Eddie

We went into a spiral of financial meltdown, laughing-boy. Caused, in part, by idiots howling for a new manager time after time - on two occasions after fewer than 10 games. Each severance came with its own raft of huge payoffs, and each appointment brought with it a call for more players to suit the new manager's 'style'. Eventually, the purse-strings snapped, and the fan running the show and so eager to please everyone walked away - not broke, but broken to the tune of around a quarter of a billion.

It wouldn't be courtesy of Darren Ferguson or anyone else - it would be our fault entirely by not being able to extract at least a draw out of Carlisle United. Using your Christmas gift analogy, it would be the equivalent of you opening the wrapper of your gift upside-down in your haste, and you watch in horror at the bottle of Macallan 25 year old whisky falls out of the bottle bag and smashes on the floor.

I don't disagree - but if we go up, it would be churlish to deny him the opportunity to manage the club in a higher league, because the alternative is always somebody who is either untried or someone who has failed elsewhere. There are some on here who would be prepared - nay, willing - to sack him now (or after Saturday, irrespective of the result against Carlisle). The problem with that is threefold: Compensation required to pay off Warne and the rest of his staff Compensation required to pay off the club whose current manager we subsequently poach The 'new' manager finding that his budget for the next transfer window is missing the amounts paid out due to 1. and 2. above.

I'm only surprised he's not been called out on the weather.

Aren't you just assuming that he is a 'one-trick pony' based upon two relegations with Rotherham, a side operating on a far lower budget compared to Derby? Perhaps, if he is able to bring a little more quality into the club, he (and we) will flourish? Warne has certainly proved that, on very limited resources, he is able to spot players who will improve the side (this is clearly obvious with respect to how the team have performed recently). I accept that it's hardly been rivetingly exciting sometimes, but there have been some pretty decent performances.

Longer than he got - a lot longer. The way he was sacked by Sam Rush was nothing short of disgusting, and still leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. Clough had basically kept Derby afloat for about 4 years, balancing the books and operating on a shoestring budget (a string which grew shorter each year) thanks to the almost complete absence of any meaningful investment by GSE, and he left Derby in a far more secure position than when he first took over. The fact that Steve McClaren then took over the reins and took the team forward on the pitch only goes so far in justifying Clough's sacking - and hindsight being 20:20, it's equally arguable that the whole financial mess which culminated in Administration and subsequent relegation would never had happened if Clough had not had his legs sawn from under him following the 1:0 defeat at the City Ground.

Some of them aren't exactly hiding in the bushes are they?

Even if we have a bad start, I think it most unlikely that we will see a knee-jerk reaction. There simply isn't the funds available to pay off all Warne's staff and pay compensation to another club whose manager we poach.

I'm inclined to agree.

I've really enjoyed this season, and wouldn't mind if it was extended for a few more weeks. /runs

The ten (10, TEN) witnesses who died was lucky though, wasn't it? No smoke without (bakery) fire, or so they say.

There's nothing 'alleged' about you being Florist scum though from the standard and inflammatory nature of your usual posts though is there, despite your banal protestations, treetard.

I packed it up just before my 65th birthday. A couple of months later, I was at a dinner in Brizzle (a few beers beforehand in the Strawberry Thief, which might explain things) and I allowed my son's boss to persuade me to work for him as a PCI Compliance consultant/Business analyst on a part-time basis. I gave it 4 years then knocked it on the head again, and finally properly retired a couple of years ago. I now spend my time watching the rain at the County Ground.

Most Maggies I know hate the Gumps just as much as we do, so here's hoping....

I can't speak for other people (I leave that to people like you who have a crystal ball or some deeper insight that I'm just not wise enough or clever enough to possess) - but I get behind the club from top to bottom. My philosophy with respect to the manager of Derby County is that I will support them until the day that they no longer hold that position. I started watching The Rams regularly 58 years ago when we moved back into the area (the love affair was, by and large, from afar before then). Tim Ward was manager at the time, so he had my support. I didn't call for his head when we finished 17th in the old Second Division, and neither did I call for Brian Clough's head the following year when we finished 18th. I just carried on supporting the club. You would have been yelling for Clough's head though - because Clough was a Fourth Division manager, and you would have not deemed him good enough for a Second Division side. Now before you start some sort of mindless prattle about comparing Warne with Brian Clough (or even Nigel), I'm not. I'm just saying that, sometimes, a particular manager in a particular club at a certain time can be a good fit - or a bad one. Coming back to the point I highlighted, it seems to me that people are either on board with Paul Warne or they're not, and it doesn't matter what he achieves this season or in any subsequent time that he may be at the club - the doubters/haters will still be doubters/haters, and the reason for that is simple - some people do not have the capability to ever admit in public that they were wrong, no matter how much evidence mounts up one way or the other.

So wonderful, I've decided to watch it myself again. 3 episodes in, it's still brilliant (as is the music)

John Simm is wonderful in it.

Aye, for the most part, the batting is back in DuPavillion these days.

I'll settle for catching practice. If Derbyshire had taken their chances before lunch on day 1, it might well have been a feeling of "The weather robbed us" as opposed to "The weather saved us".

It's definitely a 'slow burner'. After the likes of 'Kin' and 'Baby Reindeer', slow is a pleasant change. As an arthritic sepuagenarian, I would not have fancied those steps.

If ever there was an advert for 'not playing football', this is it. Teams trying to stop us by playing football - W 10, D 8, L 27. If that's the best anti-Warne argument you can come up with, don't bother.

Liu Cixin's second part of the "3 Body Problem", aptly called "The Dark Forest". Surprisingly, no VAR yet.

Ripley (Netflix) Really good - Andrew Scott is a much, much better Tom Ripley (in my opinion) than Matt Damon.

I've been performing rain dances for the last hour, so expect a tropical heatwave.