The latest from the club via Chris Coles

[RadioactiveWaste]

37 minutes ago, sage said:

Anyone having a go at David about attending this meeting is a disgrace.

However, anyone slqggjng him off about his dress sense, cooking, tattoos, quiz ability, electric scooter skils and choosing to love in Grimsby is spot on.

You don't choose where you fall in love or to who you fall in love.

Obviously, staying in Grimsby is a statement of commitment that only true love could possibly demand.

[Ghost of Clough]

40 minutes ago, The_Sheriff said:

cracking post.  In your table we have gave significant minutes to academy graduates- how does this compare with other teams does anyone know? I would argue we are top of the championship (probably the 92) with this?

You should keep an eye out for more of my posts ?

Top 3 for the past 2 seasons.

After 41 games last season we were 2nd on minutes to U21s to Blackburn (9765 vs 9832), and 2nd to Reading for minutes to academy graduates (9154 vs 12970)

11 minutes ago, Sidd10 said:

Great roundup of the situation. But looking at that I can't really such much quality in terms of 'should' be playing at this level / playing more for us.

For example you say Luke Thomas, McAllister and JML should have had more minutes in 2018/19... well they've not exactly done much for anyone since. That being said though, the signing of Jozefzoon as an alternative is beyond bad recruitment.

We've had the perfect storm of academy players being good at academy level but not good enough to step up and awful recruitment for years.

The argument could be that by not playing them, we hindered their progress. Even by giving them a few minutes here and there, we could have boosted their value and got small fees for them. McAllister and JML effectively both left for nothing in the end.

Lowe had an excellent spell in the side in 16/17, including MOM vs Wolves. It wasn't until 19/20 when he had another run in the side. Bennett made 28 apps in the league up to and including 13/14. He made just 7 more before Lampard came in and made him a regular - yielding 8 goal contributions in just 1256 league and playoff minutes.
These two examples will be the main ones Mel would have been referring to.

 

Hanson, Rawson, Vernam, Elsnik and Guy are other notable victims of managers opting for a bloated squad.

[Subman]

I wonder how Sam Rush has been feeling over the last few weeks? ?

[JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta]

To address the whole Punjabi Rams posts and staff/trialists apparently seeing it with concern, the problem here is not the tweets from the fans at the event.

The problem as I see it is that the club does such an appalling job of communicating to anyone (staff, players, fans, trialists, etc) that when something like this happens everyone is concerned. A simple solution to this problem is for the club to communicate more effectively. I don't expect to be kept personally abreast of every development or conversation at the club as I am simply a fan, the club are not obliged to tell me. I'd expect the players we are hoping to sign and the manager to be kept up to date though, which doesn't appear to be the case.

The patience of the trialists and our manager will only extend so far. Had I been in any of their positions I'd have probably walked by now.

Edited August 5, 2021 by JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta

[DarkFruitsRam7]

2 hours ago, angieram said:

A combination of alcohol and vitriolic social media giving yobs carte blanche to do as they please.

[BramcoteRam84]

It was all geared up for Mel when he took over. We’d lost the playoff final in 13/14 playing some of the best football the championship had seen in the decade. We were outstanding for the majority of 14/15, promotion looked like ours for the taking, but we were desperately unlucky with injuries and because we didn’t have the depth of squad we suffered and missed the playoffs - despite getting 78 points which would have seen us comfortably in the playoffs in every season since. Mel’s investment at this point if done correctly would have got us over the line. 
 

Mel made his biggest mistakes early on, the kamikaze recruitment of 15/16 cost us millions and we’ve never really recovered. This combined with the Clement appointment. We didn’t need wholesale change yet we wasted money on Shackell Butterfield Johnson Blackman Camara, followed up by the Anya signing. No thought was given to the resale values of these players. We didn’t learn lessons for the Lampard spending spree either, some of it signings that didn’t come off eg Marriott but did he ever fit our system? Waghorn Malone Jozefzoon all just rank bad business. All this combined we’ve lost between £30-£40m on transfers which finds its way into P&S calculations. Additionally the wages during this period went out of control. 
 

That’s why we’re where we are. We’ve missed an opportunity under Mel’s stewardship and now we’re scrapping to stay in the league, but if he hands over the club to a responsible owner who can sensibly invest alongside the academy talent which has never been so good in my lifetime, we can rise again and Mel might be able to say I did an OK job. That’s about the best he can hope for now.

[Leeds Ram]

2 minutes ago, JuanFloEvraTheCocu'sNesta said:

To address the whole Punjabi Rams posts and staff/trialists apparently seeing it with concern, the problem here is not the tweets from the fans at the event.

The problem as I see it is that the club does such an appalling job of communicating to anyone (staff, players, fans, trialists, etc) that when something like this happens everyone is concerned. A simple solution to this problem is for the club to communicate more effectively. I don't expect to be kept personally abreast of every development or conversation at the club as I am simply a fan, the club are not obliged to tell me. I'd expect the players we are hoping to sign and the manager to be kept up to date though, which doesn't appear to be the case.

The patience of the trialists and our manager will only extend so far. Had I been in any of their positions I'd have probably walked by now.

Exactly this, how anyone can be blaming the fans given the complete absence of communication from the club staggers me tbh. Is it any wonder the general fan base are going spare trying to find out what's going on given the circumstances. The lack of leadership at the club from the top down in terms of clarity and communication on a whole host of issues is absolutely appalling and something that should have been fixed months ago. 

[Sweetness34]

Earlier in this thread it was suggested that "disgrace" is too harsh a word to call Mel but the way he's ran this club into this position is nothing less than a disgrace.

If this was a foreign ownership who came in on the back of the playoff final defeat in 2014, spent money willy nilly, getting high profile names in as managers (always in the photos too!) and trying to get around rules to eventually leave us in this state, I can't imagine there would be one single person in Derbyshire (or all over the place as I've learnt we come from this week!) who would say a good word about them!

I will be honest, I sided with Morris right up until the beginning of this year when we started to get an idea of what a mess we're in. Since then, my opinion of the man (as an owner, not personally) has taken a nose dive.

Lastly, I know it's been said a ton of times, but anyone taking their frustrations out on @David wants to take a look in the mirror. Morons. Then again, I believe it's convenient for people like David and others who were there last night to take some of the heat off Morris, it was probably his intention to confuse us all into a rage by having non-journalists release bits of information.

My not so catchy slogan: Slag Morris off but not David!

[Philmycock]

3 hours ago, Footymum2017 said:

Why would Mel's stepson have upset me? 

Someone at the club has

[RoyMac5]

10 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

The argument could be that by not playing them, we hindered their progress. Even by giving them a few minutes here and there, we could have boosted their value and got small fees for them. McAllister and JML effectively both left for nothing in the end.

Lowe had an excellent spell in the side in 16/17, including MOM vs Wolves. It wasn't until 19/20 when he had another run in the side. Bennett made 28 apps in the league up to and including 13/14. He made just 7 more before Lampard came in and made him a regular - yielding 8 goal contributions in just 1256 league and playoff minutes.
These two examples will be the main ones Mel would have been referring to.

 

Hanson, Rawson, Vernam, Elsnik and Guy are other notable victims of managers opting for a bloated squad.

That's one side of the argument. The other ends along the lines of ...well where are they now? Have our released young players blossomed anywhere else? Only time will tell and I guess we don't have enough time to let them progress as if they're not good enough now we need players in who are.

[Ghost of Clough]

31 minutes ago, Sidd10 said:

Great roundup of the situation. But looking at that I can't really such much quality in terms of 'should' be playing at this level / playing more for us.

For example you say Luke Thomas, McAllister and JML should have had more minutes in 2018/19... well they've not exactly done much for anyone since. That being said though, the signing of Jozefzoon as an alternative is beyond bad recruitment.

We've had the perfect storm of academy players being good at academy level but not good enough to step up and awful recruitment for years.

Just to add, the likes of LThomas, JML and McAllister would have only been 5th choice at best - I think you can respect the game time for a player in that position is fairly limited, with their ability matching that role.

I mean, in the Championship, you can't afford to have more than 2 senior players per position. So in that 18/19 season, the squad should have looked like this:

Carson, Roos
Bogle, Wisdom
Keogh, Pearce/Evans
Davies, Tomori
Forsyth, Lowe
Huddlestone, Johnson
Bryson, Holmes
Mount
Wilson, Waghorn
Lawrence, Bennett
Marriott, Nugent

Malone, Cole, Jozefzoon all surplus to requirements. Not including Olsson who was out injured and Anya in early retirement. Butterfield, Thorne, Blackman and Martin were also still owned by us at this point too, but out on loan... only to leave on frees at the eventual end of their contracts. We could have not bought Marriott and kept Martin which would have saved a further £3m cash.

Which then leaves the likes of Ravas, McDonald, Bird, JML and LThomas as 3rd choice options to fill in in case of emergency. With a smaller squad, we could have kept Hanson to offer versatility too.

[Eatonram]

1 hour ago, QuitYourJibbaJivin said:

Nixon has tweeted again, I’m getting the impression that we’re actually hopefully of a resolution by the 12pm deadline tomorrow.

 

Is Nixon suggesting here that even players with an existing contract with the Club have to sign a new contract?

Find that difficult to believe but hey ho

[Sidd10]

9 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

You should keep an eye out for more of my posts ?

Top 3 for the past 2 seasons.

After 41 games last season we were 2nd on minutes to U21s to Blackburn (9765 vs 9832), and 2nd to Reading for minutes to academy graduates (9154 vs 12970)

The argument could be that by not playing them, we hindered their progress. Even by giving them a few minutes here and there, we could have boosted their value and got small fees for them. McAllister and JML effectively both left for nothing in the end.

Lowe had an excellent spell in the side in 16/17, including MOM vs Wolves. It wasn't until 19/20 when he had another run in the side. Bennett made 28 apps in the league up to and including 13/14. He made just 7 more before Lampard came in and made him a regular - yielding 8 goal contributions in just 1256 league and playoff minutes.
These two examples will be the main ones Mel would have been referring to.

 

Hanson, Rawson, Vernam, Elsnik and Guy are other notable victims of managers opting for a bloated squad.

Victims of a bloated squad or victims of not really being good enough? 

Rawson is now 25 and playing League 2 football 

Hanson is now 25 and playing League 1 football

Vernam is now 24 and playing League 2 football

Guy is now 24 and playing League 2 football

Fair play, they are professional footballers and they are doing much better at the game than I could ever dream of!

But lets be realistic, we haven't held them back from Premier league super stardom, we haven't even held them back from playing for Derby County.

We were playoff contenders throughout all the years mentioned where not very many of the youngsters played, you can't just go chucking in youngsters. The ones who are decent have got minutes, the ones who weren't good enough... didn't. 

 

 

[Kinder]

25 minutes ago, ilkleyram said:

I would imagine that knowing that his report will receive a lot of attention and comment that he’s being very careful in constructing it, not only to reflect accurately what was said and the tone and context of what was said, but also to summon up the strength to deal with the inevitable underwear wetting. Neither will be easy.

I would suggest, more in hope than expectation, that we all bear in mind when commenting on his comments that we appreciate the possible impact on the guy himself. It will take a monumental effort just to respond to questions seeking clarity. 

Agree 100% with this. I wonder if @David is running his summary by a solicitor as well.

[Tyler Durden]

You could never have predicted this would have happened really could you.....club arranges closed door meeting for select supporter representatives, state that they won't be circulating any meeting minutes then said representatives subsequently get hounded for information directly after the meeting has finished.

Again another PR disaster which the club owner has to take total responsibility for. 

[The_Sheriff]

17 minutes ago, Ghost of Clough said:

You should keep an eye out for more of my posts ?

Top 3 for the past 2 seasons.

After 41 games last season we were 2nd on minutes to U21s to Blackburn (9765 vs 9832), and 2nd to Reading for minutes to academy graduates (9154 vs 12970)

The argument could be that by not playing them, we hindered their progress. Even by giving them a few minutes here and there, we could have boosted their value and got small fees for them. McAllister and JML effectively both left for nothing in the end.

Lowe had an excellent spell in the side in 16/17, including MOM vs Wolves. It wasn't until 19/20 when he had another run in the side. Bennett made 28 apps in the league up to and including 13/14. He made just 7 more before Lampard came in and made him a regular - yielding 8 goal contributions in just 1256 league and playoff minutes.
These two examples will be the main ones Mel would have been referring to.

 

Hanson, Rawson, Vernam, Elsnik and Guy are other notable victims of managers opting for a bloated squad.

So what the F is Mel winging about not bringing enough through :S

[LazloW]

[Ghost of Clough]

2 minutes ago, The_Sheriff said:

So what the F is Mel winging about not bringing enough through :S

It's only been a thing since Cocu came, and appeared to be dwindling again under Rooney (limited game time for Sibley and Buchanan)

Lowe easily should have had much more game time in the years previous. So too Bennett. Many others such as Elsnik more than deserved a shot in the team.

[ollycutts1982]

Quite smart by us. We can’t not pay players if they don’t earn anything. Skirting round the possible 3 point penalty. ?? very cute. 

[ThePrisoner]

1 minute ago, ollycutts1982 said:

Quite smart by us. We can’t not pay players if they don’t earn anything. Skirting round the possible 3 point penalty. ?? very cute.