taffyram

We've barely got any prospects to sell because the academy has been pillaged. 
Our 2 best current players under 25 are in the final year of their contracts iirc. 
We were under a strict embargo last season and haven't got piles o'cash to buy enough players of quality to put together the kinda squad that fans think we should be doing this season - yes we could probably be doing more to unearth gems, but when the squad consists of 5 players before you start, you've gotta get everyone of them right.  The approach has understandably been to try an coax another season or two out of established pro's (that have typically all been promoted before)
I don't think people realise how bad a state MM left us in.  We simply can't spend £1m on a striker that will fire us to the Championship, we've had to spend whatever money we've got on filling multiple positions and the academy and tbh I think we've done a pretty good job. 
We just missed out on the playoffs at the first attempt last season and are many peoples favourites this year.  Losing to Wigan yesterday was disappointing but a different day might have seen us win 2-0 - its not panic stations just yet.  If we manage to bring in a pacey #9 and #10 and maybe another player or two by the end of the transfer window the squad will look a lot different.  If not, it won't be because PW doesn't think we need them, it will be because MMs legacy and the finances won't allow it.

What if, as a now sustainable club, we haven't got 'decent money' to splash out anymore?
And even if we did, following years of having our academy pillaged and losing players to pay the bills, any money we had has been needed to fund around 10 players a season. 
Since exiting administration we've been playing catchup every summer, we haven't been in a position to drop £500k-£1m on a player that will make the difference come May, we're spreading it around the entire team.  If you look at some big teams that have escaped Lg1 in recent years, they had been down here a longer than us, started from a better position than us and still took their time to get promoted. 
We may not like it, but patience is a virtue.

🤣
 

I really wanted it to work out with Cocu. Obviously, I want it to work out with every Derby manager but I really thought we were onto something with Cocu, it just felt like we had got ourselves someone a bit special. So sad when that didn't happen, and equally sad to see that Vitesse, who he is now managing, have only achieved the 30% win rate that he got at Derby.
If ifs and buts were apples and nuts eh!

@Macintosh’s post in the Waggy thread pointed this out but Ryan Conways book about the Cocu-Rooney years has a release date and is available for pre order: 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pride-Before-Fall-Play-Off-Extinction/dp/1801505039
Be interesting to see if anything new comes from it and I hope it does well for Ryan.

I think it's great if the club is being run in a sustainable way from now on. Don't mind to see a team made of players from the academy and low budget transfers. Won't forget how it felt when Derby County almost didn't exist anymore and don't ever want to see that chaos again. It hurts when we lose off course but that feeling goes away when we win. This rebuild will take time but I enjoy the ride. Not worried at all with Clowes at the top compared to the Morris show.  

I get the impression that the amount David Clowes is prepared to stump up out of his own pocket is comfortably within any remaining constraints that have been mutually agreed with The EFL.
Personally, I have absolutely no qualms about David Clowes setting himself a budget limit, and keeping to it/within it.  In fact, I'm a big fan of such a sensible approach, and ergo, am a big fan of the guy that saved us.
🐏
 
 

Its been mentioned by PW that we have a budget agreed with EFL, before Knight sale I think. But whether there were always limits to that budget from EFL or if they just sign off on the club's budget as long as they think reasonable no idea. 
If the spend constraints are due to DC who has already saved the club from armageddon wishing not to
-further risk the money his family have made or the businesses in which the family has employed people
- or manage the club sustainably after where we got to under Morris
then I am not worried at all. I think we will probably never know just how badly Mel left everything at the club and it is going to be a slow build. There obviously needed to be reinvestment in the decimated academy as well as the first team which presumably all comes from the same pot. 
 
I am not shooting you down saying the above but just I do trust DC is doing things correctly for the long term future of the club. Having said that I do think its important we get out of this division ASAP as if/when crowds start to drop off longer term we will be more constrained

4 days before my 3rd birthday.

Blimey, that's nearly 17 years before I get born.
It's amazing what they can do these days, innit!  

Oh that wonderful Sunday feeling, dodgy stomach, feeling anxious, feeling sick, worrying, depressed, head ache, no energy, just wanting to badly sleep all day and really feeling down in the dumps………….and that’s without having any alcohol !!!!!
Can’t wait for another session at Derby County Fans Anonymous!

I think some fans have been less than fair in their attempts to make a fool out of Lee but so far he has drunk them all under the table! 

Not happy about this….
Was relying on him posting vids of the goals, as I'm on my holidays. Though that might not be a problem…

Can see some exclusions being imposed before the season even starts..

yep, sure does, wrong thread for predictions
 
https://dcfcfans.uk/topic/41723-v-wigan-h-predictions/?do=getNewComment
 

Not being funny, but is this a serious post? Wigan have been a total shambles recently and we're expected to survive and scrape some points? 
We are in an infinitely better position then them, with a better squad, at home. We should be aiming to beat them. We might not of course, but we should.

It's Wigan not a top quality side we are playing,  they aren't in great shape themselves so we should still be favourites at home.

Thought that was their average home attendance lol

A minor miracle to survive a game against Wigan with that side? Behave.

Whys he been for a swim in it? 

I saw the Fulham away kit and thought of you.

Just went to see if I could find the details and my ugly mug comes up, what's that all about then 🫣

To bring things back into focus for @IlsonDerby’s benefit, I think this should be the lineup for Saturday. With a bench of Vickers (if fit), Wilson, Rooney, Thompson, Washington, Barkhuizen (if fit), Waghorn (if signed). 
NML and Bird to get into those attacking areas to support Collins as they have in pre-season, Forsyth offering a more solid option than Thompson on the left who can come on to rest Fozzy’s legs once we’re comfortably in the lead. 

Fzck me is this the Wigan thread or the play off final from the 90s thread? 
 
Come on here to see people’s opinions of how we’ll get on Saturday and I’m just sitting through pages of who was where and who was to blame in a match from 30 year ago.