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Robert Maxwell


MackworthRamIsGod

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I am really curious to know what Maxwell was genuinely like as our chairman?

I was too young to really appreciate who he was, first I heard of him was when he was found.

I know he was a controversial character, but am I right in thinking we had some good times whilst he owned us?

Am I also right in thinking he was a billionaire at the time?

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Quick summary...

Came in to much fanfare (mostly from himself). Fans didn't mind because he splashed the cash, letting Arthur Cox, bless him, assemble a great team with fantastic players: Saunders, Wright, Goddard, Micklewhite, many others..... and Shilton.

He then got bored, stopped spending the money, the best players left.

Derby plummeted and very, very nearly went out of business.

Others will give more details but I'd just express a cautionary word to anyone excited at the prospects of pots of money from any new owner - it's fun while it lasts but can go belly up, as indeed Cap'n Bob did.

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He was extremely wealthy however towards the end of his life it was discovered that to prop up his business empire he had secretly been redirecting his employee pension funds into those businesses and left his sons to face fraud investigations after his death. 

Typical of the man after taking over at Derby he crowed we were going to rub Cloughies nose in it then used his Daily Mirror paper to trumpet any new signings we were going to make. Maxwell's son was at Oxford United and he basically told him he had to sell Dean Saunders to us which he duly obliged causing the then manager Mark Lawrenson to resign in protest 

Towards the end of his tenure at Derby he basically got bored with his pet and took little interest in the club, the chants when I was there were he's fat he's round he's never at the ground....he then decided not to spend another bean on transfer fees ultimately condemning Arthur Cox's team to relegation from Division 1. 

Have to say a thoroughly unlikeable character who only existed to boost his own ego. 

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17 minutes ago, IslandExile said:

Derby plummeted and very, very nearly went out of business

Just to correct myself.... Derby nearly went out of business in 1984 and Webb brought Maxwell in to rescue the club.

When he left, having frozen transfers, with the best players leaving aswell, we got relegated and had no money but it was earlier when we were literally minutes from being wound up. At least Maxwell prevented that. 

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14 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

He was extremely wealthy however towards the end of his life it was discovered that to prop up his business empire he had secretly been redirecting his employee pension funds into those businesses and left his sons to face fraud investigations after his death. 

Typical of the man after taking over at Derby he crowed we were going to rub Cloughies nose in it then used his Daily Mirror paper to trumpet any new signings we were going to make. Maxwell's son was at Oxford United and he basically told him he had to sell Dean Saunders to us which he duly obliged causing the then manager Mark Lawrenson to resign in protest 

Towards the end of his tenure at Derby he basically got bored with his pet and took little interest in the club, the chants when I was there were he's fat he's round he's never at the ground....he then decided not to spend another bean on transfer fees ultimately condemning Arthur Cox's team to relegation from Division 1. 

Have to say a thoroughly unlikeable character who only existed to boost his own ego. 

Something to do with over extending in a massive buyout of the New York Times as I recall.

Then he loaned a director at Spurs 1.5 million to buy Lineker when they were going up for sale in a buttering up exercise, whilst leaving Derby with no wide player caused by a horrendous tackle by one of the lovely Spurs players he was so keen to be the boss off.

Pocketed the record fees for Wright and Saunders before he sold us to Brian Fearn when we were relegated as a final kick in the balls.

We would have gone bust if he hadn't stepped in - but he nearly blew that haggling with HMRC at the twelfth hour.

Odious toad.

 

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5 minutes ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Something to do with over extending in a massive buyout of the New York Times as I recall.

Then he loaned a director at Spurs 1.5 million to buy Lineker when they were going up for sale in a buttering up exercise, whilst leaving Derby with no wide player caused by a horrendous tackle by one of the lovely Spurs players he was so keen to be the boss off.

Pocketed the record fees for Wright and Saunders before he sold us to Brian Fearn when we were relegated as a final kick in the balls.

We would have gone bust if he hadn't stepped in - but he nearly blew that haggling with HMRC at the twelfth hour.

Odious toad.

 

I remember when he put Saunders and Wright on the market he initially demanded a sealed envelope auction from interested parties, all clubs involved quite rightly told him to go and do one. 

Ironically his favourite pastime was suing journalists for libel, Ian Hislop at Private Eye being his favourite victim. The irony of the matter wasn't lost on Hislop after Maxwell was exposed to be the master fraudsman who he was after the huge deficit in the Mirror Group pension scheme was discovered. 

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He came in as a saviour but left hated. When the news of his death came there was a few non-pc songs on the Popside and Ossie End.

If memory serves, it was with his time with us when his business empire was unravelling.

His life was certainly very interesting. He escaped the nazis in Czechoslovakia, supposed to have fought for Czech partisans, served in the British Army, rumoured to be an Israeli agent later, became a Labour MP, built up a publishing empire, brought the Mirror, got into football with Oxford then Derby. Robbed the Mirror pension fund to pay his debts and died in suspicious circumstances, allegedly falling off his yacht, some believe he was bumped off - he had a lot of enemies.

His daughter is currently under investigation in the US for her close relationship to Epstein.

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When he got bored he allegedly wouldn't agree to the purchase of up & coming players that had been identified by Arthur Cox - Lee Dixon, Dennis Wise & Ruel Fox

Then there was the embarrassment of his attempts to pinch two Czech internationals Kubik & Knoflicek

 

 

 

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He was a larger than life character. I worked for him in Oxford as my first proper job, so he was Chairman of both my football team and my company. In those days we had secretaries. No one could stick him or he them full time, so mine took one week a month with Captain Bob. 

The boardroom doubled as a meeting room the when not in use and was stuffed full of trophies presented from heads of states. Maxwell had his own chair, massive and ridiculous in the style of a Bond villain. I was the only person in my experience who ever sat in it apart from him. 

People like him live in their own internal worlds and are kept in a bubble to avoid criticism. They think they're above the law. I've not read Stuart Webb's book so I may be wide of the mark, but...

I'd very much expect he didn't like the disgruntled fan chants at Derby and thought why should he bother if he wasn't appreciated. He saw himself as a generous benefactor, but in exchange for adulation.

Equally, I suspect he'd have fallen out with Arthur Cox when Arthur refused to countenance the appointment of Johan Cruyff as Technical Director. Maxwell and me saw it as the next step forward for the club, but if the people at the club didn't share his vision, why should he continue to plough money in? 

At the time the two key media figures in the country were Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch. While Murdoch was the bigger fish, overhauling him was one of the things that drove Maxwell and it gives an idea of his profile, in the era before clubs had mega rich foreign owners. 

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5 hours ago, IslandExile said:

Quick summary...

Came in to much fanfare (mostly from himself). Fans didn't mind because he splashed the cash, letting Arthur Cox, bless him, assemble a great team with fantastic players: Saunders, Wright, Goddard, Micklewhite, many others..... and Shilton.

He then got bored, stopped spending the money, the best players left.

Derby plummeted and very, very nearly went out of business.

Others will give more details but I'd just express a cautionary word to anyone excited at the prospects of pots of money from any new owner - it's fun while it lasts but can go belly up, as indeed Cap'n Bob did.

Remember those days so well started of so great with those brilliant signings then the worst thing he did was sell Saunders and Wright to Liverpool and don't think the money went to the club. 

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6 hours ago, Tyler Durden said:

He was extremely wealthy however towards the end of his life it was discovered that to prop up his business empire he had secretly been redirecting his employee pension funds into those businesses and left his sons to face fraud investigations after his death. 

Typical of the man after taking over at Derby he crowed we were going to rub Cloughies nose in it then used his Daily Mirror paper to trumpet any new signings we were going to make. Maxwell's son was at Oxford United and he basically told him he had to sell Dean Saunders to us which he duly obliged causing the then manager Mark Lawrenson to resign in protest 

Towards the end of his tenure at Derby he basically got bored with his pet and took little interest in the club, the chants when I was there were he's fat he's round he's never at the ground....he then decided not to spend another bean on transfer fees ultimately condemning Arthur Cox's team to relegation from Division 1. 

Have to say a thoroughly unlikeable character who only existed to boost his own ego. 

Tyler Durden I will always remember the story in The Mirror about Lee Chapman had signed for us instead of Forest a Mirror exclusive, of course it was rubbish because Chapman signed for Forest because they were a better team and he wanted to work under Cloughie. Typical Maxwell though. 

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Captain Bob

he was a great man. Much maligned. Generous. Humorous. A man of great vision.
Derby County through and through.

Very sad that he was unable to control his weight and fell off his yacht.

 

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His family became involved in 1984 when. Derby had hit rock bottom. I think it was his son Kevin who came and turned us around by getting in Arthur Cox. By 1987 we were in the top division. By 1988 we were beating teams like Tottenham Hotspurs, Man Utd and Newcastle to name a few and finished 5th in the league. We needed to push on from there but unfortunately we went the opposite direction sold off our assets and went down. 
I never believed he fell off his boat I think it was staged and he disappeared onto some Caribbean island to see out his years.

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30 minutes ago, Gritstone Ram said:

His family became involved in 1984 when. Derby had hit rock bottom. I think it was his son Kevin who came and turned us around by getting in Arthur Cox. By 1987 we were in the top division. By 1988 we were beating teams like Tottenham Hotspurs, Man Utd and Newcastle to name a few and finished 5th in the league. We needed to push on from there but unfortunately we went the opposite direction sold off our assets and went down. 
I never believed he fell off his boat I think it was staged and he disappeared onto some Caribbean island to see out his years.

Ian.

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46 minutes ago, Gritstone Ram said:


I never believed he fell off his boat I think it was staged and he disappeared onto some Caribbean island to see out his years.

Is this the place for unsubstantiated rumours, unlikely theories and endless mithering about things we can't know the answer to or control?? 

Er.. Apologies.... As you were.. 

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