chinapig

Even at his best Keane was a solid centre half but with few of the qualities of a modern defender. Qualities Webster has in abundance.

It's galling that a rubbish player like Michael Keane has England caps when Webster, the perfect modern centre back, never gets a mention.

It's one thing to hope to get more for him - though the later in the window the more the bids might decrease if they have not secured a new owner, or at least funding to complete their fixtures. It's quite another to say a player is not for sale. Doubtless their fans will be impressed but the Administrators are playing Russian roulette with their club.

Not all of course but the relative lack of rage against Morris compared to the EFL is striking. And if I were a Derby fan I'd be distinctly unimpressed by the Administrators. Hard to see how anybody can hold him to account as there is no suggestion he has broken any law. As the saying goes we are talking about law not justice.

Possibly because they would have to admit they were foolish to cheer him on when they thought he had the EFL under his thumb. Perhaps it's not easy to admit you've been conned into supporting a liar and a cheat so you deflect blame onto others. I'd give an example from politics to illustrate the point but can't think of one at the moment.?

As per title: https://www.theguardian.com/football/football-league-blog/2022/jan/18/how-reading-hit-crisis-point-on-and-off-the-pitch-championship

The Guardian reports that there will be three urgent questions in the Commons starting at 12.30pm: on the role of the military dealing with Channel crossings; on fraud in coronavirus grant schemes; and on Derby County Football Club.

Thanks for the reply. I'd be interested in what peculiarities you mean nevertheless. There may be stuff I am unaware of after all. I criticised the EFL in my previous post for dragging their feet, though Morris is still the one who wanted to delay as long as possible so is still the real culprit. As to your wider point I am a long term critic of the EFL (some of my fellow posters think I am too mean to them?) not least because they have allowed too many shysters to own clubs - Bury and Macclesfield indeed being cases in point. My key criticism was allowing clubs to "sell" stadiums on a bogus basis to raise money to "live the dream" which was storing up trouble as Derby have found. Though I was interested to hear Rick Parry say recently that the Premier League insisted on that as a condition of their so called solidarity payments. There have been improvements to the regs under Parry but the best hope lies with implementing as far as possible the recommendations of the Crouch review imo.

EDIT: this should be for @Derby_Ramof course. Welcome and thanks for your reasoned thoughts. Can I ask for some clarfication? On the first point above, Quantuma have been issuing bullish statements throughout. How many times have they claimed for instance that announcement of a preferred bidder was imminent and not delivered? They now claim the EFL is acting against statute without specifying what statute and why. They also seem to have been rather taken aback that they have to prove they have funds for the club to fulfil its fixtures despite that being a given. Essentially they seem to be saying what fans want to hear and based on some of his public statements not being entirely honest with Rooney. I would be questioning them ahead of the EFL. Indeed some of us would say the EFL dragged its feet for too long and let Morris string them along. On the second point above what past events are you referring to that justify mistrusting the EFL? Are there specific ways in which they have acted against their regulations for instance or is this another version of the claim that there is a conspiracy against Derby? Good luck to you in any event.

Good point. Psychology Today covers it well. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/cognitive-dissonance#understanding-cognitive-dissonance One example from there: If a woman reads that her favorite politician has done something immoral, she could conclude that the charges have been invented by his enemies Though I can't think of a politician that might apply to off the top of my head.?

Fair enough but if their forum is anything to go by the ones who get it are in a very small minority and even they tend to say it's Mel's fault but.... EFL, Gibson,HMRC etc.

If they blame Morris they will be blaming themselves. After all this is a fanbase that cheered him on because he was apparently too clever for the EFL. They are not going to admit they were either conned, stupid or both so they will plough on with their victim mentality to avoid the truth. Any sympathy I had has dissipated because of their arrogant attitude.

They have an awful lot of centre halves, which is the position we need most imo. Not that I expect us to sign anybody unless somebody significant leaves.

Even if we accept that Zak has been outstanding it doesn't follow that he is the right choice to mark Mitrovic. In fact any of us could have told Nigel he wasn't. Sometimes you have to pick horses for courses.

Yep, fair comment. I'd take Curtis Davies like a shot for instance. He has still done a remarkable job with limited resources though.

Agreed that should be the priority this window. Though I can't see anyone coming in unless somebody leaves. Perhaps Stoke could spare us one of their 42 centre halves??

One thing Rooney has proved is that he knows how to organise a defence. Nigel has yet to do the same with ours.

He probably shouldn't have said he was going to play in the Premier League when he signed him then. Unnecessary pressure I would think.

Indeed, at least not on its own in relation to one game. Parachute payments didn't stop Luton beating Bournemouth today.

If he thinks he is better than Atkinson then we certainly need another experienced centre half.

Whatever their competence or otherwise as administrators their written English is appalling and this addresses none of the concerns. Though bleating about the EFL will go down well with Derby fans who still seem to believe the rules shouldn't apply to them. I take para 4 to be a reference to the claims from Boro and Wycombe, though it is particularly badly written. They do not in any event explain what they mean by statute. Do they mean the law or EFL regs for instance? Whatever, announcement of a preferred bidder was supposed to be imminent before the new year, then earlier this week it was going to be a day or two. Now none of the alleged interested parties can proceed and securing funding to complete the season may take weeks it seems. The doomsday clock is perilously close to midnight.

I still find Gould's comments to be a bit of special pleading. Had we controlled our costs better and retained enough of the transfer profits to provide some resilience the risk of a points deduction would have been mitigated if not removed entirely. Instead we blew it on a bloated squad and wage bill. Also the obverse of the hypothetical loss of transfer income is the kind of reduction in player wages we have seen with Weimann and Baker, which is not hypothetical and which is likely to continue imo. Gambling on continuing to receive big fees was not the way to achieve the sustainability Steve claims to want.

Pedantically, it's P&S. But since almost nobody is profitable and/or sustainable your point stands.?

It is crazy but it's of a kind with the mindset that led to the 2008 crash. Part of which is the belief that asset values will always increase. Even if that is true in the long term, as Keynes replied "In the long term we are all dead". It's essentially a hubris that leads rich and successful people to believe they must always be right because they are rich and successful. Masters of the Universe and all that. That's in part why Steve is so prickly about criticism from fans imo: "How dare you paupers criticise me, look how much money I have" He needs somebody to whisper memento mori in his ear. I'm up for the job.?

You'd be hard pressed to find anybody to disagree with him about Mike Dean though.?