archram

Not sure I can properly articulate how much I love this man. The waiver against the Wendies, signing a blank contract that summer when Morris was playing his games, mingling happily with fans at Wembley 2019 even though he wasnt playing & must have been hurting, leadership on & off the pitch during the dark days of admin....amazing that a man with such a career as him thought so much of us to do all that.
Much derided as a 'kick it, head it' centre half by outsiders, he improved massively technically when under Rooney/Rosenior. Set his fastest bleep test I believe in training whilst with us during the admin season...he wanted to be the best version of himself at all times.
He deserves & will get a rapturous reception tomorrow. I hope he returns back home to us in some capacity very soon 🖤🐏

Legend is banded around a lot with a lot of dubious players, even if they were very good in their own right, but Curtis Davies was the right man at the right time for not just this club, but this city. He is very much a legend and his selflessness, resilience and compassion will never be forgotten. Ability wise, there were times he shouldn't have been first choice, particularly earlier in his career with us, but his intangibles mattered way more than anything he did on the pitch.

"...It is how, even relatively late in a career, a club can come to mean so much to a player. It is how, for all the perceptions of the modern game and its money, a player can completely embrace what a club does for a community; what it means. Davies arrived at Derby when he was 32 but he willingly says it’s the club he most identifies with, and he speaks about them in the way a one-club man might. There’s authentic emotion...
If the last few years of Derby’s history displayed many of the game’s modern issues, from competing amid the financial stretch to ownership and the very running of clubs, Davies’ part in that showed the good of the game: “the togetherness”, as he puts it.
It was about much more than the football. And it’s why Derby fans love him for more than the performances. Davies stood up for the club and its people at a time of huge uncertainty...
It’s revealing that Davies puts this memory, a time that was full of such “frustration” and uncertainty, above the fact he has done something that puts him in football’s record books. The centre-back scored a goal in football’s oldest showpiece, having struck for Hull City in the 2014 FA Cup final.
They might have lost that game to Arsenal, but there was immense pride in it as well as tangible achievement. Every time someone even glances over the list of finals, there is Davies’ name.
That still doesn’t mean as much to him as Derby.
“It's because it was total emotion, and emotion for the club,” Davies explains. “It was a belonging. I will always look to Derby as a positive memory, regardless of football."
 

Good to hear from you.
Your opinion is valued. Hope you are being kind to yourself and that this year will be a good one for you.

It doesn’t stop 98% of the posters on here x

Hi @Anag Ram I’m still around. My turn at starting posts ended. I don’t always know enough to join in with the posts 🤷🏻‍♀️

Once again, as seems to be missed every time we play crap and lose, it's not the fact we lost. It's the absolutely dire performance that went with it that we are bothered by. We won't win every match, however we should be expecting to turn up and compete.
There a way to lose, and it's to go down swinging. Last night was nowhere near that. But boiling it down to an over reaction for losing is massively wide of the truth.

I appreciate Warne get's a lot of stick... and at times like this it's difficult to argue against... But there's a particular trait I like... have always liked... in a player.  And that's passion!
Not for the shirt, per sé.  Not for the badge specifically.  But for their craft.
There's a distinct lack of that right now, and it seemed to be massively magnified last night.
Masses of mistakes last night, and yet I don't recall one single hint of a player reacting in a frustrated "must do better" kind of way.  No kicking hoardings.  No thumping the ground.  No heavenwards screaming out in frustration.  No bollockings from team mates.  No fist pumping encouragement.
Even young Cashin was doing this a few weeks back... and it was truly wonderful to witness... but that seems to have gone now (And no, I'm not singling him out intentionally.  No effing way!)  
All we got last night was meek acknowledgements of apology.  Lots of stooped shoulders! A half-raised hand of patheticism. (*Looks like I just made that word up, but it's staying in!  Fuckem!) 
If I was the cynical sort (I'm not!), I'd be wondering if they actually cared!
 
Now... I hasten to add... My support of DCFC is currently going through a similar phase.  I can laugh it off.  I can shrug my shoulders.  I can slouch back in my NE Corner seat and not bother singing.  (I won't boo, but my silence alone should be deafening to the players!)  I can almost appear to those that don't know me as though I don't care.  That's not the case, but I certainly don't care as much nowadays as I have done in the past.  Of course I've lost SOME of my passion.  But that comes with age.  That comes with having "Been there before... numerous times".  In essence, I've "got an excuse".
These players don't have that excuse.  They are the now.  They are as close to being in their prime as they're likely to be.  They should care.  They ought to care.  They should be taking pride in their craft.  They should feel the passion.

They ain't clocking in at Royces at 07:40 every morning, to stare at the same old computerised CNC milling machine hour after hour.  They ain't driving the same old dirty bus around the same old dirty streets of Derby day in, day out.  They ain't staring at spreadsheets shift after shift.  Those guys and gals are (arguably) entitled to "plod on".
These guys are craftsmen.  They are entertainers.  They are professional athletes. They have either been gifted with a talent, or indeed they have worked bloody hard to hone themselves that talent. 
So where is their pride?  Where is their passion?  Why are they letting their peers down?  Why are they letting the supporters down?  Why are they LETTING THEMSELVES DOWN? WTF does it look like they don't care?
I just can't get my head around that.

Let's just all agree that consent is important.

You win the Spirit of B4 award!

When it comes to finding an excuse to go to the match there's a far more powerful force acting from the heavens now, you'll be fine

I agree. Seen some posts across social media, not too much on here I don’t think, but lots of our fans out there who have taken exception to Reading fans chanting at our expense and are now holding that up as justification to behave as arris holes towards Reading’s plight. 

After what we experienced as a club and what it would have meant to us as individuals, collectively, and to the local community in Derby and surrounding areas I genuinely don’t get anyone wishing it on another club and set of fans. Odd behaviour in my opinion. Would much rather see our fans set a positive example, “be the better person” type thing.

Latest stairlift is so fast it gets you upstairs before you’ve forgotten why you’re going!

I think this should be said - I hope Reading survive as a club and I really can't understand why any self aware Derby fan would feel any differently after what we went through

Welcome to Corey Blackett-Taylor.
I'm looking for a thread about whether he's a good signing in relation to his playing ability. Can anyone point me in the right direction, please?

You're thinking of the Peek Frean Trotsky Assortment

Latest stairlift is so fast it gets you upstairs before you’ve forgotten why you’re going!

Latest stairlift is so fast it gets you upstairs before you’ve forgotten why you’re going!

Latest stairlift is so fast it gets you upstairs before you’ve forgotten why you’re going!

Latest stairlift is so fast it gets you upstairs before you’ve forgotten why you’re going!

The end?? He's 24, with good L1 experience.
Some of our fans could do with losing that "bin him off" mentality - and if the manager is trying to offload him already, maybe the owner should remind him who's paying the bills?

Given the absolute state of some of our fans, I can't say I'm surprised. Not sure when being a supporter morphed into slagging of everything and everyone connected with the club at every available opportunity, but it certainly has, as we've seen quite clearly in recent years on this very forum. I think in some fans' heads it's some bizarre form of self-aggrandisement. Unfathomable really. That said, we're certainly not alone in this regard as every club seems to have this type of fans these days. 

Crikey guys 😳 We are all Rams fans and we all have the right to see things as we see them. There’s too much aggression on here towards people who don’t follow the ‘party line’ in my view… debate and different opinions are good. But let’s all be civil to each other. We are supposed to be on the same side with the same goals. We all want the team to be better and I think everyone would agree we still have much to improve on despite the league position etc. 
 
COYR 🐏 

IIRC he also tweeted in support of the club during our administration. A real pro therefore and it's great to see him doing so well 👏🏻

An average side who played out of their skins. I guarantee Lincoln fans will regard that as their best performance of the season by a country mile. Most of their chances even then came from a striker out-running Cashin, which few strikers have done this season. A better side might have tried to play like the home team, and we might well have picked them off like we have so many teams, but we should congratulate the Lincoln manager on his tactics and their players on the execution of his plan.