This is my worry.
Someone mentioned B4 getting into the dressing room at last. Where do you think he's going to get £10,000 a year from? Or me or the vast majority of fans I know who go home and away either!
So, you say it would be owned "by the fans" but only the more well-heeled ones. I find myself as far away from some of those on what the average fan wants as I do any other owners.
My nephew played for Cleethorpes town, went to Wembley to watch them in the 2017 FA vase final against South Shields with Julio Arca playing for them. If Derby wasn’t playing on the Saturday I would go and watch them home or away with the Clee ultras, proper supporters. ( they really are a thing)
That was the last time that we had an England international forward managing us (Nigel, Frank and John Gregory were midfielders), who was a record goalscorer in his own right and whose Derby team flirted with relegation all the way through his first season proper, ending up 19th in the old Division 2. The terraces were not generally in favour of him continuing and his somewhat drawling way of speaking was much imitated and mocked. The following year we won the league at an eventual canter. A year or so after that we couldn’t go into Europe because of various accounts difficulties.
If history is starting to repeat itself we might be on for an exciting few years, on the pitch.
I’m wondering, if as apparently stated by the club, we don’t fail P&S even with straight line amortisation, whether those restated accounts might actually form part of our sanction mitigation.
Rather than wait to see if part of their sanction is to make us restate them, preempt it and get them done anyway to show we didn’t gain any advantage in this time period doing what we did as we’d have been under the limit. It would prove our case that we genuinely thought it was a better way of accounting, rather than trying to gain any kind of unfair advantage, which is clearly why everyone assumes we did it.
Travelled overland independently by train, lots of snow around Banya Luka (October), but still arrived in good time at Mostar. Walked from the station to the ground in conversation (in French!) with a German, who recognised the Ram motif on my shoulder bag. Gateman at the ground was after Rams souvenirs when Stuart Webb arrived, we exchanged a few pleasantries, he showed his DCFC credentials and I was allowed in with him! The team coach arrived shortly after and Alan Hill was struggling with the kit hamper across a pebbled area, so yes, just offered a hand to get it to the visitors dressing room. Most of the players had gone to have a look at the pitch, but David Nish followed us in. He had just moved into our village and had had conversations over the garden gate with my Dad, so that was a useful starting point until Zac arrived with his bit of typical Yorkshire forthright approach!
I bade my adieus, and walked out into the next room which happened to be the club bar, which, needless to say, was full of Bosnians and Serbs. My bag and rucksack singled me out as a Rams fan, and it was only seconds before I was besieged with more requests for Rams souvenirs. I had only two left when their inside forward Vidic, who had played in the first leg at Derby, came and sat down, and he ended up with a copy of the Football League Magazine which came out with the Rams programme.
Whilst waiting in the York Hotel outside the station for the train back home after the first leg, a tall smartly dressed individual wanted the phone, speaking in reasonable English to the hotel staff, who of course had to get the call for him - in the 1970s it was necessary to wait for calls to be obtained to less popular international locations, in this case Mostar. I assumed that he was possibly the Mostar president or CEO perhaps, so in the bar I motioned to Vidic that I wanted to speak to the "President". He disappeared and duly returned with an ageing gentleman who was in fact the Club President. But the message had got across that we needed an interpreter, and shortly after the guy seen in Derby appeared. I recalled to him that I had seen him at the York, so we were well away! Drinks and food were provided gratis, courtesey of the club / President, and I could leave my rucksack there until after the game. The well dressed guy was the reporter for the local paper, and this was news, as Mostar had beaten one of the Moscow teams (? Spartak?) over two legs in the previous round, unbelievable for a town the size of Burton!
As it built towards kick-off, I made my way out to the Terraces, only to find that I was in the private part of the ground, with only a small three- step terrace which held about 20 people maximum! A programme seller appeared walking round the ground, the very guy who had been manning the gate earlier on. I called to him and rummaged in my shoulder bag for the last souvenir, one of those circular gold and dark blue DERBY COUNTY pin badges with a Ram in the centre - you might have one still, I haven't! I thought that offering it was an appropriate gesture to a guy who had been instrumental in what was turning out to be some totally unexpected "adventure", and he proudly pinned it on, safe in the knowledge that no one else had one!
The Rams of course lost 4-1, and it was almost dark as the firecrackers went of following their third and fourth goal, the latter a penalty against Colin Todd which was clearly ball-to-hand rather than the reverse, which the high profile and even more highly controversial Dutch referee, Charles Corver, duly gave. (He was handing out photos of himself on the flight into Dubrovnik apparently - some ego!). Stuart Webb was beside himself at this unexpected setback, and on returning home made it clear that Derby would appeal against the firecrackers during the match, so I sent in some camera shots of them to him, and weeks later they were returned after the appeal had been turned down.
So, back to the bar, where the President came to commiserate - and celebrate that lightning did sometimes strike twice. In true English fashion I offered my congratulations, and eventually took my leave of them, reflecting, in spite of my disappointment, that I had witnessed what had been a momentous event in the history of this small club.
This must sound unusual to many of you, but the club is not like an English club. The dressing rooms and bar were part of what we would call a large two story club house, set back some 50 yards from the pitch and behind the goal. The directors / officials watched the games from easy chairs in a first floor "terraced room" with sliding -folding doors, looking out "onto all they surveyed". The 50 yards in between were flower beds with rose trees, neatly trimmed low privet hedges and a pebble path for the players to access the pitch. The opposite end was not spectator accommodation. The side nearest the road was terraced, and provided perhaps 15 steps the length of the ground, and the opposite side had 3 /4 steps of concrete terrace, with a small seated stand at the half way line. Beyond this, the (enclosed) hillside rose quite steeply into the far distance, and would have accommodated the population of the three East Midlands cities with ease. Little did I know the horrific significance that this welcoming club was to play some 20 years later. During the dissolution of the old Yugoslavia, you may be aware of the subsequent ethic cleansing which took place: the Radavan Karadice saga / era, plus others.
That same pitch was used as a concentration site / camp for those unfortunate enough to be on "the wrong side"......
And no, I had no part at DCFC, I'm just a popside fan who took his chance when it came, this being the third "adventure" that being a Rams fan has brought my way. To me, DCFC has always been a Way of Life.
Thanks for reading - sorry if I bored you.
1. We haven't had any points deductions yet, so conjecture.
2. How bad would what have been? Would it not be better to see if there is any punishment before making claims like that?
3. Mel probably has had enough of the EFL and what appears to be a vendetta against him and the club.
4. Again, what points deduction? And what quality in the squad? Currently we have a couple of average keepers, a decent full back and good prospect, no centre backs, a few good prospects yet to hit their full potential, an experienced workhorse and an injured star in centre mid, a couple of inconsistent wide players and 1 ageing striker.
So you "met" someone you thought looked like Clooney, then got "chip grease" on his Bentley seats. I think the rest of us in the car park saw something a little different. Was a good night out though.
Foreveram got a reaction from derby8 in Derby County Administration (with the slight possibility of Liquidation still there)
Foreveram got a reaction from The Scarlet Pimpernel in Derby County Administration (with the slight possibility of Liquidation still there)
Foreveram got a reaction from MrPlinkett in Derby County Administration (with the slight possibility of Liquidation still there)
Foreveram got a reaction from loweman2 in The Old Guard
Foreveram got a reaction from Robert Earnshaws Workrate in Derby County on this day
Foreveram got a reaction from Premier ram in Derby County on this day
Foreveram got a reaction from Steve How Hard? in Derby County on this day
Foreveram got a reaction from Reggie Greenwood in Derby County on this day
Foreveram got a reaction from i-Ram in EFL appeal
