Let's not be "that club"

[uttoxram75]

1 hour ago, Monty said:

Haha suggest ‘we may be back at some indeterminate point subject to significant variables over which we have no control or influence’ good luck fitting that to a chant ?

Struggle to get all that on a t-shirt as well.

[Leeds Ram]

League 1 could be very difficult for us. Look at how long it took forest, coventry, leeds, sheffield united to get out. Some such as Bolton, Charlton, Sunderland, Ipswich and portsmouth are still down there. I'm gutted about relegation but I certainly don't think we'll steamroller the division. We've got 4 players in contract and let's be honest, if some of these young lads are targets for an upper table championship club with big pockets they might think they've been loyal to the club and have earned that big move. I wouldn't blame them for doing so either. 

It's going to take a significant rebuilding project that could mean a few years down in the third divsion. I think if we can keep the spine of the team and add some depth then we'd be outsiders for an unlikely comeback very quickly but given how impressive some of the players have been there must be clubs sniffing around them. I think the club will need to start to re-evaluate how we target players and make sure it's looking at creating an identity at an affordable price. Hopefully, ticket prices will be kept to a minimum to keep as many rams as possible going and maintain good will. It could become incredibly ugly if we're in a fight at the bottom of league 1 but hopefully our relegation now ensures we can focus on what needs to happen and how we can make it happen. 

[Rev]

17 minutes ago, uttoxram75 said:

Struggle to get all that on a t-shirt as well.

The amount of text you can squeeze on a T-shirt tends to get larger with age. 

I started off with we'll be back, but now I reckon you could list all our trophy's on it too. 

Sadly, this would be true if I supported Liverpool, never mind Derby.

 

[Rammy03]

50 minutes ago, Tombo said:

Championship and League One are similar in this sense, very difficult to get promoted out of, but relegated sides from divisions upwards usually do quite well. The quality just isn't there and while every game is a scrap, if you've got the players you'll just breeze it. Look at Fulham as an example for this league. Look at Rotherham as an example in League One.

It will depend on what players we can get in/retain but I'm certainly confident Rooney will prepare them for some scrappy games.

There's players on the books at present who would be absolutely devastating a league down. Cashin would be an absolute monster. Nobody in League One can move the ball like Liam Thompson can. Ebiowei? Forget about any League One defenders stopping him. What are our chances of getting Plange back on loan and making him our first choice striker. League One top scorer right there. Allsop far and away the best keeper in League One??

Max Bird is one of the few contracted past this season. As long as he's not looking at jumping ship, which I'm not sure he would right now, he would be incredible. Plenty more examples, I could go on and on.

Fact is, it's not a guaranteed thing that we'll bounce back up but if we can retain some of these guys we're a very strong side indeed. Keep in mind that we've been relegated due to deductions, not on the field performances. I think you could take the team in 17th in most Championship seasons and put them in League One and reasonably expect them to come back up.

We've racked up 13 wins this season. You can expect us to be in the promotion race. I'll make a judgement on what I expect once I see the squad in August but let's be ambitious. I know we want to not pile on the pressure or expect too much of a club in rebuild, but we asked for a miracle this season and it brought out some incredible performances. We'd have been perfectly within our rights after a 21 point deduction to just "be realistic" and start preparing for League One, but we didn't. And what followed was a strangely enjoyable, if ultimately unsuccessful, rollercoaster ride of a season. One I will remember and treasure forever.

So in short - sod all that realistic expectations stuff, we're going straight back up. Believing is half the battle

Brilliant post. Totally agree

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, uttoxram75 said:

Struggle to get all that on a t-shirt as well.

Dunno - could be onto something here - DCFC don’t do simple?

[Rev]

4 minutes ago, Monty said:

Dunno - could be onto something here - DCFC don’t do simple?

DCFC - Never Boring!

[uttoxram75]

2 minutes ago, Monty said:

Dunno - could be onto something here - DCFC don’t do simple?

I actually had a "we'll be back in 81" t-shirt! Wore it for the first match at Cambridge away and we got hammered 3-0.

What a day that was though?

[Jourdan]

Promotion next season? Let’s not be arrogant.

I think we have to give League One the respect it deserves and adjust our expectations accordingly.

How many clubs have gone down expecting a quick return and felt the full force of reality?

Sunderland, that’s one. Forest, that’s two. Leeds, that’s three. There are several more, which should serve as a warning that we’ll have to remain grounded.

Clubs have gone down with more stability and clarity than ours and struggled, so why do we think we’ll be a special case?

Yes, we have players who are capable of playing above League 1 level. But will they stay? Will they be motivated? Will they perform under greater pressure and scrutiny? I don’t think it’s so straightforward.

Truth is we’ll have an inexperienced owner, an inexperienced manager and coaching staff, a largely inexperienced group of players, and given that it is 36 years since we were last in the third tier, an inexperienced fanbase too.

We’ll be one of the big fish, but what comes with that is we’ll also be the one everyone wants to fry.

As fantastic as it would be to get promoted at the first attempt, I don’t think that’s realistic and the desperation to achieve that could lead to us overextending ourselves yet again.

Personally I would be looking at putting some proper groundwork down and taking the first year in League 1 as a year to reset. We need to put down the right foundations and get the right people in place, so we can move forward as a club in a positive and sustainable manner.

[Rammy03]

6 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

League 1 could be very difficult for us. Look at how long it took forest, coventry, leeds, sheffield united to get out. Some such as Bolton, Charlton, Sunderland, Ipswich and portsmouth are still down there. I'm gutted about relegation but I certainly don't think we'll steamroller the division. We've got 4 players in contract and let's be honest, if some of these young lads are targets for an upper table championship club with big pockets they might think they've been loyal to the club and have earned that big move. I wouldn't blame them for doing so either. 

It's going to take a significant rebuilding project that could mean a few years down in the third divsion. I think if we can keep the spine of the team and add some depth then we'd be outsiders for an unlikely comeback very quickly but given how impressive some of the players have been there must be clubs sniffing around them. I think the club will need to start to re-evaluate how we target players and make sure it's looking at creating an identity at an affordable price. Hopefully, ticket prices will be kept to a minimum to keep as many rams as possible going and maintain good will. It could become incredibly ugly if we're in a fight at the bottom of league 1 but hopefully our relegation now ensures we can focus on what needs to happen and how we can make it happen. 

Hull went down in 19/20 under a massive cloud. They But they kept their manager, they rebuilt the squad, got a group of young players together and went straight back up as champions. It can be done.

Yes recruitment is going to be massive and we obviously need a lot of players but I actually think that we will keep more current players than people think. I think some of our younger players like Bird will stay and it'll be better for them if they do. I think they'll excel in League one. We have got a good core to build on. We have a great youth system, the fans are united again, hopefully the takeover gets done, Rooney will stay and he has brought pride back to the club. There's no reason why we can't do really well next year and come back stronger. 

[uttoxram75]

8 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

Promotion next season? Let’s not be arrogant.

I think we have to give League One the respect it deserves and adjust our expectations accordingly.

How many clubs have gone down expecting a quick return and felt the full force of reality?

Sunderland, that’s one. Forest, that’s two. Leeds, that’s three. There are several more, which should serve as a warning that we’ll have to remain grounded.

Clubs have gone down with more stability and clarity than ours and struggled, so why do we think we’ll be a special case?

Yes, we have players who are capable of playing above League 1 level. But will they stay? Will they be motivated? Will they perform under greater pressure and scrutiny? I don’t think it’s so straightforward.

Truth is we’ll have an inexperienced owner, an inexperienced manager and coaching staff, a largely inexperienced group of players, and given that it is 36 years since we were last in the third tier, an inexperienced fanbase too.

We’ll be one of the big fish, but what comes with that is we’ll also be the one everyone wants to fry.

As fantastic as it would be to get promoted at the first attempt, I don’t think that’s realistic and the desperation to achieve that could lead to us overextending ourselves yet again.

Personally I would be looking at putting some proper groundwork down and taking the first year in League 1 as a year to reset. We need to put down the right foundations and get the right people in place, so we can move forward as a club in a positive and sustainable manner.

And that perfectly sums up what the vast majority of Derby fans are thinking right now.??

[Burtonian]

Massive club with massive support. Much more massive than any other club in tin pot league 1 (3rd division). Should be Champions by March 2023.

[Phuket Ram]

3 hours ago, Monty said:

Haha suggest ‘we may be back at some indeterminate point subject to significant variables over which we have no control or influence’ good luck fitting that to a chant ?

We'll be back imminently...

[NottsRam77]

12 hours ago, TomBustler1884 said:

Disappointed to finally have relegation confirmed tonight but it was always the most likely outcome.

Looking ahead to L1, assuming the takeover happens, I'd love us to avoid being that club who thinks we will walk the league and beat all comers.

We are set for the biggest squad overhaul we've ever seen which will be HUGELY unpredictable. We will have a target on our backs all season long, and there are some big clubs here who have more experience of the slog than we do.

I'm hoping that in August I am confident and think we can compete for promotion, but let's just temper expectations for now and keep the "everything is a bonus" approach, its contributed to the best season ever for atmosphere.

Agree

to add to that, the last major overhaul i can remember was when another scouser decided we needed to change our losing mentality after dropping out of the premiership. He basically brought in a load of rubbish who were totally alien to each other .. god help us rooney doesnt sacrifce quality for quantity

[NottsRam77]

6 hours ago, Ramitupper said:

We'll be back imminently...

48 hours ?

[Rich84]

7 hours ago, Burtonian said:

Massive club with massive support. Much more massive than any other club in tin pot league 1 (3rd division). Should be Champions by March 2023.

Think Sunderland and Sheff Wednesday with their bigger fanbase potential may disagree with you.....

[Rich84]

Realistically, I would expect next season to be one that we consolidate and get a squad together that will need tweaking to challenge the year after, similar to 84/85, but if they gel quickly then we have the togetherness to go on a fantastic journey and possibly even challenge for top 6, but 2 major points need to be addressed that have contributed massively to us falling just short this season:

A regular goal scorer, and I don't think that would be Plange even in league 1, just doesn't get in position enough to score regularly and when he does, he doesn't look confident imo - was hitting the woodwork unlucky yesterday, or a sign that he's just not quite got it yet.

The away form, law of averages should have given us something in the last 3 months..... this needs addressing ASAP, hopefully get a result at Blackpool to remove the pressure for the 1st away game next season.

[Ramant62]

The same Blackpool that just scored 6 ?

[alexxxxx]

We are gonna have to sign a brand new squad. We won't know if we have the strength at all for a long time. Bear in mind, we will have spending caps enforced by EFL... I doubt we'll be promoted at first attempt.

Edited April 19, 2022 by alexxxxx

[EnigmaRam]

I think the difference between us and every other team going down is we didnt go down because we have a load of crap players that couldn’t perform. We went down because of the points deductions and the embargo’s.
 

The positive for me is we aren’t going down with loads of overpaid, aged players we can’t shift off the wage bill. It’s more or less a clean slate. I hope Wayne and Curtis was in that dressing room at Moor farm last night telling all those young players that that wasn’t normal. They wouldn’t get that support at any club anywhere in the world. 
 

Keeping those young players is imperative whilst adding in some quality as a spine with a goal scorer and I’m confident we will be just fine next season.
 

Get the takeover done, get the players signed up Rooney wants and we can be a force next season looking at promotion and I can’t wait. Exciting times ahead!!

[Gaspode]

Given the situation with out of contract players etc, there's an argument to say that it should be easier to build a new competitive League One team than a Championship one.

We've been relatively lucky to have the crop of players that did so well in the U18s/U23s come through at as time when the EFL were preventing us from signing players and tthey have allowed us to field a more than competitive team - without those young players to fall back on we'd have been relegated months ago....We'll certainly lose a number of them during the summer, but their replacements should find a League One scrap easier than a Championship one.....