Pride: The Inside Story of Derby County

[HuddersRam]

17 hours ago, RamNut said:

I finished it last night.

Much better than I expected to be honest. 
probably one of the best books on the history of the club, not just because it covers recent history but the judgements and assessments are fair. Some of the facts revealed are quite shocking.
it’s hard work reliving what in hindsight reads as repetitive failure with few notable exceptions. I’ll probably read it again over xmas as there is so much content. The biggest lesson for me - Giles Barnes - comes out really well and badly treated. I didn’t expect that.

I agreed with the final line btw.

That's fantastic to hear @RamNut, really appreciate your feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yeah I felt particularly for Giles, he still holds a lot of disappointment towards how his Derby career unfolded.

Yep. That final line has become even more poignant of late.

[ilkleyram]

Hi @HuddersRam.  You said that you wanted some feedback in one of your earlier posts so, now I've read it......

The last 100 pages were a struggle, not because of the book but because of my general DCFC mood.  The last 5 results and improved performances and mood made me pick it up again and finish it after several weeks gap.

I enjoyed it a great deal and would recommend it to any Rams fan (or general football fan). Thank you for writing it. It must have been a real labour of love at times.

I don't know whether there are any factual errors - all the seasons tend to blur for me - but it served as a really good reminder of some of the things we have gone through over the last few years and put them in some order.  There were some proof reading errors (grammar and the like) but they were relatively minor; at times too I had to go back to work out which season we were in, perhaps a few more memory jogs in the prose might have helped, especially in some of the blander seasons. As @RamNut has suggested the Giles Barnes comments were perhaps amongst the most revelatory.  An interesting character is Nigel - he obviously generates huge loyalty and significant dislike, perhaps in equal measure.

If I had a couple of questions/comments they would be:

1) why did you construct the story chronologically (not suggesting that was a bad thing to do, just wondered)? Did you consider writing it in a different way, by owner or manager perhaps or by taking a player from each season? The off field stories have been as interesting as the on field events over many of our PP years - the rise and fall of Lionel, the amigos, Gadsby/GSE and Mel as well as all the various managers.  There may be a series of books!

2) There were some omissions I thought.  Mel for example, Nigel, Jewell, John Vicars or Stephen Pearce (even Sam Rush), or a fan or fans' eye view or a local/national reporter maybe. The players interviewed seemed somewhat random at times (although Bryson runs as a theme throughout many of the years and is heavily featured). That may well be because no one else wanted to talk to you (or were tied up in legal restrictions), or if they did were very circumspect (Burley for example), but, for me, the details that I couldn't know (or had forgotten) are often the most interesting ones - about transfers in or out, contracts or training regimes, relationships with managers and team mates or coming from abroad to a provincial East Midland city, never mind the board room/takeover shenanigans.

I wish you all the best with it and hope it is selling well over Christmas.  Thanks again for writing it.

[HuddersRam]

2 hours ago, ilkleyram said:

Hi @HuddersRam.  You said that you wanted some feedback in one of your earlier posts so, now I've read it......

The last 100 pages were a struggle, not because of the book but because of my general DCFC mood.  The last 5 results and improved performances and mood made me pick it up again and finish it after several weeks gap.

I enjoyed it a great deal and would recommend it to any Rams fan (or general football fan). Thank you for writing it. It must have been a real labour of love at times.

I don't know whether there are any factual errors - all the seasons tend to blur for me - but it served as a really good reminder of some of the things we have gone through over the last few years and put them in some order.  There were some proof reading errors (grammar and the like) but they were relatively minor; at times too I had to go back to work out which season we were in, perhaps a few more memory jogs in the prose might have helped, especially in some of the blander seasons. As @RamNut has suggested the Giles Barnes comments were perhaps amongst the most revelatory.  An interesting character is Nigel - he obviously generates huge loyalty and significant dislike, perhaps in equal measure.

If I had a couple of questions/comments they would be:

1) why did you construct the story chronologically (not suggesting that was a bad thing to do, just wondered)? Did you consider writing it in a different way, by owner or manager perhaps or by taking a player from each season? The off field stories have been as interesting as the on field events over many of our PP years - the rise and fall of Lionel, the amigos, Gadsby/GSE and Mel as well as all the various managers.  There may be a series of books!

2) There were some omissions I thought.  Mel for example, Nigel, Jewell, John Vicars or Stephen Pearce (even Sam Rush), or a fan or fans' eye view or a local/national reporter maybe. The players interviewed seemed somewhat random at times (although Bryson runs as a theme throughout many of the years and is heavily featured). That may well be because no one else wanted to talk to you (or were tied up in legal restrictions), or if they did were very circumspect (Burley for example), but, for me, the details that I couldn't know (or had forgotten) are often the most interesting ones - about transfers in or out, contracts or training regimes, relationships with managers and team mates or coming from abroad to a provincial East Midland city, never mind the board room/takeover shenanigans.

I wish you all the best with it and hope it is selling well over Christmas.  Thanks again for writing it.

Thanks for that feedback @ilkleyram! I really appreciate you taking the time to provide it. Absolutely understandable - I think we've all wanted to be as far away from this club for much of this season, so the release of the book definitely wasn't ideal. You're right on the labour of love side. It became a weekly question of 'why on earth am I doing this?' but I massively enjoyed it.

Thanks for the mention on the prose as well. Can understand that completely. I'll do my best to answer the questions:

1) So yeah, I always planned on doing it chronologically because it was going to run from 2000-2020, but the further on I went the more it developed really. I did actually toy with the idea of doing it as a season/chapter on a player sort of thing, but I instead to do the player focuses as blogs instead to raise a bit of awareness on the book in the end. Completely agree that there's loads more I didn't manage to fit in!

2) I made an initial list of about 80 or so people which changed massively over time. My original targets were more of the 'lesser' players without being disrespectful, but the further along it went on, the more strong connections I managed to make. Of the list above, Jewell and Clough both refused to take part. Tom Glick + Andy Appleby never responded to a few interview requests and Sam Rush legally wasn't allowed to speak, although he was really good to deal with and has read the book since it's release. Mel I pushed to get for a long time but it never happened unfortunately, though he did have to give final approval before the release of the book because it wasn't entirely complimentary. To be fair, I always tried to get the key people where possible. So even with the Amigos, I was really close to getting Jeremy Keith before he turned it down. Keogh too had agreed to take part but the longer his legal battle with the club went on, the more it became impossible. Billy Davies too had agreed before backing out. I tried to get a member of the coaching staff + management team as much as possible as well. I think the Lampard + Davies reigns were the only ones I didn't manage to grab anything from unfortunately.

The book has gone down crazily well, certainly way better than I expected, and has just had it's third reprint since publication, which is wild. So a big, big thank you to everyone who has read it! It's been in and around the top 20 on Amazon since release, which again is completely crazy. I'm giving away a copy over on a separate thread in case anyone is keen on a pre-Christmas 'treat' (not sure that's the right word)

Thanks again Ilkley, I massively appreciate that!

[Ramslad1992]

One that has always stuck with me as one of my favourites was when I was 8. We played sheff Wed at home and were 3-1 down going into injury time, remember the miserable old bloke who used to sit next to me leaving 5 mins early as he did every single game! 
 

we pulled it back to 3-3 and I was on cloud 9 for the rest of the week! Remember sitting next to my dad on the train home saying ‘bet he won’t leave early next week dad’ he did...

[Rev]

2 hours ago, HuddersRam said:

Thanks for that feedback @ilkleyram! I really appreciate you taking the time to provide it. Absolutely understandable - I think we've all wanted to be as far away from this club for much of this season, so the release of the book definitely wasn't ideal. You're right on the labour of love side. It became a weekly question of 'why on earth am I doing this?' but I massively enjoyed it.

Thanks for the mention on the prose as well. Can understand that completely. I'll do my best to answer the questions:

1) So yeah, I always planned on doing it chronologically because it was going to run from 2000-2020, but the further on I went the more it developed really. I did actually toy with the idea of doing it as a season/chapter on a player sort of thing, but I instead to do the player focuses as blogs instead to raise a bit of awareness on the book in the end. Completely agree that there's loads more I didn't manage to fit in!

2) I made an initial list of about 80 or so people which changed massively over time. My original targets were more of the 'lesser' players without being disrespectful, but the further along it went on, the more strong connections I managed to make. Of the list above, Jewell and Clough both refused to take part. Tom Glick + Andy Appleby never responded to a few interview requests and Sam Rush legally wasn't allowed to speak, although he was really good to deal with and has read the book since it's release. Mel I pushed to get for a long time but it never happened unfortunately, though he did have to give final approval before the release of the book because it wasn't entirely complimentary. To be fair, I always tried to get the key people where possible. So even with the Amigos, I was really close to getting Jeremy Keith before he turned it down. Keogh too had agreed to take part but the longer his legal battle with the club went on, the more it became impossible. Billy Davies too had agreed before backing out. I tried to get a member of the coaching staff + management team as much as possible as well. I think the Lampard + Davies reigns were the only ones I didn't manage to grab anything from unfortunately.

The book has gone down crazily well, certainly way better than I expected, and has just had it's third reprint since publication, which is wild. So a big, big thank you to everyone who has read it! It's been in and around the top 20 on Amazon since release, which again is completely crazy. I'm giving away a copy over on a separate thread in case anyone is keen on a pre-Christmas 'treat' (not sure that's the right word)

Thanks again Ilkley, I massively appreciate that!

Did you write it chronologically too?

[HuddersRam]

6 minutes ago, Rev said:

Did you write it chronologically too?

Nope not at all. I think the first season I wrote was 13/14, then 18/19. The last two were the Clough ones as they were the ones without too much of a full on meltdown.

Some of the main interviewees came in quite late as well, so I had to basically redo a couple of them in the last few weeks to fit into some of the more interesting player answers!

[Rev]

8 minutes ago, HuddersRam said:

Nope not at all. I think the first season I wrote was 13/14, then 18/19. The last two were the Clough ones as they were the ones without too much of a full on meltdown.

Some of the main interviewees came in quite late as well, so I had to basically redo a couple of them in the last few weeks to fit into some of the more interesting player answers!

Thanks for the answer. 

To me, the book seemed to flow better the more I read, once I'd got 40/50 pages in the words just seemed to fall off the page into my head. 

I too took a a few weeks rest, probably related to real world events, before I plunged into Rowetts trainers to the finish!

It's a great book, and no doubt one I'll pick up again soon, if only to remember the highs, and console myself during the lows to come.

[HuddersRam]

8 minutes ago, Rev said:

Thanks for the answer. 

To me, the book seemed to flow better the more I read, once I'd got 40/50 pages in the words just seemed to fall off the page into my head. 

I too took a a few weeks rest, probably related to real world events, before I plunged into Rowetts trainers to the finish!

It's a great book, and no doubt one I'll pick up again soon, if only to remember the highs, and console myself during the lows to come.

Thanks Rev! And yeah, I know exactly what you mean to be quite honest. With the first chapter or so, it was all in a good place that I and the proofreader (also a Ram) were happy with, and then a few things out of our control meant some sections needed removing and a few quotes were changed around. Luckily after that, it became a free for all!

I'm glad you enjoyed it though, mate. Great to get that feedback.

[Premier ram]

On 14/12/2020 at 23:12, HuddersRam said:

Thanks Rev! And yeah, I know exactly what you mean to be quite honest. With the first chapter or so, it was all in a good place that I and the proofreader (also a Ram) were happy with, and then a few things out of our control meant some sections needed removing and a few quotes were changed around. Luckily after that, it became a free for all!

I'm glad you enjoyed it though, mate. Great to get that feedback.

Found a gift card from Waterstones that i had for my birthday and forgotten about , used it today to get a copy of Pride , heard great things about it , cant wait to start reading it

[ariotofmyown]

Looking forward to all the activity on this thread come the 25th!

[HuddersRam]

21 hours ago, Premier ram said:

Found a gift card from Waterstones that i had for my birthday and forgotten about , used it today to get a copy of Pride , heard great things about it , cant wait to start reading it

Great stuff, @Premier ram! Hope you enjoy the book mate.

If anyone else gets a copy for Christmas, would love to get your feedback on it! I think the delivery deadline for the book on Amazon has now passed, and I think the club have sold out online, but I reckon there are still a few copies in store and in a few book shops around Derby. There's my marketing spiel, I am not a master of it

[Woodley Ram]

On 09/10/2020 at 17:46, HuddersRam said:

Happy Friday one and all!

I should probably apologise in advance as I feel a little bit spammy, but I'm pretty excited to say that Pride (or Pride: The Inside Story of Derby County in the 21st Century to give it the full, far too long name) will be available from the club shop and online from this weekend!

Link - https://www.dcfcmegastore.co.uk/item/2865/Books/Pride-Na.html

For those who don't know, Pride is a project I've been working on for around three years in total, and it's seen me work with just over 60 former players, managers, chairmen, coaches and #ITK fans to tell the tale of the club from the moment we moved into Pride Park until the beginning of this year. It's not really a game by game account, it's more of a focus on each season, the on-field and off-field dramas (even the crash), all told by those who lived it from the inside. So to put the 60 people into context, it varies from the likes of Stefano Eranio, Steve McClaren and Warren Barton through to Gary Rowett, Harry Wilson, Giles Barnes, Inigo Idiakez and Jake Buxton.

The club have been extremely supportive and it's been a huge surprise to have them come on board, considering the content paints a factual tale, but they've been a huge help and it's fantastic to have them on board.

For anyone who has pre-ordered already - and a massive thank you for your interest in what began as just a daft little project to pass the time - what I'm going to recommend to people is that they cancel their pre-orders with Amazon and the likes, because hopefully money won't have been taken. Then the book will be available for around a week or two at the club and the megastore, before hitting the wider world. Unfortunately this one was out of my hands so I'm expecting a few pelters ?

I'll try not to spam too much but if anyone has any questions or comments on the book, what it's about or why certain people didn't make the cut, just reply or drop me a message. And most of all, for anyone who is keen and interested in understanding almost every major development and in-story of the club over 20+ years, I really hope you enjoy it. I'm on Twitter at @PrideDCFC where I'll be rambling to myself and sharing a few articles I've done over the past few months.

You might see/hear me a bit over the media over the next few weeks, so I'm always here to throw abuse at! I had a chat with the @Steve Bloomer's Washing team as well for their latest episode: https://soundcloud.com/user-147200653/sbw-94-Derby-county-2000-2020

 

Cheers,

Ryan

I have my copy and I am looking forward to reading it over the Crimbo period 

[FlyBritishMidland]

Arrived yesterday.  Just in time for the Mrs to wrap it for Christmas Day when she can enjoy the look of total surprise on my face when I open it!!

[DavesaRam]

Bought a copy from my son, and with the lockdown I don't know if it will get to him, but I can't read it as he is a sharp cookie and will spot any slight thumb prints or other markings on pages. However, I suspect that my wife may have bought it for me, either for Christmas or for my birthday, which is just after New Years Day.

You've obviously spoken to loads of people for this, and I wondered how you first managed to get your foot in the door to actually access all these people, as most of us mere mortals don't get to meet any of them.

[HuddersRam]

4 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

Bought a copy from my son, and with the lockdown I don't know if it will get to him, but I can't read it as he is a sharp cookie and will spot any slight thumb prints or other markings on pages. However, I suspect that my wife may have bought it for me, either for Christmas or for my birthday, which is just after New Years Day.

You've obviously spoken to loads of people for this, and I wondered how you first managed to get your foot in the door to actually access all these people, as most of us mere mortals don't get to meet any of them.

Hope it goes down well! You too @Woodley Ram+ @Coolascustard.

Yeah so my uni background is in sports journalism but I didn't actually have any of the connections when I began writing the book. So it took a good couple of years to build up all the relevant contacts and find the best people to contribute to the book. A lot of being ignored by media teams and then desperately begging some of those who contributed to help out with a few people. I go into a bit more detail on it in this pod with the @Steve Bloomer's Washing chaps:

 

[Steve How Hard?]

Great read so far @HuddersRam. Smashed through 90 odd pages earlier today. It's been good for me because living outside the area it fills in a lot of blanks from those periods. Cheers, great work. ?

[Ramos]

30 pages in and loving it. Also - the Charlton 2 2 was also my first ever rams game in 2000 so I very much relate to everything Ryan has said so far ?

merry Christmas one and all 

[Pearl Ram]

Has anybody else’s partner (Mrs in my case) asked if you are going to be reading that book all day ?

Enjoying it very much, been worth waiting for. 

[NC--RAM]

I told you all it was UNPUTDOWNABLE.Truly fabulous book oh by the way started The Baseball Ground gone,but not forgotten today...

[angieram]

Waited patiently for this to appear beneath the Christmas tree; alas, not there.

I hope there are a few copies left at the Megastore.