G STAR RAM

2 hours ago, Norman said:

So, I was never a Paul Warne fan. I wasn't enthused by the style of play or the players he signed. 

However, the more I hear and read, the more I think he's done a very solid job. Not the bare minimum - but I understand why people would think the latter. 

I've changed my mind because of the following. 

The legacy contracts of Bird and Sibley seem to have been taking up far more of the budget than I thought. Reading posts from @Ambitious, it seems very likely both were on 15k and maybe some more. Then there's the wages of Hourihane. Great leader, but since Wigan away, he's been slowly ambling around like an old moose who's been asked to trample the grass down. Again, from the TalkSport interview, it would seem that there were players on 10k, or a bit more, who didn't really fit the system. 

So, that's a long-winded way of saying that a lot of wages have been tied up in players that we can easily improve on, probably by paying less money. Sibley, as much as i want him to kick-on, isn't worth 15k a week as an average LWB, for example.

I'm expecting, with the addition of Ebou to start things off, a very strong and athletic midfield. The defence needs a good LB and GK. I think both are lined-up and achievable. 

I think PW is the right person to build a squad, on a modest (for this league) budget, that will still be competitive. I wouldn't have said that 3 months a go. 

I don't believe internet websites to be the Oracle when it comes to players salaries but I'd be amazed, and can't find any site that backs it up, if Bird and Sibley were on anything like £15k a week.

Obviously if they were that is good for us as it means there's a lot of leeway for next years signings but I'm afraid I just don't see it at all.

13 minutes ago, Srg said:

Do you have a script that you run daily to find Tomori posts to reply the same thing to?

Yeah. 

Funnily enough, nobody ever answers the question either. 

Wonder why that is?

19 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

He knows a hell of a lot more than your average twitter user, to be fair.

Nixon has always had contacts in clubs in the North (particularly Wigan). He's like a lot of these journalists - he gets fed information by agents/parties to the players and shares it.

That information he's being given is also necessarily true. Agents do this sort of thing all the time to try and manoeuvre their clients moves/better contracts.

My nan knows a hell of a lot more than your average Twitter user...and she has been dead for 25 year.

Would be interesting to see what percentage of stuff that he posts is actually true or comes to fruition, my guess would be a very low figure. 

1 hour ago, Carl Sagan said:

He only appeared in 16 Premier League games last season (according to Wiki) which is hardly key - I saw him as a bit part player. His average appearances over their 4 title-winning seasons is 18.75. I think he has the potential to be a great defender and what we need, but at club level he doesn't play enough - even though it's normally been more than Maguire!

Tomori only played 26 league games this year.

Out of interest, how many of them games did you see?

32 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Regarding Nixon, he weirdly does all of his stories on a patreon which you have to pay to access. Some of his stories end up in the paper for free. But the reason why he’s so cryptic at the weekends is for this reason.

Nothing to do with the fact that he actually knows very little then?

17 hours ago, cannable said:

Isn’t he just doing what the masses was calling for and going on form? Well who’d’ve thunk it, it’s not working!

Yep but now the experts will move on to something else and churning out the next criticism no doubt.

Don't think he even stood out at League One level, so seen nothing to suggest he would be able to cut it in The Championship. 

With his injury record it's a no from me.

7 hours ago, jono said:

I’ll throw another one in from recent times. Not a “greatest moment” but a huge unforgettable emotional upwelling.

That first game when we were emerging from Covid. Masks, hesitancy, showing your NHS vac cert, looking around, sitting in my seat, sun shining players coming out of the tunnel. Out of nowhere I had tears of relief, phew !  The world is getting back to normal, darkness recedes. It was a beautiful day.

I don't even remember who it was against?

Certainly don't remember wearing a mask or showing a vaccine certificate?

The brummies threw a party,

Oh how it made us frown,

Now we'll return the favour,

Cos them ***** have gone down,

2 hours ago, Old Spalding Ram said:

You got TNT Sports. 😉

Didn't ask what channels you had, asked how many games you've actually watched him play in this season?

1 hour ago, Rammy03 said:

Tomori should have been in there. Would slot in next to Stones in Maguire's absence.

13 minutes ago, Old Spalding Ram said:

I cant understand the Tomori situation.

Serie A winner and runner up, proper defender, decent on the ball, pace to burn, I’ve always rated the lad.

 

Southgate prefers Dunk! 🤔

Genuine question how many time have you seen him play this season?

2 hours ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

In terms of finance, investment, David Clowes, promotion, etc etc...

If Clowes purely rescued Derby to stop it going out of business and if he isn't the wealthiest of men in terms of running a football club, wouldn't it be far riskier him keeping hold of the club, rather than selling it on now in probably the healthiest state it has been in for many years?  That is a genuine question, rather than my opinion.

In an ideal world, Clowes keeps the club for a couple of years, invests minimally, achieves promotion, sells us to rich Arabs, makes himself a few quid and secures our long term future.

My worry, if he does keep us, we invest this year, finish mid-table, invest again the following year, finish 8th/9th, invest again, shot at the playoffs etc etc...meanwhile DC has to fund the losses.  He reaches a point where he can't invest anymore, decides to sell the club, but the club is now in 50 million debt and puts off potential buyers.

I would love to know what his thoughts and plans are, it is actually exciting whatever happens! Seeing as I never expected to get promoted last year, I am just happy to be here!

Depends where the debt to fund the losses arises.

If they come from Clowes other companies, then he would just write them off prior to sale.

If externally funded then, yes, it will impact a future sale.

Alternatively, Clowes injects money into the club as equity every year to fund the losses, which is what MM was doing certainly until 30 June 2018.

Doubt a comfortable 3-0 victory will be good enough to please the boo boys.

Anyone expecting a full blooded match 2 weeks before the Euros isn't very intelligent. 

#ITSCOMINGHOME

12 hours ago, Alty_Ram said:

Had the same thought and it wouldn't surprise me. They probably have to make a stand at some point because for all the amicable Derby/Carlisle-type invasions, there is a WBA vs Southampton - that could have got really ugly. Imagine the potential carnage with a big local derby game too. Leeds prevented it so the powers that be will probably say it's possible so sort it or we'll punish you. Ours was slightly aggravated by impacting on the actual finish time of the game where they just binned off the last 2 mins for what it was worth. It obviously didn't really matter, but what if that had been on a knife edge ? Invade the pitch and ensure a result ?

It was amazing at the time but on reflection it is probably safer all round to genuinely attempt to prevent it, not just go through the motions.

Leeds prevented a promotion pitch invasion...yes you're right there 😂

26 minutes ago, Rample said:

1. I was going to put this in finance, but its nowhere near that level of discussion and is specific to wages so I gave it its own thread.

2. Its only a bit of speculation/fun, and although the numbers are based on realistic sounding internet figures I haven't meticulously studied each clubs accounts/chatted with the owners, so the contrarian(s) who like to frequently tear posts apart need not bother.

I've been looking at what clubs reportedly spend on wages compared to their attendances, and if these tell us anything about our likely wage bill increase for next season.

Same stats used for those clubs put us at around £160k per week once departing players are removed (Sibley and Collins still included), meaning we can expect to spend another £120-220k per week on wages. That seems massive.

 

Not much of a statistician but wouldn't such a variation in figures show that there's not really any correlation between fan numbers and wage budgets?

1 hour ago, Will Hughes Hair said:

Yep, forget any of the positive stuff he went on to do in the run in. You are so right in saying Bradley playing square balls for hours on end was key to our success.

Dont know how I missed it 🤷

Was part of the way we played wasn't it?

We did extremely well in the goals for and against columns, if we spent hours on end playing square balls...

34 minutes ago, Ram-Alf said:

I've heard a rumour that @MadAmster is coming out of retirement as Paul Warne is looking for an experienced midfield player 👌

Should be fine as we don't use our midfield, read it on here.

On 27/05/2024 at 18:52, Will Hughes Hair said:

So. What benefit did we gain by Bradley passing to Cashin or Nelson for 90 minutes?  

Promotion?

2 hours ago, Day said:

You say that, yet what would they gain from doing it? Not like Just Eat where they can give you a 10% discount code and lure you into a kebab through them every Saturday.

Midweek offer, 10% off a Trent 7000 engine for fans.

Looks good on a kit mockup whilst we wait for signings but makes no financial sense, that money would be better off in their bank account, reward the city with it by not laying off staff when profits start to dip.

Yeah that's what I meant when I said they don't need to advertise.

Just good PR in a city where they are based but fully understand the argument against it.

2 hours ago, Elwood P Dowd said:

The Rolls Royce brand is bigger than the Derby County brand 😂 I suppose it would be difficult explaining to the RR shareholders the benefits associated with company sponsoring the local football club.

Nice idea though.

So is the Toyota brand

I know they don't really need to advertise but, given what the city has contributed to its success, it's hard to believe that Rolls Royce don't do more with the club.

1 hour ago, superfit said:

Whilst your right about attracting investment it has to be at the right time and now is not the right time. 
 

We’re newly promoted, we don’t have much resale value in the squad and considering the amount Clowes invested in the club there’s not much value for someone looking to invest, unless Clowes takes a hit and why would he want to do that ? 
 

Ipswich were purchased for 40m in 2021 in league 1 and Marcus Evans wrote off his loans in the process for a 5% stake in the new company. So the club was debt free. Only after it was pushing for promotion to the Premier league, had a serious amount of resale value in the squad and a progressive young manager did they get further investment to the tune of 105m for a 40% stake which represents brilliant business for the owners. 
 

It’s simply far too early for us, as much as we would like it to be so, it simply doesn’t stack up. We have to do the hard yards for a couple of seasons, get established in the championship and get some value on the pitch and then look to kick on. 
 

I know time is not on our side, the longer we’re in the championship the Premier league clubs get fatter and further away from us but it’s where we are in the process. 

Not sure I understand your logic here.

Now would be the perfect time for someone to invest as they are investing in the potential of our club.

Clowes may be taking a hit but would also be protecting his fortune from losses that any Championship club needs to make to get promoted from this division. 

If anything, now, or even last year, is the perfect time for attracting external investment.

2 hours ago, StarterForTen said:

And your argument is that Lionel’ tenure lost similar figures, adjusted for inflation?

No, my point was that they left us in a comparable financial mess.

1 hour ago, MadAmster said:

Ergo, the £200M+ loss to MM is correct.

September 25th, 2021. The Daily Mail (poor example, I know) reported MM would be "Well in excess of £100m is owed to Derby owner Mel Morris in soft loans, and he will not be seeking a penny".

May 29th, 2022. Russell Pollard on derbynews dot org dot uk "Based on figures in the Administrator’s report, Mel Morris will need to write off around £124m owed by the companies in administration. The stadium which was bought by one of Morris’ companies for £81m, 4 years ago, may only fetch £20m resulting in a further £61m write off for Morris. £36m is required to pay debts owed to HMRC. Paying the minimum of a few million pounds to unsecured creditors is small change, but necessary, to avoid a further 15 point deduction next season."

Easy to see why people think the opposite to you. Not saying who's right. 

BBC September 22nd, 2021. "Having lost, by his own estimation, £200m of his own money on Derby, he felt he had no option other than to put the club into administration."

I fully understand why people may think the opposite to me but it's extremely easy to go on Companies House and check the information. 

Morris may have had to write off £124m but that was nothing to do with the club, as explained in my previous post.

£200m sounds about right to me. £50m on the purchase of the club and around £150m of losses over his time in charge.

38 minutes ago, DavesaRam said:

But the reason the EFL were inventing rules to shoot us with was because of Mel. His proposal of a breakaway league after the EFLuent had ballsed up the TV money simply put ys in their cross-hairs, and all they had to do was wait for their chance. Thank You very much, Kevin McGoo. 😡

The difference between Mel and Lionel is that Lionel didn’t go into denial and start cooking the books in order to deny any blame. In contrast, neither was he shafted and stabbed in the back by Frank Lampard - it was the Co-op who pulled the plug and then threw the club into the voracious hands of the 3 Amigos.

The Co-Op pulled the plug but how much longer could we have continued as we were?

Over £30m in debt and losing between £10m and £15m a year, at the same time as selling off our decent players.