vonwright

Frustrating watch.
1) We've been really unlucky. We are playing well.
2) It's weird how much Derby fans hate Jozwiak for not being early-career Ronaldo. He's a tidy, busy, passing-darting type of winger and he's playing well in this team.

I absolutely love the fight, spirit, determination and togetherness of this team. Massive.

I ducking love this team 

"Score some goals"

"Score some goals"

"Score some goals"

"Score some goals"

Frustrating watch.
1) We've been really unlucky. We are playing well.
2) It's weird how much Derby fans hate Jozwiak for not being early-career Ronaldo. He's a tidy, busy, passing-darting type of winger and he's playing well in this team.

"Score some goals"

"Score some goals"

"Score some goals"

Frustrating watch.
1) We've been really unlucky. We are playing well.
2) It's weird how much Derby fans hate Jozwiak for not being early-career Ronaldo. He's a tidy, busy, passing-darting type of winger and he's playing well in this team.

Frustrating watch.
1) We've been really unlucky. We are playing well.
2) It's weird how much Derby fans hate Jozwiak for not being early-career Ronaldo. He's a tidy, busy, passing-darting type of winger and he's playing well in this team.

Frustrating watch.
1) We've been really unlucky. We are playing well.
2) It's weird how much Derby fans hate Jozwiak for not being early-career Ronaldo. He's a tidy, busy, passing-darting type of winger and he's playing well in this team.

Frustrating watch.
1) We've been really unlucky. We are playing well.
2) It's weird how much Derby fans hate Jozwiak for not being early-career Ronaldo. He's a tidy, busy, passing-darting type of winger and he's playing well in this team.

Mel Morris inherited a squad panistakingly built on a shoestring budget by Nigel Clough over a number of seasons. It came within a whisker of getting promoted under Steve McClaren. That side could have survived and prospered in the Prem with a few key additions.
Once that squad missed out in the play-off final against QPR, Mel spent upwards of £50 million over the next 5 years or so, making it progressively weaker. He tripled the wage bill in the process, to the point where the annual wage bill was in excess of the club's annual turnover. Basically he gambled, lost and then did the classic gambler's fallacy thing - kept gambling to try and recover his losses. We ended up in breach of FFP in 3 of the 4 rolling three year windows within this period - hence the points deduction, which was actually significantly lower than the maximum tartiff that could have been imposed by the ELF. The HMRC winding up order was filed in January 2020 which was before COVID had hit the UK so it's literally rewriting history to try and blame COVID.
Mel, quite simply, massively overspent and then tried every trick in the book to massage the figures, including, and this keeps getting overlooked, changing the amortisation method without making it sufficiently clear to the EFL what the changes were. By the way, the EFL do not sign off accounts - this is another often repeated misconception. The club and then it's auditors sign off their own accounts. However the EFL do  have a duty to investigate and penalise any potential breaches of the rules that come to their attention. All the EFL have done is enforce the rules agreed on by all it's members including Derby. They had no choice but to do so. Blaming the EFL is like blaming the iceberg rather than the captain of the titanic.
Add to the above the decision to put us into administration which has, at best, more or less guaranteeed relegation to League One and, at worst, put the very survival of the club at risk. This, despite repeated previous assurances that he would continue to fund the club until it got a buyer.
I'm sure Mel geniunely wanted the best for the club and was desperate to suceed but the end result of his tenure is that Derby County may not exist in it's current form by this time next year. So yes, he ate your hamster.
 
 

I actually agree with a lot of what you've said there in relation to FFP. There is plenty of blame to go around for that, but the EFL should take plenty as there were ways in which the mess could have been sorted without constantly pushing for a points deduction. They also know the whole FFP thing is massively flawed, but still decided to make life as difficult as possible for us.  Even so, if FFP were the sum-total of our problems, we could've stomached the 9 point deduction and still have a reasonable chance of staying up.
The administration is a completely different thing and must be all down to Mel I'm afraid. Either he ran out of money (in which case he should've reined in spending earlier) or decided to stop providing the funding (in which case, while I understand it can't be much fun peeing £1m a month up a wall, he took on that responsibility when he bought us and with or without COVID allowed things to get this bad). Putting us into administration definitely confined us to League 1, probably means selling whatever few assets we have left, means we'll be struggling on a shoestring for years and, ultimately, puts the club at risk of going under completely and disappearing. That is completely unforgiveable.

Go to bed Mel, you’re drunk

The percentage as of this morning would still be fairly low, we're still yet to name a preferred bidder, Wycombe and Boro have yet to drop their claims.
Despite Rooney saying no player will be sold without his approval, if the above rumbles on towards deadline day, we could easily see players leave with financial decisions made above his head which could cause serious unrest.
I'm an optimistic as they come, but as I say, the percentage has to be fairly low until we see some movement off the field.
By the end of next month, we'll be in a better position to see just how possible the impossible is.

I said it earlier, but I'll say it again. What a brilliant job our academy players have done this season! Thompson was brilliant tonight, and Plange grabbed a goal, but we've really struggled with senior players this season, and our academy hasn't let us down one bit. Every one of them who have been called up has stepped up brilliantly. They're a credit to this club. 

First post on this forum having followed Derby since growing up here in the 00’s - so proud of this team at the moment! Doing the city proud, especially the talented academy boys stepping up in the club’s time of need. The great escape is on!

Goodbye 2021, without a deduction this team made up of freebies and academy players would be 13th in the Championship, just 8pts off the top 6. 
Build the Rooney statue now. 
First job in management, everything he's had to deal with, incredible job he's doing. ???
 

For pity's sake give it a rest

It's funny how people remember Commons differently - I though he was really good for us. He speaks really well of his time at Derby here. To me he just comes across as a proper professional, respectful of all the clubs he's played for. It's hard to blame him for not wanting to take a wage cut. 

Assuming we still have a club next year, this is the worst bit, really. The silver lining during all those years of Butterfields and Anyas and high-risk short-termism was that there was a major bit of long-termism, too: the investment in the academy. And now all the best ones could get picked off for far less than we'd usually accept. Then we really are starting from scratch, aren't we? The one indisputable positive of Mel's reign - and it could all get erased very quickly.
I know there's another thread about grief and the five stages. This is the bit that keeps sending me back from acceptance to anger.