It's not the players or the manager, it's the kit

[IslandExile]

The poor start to this season is not because our experienced players are not good enough and/or injured. It's not because the young academy players do not yet have enough experience. It's not because we haven't replaced the three quality loanees from last year.

Neither is it because we had a short preseason and, thanks to Chelsea, Cocu had a late start.

It's not even because of FFP and having to carefully manage the budget.

It's not even related to the curse that was on the old Baseball Ground.

It is all because of......(drumroll)....

The kit.

And I don't just mean those awful zebra stripe sleeves. It's the colours.

@loweman2 will tell us.... Why did we change to Navy in the 70s? I've heard people say it's because Clough wanted the team to look like England but I have it in mind that he simply thought it would change the club's fortunes. How we need that now.

In Navy we won the top division twice.

We changed back to black and the slide began. 

Don't talk to me about tradition. I'm the biggest traditionalist on the planet. Black and white are not the original club colours. And what about the tradition of winning the league, eh? Let's restore that one.

See:

http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Derby_County/Derby_County.htm

And especially @loweman2 book

[Millenniumram]

I think we should play in red, that forest are normally better than us

[REDCAR]

I’m not sure what Umbro we’re thinking those first 6 years . . . Changed kit colour every year! Mental stuff.

ps. I voted keep black & white.... simply because the stadium looks nice black & white.

[Mucker1884]

It was Navy & White (with red numbers) when I started as a fan. 

At the time, I felt betrayed when we went back to black & white, but have obviously mellowed to it over the years. 

Stick or change won’t keep me awake at night, but if I had to choose (which I have, as far as the poll is concerned) I’d go for the return to Navy & White... with the red numbers.

For my generation, that would be reverting to tradition... League titles or no league titles!  

[GenBr]

I think its because we are playing in two kits that look like pyjamas. The blue one is ok, but not great.

Go back to blue and yellow in the away kit whilst we are at it as well.

[Dale The Ram]

Umbro have got a long enough contract to slowly turn the black to blue, season by season, without anyone noticing.

Who knows... they may have started already ?

 

In all seriousness though to change the black to blue the logo, stadium, marketing, chants etc will all have to change and would cost a few million - of which would be better used elsewhere

[CornwallRam]

We simply must return to our proper colours of white and navy. We played Man U in those colours and THEY were the underdogs. We had three quarters of the England defence and the whole of the Scotland midfield in those colours. I reckon that 25 of our 30 best ever players wore those colours. I logged thousands of playing hours on local roads, car parks and playing fields in those colours.  

Clearly, if we're ever going to properly succeed again we follow the path of Brian Clough, not Robert Maxwell. 

[Day]

1 minute ago, CornwallRam said:

We simply must return to our proper colours of white and navy. We played Man U in those colours and THEY were the underdogs. We had three quarters of the England defence and the whole of the Scotland midfield in those colours. I reckon that 25 of our 30 best ever players wore those colours. I logged thousands of playing hours on local roads, car parks and playing fields in those colours.  

Clearly, if we're ever going to properly succeed again we follow the path of Brian Clough, not Robert Maxwell. 

[Richard Dastard Lee]

I think we might get a close brexit type result here, personally I voted remain black.

[Rammy03]

The black kit is the nicest one, it's the blue kit that's the problem. Horrible colour and doesn't look right with the black logos on it.

[Grumpy Git]

Like our recent form, a lot of those sponsors have gone down the pan never to be seen again.

[King Kevin]

If we are good enough we will succeed even if we play in sky blue pink with red spots on as my old man used to say .We are quite simply not good enough it's naff all to do with the colour of the shirts.

[Smyth_18]

12 hours ago, IslandExile said:

 

It is all because of......(drumroll)....

The kit.

 

Not sure you needed a drumroll when you gave the answer in the thread title.

[Mostyn6]

1 hour ago, King Kevin said:

If we are good enough we will succeed even if we play in sky blue pink with red spots on as my old man used to say .We are quite simply not good enough it's naff all to do with the colour of the shirts.

so you have no real objection then to changing back?

[SSD]

Get that maroon kit from 13/14 - we were lethal wearing that away strip.

[King Kevin]

6 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

so you have no real objection then to changing back?

The East Midlands is Navy and White doesn't quite  have the same ring to it. Not fussed either way to be honest.

[loweman2]

15 hours ago, IslandExile said:

The poor start to this season is not because our experienced players are not good enough and/or injured. It's not because the young academy players do not yet have enough experience. It's not because we haven't replaced the three quality loanees from last year.

Neither is it because we had a short preseason and, thanks to Chelsea, Cocu had a late start.

It's not even because of FFP and having to carefully manage the budget.

It's not even related to the curse that was on the old Baseball Ground.

It is all because of......(drumroll)....

The kit.

And I don't just mean those awful zebra stripe sleeves. It's the colours.

@loweman2 will tell us.... Why did we change to Navy in the 70s? I've heard people say it's because Clough wanted the team to look like England but I have it in mind that he simply thought it would change the club's fortunes. How we need that now.

In Navy we won the top division twice.

We changed back to black and the slide began. 

Don't talk to me about tradition. I'm the biggest traditionalist on the planet. Black and white are not the original club colours. And what about the tradition of winning the league, eh? Let's restore that one.

See:

http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Derby_County/Derby_County.htm

And especially @loweman2 book

Loving all the positivity for the book and the the blue and white kit @IslandExile , for me it’s always blue and white, a kid of the 70s and 80s, as you say we were the champions of England twice wearing those colours, we did actually also hit are biggest slide in them and nearly went out of business wearing what to me was my all time favourite Patrick shirt but I put that down to massive mismanagement some five years previously with a certain Tommy Docherty, the Clough and Taylor era can never be repeated, it was a class double act, the charisma and Man management of Clough and the eye for young talent of Taylor, that has all been stripped from football, kids of seven are taken from playing Sunday football with their mates and placed in meat factories called academies and one in a hundred thousand is still there ten years later, football shirts and colours are sold to make money for the kit makers, it’s not about the colours any more, it’s certainly not about style, especially Derby shirts, they get worse each year.

whats wrong with our club is what’s wrong with football in general, it’s money, it’s ruined it all, people getting rich out of our clubs, look at Bury and Bolton, Notts County, their poor fans have seen their clubs ravaged, same a few years back with Leeds, Villa , Portsmouth and countless more.

there is no going back, Pandora’s box has been opened ! The genie is out of the bottle, it’s dead, it’s a new game now that I don’t think we will play a part of.

we will settle for championship football in time, the premier league is a poisoned chalice and can break you if you try to hard to reach it.

we as fans have to accept it, it’s not just our club, at least we are lucky enough to have somebody owning it who cares for the club but even he recognises that a lot more money is required that’s why he has asked for help.

but yes I would love to go back to those halcyon days of the seventies, see a group of raw young talented lads turning out in crisp blue and white kits, I wouldn’t care less if we had red socks on, and take us on a journey to the top of the second layer of English football, acclimatise to the top league, win it.. twice, reach the semi final of the European Cup of course I would but it’s going to take a lot more than a change of Colours! ??

[IslandExile]

Fantastic post @loweman2. You raise a whole raft of other points that should be in threads of their own, if they're not already. But just a couple that I would seize on.....

1. Money has changed the game ('spoiled' or 'killed' in my book). Notts County going out of the league ("EFL") and what is happening to Bury and Bolton is appalling when you see how much money is swilling around at the top of the game. It sickens me and leaves me heartbroken.
 

2. Everyone is frantically trying to get into the Premier League but, in many way, the Championship is way more exciting. It's certainly more competitive. It's anyone's guess who will finish in the top six. Heck, even L**** may get the top spot and F***** may make the play-offs.  And, losing almost very week in the Premier, while set up to defend, is a lot less fun than winning a majority of games playing attractive football in the Championship.

I'm just sorry that you had to remind me of Tommy Docherty ?

Otherwise, many thanks for your thoughts and memories.

[CornwallRam]

3 hours ago, King Kevin said:

The East Midlands is Navy and White doesn't quite  have the same ring to it. Not fussed either way to be honest.

When we were white and navy blue, we didn't need crap slogans to show we were superior to Leicester and Forest.

[King Kevin]

3 minutes ago, CornwallRam said:

When we were white and navy blue, we didn't need crap slogans to show we were superior to Leicester and Forest.

The season I will never forget ,we beat Forest 2-0 away 4-0 at home ,Leicester 3-0 at home 2-0 away and Notts 6-0 in the Cup.If my memory serves me well.