Alty_Ram

Oh I'm definitely still enjoying it, I just think it was closer at the start of the season but I guess what I am seeing is a gap seems to be emerging and I don't think that Mercedes have a plan for this season to close that so I suspect that the last race will become more the norm than some of the closer races earlier on. Agree completely re the gap between the drivers. Max and Lewis manage to wring out every last bit from their cars and that's what makes the difference. I just hope that Mercedes can make a few tweaks to give Hamilton a car that will keep him in the mix rather than just hoping for a Verstappen/Red Bull mistake.

I've been really looking forward to a point where we have such parity in the cars that it's a nail-biter every race but the needle just seems to have swung a little too far the other way as it stands. Hope I'm wrong, I really want to see these two going at each other.

I'm an unapologetic Hamilton fan but completely understand that people want to see some change of faces. Verstappen has been outstanding in a previously inferior car and is now being outstanding in a superior car and good on him, a champion in waiting without a doubt.

My only slight regret is that we are not seeing a gradual shift in power and lots of wheel to wheel battles between Max and Lewis, just a passing of the baton, for this season at least. Red Bull have pulled a rabbit out of the hat with their car for this year and reinforced it with good upgrades but Mercedes are standing still and Toto Wolff basically said that all their efforts were going into next years car so I don't expect Mercedes to close what seems to be a widening gap, even since the start of the season.

I'm sure that Lewis will wring all that he can out of his car but just as Max has experienced in recent years, sometimes you just find that you are outgunned and all your skills will not be able to close that gap sufficiently. I'd expect Hamilton to still be around the front row or two but any wins will surely be down to Red Bull getting a strategy call wrong or race circumstances with crashes and safety cars etc because all things being equal, this Red Bull is a great piece of kit that as it stands is just better than the Mercedes and with a driver of Max's quality at the wheel, he'll not be throwing anybody any lifelines and I really think he'll win this year at a canter.

I agree to a point with the statements that the clubs profile alone would still be a big draw for a potential manager, particularly up and coming lower league, but you simply can't ignore the off-field carnage and how it looks to a potential manager.

In our own lives you might see a job advert for a company that previously was well thought of but has recently been in the news due to potentially looming administration and waves of redundancies then you probably think to yourself, "actually, I'll stay put". A hapless relegation fodder team with little chance to change it is still going to sit on a managers CV as a failure and people might suggest that they couldn't make the step up, regardless of the underlying reasons.

We haven't got a pot to piss in so you will get a few journeymen and chancers or a complete rookie looking to start somewhere.

Mistakes have been made no doubt about it but the EFL seem to be obsessed with getting the harshest and most damaging and inconvenient penalty for us and there is seemingly precious little we can do about it. Surely nothing will be sorted ownership-wise while this nonsense is going on so it looks like we are set for a world of pain for the immediate future.

I'll just have to comfort myself with a thought of some future date when we bounce back, win the Championship playoffs at Wembley and to an ear-splitting massively public rendition of 'Feck the EFL' by thousands of Rams fans, the Derby skipper, 'Local lad X' receives the EFL trophy and just chucks it on the ground and just walks off to celebrate with the fans.

20 hours ago, ramit said:

After all that's gone on, i am just happy Derby County are still a club and base my expectations accordingly.  It's going to be a very challenging season, but an exciting one, young players having to step up, tight budget, EFL forever looming, i am content with mid-table.

I really wish I could share your optimism but it seems to me that there is a hell of a lot to do just to get back where we were at the end of the season and that was barely enough. The squad is woefully inadequate as it stands. We're desperately short of numbers, cover and quality and I just don't see this team being suddenly a lot better than it was just because it is a new season.

If this squad as it stands finishes mid-table then they probably deserve a bus top parade of the city. We desperately need quality bringing into this side and cover (and first choices) for positions where we are beyond threadbare. How on earth we will be able to do that with everything hanging over us is another matter though.

I don't think that anyone would seriously claim that we have seen a really effective Lawrence on any consistent basis but he does occasionally have that 'goal out of nothing' capability in a side that is full of huff and puff and honest ineffectual endeavor but lacks quality and goals.

Could we get a more consistent performer from somewhere? Very possibly. Do we have any money to do so ? Nope, not as it stands and high quality attacking options are rarely sat around waiting for clubs to pick them up on a free. I'd like to see Lawrence in a Derby team that was on the front foot bossing games but unfortunately that doesn't seem likely any time soon. His wages will surely be right up there with our top paid players but in a situation where we are unlikely to be able to do anything more than look for freebies and loans, losing him would surely weaken our options ?

I agree completely re the sort of signings we are likely to make without any good resolution to our off-field circus.

There's no great expectations from me at all and I can't see us paying a fee as it stands though so I'm expecting season long loans and frees. With 2 years on his contract and with Wycombe not having to support the cost base of a large established Championship side then I doubt they'll be forced to accept chicken feed, particularly if they can get more than one club interested.

'Expected to be an affordable option at Championship level'. ? 2 years left on his existing contract ? Looks like whoever wrote that article isn't keeping up with current events at DCFC !

Er.. nahh... 

We haven't seem the best of him without a doubt. Are there some flaws in his final product and decision making, yes I think there are. Equally, a neutral audience have just rated him as the 3rd best Polish player on the night and I have no reason to take any real issue with that. Even 2nd half there were a couple of runs 2nd half where he ran at and beat 3/4 players and goodness knows we have precious little of that ability in our squad. To describe him as 'awful' or 'rubbish' on the basis of that performance is baffling to me.

This is great experience for him, let's just be glad that we have Derby players taking part in a major tournament and not looking out of place eh ?

I know what you mean, it's hard to get much discussion momentum bar a couple of pun-infested threads. After previous frankly embarrassing takeover sagas, I do understand that the club is probably waiting to announce something when it is certain of what it is announcing but in the meantime it is eerily quiet. Not really even much in the way of credible ITK hints either.

Fans are out of pocket, the club is a financial mess, we have no idea what the EFL are planning for us in terms of points deductions or fines, we have no idea if we will have new owners and if so who they are. There are just a few regurgitated transfer rumours linking us to anyone and everyone along with a long list of better placed Championship clubs. No retained list, no incoming or outgoing transfer news.

Absolute tumbleweed. I'd say that it is only natural for even pretty staunch fans to be a bit 'meh' about things at the moment.

1 hour ago, G STAR RAM said:

A stab wound on the face, collarbone and near the heart, how on earth is that not attempted murder.

Exactly, all three are potentially lethal single stabs. Not being killed by that is a matter of luck not a lack of intent. That's not an assault, it's a repeated attempt to kill someone.

Hopefully they'll realise that this club is a Sleeping Beauty and if this happens then it's really important this time to have a bit more transparency and that it Snow White(wash) and then we need to crack on with our recruitment and sort our poor goalscoring record out - get A-lad-din from the lower leagues who is an up and coming star or we'll just end up Tangled in another relegation fight because some of the younger players were just Bambi in headlights last year.

This stage of pre-season 'nothing is bloody well happening.. ' reminds me of those games you watch where we've played appallingly, the game is completely lost and both sides know it and the game flattens out into a pointless kickabout for the last 20 minutes so it's too early to leave and people get so desperate for entertainment that they start ironically cheering throw-ins.

Aha ! The final nail in the coffin... The EFL announce their new approved ball for the coming season and then Gibson tells them that DCFC have been playing with a slightly different ball for years now and that we should be deducted 1000 points, chucked out the league or just declared insolvent. It's all part of the plan I tell you....

It's unfortunate with Morgan Whittaker. He left for a better opportunity and who can blame him for that because it just wasn't working out here for various reasons. He certainly received a load of unnecessary grief from the cesspit of social media but most folk on here and other forums totally understood his reasons for leaving and wished him well.

However, a specific goal celebration for scoring against a team is always going to be interpreted as a dig at all fans of that club though, whether they were supportive of your decision to leave or not. No issue with him celebrating at all, I don't expect him to walk solemnly back the the centre spot shrugging off his team mates but I just felt that the 'chuff you' gesture was a bit unnecessary and he could have shown a bit more of the class that I'd expected of him due to his good off field stuff at Derby. I still broadly wish him the best but leave out the mardy stuff eh ?

It's one of those where you are probably never going to have a solution that ticks all the boxes and keeps everyone happy so it is all a matter of priorities as you see them. When the ball hits the net I just want to celebrate and not wait for technology to make a 'perfect' decision where part of someone's kneecap is offside.

Football (for me) is just too spontaneous a sport to have every goal analysed in minute detail to see if we can find some reason, however marginal, to disallow it. I am fully supportive of goal-line technology because it is an instant decision and doesn't have everyone stood around hands on hips waiting to see if it stands. In the time it takes for a player to turn to the ref to claim that the ball is over the line, the ref already knows whether it was or wasn't so I have no issue with that and consider it a big improvement.

Sure, we've all celebrated goals down the years where you look around after a few seconds of leaping around and then you notice the flag is up and it's gutting but late flags were few and far between and rarely impacted a game. Now it just seems that we have an awkward artificial phase with a significant proportion of goals where we try to find a reason why a goal shouldn't stand and for me it inevitably detracts from the moment that your team score a goal as that doesn't mean anything yet until VAR has given it it's blessing.

Others will feel differently but ultimately I just feel that the spontaneous nature of football is more important than forensic analysis to get a technically correct incredibly marginal result every time.

It wasn't necessary really but apparently there were some very specific areas of wear, particularly at the back post where opposition strikers have been standing around unchallenged all year.

28 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

I would not ever in any way want to depend on rotherham not winning in cardiff.

in the ordinary way of things, i'd expect cardiff to win or draw, and mick "last day leg breakers just show what good boys they are" Macarthy.

but it's also fate and cardiff are horrible like that.

Exactly.. let's also not forget that barely a month ago Sheffield Wednesday demolished Cardiff 5-0... worrying in terms of potential outcomes for both games.

4 hours ago, Millenniumram said:

I don’t like the idea of long term “3 year plans” or whatever either. But we have to be realistic about where we are. We’ve been one of the worst attacking teams in the division this season. Nowhere near the standard to challenge for the title! We need almost an entirely new squad if we’re going to do that. I just can’t see it being realistic to sort everything out in one season, especially with our record in the transfer market!

Obviously lets just get the points on the board to stay up this year first but I agree with what you say to a point. I think recent results have shown how fine the margins are in this league though, in that we have gone on an excellent run that has hauled us out what was an increasingly large hole. That said, we have a lot of loanees again so even if we have a competitive team now, we have a lot of work to do in the summer to either sign some of those loanees permanently or replace them with as good or better and that is just to be where we are now. Clearly, that looks quite bright on recent form but it illustrates how fragile fortunes can be.

Time and again though we see teams in this division make a real charge just by getting a few things right in the spine of the team or whatever. Even taking ourselves as an example the ultimately woeful team under Bill Davies was transformed by adding pretty much just Howard. The later more numerous changes actually probably hindered as much as helped.

Huddersfield buried Swansea a few days ago but looked very poor last night so there really does seem to be very little between a lot of teams in this division. That said, the difference between having playoff aspirations vs automatic is a different story IMHO. To grab a top 2 spot you need to be relentless. Top 6 can just be an otherwise patchy season with a strong finish.

There just haven't been enough goals across this whole team. CKR's return is actually reasonably respectable (if unremarkable) but apart from the freak result at Birmingham where several players chipped in, the goals return has been very poor. We badly need goals spreading around and it's not just a lack of any serious contribution from wingers or midfield either. As far as I can see we have had zero goals from defenders all season. In the normal run of things you'd expect at least the odd goal from central defenders at set pieces surely ? Both our fullbacks are quite attack minded too.

Breathless stuff! It sure is a white knuckle roller-coaster of a ride this window ain't it ? 

Certainly I can't see how we'd be signing anyone until such time as any increasingly doubtful looking takeover is either concluded or ruled out. Even if that happens (which I am increasingly dubious about) we don't even know if there is any kind of budget available because FFP has been hugely muddied by the current financial calamity due to Covid. Do we need a striker ? yes, without a doubt IMHO but they usually cost money so I'd expect a loan at best. CKR is surely no going to be able to play and be effective in every game.

Will we sell ? I think this is inevitable if anyone wants any of our players although potential new owners might want a say in what playing assets are sold off. The reality is that we have bugger all income and if Prem League sides want any of our players (or any other Championship players) then we are hardly in a position to turn down any remotely substantial offer. The laughable bailout fund from the PL is a waste of time, just an option to saddle yourself with debt to the EFL who will then presumably beat you over the head with it.

Sure, some of our downfall is of our own making but these are unique times and have created a perfect storm and the usual discussions about signings seem a bit academic. Surely more games will be cancelled and I'd expect a pause in the season at least unless this Covid situation gets under some kind of control very quickly indeed.