Deej

Been in with Leeds fans a couple of times at Elland Road. Lost both times so wasn't an issue, thankfully all our wins been whilst I was able to celebrate in the away end. Was actually invited through work into corporate for the playoff semi but told them had no intention of sitting with opposition fans for a game that important (I managed to get an away end ticket day before game). Suspect I may not have made it out of Elland Road alive had I been outed that night as Derby.
Went to Upton Park about 10 years ago to see us play West Ham but sat in the packed Bobby Moore Stand with my mate (a Hammer). Anyway, we took a surprise lead through Tamas Priskin and as I leapt to my feet & punched the air, I felt a couple of hundred eyes fixed on me. Thinking this probably wasn't a great life decision, I screamed 'you facking mugs' in my best faux-Cockney & sat down sharpish. We lost 3-1, I stayed sat down for their 3 goals..

No-one on here knows Mel so I think all speculation (some more informed than others) on if he's a 'good guy' or not should probably be put to one side. I think the club is quite obviously being run into the ground and I don't think the way we're being mismanaged is particularly defensible anymore in a number of areas. The ticketing situation is ridiculous especially for some away games which does make it an absolute pain to get tickets and it is definitely financially harming the club. The lack of communication in a number of areas is not good enough, if Mel was just another owner this alone would be getting a lot more grief for it. Mel's tactics with the EFL has put a target on our back and alienated us from other clubs in the division, whether he is right or wrong on the argument is of secondary importance, it's inevitably led to this state of affairs that has left us in a shambles. 



I don't really have sympathy for the argument of 'bad luck' and 'he's put in a ton of money' to me i just think go and play the world's smallest violin as Mel's a rich man and he'll still be rich after he's sold us. Money is easy to spend when you've got it and it doesn't reflect much more than your capacities. As an owner he should have been more prudent with his investment and despite trying to sell the club for 2 years, as of last year he was still asking for 100 million quid for the club 'all in'. That's not a price that screams 'desperate to sell' it's much closer to 'I am selling the club but I want my investment back'.  

He was more than happy to be celebrating at elland road on the pitch with his scarf so in my book he's also got to be as visible when things go sideways. He simply hasn't done this and it's a mark of poor quality leadership that has defined his time at the club. 

Everything around the club's finances and communications is so,so c*** that I that many of us are becoming blind to it......but the reality is,the club are making a complete hash of looking after their fan base in just about every conceivable way.

Who would I address it to? We seemingly don’t have anyone who worked there or replies to anything. A real sad state of affairs. 

I think the whole thing is ridiculous. 
my personal experience is that my season ticket auto renewed, but I want to relocate. The reason I want to move seats is I’d like to purchase two additional season tickets for my wife and daughter and have all 3 of us sit together.
I’ve emailed and emailed with no luck.
I was on hold the day the ticket office lines opened for 3 hours to be told I’d have a call back when the manager is in.
I never got that call back and have rang in several times and each time was told I’ll have a call back when the manager is in.
I don’t think it’s harsh to say this is pathetic at all. I’m wanting to spend an additional £700 which would pay one salary for 2 or 3 weeks. Multiply little old me struggling to give the club money by however many other people are in the same boat and they must be losing a fortune. An additional handful of staff would not cost as much as the lost revenue, surely?
in fact, a damn option to move my seat online wouldn’t require any new staff
Pandemic or not, it’s disgusting and like an idiot, I’ll probably spend another tenner on hold tomorrow & get nowhere.

At the end of the day, what is Derby County without its fans?
Making it harder for those fans to buy tickets than needs be is the stupidest thing we've done.
There's literally no excuse for it.
It's not a massively well paid, highly technical skill required to do so, it can easily be outsourced if need be, even temporarily, isn't that SeatGeeks role anyhow?
If not, what do they actually do?
 
 

This wasn't supposed to be a "Aren't we hard done by/the EFL have got it in for us all ways up" post. I listed the poor decisions to maybe explain the amount of outrage at such a harsh punishment. In reality he was always going to get red carded retrospectively, whether the EFL are out to get us or not. And yes, we will see more offences against Derby than fans of other clubs will, but that is true of any club's supporters. I don't think Fozzy's stamp was deliberate, but it could easily have been, and is certainly easy to perceive that way. How many other retrospective red cards have there been, especially to players from other clubs? That would be an interesting perspective. But you have to admit that we haven't had the rub of the green with referee decisions of late. And I asked about the alleged Joswiack incident because I didn't see it, and it hasn't been mentioned by anyone else, either on here or on any other social media as far as I am aware, so I simply would like to know about it. IF it happened, then it does tend to prove your point about seeing what we want to see.

I think the main problem is the incredibly consistent levels of inconsistency by the match officials which has been obvious for years. So on Saturday Fozzy could well have been given a red card there and then, and we wouldn't then have had that wonderful through ball to Tom. What is causing all the outrage were all the other instances of foul play which went totally unpunished. 
So in order, we had:
the Forest right back kicking out at Louie Sibley as he ran back from our first attack. Not just a clip of the heel, a full blown swing where the Forest player's leg went out at 70 degrees. It was deliberate violent conduct. Red Card. Worrall fouling Louie Sibley as he was bout to be running through on goal. Deliberately preventing a clear goal-scoring opportunity. Red Card. Worrall deliberately handling the ball to prevent it going to one of two Derby players in the area. Preventing a clear goal scoring opportunity. Red Card and Penalty. Worrall elbowing Ravel Morrison on the back of his head. Violent conduct. Red Card. Worrall - a succession of fouls, wrestling downs and trips, several in the penalty area. At least two yellow cards. Red Card. All-in-wrestling on Curtis Davis in the penalty area. Penalty. Red or yellow card. This is all in just one match. 
Then we go back just one week and we have Jagielka getting booked for a clear, successful tackle where he got the ball. Then we have Ikpeazu splitting Jag's face open with an elbow. Definite red card, but not even a free kick is given.
All of this from just two games, yet we are seeing these kind of instances and injustices all the time.
Incidentally a colleague of mine, a Tree, reckons that Joswiack studded one of their players on Saturday. Anyone else know about this?

I'd like to add a touch of positivity about comms from the club.
 
I sent an email to the ticket office at 8am friday morning, Twenty minutes ago I got an email response to my ticketing query. 
 
Now admittedly it was an "Automated response" confirming that they had received my email....
 
and admittedly i did email the ticket office LAST friday. And its taken a week for them to process the automated response. 
 
Lets just hope i havent missed out on forest tickets.....

Isn't that everyone's personal prerogative though whether they do or don't?
My understanding was this was a forum so if people want to post they don't need the permission of you or I or anyone else. 
Or if you turn your argument round if you don't like what they're saying then why don't you leave then?

Now you are being silly.
If there's one constant throughout all of this debacle it's the club's steadfast refusal to offer any form of communication whatsoever - why do you think now that this will miraculously alter?

Is that supposed to make anyone feel better? I am old school. Pay your debts as they fall due. So many posters are getting worked up about P&S calculations and amortisation. Bugger all that. Morris has run up debts in the name of Derby County - HMRC, Cocu, Keogh, now some transfer fees. Pay people what they are owed.

Overrated: Rooney
Underrated: Roos, Forsyth, Sibley
I include Sibley because there is a large pool of people on here who don't appear to see that, alone in our squad (perhaps with Stretton after a full season to evaluate), Sibley has that magical ability to score a lot of goals. An amazing ball striker with either foot and a superb carrier of the ball forward from midfield. And someone who always threatens the opposition and wants to score goals in a way that none of our other players do.
Rooney was too slow for the last ten years of his playing career and hampered every team he played for by slowing the game down to his pace. Controlling the ball, looking up, shaping to play a 40 yard pass to the wing, taking another touch, then floating the 40 yard pass to the wing, either to be intercepted or the defence having had ample time to set themselves. And now he's eaten even more pies than me.

I’ve got to find some way to drop Sibbo when I shouldn’t, so playing Lawro when I shouldn’t fits the bill really well.

I have this feeling that we didn't start Sibley last season for the same reason Southgate was reluctant to start Grealish for much of the Euros. Both managers felt that their attacking threat did not override their defensive shortcomings - or that other players were simply better at that kind of thing. 
This conservatism is the best and worst thing about our footballing culture. It is the reason England men's team reached its first final in over half a century, and it is why we lost it.
Sibley would be my first name on the team sheet. Screw clean sheets. Screw tracking back. Let our dinosaurs at the back sort out his mess and just outscore the opposition.

So they can have the wrath of posters on here rain down on them for being part time supporters....

NIce to see Wazza has seen the error of his ways and is playing him ?

Despite their terrible start, I think we have to expect a tough game on Saturday.
Of course it would be lovely to win emphatically and kickstart our season. But in recent years, Forest have always seemed up for it and able to put together a competitive performance on the day, and often against expectations.
So I think we have to be wary of the wounded beast, shall we say. We have thought we were playing Forest at a good time before and they have caught us cold.
What has surprised me is their lack of transfer activity. A good summer and they could have improved. Instead they have lost 6-7 first team regulars and to the untrained eye, incomings have been scarce. So far, they have been limited to three loan signings and a back up keeper. It’s not a surprise there is such disillusionment.
I do think Hughton is a very good manager at this level but there is an obvious disconnect between him and the fans and perhaps even the board at Forest, so you have to imagine he is on borrowed time.
Neither club is in a great position for quite different reasons. So I’d expect another cagey, scrappy, cautious affair. Another 1-1 wouldn’t surprise me at all.
But for Rooney and the boys, it is a good opportunity to make people sit up and take notice. Let’s hope we go for it. It’d be encouraging to see.
 

I can't see any slating on here only perfectly reasonable comments that the club could just make a one line statement saying revised accounts now submitted to EFL, the club will make no further comment at this stage. 
Hardly difficult is it and would then cut out a lot of the guessing. The club has proven to be extremely reticent to do anything like that in the past as though they think it's not important, they seem totally out of touch with the fanbase. 

Take your point buddy, but its one thing seeing sub-optimal performance, it's another stating he lacks talent and ability. In fairness, most on here do seem to see it but as has been stated countless times, the lad needs to start games, not be given the odd cameo and expected to play at the top of his game. As with any player, games will breed confidence and I think we're stating to see that latent ability coming to the fore now he is being given more game time.

Build this side around Sibley, all that Rooney needs to realise. Incredible talent

Thank you for the kind words. It is much appreciated.
When @Tyler Durden and I go for drinks before Bristol City away, we’ll save you a chair. 
I do agree with you that all I am trying to do is offer my opinion and make what I feel to be valid and balanced points where I can. Do I feel shut down? No. Do I feel like I have an unfair reputation? Yes.
I really enjoy this forum and I have had some wonderful debates, discussions and interactions over the years, and on the whole, you do get treated with warmth and respect. But it can be a little hostile at times.
I don’t think there is such a thing as a superior fan personally. Yes, I will freely admit I don’t live in Derby any more, nor do I watch or go to tens of games any more. Life takes hold. Everyone has different circumstances and we all follow and support the team in our own way and the best way we feel we can. 
One thing you can guarantee is whatever your journey, if the club is in your heart, you are going to have something to say.
Personally I wouldn’t ever suggest someone is less of a fan, but some people do. Of course they are entitled to their opinion, but I am not particularly worried about any accusations thrown my way.
The day my mother stops telling me ‘football won’t pay your bills’, well then I might begin to question things.

Anybody posting an opinion about a game without seeing it deserves to be taken to task over that opinion no matter where they come from or how big a fan they are.

We were 2 points from safety ?

I'm going to leave this here as quite clearly we have polarised views - I did notice a thread get started up over the last hour and shutdown very quickly again by the mods furthering that any criticism against Rooney was totally unacceptable that there are posters on here that bring constant negativity yada yada and I don't want to create a carbon copy of that again.
You have your opinions about Rooney and you haven't convinced me with your arguments for me to buy into your way of thinking and vice versa it seems.
Pointless butting heads to get nowhere.