Groundwork

[HuddersRam]

Morning squad. I've been radio silence on here the last few months for two reasons:

• I can't add anything on the situation between just sorrow
• I've been working on something new

For those who don't know and for those who don't care (understandable, no complaints from me) I produced a book called Pride in 2020, which went into the last 20 or so years of the club. That was nice, but the issue is that for those 20 years we were pretty awful. So I wanted to work on something new and a bit more feel good. And so...

I'm really, really pleased to say that my next book will go live in Autumn of this year and it's titled: Groundwork: The Inside Story Behind Jim Smith's Derby County. 

Just like Pride, it's told from the behind the scenes perspective of those incredible few years and includes insight from around 60 former players, coaches and staff members at the club. From Igor, Eranio and Sturridge, through to Steve's McClaren and Round, it delves into what made that time so special. But more than this it focuses on the work of Jim as a manager and crucially, as a man. I've spoken with the creators of Prozone, the first sports psychologist in British football, the first fitness coach in the game, to evaluate how pivotal Derby (yes, Derby) were in the evolution of football in this country. And there is also a section remembering Jim himself, including thoughts from his family, as well as close friends like Harry Redknapp and Howard Wilkinson. There's even a Graham Richards cameo or two. 

I know there's a lot of continuing nightmares around us at the minute, but hopefully this brings a bit of joy and memories of what this club can be. ?

 

[Ramrob]

Can’t wait to read this!

Great work @HuddersRam ?

[North East Ram]

Brilliant. Looking forward to reading this. What a great man and Derby manager.

TBE really put Derby back on the football map and created some amazing memories. Great days.
Had my first ST in 84 so witnessed the amazing renaissance led by King Arthur, then TBE got us back up after a brief dip. Seems like yesterday we were a steady Prem team and whisper it… even liked and admired by other teams.

Now repeat after me, loud and proud, for at least 30 minutes:

Bald Eagle, Barmy Army

Bald Eagle, Barmy Army

Bald Eagle, Barmy Army

?

 

[Ram-a-lama fa fa fa]

remember when jim was announced as manager and the massive underwhelming feeling i had.

boy was i wrong. up there with Arthur cox for me as the best dcfc manager in my lifetime. good times. great football 

[Kathcairns]

1 minute ago, Ram-a-lama fa fa fa said:

remember when jim was announced as manager and the massive underwhelming feeling i had.

boy was i wrong. up there with Arthur cox for me as the best dcfc manager in my lifetime. good times. great football 

I remember feeling the same, but how he changed my mind with the players he bought in. Great times, next to cloughie for me.

[Ram-a-lama fa fa fa]

10 minutes ago, Kathcairns said:

I remember feeling the same, but how he changed my mind with the players he bought in. Great times, next to cloughie for me.

exactly. got rid of alot of expensive buys from pickerings spending and brought in player like robin van der laan. who at best i thought was an average player. but he seemed to gel at derby. add into that the italians, croatians and a costa rican. 

also poom

Edited March 18, 2022 by Ram-a-lama fa fa fa
forget poom lol

[strawhillram]

1 hour ago, HuddersRam said:

Morning squad. I've been radio silence on here the last few months for two reasons:

• I can't add anything on the situation between just sorrow
• I've been working on something new

For those who don't know and for those who don't care (understandable, no complaints from me) I produced a book called Pride in 2020, which went into the last 20 or so years of the club. That was nice, but the issue is that for those 20 years we were pretty awful. So I wanted to work on something new and a bit more feel good. And so...

I'm really, really pleased to say that my next book will go live in Autumn of this year and it's titled: Groundwork: The Inside Story Behind Jim Smith's Derby County. 

Just like Pride, it's told from the behind the scenes perspective of those incredible few years and includes insight from around 60 former players, coaches and staff members at the club. From Igor, Eranio and Sturridge, through to Steve's McClaren and Round, it delves into what made that time so special. But more than this it focuses on the work of Jim as a manager and crucially, as a man. I've spoken with the creators of Prozone, the first sports psychologist in British football, the first fitness coach in the game, to evaluate how pivotal Derby (yes, Derby) were in the evolution of football in this country. And there is also a section remembering Jim himself, including thoughts from his family, as well as close friends like Harry Redknapp and Howard Wilkinson. There's even a Graham Richards cameo or two. 

I know there's a lot of continuing nightmares around us at the minute, but hopefully this brings a bit of joy and memories of what this club can be. ?

 

I’ll def buy this

Edited March 18, 2022 by StrawHillRam

[IslandExile]

Just finished reading Jim's autobiography. Good read. But seems partly written while he was still managing at Derby so you could see he was careful over some of the things he said.

If this book reaches the standards you set in the first, Pride, it will be very illuminating. Cannot wait. Good luck.

[hintonsboots]

His description of Wanchope as an octopus juggling a bar of soap always comes to mind. What a team he put together.

[PistoldPete]

1 hour ago, Ram-a-lama fa fa fa said:

remember when jim was announced as manager and the massive underwhelming feeling i had.

boy was i wrong. up there with Arthur cox for me as the best dcfc manager in my lifetime. good times. great football 

I remember this too. But what a breath of fresh air Jim smith was.. all those foreign players , and Mac 1 too.

[Macintosh]

Of all the books written on Derby County, Pride has been the best by a country mile. I thought Pitch's production was wonderful. I do hope the one after this happens to be the present saga, fully explained and dissected, it requires a book, and a properly researched one with heart. I know Pride nearly had an interview with Richard Keogh, but interviews with him, Mel, Alonso, the Sheikh, all those that bid, the administrators, the MPs, players, management, journalists, supporters groups, the new owner(?), EFL etc, would be such a read if it could happen. Players that have departed like Bradley Johnson, Chris Martin and Ikechi Anya would be an interesting insight most would love to learn about.

Edited March 18, 2022 by Macintosh

[TimRam]

41 minutes ago, PistoldPete said:

I remember this too. But what a breath of fresh air Jim smith was.. all those foreign players , and Mac 1 too.

Another season with Mac and I think the dynamic duo would have achieved a lot more.

[Premier ram]

Cant wait to read this Ryan

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

2 hours ago, Macintosh said:

Of all the books written on Derby County, Pride has been the best by a country mile. I thought Pitch's production was wonderful. I do hope the one after this happens to be the present saga, fully explained and dissected, it requires a book, and a properly researched one with heart. I know Pride nearly had an interview with Richard Keogh, but interviews with him, Mel, Alonso, the Sheikh, all those that bid, the administrators, the MPs, players, management, journalists, supporters groups, the new owner(?), EFL etc, would be such a read if it could happen. Players that have departed like Bradley Johnson, Chris Martin and Ikechi Anya would be an interesting insight most would love to learn about.

I can help you with that one already

[HuddersRam]

7 hours ago, IslandExile said:

Just finished reading Jim's autobiography. Good read. But seems partly written while he was still managing at Derby so you could see he was careful over some of the things he said.

If this book reaches the standards you set in the first, Pride, it will be very illuminating. Cannot wait. Good luck.

I think if I remember rightly he did two versions, an updated one covering his final months in full where he gave a bit more away. Cracking read though, some ridiculous anecdotes!

 

6 hours ago, Macintosh said:

Of all the books written on Derby County, Pride has been the best by a country mile. I thought Pitch's production was wonderful. I do hope the one after this happens to be the present saga, fully explained and dissected, it requires a book, and a properly researched one with heart. I know Pride nearly had an interview with Richard Keogh, but interviews with him, Mel, Alonso, the Sheikh, all those that bid, the administrators, the MPs, players, management, journalists, supporters groups, the new owner(?), EFL etc, would be such a read if it could happen. Players that have departed like Bradley Johnson, Chris Martin and Ikechi Anya would be an interesting insight most would love to learn about.

Thank you Mac, I really appreciate that! There are some great Derby reads to be honest, particularly in comparison to some other clubs I've looked at who don't really have anything covering them. Bit odd really from their side but hey ho.

Pitch did a quality job with the production on it. I was 50/50 between self publishing and going through publisher, but glad I did the latter just from production value of it. I do have some plans in place for something along those lines in the future, but I know it's not one for anytime soon sadly. Also need to look into legal support before getting stuck into that one...

[CBRammette]

Really enjoyed Pride. But this period was my favourite as a Derby fan. Had my first season ticket for penultimate year at BBG and into Pride Park. What a time it was. Such good times. However, I am glad its not out yet as I dont think I could bear to read it just now!

[HuddersRam]

Hi everybody, happy t̶a̶k̶e̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶d̶a̶y̶ Monday. 

I've been waiting for a while to get official confirmation, but just a heads up to say that Groundwork is looking like it will be set for publication on 1st August! Admittedly that is two months earlier than I thought so I am mid-panic, but it's fine. Going over old ground but basically, I put the Pride book together which came out in 2020, and as much as I enjoyed it, the twenty years it covered were pretty terrible to be a Rams fan. So this book takes in solely the Jim Smith years.

There's around 55 contributors in total ranging from Steve McClaren, Steve Round and Bill Beswick through to Igor, Eranio, Wanchope, Sturridge and more. There's also a specific section just on Jim with contributions from some of his family, Harry Redknapp and Howard Wilkinson, and a BBC Derby bonus chapter with Colin Gibson and Graham Richards reliving those years.

I've been lucky as well to be able to confirm in the last couple of days that McClaren and Igor are both providing forewords, which is a nice little bonus! Somehow it's about 120k words and 330 pages, so hopefully it's a decent comprehensive account of the time from those who lived it.

ANYWAY - I don't have info on the pre-order side of things yet besides Amazon (but I'd always recommend not to Amazon because they're doing okay for themselves) and will provide those once I do have the proper links and everything, as well as the actual correct price because I don't think it's as much as the one it says - hopefully. But yeah, that's it essentially. If anyone did read Pride and enjoyed it, I'd 100% say this is a better read. And if you read Pride and didn't enjoy it, that's okay too, I apologise profusely. If you didn't read Pride, that is fine for a third time. I'm on here daily but usually just lurk, so hopefully it doesn't look like I'm only jumping on to promote.  Generally I live in the past and the present just confuses me. 

 

[IslandExile]

Really looking forward to this - cannot wait.

I'd much rather you get the money than Amazon but my reading nowadays is from my phone. So I kinda need a digital version. 

Do you have any options?

Edited May 30, 2022 by IslandExile

[HuddersRam]

4 minutes ago, IslandExile said:

Really looking forward to this - cannot wait.

I'd much rather you get the money than Amazon but my reading nowadays is from my phone. So I kinda need a digital version. 

Do you have any options?

Authors make very little either way (unless they self publish) to be honest, so in truth it doesn't bother me so much. I was thinking of doing some sales myself this time and buying from the printers, so I'm looking into the possibilities of that. But also chatting to the club soon as well on whether they will get involved, in which case the sales would go into them which is a lot better than to Bezos or whoever heads it up now.

But for digital, I'm 99% sure there'll be an ebook version. I'll get that confirmed though and let you know!

[Nishfan]

Good luck , it sounds fabulous 

 

whenever I hear Jim Smith’s name, I think of how proud he looked when the Queen came to  Pride Park