TomTom92

Ched Evans
 
 
Oh I see what you mean now

Agree, they have got their poor performance out of the way a game too soon…

Don’t think Wayne has clicked on that you can only manipulate referees by moaning about them if you’re a top club. 
 
He’s not wrong in what he’s saying but it wont manipulate them at all.

We’ve got away with it today in the sense Reading should’ve put us to bed. But anything other than a win against Fulham and regardless of Reading’s result I think our goose is cooked.

My thoughts exactly, on paper we could get 12 points from our remaining 6 but to go 9 points behind with 5 to play is mentally tough.   
  
A miracle at Swansea would seriously turn up the heat.

CK should’ve known better than to leave old tweets lying around. Assuming he made these tweets as a stupid young gun and assuming his opinions have changed it now means that they shouldn’t be an issue. However now the saddos at Forest have screenshotted them it gives them more ammunition to fire in our faces. 

Kirchener is the biggest risk of all the interested parties. Might come out smelling of roses or might end up with Mel II. 
  
He’s not my pick but beggars can’t be choosers. Plus if does struggle and loses interest after a couple of seasons at least we can be sold without the pain of the past 6 months.

Saves us buying another coat, I guess ?

Think Reading drawing yesterday was bad news. It means a draw on Tuesday pushes us in to needing more than 2 wins.
Obviously in the grand scheme of things we’ll need at least 4 wins from the final 6 but looking at the EFL highlights last night, Reading seemed to batter Barnsley. 
 
Think Ince as much as I thought he was a poor appointment has managed to get a tune out of them. 
 
If we can take it to the last match of the season then we’ll do it. But I think that’s a step too far.

This week I fear will seal it. Reading have found form and play back- to- back home games against Stoke (midweek) and Cardiff City. With us at Swansea City, I can see the gap being 9 points with only five to play by next Sunday.

I’d bring Bielik on for Buchanan at half time and let Festy join in attacks as the 2nd musketeer at left back. As others have said, Festy is not very good as a left winger but against Barnsley at left back he looked useful. 
 
Then Sibley for the last 20 if it’s still 0-0. With their organisation and height Preston concern me even with 1 less player.

It’s become quite apparent that Mel or Pearce are pulling Quantumas strings. 
  
Saw somebody tweet Nixon that the admins have basically gambled on them finding a better deal than the one they had in Dec/Jan and of course it’s backfired. Unless this is all Mel’s grand plan to leave himself as the only credible bidder. 
 
Either way can’t help think that Q have had a shocker, regardless of how hard it’s been.

Ok so after reading the statement tonight I went away and gathered my thoughts. I think how I feel about this is quite different to others, but I hope people can read it and understand where I’m coming from. I have no positive conclusions, and I get some people aren’t really up for something like this so if it’s you then feel free to ignore this post and read on. It’s going to be long, unapologetically ponderous and contain atleast one swear word! Also I’ll be the first to admit, what I think is going on has swung wildly throughout this thread, so I’m not saying I’m 100% correct.
—————-
My main point I want to get over here, is that I’m very concerned that Derby (anything connected to the club or the community) has found itself in the middle of a pissing contest between a lot of rich men. We were warned about this happening way back at the start of administration, by Mel in his interview with Ed Dawes and I think by Q early on too. That a lot of interest is expressed by people and you’ve got to shift through the chancers essentially. The one thing that seems weird to say at the minute is that Derby County is a huge club, and there are people out there trying to snatch us on the cheap and are trying to upset the process to put themselves in pole position without having the best offer.
Now let’s look at the culprits who’ve been involved:
Mel Morris- Now Mel’s the biggest and most important one, but there are key differences here to everyone else involved. One is that Mel has been involved in the pissing contest for *years* now with the EFL, but also he’s upfront his involvement. Many won’t like this, but I do think Mel is somewhat sceptical by some of those in the bidding process and whether they are right for the club and so are the admins. I’ll be clear, im not ‘pro-Mel’ and hope my past posts would be enough to prove that! He’s the one who’s got us in the mess and this is all his doing, but I think hes aware of that fact and is trying to do the right deal with the right person. It’s not nice for us, but I can’t see how Mel’s current position works in any other way? I have said this repeatedly but Mel loses a lot more than just money if no deal is made, but if it goes to the wrong person he also loses out. Him and the admins need the right deal here which isn’t easy.
Chris Kirchner- He may be out of the race and shouting from the sidelines but he’s been a problem for a long time. First he went about cooing Rooney but then was rattling off on Twitter until recently. He tried to be clever and gain an advantage, it didn’t work and went after the administrators. It didn’t help anything. Essentially I think he showed himself up and we became wary.
The Binnies- Bit more of an interesting on this I think, but it’s a similar pattern, came out guns blazing about their bid, all goes quiet and then blame the administrators. But I think the important thing with The Binnies, Kirchner and Ashley is that the see a club with top facilities, the potential to grow and everything else and want it on the cheap. When they don’t have a strong enough plan in how to achieve that potential then they fall short in the eyes of the admins and Morris.
Mike Ashley - The most well known and currently the one trying to pull everything in his favour. No care for anything else, he’s interested in Derby the asset and not the club. Everyone is reluctant to deal with him but if all else fails he will still be there willing to pay the lowest price possible. 
Steve Gibson and Couhig- This is old ground we don’t really want to get into, but they caused a major blockage in this and caused damage to the club. Why? Because they could.
There are more minor players involved too, ‘the itk game’ on social media of people putting confusing and unhelpful info out there which is slanted to agenda which is usually ‘Mel is bad’. Which I get, fully, but to what end is that helpful to the position the club is actually in? Journalists are doing it now too and it’s frankly confirmation bias for clicks. They are fuelling the fire to put everything in place to muddy the process, leaving it open to MA. Also don’t forget the role the EFL have had for years in this, but I think that’s down to just being useless more than anything 
Whilst everyone is trying to sort everything to their own means who’s left in the middle? The fans, the players, the management have taken hthe brunt of it. Arguably Q too, but frankly it’s their job to take it somewhat (All I’ll say about them is I think they got done over a bit when taking the job, but they have not helped themselves throughout this whole process). We are seeing the face of modern football for what it is, a contest played out on Twitter, in meeting rooms and through the press, between men for which have no passion for what football is.
Whats next? As I said at the start, there is no positive here. As fans we need to accept relegation and a likely points deduction but see the bigger picture. If you want to protest anything on Saturday then let it be about what these people have resorted this football club to. Expose the games they have played and the effects on the community around Derby County. I still think we will have a club at the end of this, but it is up to us to define what Derby County is and not anyone who takes us over.
Finally I didn’t include Appleby, that tweet came through just as I started writing this so decided to exclude him from my thinking. BUT FWIW his group was the one who haven’t really been involved so they don’t really fit in with what I’m saying!
Apologies for a long read, I’ve tried to spell/grammar check but if something doesn’t make sense I’ll try and clarify!

Exactly what makes sense to me. Ashley has named his price but said he expects Mel to throw in the stadium, seeing as he is the huge Derby fan who got them into this mess.
Administrators have been scratching round looking at other options and hoping that will force his hand, but all are complicated arrangements and not cash-rich like Ashley.
Mel is pushing them to hang-on for a better offer elsewhere, whilst Ashley stays firm waiting in the wings, saying he doesn't care what happens if Mel doesn't back down.

It’s become quite apparent that Mel or Pearce are pulling Quantumas strings. 
  
Saw somebody tweet Nixon that the admins have basically gambled on them finding a better deal than the one they had in Dec/Jan and of course it’s backfired. Unless this is all Mel’s grand plan to leave himself as the only credible bidder. 
 
Either way can’t help think that Q have had a shocker, regardless of how hard it’s been.

It’s become quite apparent that Mel or Pearce are pulling Quantumas strings. 
  
Saw somebody tweet Nixon that the admins have basically gambled on them finding a better deal than the one they had in Dec/Jan and of course it’s backfired. Unless this is all Mel’s grand plan to leave himself as the only credible bidder. 
 
Either way can’t help think that Q have had a shocker, regardless of how hard it’s been.

Think MA’s issue is with Mel over the price of the stadium. Ashley is probably happy to put the bare minimum in for us to comply with the EFL criteria but probs want ‘Derby fan’ Mel to take a significant hit. Q either can’t or won’t get Mel to see sense so here we are 3 months later with no progress made.

It’s become quite apparent that Mel or Pearce are pulling Quantumas strings. 
  
Saw somebody tweet Nixon that the admins have basically gambled on them finding a better deal than the one they had in Dec/Jan and of course it’s backfired. Unless this is all Mel’s grand plan to leave himself as the only credible bidder. 
 
Either way can’t help think that Q have had a shocker, regardless of how hard it’s been.

It’s become quite apparent that Mel or Pearce are pulling Quantumas strings. 
  
Saw somebody tweet Nixon that the admins have basically gambled on them finding a better deal than the one they had in Dec/Jan and of course it’s backfired. Unless this is all Mel’s grand plan to leave himself as the only credible bidder. 
 
Either way can’t help think that Q have had a shocker, regardless of how hard it’s been.

Nobody, absolutely nobody, is coming out of this saga with an ounce of credit. Even if Ashley buys the club, he’s still pissed about for 3+ months and pretty much guaranteed our relegation.

I’ve seen somewhere on this thread that Mel is a decent guy. 

Would it be cynical of me to think that Ashley hasn't matched/bettered another bidder's offer and this furore over the last few days is an attempt to try to force himself back into the picture?

Just a couple of thoughts. I don’t think Mel Morris did necessarily think he was being clever selling the ground; it became a needs must to avoid FFP sanction. I also don’t think the transaction actually created any new cash going into the club. My opinion, for what worth, is that it simply offset previous loans he had made.
Now depending on what Morris does next, he could actually have done us a favour. If the ground was still in the ownership of the Club, I doubt creditors, in particular HMRC, would be twiddling their thumbs waiting to see if they might get 25%. Morris having control of the ground prevents them appointing a receiver for the Stadium and recovering perhaps all their monies.
But, it all comes back to Morris. It always has done, despite the many posters who mocked me in previous months - water off a ducks back though. He has significant/too much control of this situation. It is the price and terms to be paid for the stadium that is holding everything up. Q are ‘simply’ at the moment trying to find the sweet spot between what the PB’s will pay for it and what Morris (and MSD) will accept. It is within Morris’s gift to make this more straightforward. We shall see.

When did Charlie and The Chocolate Factory get involved in all this?

At some point the admins need to stop buggering about and take a bid forward. If none of the bids are sufficient to avoid a 15 point hit then so be it, pick the best of them and crack on.