Ramrob

As my son said, it’s usually us that balls it up. Great to see us gifted a goal for a change ??

Thought Kaz took the goal really well. Could easily have missed.
Loved the determination not to concede ?
Merry Kazmas! 

Sometimes football just gets to you, don’t think I’ve felt that much pride in this club like I had in the last 10 minutes for a very long time. 
Whether Kazim goes or not he deserved his moment in front of a home crowd.
Brilliant 

Thought Kaz took the goal really well. Could easily have missed.
Loved the determination not to concede ?
Merry Kazmas! 

Thought Kaz took the goal really well. Could easily have missed.
Loved the determination not to concede ?
Merry Kazmas! 

Derby 0 - 0 Grimsby 
Boxing Day 1991
My first game at the BBG
It was a Christmas cracker ? 

Do I think Rooney is a tactical genius?
No, but he's learning and has improved over last year.
Do I think he's getting the best out of the players available?
Mostly yes. Sibley and Jozwiak are possible exceptions but there may be other reasons for that. All players appear very motivated despite the club's position.
Has Rooney had long enough to prove his credentials?
It's not the time so much as the circumstances. These are exceptional times and it's nigh on impossible to judge.
Could another manager do better with the club in its current plight?
Maybe. We will never know. Without a goalscorer and with a 21 point deduction, it's hard to see anyone doing "well enough" (also note what's happened to many people's oft touted candidates: Hughton, Cook and Jokanovic).
So what's so good about Rooney?
The way he has conducted himself throughout this whole sorry process. By all accounts his approach to the players and staff has been empathetic, considerate and thoughtful. He has surprised me with - for the want of a better word - his "class". He thoroughly deserves our support.
Let's judge his football management when (if) the club is ever stabilized. Once he has truly been able to assemble his squad and started playing his preferred tactics rather than those dictated to him by squad availability and the quest for survival.
Come on Derby. Come on Rooney ?

No.
He's still leading us through the most difficult and horrendous season of our club's existence with a dignified calmness and getting superb performances from our squad of old men and kids.
We'll still be singing, "He goes by the name of Wayne Rooney", loud and proud for a bit longer yet.,
?

The Gadsby/Appleby duo does raise a few eyebrows. I don't believe they have the enormous funds at hand, but we know that both have overseen the club's best positions post-Pickering. 
The one thing that I'm fairly sure of is that they're coming in to settle the situation and then make a sale of a club in a better position than it currently is, whilst making some money for themselves in the process. They protect the club in the short-term and make a smart investment long-term. I doubt they're going to be the ownership to re-establish a Premier League charge, but the club could survive with them at the helm. 
I think Appleby, whilst never splashing the cash, made some shrewd appointments for the club overall. I really like Glick and when you look at the trajectory of his career since his time here then you must give Appleby credit for being a smart sport-biased business man. I really think we could do a lot worse than that. 
I don't think I will be head-over-heels with whoever wins out the takeover, but anything to get the club back to a stable footing again will be appreciated for sure. 

If we're going back that far though, does suggest it's not an everyday situation Rooney finds himself in though surely?
Back in the Taylor days did we have FFP, transfer embargo's and all that kind of mess to deal with?
I'm sure we've had dark days way back, but we're entering that similar debate over who's the goat, Maradona, Pele, Messi or Ronaldo, different eras.
Again, just to clarify I do not believe Rooney is above any criticism, I guess I just view the circumstances to be working under to be more harsh than what others do.

Cole, Frank n Stamps, and Mears
The Three Wide Men.
Merry Christmas! ?

The stats don't make good reading for Rooney, but then neither does the situation the club is in and that cannot be ignored.
It's simply not fair to compare against others, especially in recent years that have had far better squads built without transfer embargo's.
Life isn't fair, I get that, however this would be an extremely difficult situation for any manager to work under.
For me, if the season ended today then Rooney is Championship manager of the season by a country mile. 
Some will laugh, but I stand by this, 19th without the deductions, one win away from 14th which is incredible and I think the wider football world is starting to see this now.

What’s confusing is when Nixon says
‘It goes from a bid [by Kirchner] to a deal when the admins say what the actual price is rather than the estimate.’. 

Maybe it’s a scrambled way of describing what will happen when HMRC has agreed a deal. At that point the admins will know the minimum that needs to be bid for the unsecured creditors to get 25%. I guess at that point the admins will tell the bidders: “ok, let us have your best and final bid and by the way we ignore it if it’s less than the minimum. “

but Nixon also suggests that Kirchner has a deal as soon as he is told the minimum. If we’re to believe there are others in the frame, that’s rubbish 
I’m going to ask Nixon round to our place over Xmas for a game of Chinese whispers. He’ll be fabulous 

I welcome this, its not about you, its the people you potentially infect, the elderly and vulnerable including your relatives.  People are still laughing at masks and not trusting vaccines, that fine, you have a choice, but so does DCFC and they have a duty of care to their fans!!!  Just as you have a right not to be vaccinated or want to wear a mask, DCFCs has a right to refuse you entry! 
At least we are not at the point of compulsory vaccination like some countries in the EU.  You 'still' have a choice, life is full of choices, but, you need to accept your choices sometimes have consequences.  I've personally had 3 jabs and the flu jab, why to keep myself and my relative safe.
Its simple if you want entry get jabbed, if your not exempt and don't want to get jabbed, you have to accept the consequences of not being allowed in, its a choice....
An anti-vaxer and campaigner who attended lots of C19 anti-vaccination rallies who lived in Willington, is no longer with us, sadly, he endured a terrible fate on a ventilator which lasted for about 10 weeks and ultimately died. 
Lets all stay as safe ae we can, be it by taking the vaccination or by respecting the rules by not attending the game, we all have a choice!   

https://www.dcfc.co.uk/news/2021/12/Derby-county-vs-blackpool-11th-december-2021-wayne-rooney-reaction
"If you look back at the interview I did on Thursday, you could see that I was a bit flat. We have had a lot to deal with what with losing so many players and bringing so many young players in.
I felt it was an opportunity for some of the lads who haven’t played to come in and I have a lot of confidence in them.
“It wasn’t the best performance today; we had to change the shape and tried to mix it up and we didn’t play as much football as we have done this season, but it was a well-earned three points.”
It's such a tough gig! He really must wonder when we'll catch a break. Lady Luck was hanging about outside the ground, time she stepped on in! #COYR
 

No, he was a coach for under 18s I think. Possibly younger groups too. He told me he had to have emergency non DCFC clothing in his car for when he returned to Notts and he kept forgetting and getting funny comments! 
His son Lewis was also at DCFC. 

Well, I never knew that WanChope. Learn something new everyday. ?
Thought you’d made a Freudian slip and were a closet Forest fan! ?

Just watched his highlights reel (again) on YouTube. My word, what a player.
Our future was pretty much decided the day he got that ACL in pre season. An absolute hammer blow.

I 100% agree the academy products now are brilliant 
But there’s differences to a few years ago- we’re playing at a much higher level in 23s football to where we were 5 or 6 years ago which probably improves them
The academy boys are highly motivated as there are clear routes to first team football which I don’t think the likes of Guy, Vernam etc ever had and that must have affected their drive. Not to mention, I expect there are lots of players in Leagues 1 and 2 who wouldn’t look out of place in the Championship; they just need an opportunity
I do think, however, we’ve recruited better in recent years and that’s possibly because of the 23s and 18s have a brilliant reputation now as well as the obvious lure of likely first team football if you’re any good at all 

What we do have, is a proven academy and probably the best outside the Premiership. Any young talent that is looking to make in football would look at Derby County if their parents had any sense.  Those who went to an Academy side in the Premiership were always up against more competition and its been proven with Luke Plange being released by Arsenal and Louie Watson at West Ham, then improving at Moor Farm.
We have created a top class youth academy that will continue to attract young talent for years to come. The man to take the credit is Darren Wassall.  The manager that brought him to Derby from Burton was Nigel Clough, so he must also take some credit, Nigel was sacked in September 2013 but had stated in the March of 2013 "The Academy should almost be ring fenced and whoever comes in next, I hope they have the sense to leave it alone and let it continue working".  I'm not going to list the players that have made it from academy status to either Premiership, Championship or lower proffesional leagues. The list is quite big, but I will mention one player who I thought could have made it with the Rams, Timi Max Elsnik who made only the 1st team in the Carabao cup but went on loan to a few clubs before being released and is mow playing for Olimpija Lujbljana in the top flight of Slovenia and recently made his debut for Slovenia in Octoberthis year.

The point being those players should have been there as emergency backup in their positions. Sort of like the roles Wes Brown, O'Shea, etc had at Man Utd. Capable of filling in, but not good enoigh as a regular starter - as evidenced when they eventually moved on.
In 15/16, we had Pearce, Shotton and Buxton as 4th, 5th and 6th choice CBs, playing for a total of 261 minutes in the league. Rawson could easily have stepped in as 4th choice instead, and showed he was capable enough based on his loan out to Rotherham. Hanson didn't look out of place in the team yet hardly featured again in following seasons.
16/17, Blackman, Camara and Weimann 4th, 5th and 6th choice wingers played for less than a combined 1000 minutes. Those should have been given to Bennett (who only played for 23). Lowe was exceptional when he came into the side in 16/17, including a memorable man of the match display vs Wolves. But, he had Forsyth and Olsson on senior player wages so shived down the pecking order.
17/18, Shackell 0 minutes, Butterfield 157, Palmer 426 and Anya 302. Are you telling me Rawson, Hanson and Elsnik couldn't have played those roles and not been just as good? We owned Vydra, Martin, Jerome, Nugent and Bent plus Winnall on loan. We only needed 2 of them, with Jacobsen as backup.

Yep. Curtis has always been brilliant with the younger players. Without wanting to knock Wazza who is doing his level best in impossible circumstances, I'm still mystified by the decision to make Lawrence the skipper but I suppose the likes of Curtis, Jags, Shinniesta and Knight all lead by example anyway.
Back on Curtis, he looks nailed on to make a very good coach somewhere down the line, hopefully with us. He's the very definition of a model professional and a credit to himself and the club.

This what the Covid lads said

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/sport/football/blackpool-fc/blackpool-supporters-trust-column-we-fully-understand-derbys-pain-3490818%3famp
I'm sure this has been posted elsewhere but nice to read an article that paints the picture..

Thank you @Blackpoolmadtop post from a real football supporter. Whatever our allegiances it is sad to see any club in difficulties due to the mismanagement of others because of the communities and individuals involved. I am going tomorrow with my son and grandson and will be explaining to him the brother/sisterhood of the football supporter. It is great how your club has survived and is prospering, we may have a long way yet to fall, but it gives me some hope. Sadly like others before us we will not be the last due to the inequalities in the organisation of the Premier and football leagues.