TLDR:

[Foreveram]

18 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

Disgrace that one of them was until recently a fine figure of a man.... and the other of course is Wayne Rooney.

Sorry. 

 

That’s what retirement does to you 😂

[Ewe Ram]

Some fans expected to see Derby play like Barca but we’ve had a spell in league 1. That’s about it. 

[jimbo jones]

5 hours ago, SaintRam said:

See Depression & Anxiety thread in Jim Smith Room. Don't wanna bring that all up here.

But I used to be active here and I miss it 🙂

Good to see you back 🙂

Long story short, David Clowes is taking us back to the promised land 😂

The clubs in a stable position, staying up this season is the priority, if we don't play football like prime Barca a section of the fanbase goes mental…so business as usual really…

[Alty_Ram]

10 hours ago, SaintRam said:

So, hey everyone!

I've been out of the loop for a few years, and while I obviously intend to look back on past seasons as I reintegrate with the sport, I was wondering if folks would be interested in sharing their more general opinions on where Derby is as a team, where it is as a club, what I have to look forward too & what I have to brace myself for.

That's all, really. Looking for a little jumpstart to my relevant Derby knowledge.

Goodness.. where to start. I'll probably pop back with bits and pieces as they occur to me...

One of the key things that has shaped the recent mindset of the average DCFC fan and key to understanding where we are as a club and supporter base was our flirtation with utter oblivion. That's not an exaggeration because as an entity DCFC was going down with all hands. I think the wider football world are still largely unaware of (or just didn't care) just how genuinely close we were to ceasing to exist as a club. The idea that Derby somehow 'got away with it' has been a frustratingly stubborn bit of misinformation parroted by ill-informed and blinkered fans of some clubs.

We were rescued by a local hero who refused to let his club just slip beneath the waves and such was the crippling level of debt, made far worse by the lack of assets including the stadium which seriously impacted interest in any sensible person wanting to save the club. We were only realistically going to be rescued by someone who was prepared to pay far more than our crippled club was worth. The club didn't own its stadium, our players were a ragtag bunch of journeymen on short contracts and and youngsters, the academy had been plundered and stripped bare for absolute peanuts and at certain levels could no longer put out a remotely viable, even vaguely competitive team.

We'd spent years trying to get over our last disastrous foray into the top flight but things had stabilised in footballing terms at least and we got used to challenging at the sharp end of the Championship, but as we were later to find out.. at what cost ?. But then, our frankly spectacular fall from grace, financial meltdown, points deduction and relegation was a huge reset button for a lot of fans. Traumatic times for fans for sure but I take immense pride from the incredible sense of solidarity and 'us against the world' that we experienced during that time, perhaps epitomised by the march to the Stadium for the game against Birmingham and our trip to Blackpool in our thousands to watch a threadbare already-relegated side slip through the trapdoor to League 1. The fans were utterly magnificent that day and we made a huge impact on Blackpool it seems.

I can remember feeling quite emotional as I stepped into the Stadium for the first time after the club had been rescued. Just to have a team to support was a huge bonus from where we'd been. As time passes, some people inevitably will get complacent of course and the sheer relief of just having a club to support will not last forever, but it was a valuable wake-up call for many of us. The outpouring of joy that accompanied last seasons promotion, in some ways felt like a reward for gritting our teeth through everything that had gone before.

Hope that makes some kind of sense.. sorry of it's a bit rambly !

[Bob The Badger]

5 hours ago, SaintRam said:

See Depression & Anxiety thread in Jim Smith Room. Don't wanna bring that all up here.

But I used to be active here and I miss it 🙂

I thought your absence was a direct result of being robbed in the NFC Championship game by the Rams. 

Your game time updates have been missed. Welcome back mate. 

[ariotofmyown]

3 hours ago, Foreveram said:

Depends who you compare me with.

Great pic, even if you have put on a bit of weight and losing your hair. Who is the guy in the blue tshirt though?

[Foreveram]

12 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

Great pic, even if you have put on a bit of weight and losing your hair. Who is the guy in the blue tshirt though?

Dunno, but he has got short fat hairy legs 😂

[Mucker1884]

9 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

Dunno, but he has got short fat hairy legs 😂

Ah!  Isn't that the statue outside Pride Park Stadium, or am I getting my stadiums mixed up?  They all look the same to me!  😉

[ariotofmyown]

13 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

Ah!  Isn't that the statue outside Pride Park Stadium, or am I getting my stadiums mixed up?  They all look the same to me!  😉

If we ever have to play a Warnock team again*, that is the pic to prove the pitch is waterlogged.

*I say that, but he's probably in charge of Boro or Watford now.

[oldtimeram]

We no longer play at the BBG and Hector and Roy Mac have retired from playing 

[Will Hughes Hair]

Surely we’re getting this the wrong way round? Surely @SaintRam is asking about what’s been happening on this part of the forum? I’ll go with some recent updates…

There was someone who vociferously suggested around two hundred Scottish players we should sign.

There was another new poster who declared everything the club did post-season was a very very very poor reflection on the club and fan base.

Neither post much anymore.

Beyond that I suspect most of us keep logging on in hope of the return of @Norman Hull. Sadly this hasn’t happened yet.

The rest is pretty much the same as it ever was.

Edited July 14 by Will Hughes Hair
Vociferated can’t even be a word, can it?

[Dimmu]

13 hours ago, SaintRam said:

So, hey everyone!

I've been out of the loop for a few years, and while I obviously intend to look back on past seasons as I reintegrate with the sport, I was wondering if folks would be interested in sharing their more general opinions on where Derby is as a team, where it is as a club, what I have to look forward too & what I have to brace myself for.

That's all, really. Looking for a little jumpstart to my relevant Derby knowledge.

I don't have much to help you with the catch-up, but I just wanted to say that it's great to have you back Saint! The matchday threads have not been the same without you.

[thederbyram]

Welcome back @SaintRam!

[kash_a_ram_a_ding_dong]

16 hours ago, Will Hughes Hair said:

Surely we’re getting this the wrong way round? Surely @SaintRam is asking about what’s been happening on this part of the forum? I’ll go with some recent updates…

There was someone who vociferously suggested around two hundred Scottish players we should sign.

There was another new poster who declared everything the club did post-season was a very very very poor reflection on the club and fan base.

Neither post much anymore.

Beyond that I suspect most of us keep logging on in hope of the return of @Norman Hull. Sadly this hasn’t happened yet.

The rest is pretty much the same as it ever was.

I still miss @toddy

[DarkFruitsRam7]

On 14/07/2024 at 01:34, Day said:

You’ve came back to an era of somewhat discontent in sections of the fanbase that are not happy with Paul Warne despite promotion.

His style of football is not what some would like to see from a Derby County team even though results have been impressive, breaking records along the way. There is a long term concern over allowing Warne continue building a team to his style which would set us back years of rebuilding once he departs, potentially wasting academy talent.

Question marks have been put in place over his ability to manage at this level with a club of this size, with fans pointing to his record at Rotherham. There is a belief that whilst he’s a League 1 promotion specialist, he’s also a Championship relegation specialist.

Any player that has played under Warne at Rotherham or been a previous target does not go down well.

We disabled polls on the forum last season due to the weekly in or out polls and introduced a singular topic titled Paul Warne in an attempt to contain it. The discontent had a tendency to leak into other topics and yeah there was quite a lot of frustration from both sides of the fence at the other side.

Warne’s personality has also split fans, he is I guess what you would call a quirky character that loves a bobble hat which hasn’t helped and has an habit of rubbing fans up the wrong way with his post match comments.

For a promoted side, it’s not been the party you would expect. 

I would personally urge you not try not to be swayed by anything on the forum and watch maybe the first 10 league games and see what side of the fence you sit on.

In terms of the squad, Cashin and Nelson at the back are universally loved, we have Jake Rooney coming back from an ACL that has shown promise before his injury. Blackett-Taylor was an in demand signing yet since joining hasn’t been able to cement a place in the team and James Collins up top divides opinion at the best of times.

Hopefully incoming Ebou Adams is largely credited with helping us get promoted, he’s an all action midfielder that was universally loved at the time, but now he has the same question marks that Warne has in that can he do it at this level and are we paying too much.

Tried to be fair with all this, not looking to cause a reaction, it’s just a summary of what I feel is going on.

I'd say the current mood of the fanbase is a little more positive than you suggest. I think the vast majority of Warne-outers have eaten a slice of humble pie and are universally delighted at our promotion.

Some still have doubts, which they're entitled to, but they've largely kept it quiet in anticipation of the new season. And I think the mood around the promotion was just as pure and joyous as promotion under any other manager would be, but perhaps without Warne being worshipped as much as you'd usually expect.

Will the pitchforks come back out if we start poorly? Absolutely. But I think your assessment is a little downbeat.

Edited July 15 by DarkFruitsRam7

[Tombo]

There's lots of good lengthy summaries in here so I'll just say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Lots of things you'll hear around the club in the coming months will echo as things you've seen before in both good and bad ways

[ThePrisoner]

Welcome Back @SaintRam, good to have you back.

Anyone know when @Owd miner is coming back me owd? Or has Hilda buried him?

[DavesaRam]

Re the discontent about Paul Warne in this thread that you might have picked upon: 

After nearly becoming extinct, Derby started the season with a squad hastily assembled by Liam Rosenior which was recruited to play his style, with mixed results. He was soon replaced by Warne who had the credentials of knowing how to get a team promoted out of League One. Sadly it was using a completely different playing style. And he tried to impose that style on the squad even though they weren’t suited to it. A number of fans knew that we could play so much better than we were, and were throwing points away. It came to a head between fans and club, and whether or not Paul took any notice of the fans’ opinion or not, things did start to turn around and for the run in, we were playing a much better style of football.

And Paul got us promoted, achieving a number of club records along the way. Even so, the points we threw away meant that we could have actually won the division well before the last match of the season.

The anger has subsided in light of the run-in, and while some aren’t sure of his ability to handle Championship football, the majority are backing him.

In some ways watching Derby last season was similar to watching England in the Euros - we could have done so much better if only ……….

The main difference being that Paul Warne did what he was tasked to do, Southall didn’t.

Thanks, Paul. Here’s to a great season in the Championship!

[Foreveram]

42 minutes ago, DavesaRam said:

Re the discontent about Paul Warne in this thread that you might have picked upon: 

After nearly becoming extinct, Derby started the season with a squad hastily assembled by Liam Rosenior which was recruited to play his style, with mixed results. He was soon replaced by Warne who had the credentials of knowing how to get a team promoted out of League One. Sadly it was using a completely different playing style. And he tried to impose that style on the squad even though they weren’t suited to it. A number of fans knew that we could play so much better than we were, and were throwing points away. It came to a head between fans and club, and whether or not Paul took any notice of the fans’ opinion or not, things did start to turn around and for the run in, we were playing a much better style of football.

And Paul got us promoted, achieving a number of club records along the way. Even so, the points we threw away meant that we could have actually won the division well before the last match of the season.

The anger has subsided in light of the run-in, and while some aren’t sure of his ability to handle Championship football, the majority are backing him.

In some ways watching Derby last season was similar to watching England in the Euros - we could have done so much better if only ……….

The main difference being that Paul Warne did what he was tasked to do, Southall didn’t.

Thanks, Paul. Here’s to a great season in the Championship!

So much better than getting more points than we have got in the history of the club, really.

[Mucker1884]

53 minutes ago, DavesaRam said:

In some ways watching Derby last season was similar to watching England in the Euros - we could have done so much better if only ……….

The main difference being that Paul Warne did what he was tasked to do, Southall didn’t.

... which is the overriding factor as to why folk have forgotten his name already!  👀