope so, weird as that might sound.
7Barkhuizen: 7.0 - Driving me nuts as every time I'm about ready to give up on him, up he pops with a goal. I'd like to see him work as hard off the ball as on it though, but I'm being grump really as he could do no more today.
11Méndez-Laing: 8.0 - Man's a real handful and was back to his pacy and bristling best today. He's playing with a smile a mile wide this season and as someone who has had his troubles, it's great to see him looking very much at home at Derby. Contract extension in the offing Mr Clowes?
9Collins: 7.5 - Oh Jimmy, Jimmy. The old bloke with enough fire in his belly to power a small town. Literally runs himself into the ground every game, yet somehow never seems leggy next time out. Another who looks a different player with a proper pre-season under his belt, his goals have been crucial this season.
16Thompson: 7.0 - Love this lad. A proper pocket destroyer and deceptively strong for a wee lad, he's also got loads of ability and precisely the kind of never say die attitude PW loves. It's great to have him back.
Warne Watch:
Soz gaffer, but just a wee, small moan would be the formation. Not going to bang on as we've won well, but it makes me nervous when we're in game management mode. That aside, another excellent day's work and a big relief to see us bounce back immediately after the loss last time out. Well done to you and the lads! 

Agree with this. Collins has won me over with his workrate and goals. Not sure what type of player we were judging him with but we are where we are and he is doing his best.
Collins is a grafter who is giving his all and winning games for us.

I’m 58. I love watching Derby County. I think we should try and win it. It’s disappointing to me that fans are not supporting it. It’s football. 

Just got back from Fleetwood (we took our time, walked into town for some fish and chips and a chat with numerous Derby fans before setting off.) I am a bit surprised at some of the faint praise from people on here for a good away win and the avoidance of a slip up against an energetic team fighting for a new manager. 
I seem to remember we "battered" the Cod Army 0-0 here last season, playing expansive but ultimately unproductive football. 
I much prefer us playing like we did today and bringing home three points. 

I still enjoy his interviews and the fact he's not formulaic like so many others which just dull to listen to.
But then,I like his personality unlike some.