 www.myspace.com/journalsofderventio
July
30th
A Public Service
announcement that both the club and Derby Telegraph haven't
found to be newsworthy- tickets for the Portsmouth match are
£40 each!
According to my
calculations this represents a price hike of around 54%,
inflation not seen since Bobby Mugabe last reviewed the
price of bread. (based on £26 last year- I think that's
right. If not adjust by a few percent either way). The match
is in the middle "Gold" category and so is the Birmingham
game- I get the feeling this is a "prices from..." con much
used by travel companies. If Portsmouth and Birmingham
aren't "Silver", I'm not sure who is apart from Wigan.
The most annoying thing
about this is the amount of publicity and back-slapping when
the club announced that season ticket prices would remain
the same (with 4 less games in the Premiership, it still
goes up by about 20% per game but it's only a few quid so
fair enough). The Derby Telegraph rushed straight out to accost
the usual "Barry from Spondon" and "Tracey from Alvaston"
who all proclaimed it great news. However, the Telegraph
obviously didn't think the new ticket prices were
newsworthy. Preferring instead filler such as "Michael Johnson would like to
play in the Premier league", "David Jones is glad he signed
for Derby" etc. I can't work out if the Telegraph are
just lazy and print whatever fodder is served up in Press
Releases or they have another agenda. Certainly everyone I
told found it of great interest- especially non-Rams fans
who thought it was hilarious.
I don't know if it was
announced on the official club site or not; I've been on
there a few times but finding news on there is like trying
to find a street sign amongst the neon blitz of Tokyo's
shopping district- something I have tried a few times.
July
27th
I was at home today
indulging in the favourite pastime of any British male with
a day off- reading Teletext*- when I came across the news
that the Rams had signed Ipswich keeper Lewis Price with
Billy Davies giving it the usual "he's here to provide
competition for our existing 'keepers". I was just about to
text Simon to say "heard that one before...expect Lee Camp
to go any day" but thought that as I'm seeing him tomorrow
anyway I wouldn't bother. Lo and behold, I go on the
internet a few hours later and he's already gone to QPR!
Saved myself 5p anyway.
*For the benefit of
foreign readers- Teletext is a text information service
available through the TV which pre-dated the internet by
about 20 years but still remains superior in many ways.
Mainly because if something's on Teletext it's a fact. Its
happened. It's a done deal. It's very handy for checking
scores during the boring bits of TV programmes but is also
the source of much domestic conflict when the itchy trigger
finger of the male checks Teletext at crucial moments of
mum/sister/girlfriend/wife's favourite programme.
Discovering that Torquay have just signed someone on loan is
rarely greeted with excitement by the afflicted party.
July
27th
Sorry readers, the Craig
Fagan link below didn't work but it should do now. It didn't
seem to do him much harm though, he's up to 60 friends since
I looked yesterday.
Welcome to our new
French reader, if you know the whereabouts of Ducroq, Grenet
or Zavagno I'd be interested to know. Chris' piece in World
Soccer must have some impact- readers from Hong Kong and
Australia have also been on.
July
26th
Have a look at Craig
Fagans myspace page if you get chance
http://www.myspace.com/fagan27
he has 54
friends of which at least 90% appear to be soft porn stars
or female admirers who happen to be wearing skimpy clobber
in their profile pictures. As far as I can see, there's a
couple of Hull fans but no Rams as yet.
(A Hull fan at work
tipped me off on this one).
July
25th
Text received today:
"Just seen on teletext
that Rob Lee and Warren Barton have been arrested for taking
a limo for a spin, crashing it and then doing a runner. Rock
and roll."
If their turn of pace was
anything like it was in 2002, catching them shouldn't have
been too difficult. As ex-Rams go, I wouldn't have had those
two down as indulging in scandalous behaviour...but I
thought the same about Gary Charles. Whatever next, Jacob
Laursen making disco digestives in his attic?
(5 minutes later) I've
just had a look at the story on BBC sport and apparently
"They are being held over allegations of taking a vehicle
and driving while unfit." Please insert your own gag with a
player of your choice e.g. Andy Reid, Dave Walton, any Phil
Brown loanee, etc., etc
July
22nd
I wrote a few weeks ago
about how being with a Premiership club can automatically
add to a players market value.
The latest example of
this is DJ Campbell; signed by Birmingham a couple of years
ago for £500,000, never being a first team regular yet now
suddenly worth £2.1m, or at least in the eyes of Leicester
City. Campbell was already in situ at the start of
last season but Steve Bruce still felt it necessary to sign
another 4 strikers to achieve promotion (Bendtner, Vine,
Jerome, Cole- 5 if you count McSheffrey who mostly played
wide yet still top scored). DJ started less than half the
matches despite long term injuries to Bendtner and Forsell,
and Vine and Cole only arriving at the arse end of the
season (blimey, as I write this I'm thinking- Bruce really
didn't rate Campbell did he?). It's fair to say that
if Brum had relied on Campbell they wouldn't have gone up.
It makes me wonder what
his value would have been if Birmingham had finished a place
or two lower? Let's hope, for the sake of our East Midlands
supremacy, that the signing turns out to be as bad as it
looks.
July
22nd
It was sad to hear about
the death of former Ram David Preece yesterday. In truth his
Rams career was brief and unspectacular as documented in the
Ramspace
"Lost Boys"
article and I can't even remember seeing him play
(although I must have, having done almost every game of that
particular season). However, the death of anyone at the age
of 44 will always send a shudder down the spine of anyone
over 30.
July
21st
It looks as though the
inaugural Brian Clough Cup has blown our "prestige" friendly
will Espanyol out the water. The Forest game has sold over
10,000 tickets already despite being season ticket holders
only at the moment (unprecedented for a friendly?) Whilst
Espanyol has been cut to £8 or free if you spend a few quid
in the shop. Espanyol are no doubt a fine side but the
prospect of sticking a few past the old enemy will win every
time. Bob Malcolm may even get the chance to extract some
Auld Enemy revenge on Neil Lennon, he strikes me as the sort
of chap who would happily trade a booking for a few
plaudits.
July
17th
My laptop is back! So
hopefully normal service will be resumed.
Most of the weeks news
has been about Beckham's move to LA Galaxy. The thing that's
caught my attention is how highly those involved rate the
MSL. With Darren Currie and Mark Bircham both declining
moves and signing for Luton and Yeovil respectively and Juan
Pablo Angel becoming top scorer months after Martin O'Neil
said the Premiership was now too much for him, surely the
standard can't be that great? Yet Steve Morrow and Carl
Robinson have both been quoted in saying that the standard
is somewhere between the Championship and Premiership.
Steve Morrow- after a
loan spell with Peterborough was finally released by a QPR
side on the brink of Division Three (or whatever it was
called) before squeezing out another couple of years in the
MSL.
Carl Robinson- allowed
to drift out of contract by a very mediocre Norwich.
Perhaps the players
should be provided with a self-assessment questionnaire:
"Which of the following
statements is true:
The MSL is nearly as
good as the Premiership and a) I'm hopelessly out my depth
or b) and I've still got it honestly, I've just been
criminally overlooked by English football."
July
14th
I'm still out of action
but once again making use of the facilities at my old man's.
I was telling someone at
work the Dom Ammott anecdote the other day (detailed in
previous journals). He said something on the lines of "don't
tell too many people that or we could get done for tapping
up". "too late" I thought. Whilst readership may not be in
the millions, there's been more than one occasion when we've
been surprised, not always pleasantly, by who actually does
read.
So, if anyone from the
F.A. is reading, I'm sure Earnie knew nothing about the
transfer until the last minute and I was only joking- so
please don't dock us any points as a) we're not from London
b) we don't have any '66 World Cup winners amongst our
ex-players and c) none of our alumni have a Director post at
the F.A. It would be a rough day in court for us.
I was talking to a Sheff
Utd. fan at a conference the other day (sorry, "networking"
boss). Interestingly, he mentioned the Middlesbrough
situation a few years ago when they were docked points and
ultimately relegated, when they could not field a team. I
wonder: if they'd have got a bunch of ringers in whether
they would have escaped with a fine?
July
8th
As you may have guessed,
my laptop has finally given up. It's due to be fixed but
I'll be out of action for about a week. My very own close
season. (I've managed to upload this from my dad's- luckily
I backed up after my first warning).
July 1st
A readers comment about my West Midlands facts of
June 16th:
Just to put the boot in- one of my neighbours was
greatly amused by a Central News story about how Villa were selling
season tickets at £200 and this had lead to fans camping out for
them, evoking images of a Glastonbury style tent-city springing up
outside Villa Park. Cue VT- four people in camping chairs outside
the ticket office.
June 30th
Text received on friday:
"Great. Earnshaw in...I notice our odds have
dropped to 5000-1"
For those who asked, I didn't know it was
Earnshaw who was coming (see my speculations of June 20th after the
Espanyol bit. I bet you didn't read that far last time?). It just
goes to show what it takes to be a Daily Star sports journalist.
In today's Telegraph Norwich manager Peter Grant
was saying "we didin't know until late Wednesday night of Derby's
interest" (quote might be wrong, I haven't got the paper to hand).
Who's "we" Peter? I bet the chairman knew, I bet Earnie knew, and
you can guarantee his agent most definitely knew. Don Amott knew.
Someone buying a caravan in Spondon that afternoon probably knew
("I'll knock you a hundred quid off and tell you who we're
signing"). Managers often complain about being kept in the dark but
he's got a point when someone randomly approaching a Derby Director at
the cricket is better informed.
My source was so keen for his tip to be true that
he claims to have monitored teletext until midnight of the 29th, for
the "tomorrow" guarantee to be true. This is a chap who has to be up
at about 4am!
June 28th
Text received last night:
"Sat next to Don Ammot at Trent Bridge*, says
we're signing a striker tomorrow. Won't tell me who"
Today's Telegraph reports that Billy Davies has
flown back from holiday (Dubai- where else?) 2 days early.
Brace yourselves for action.
*For the benefit of American and European
readers- Trent Bridge is a sporting venue in Nottinghamshire for the
English game of "Cricket". Cricket is the dominant sport in
Nottinghamshire. However, sports trivia fans may be interested to
know that Nottinghamshire has three "soccer" teams, all huffing and
puffing away around the muddy fields of the English lower divisions,
existing beneath the radar of the world media and the interest of
the general public.
June 27th
We're not big on nostalgia at Ramspace but I have
to admit our interest was definitely piqued by news of The Verve's
reformation. Not for the lucrative festival circuit but a full-on
studio album. I got A Northern Soul out immediately. Hopefully, it
will fare better than the Happy Mondays new effort, described by the
NME as "like watching a Russian dancing bear in a wig crying at a
foam party". Does that mean it's not very good?
June 26th
You may have seen the note about the Journals not
being updated for a week or so as my laptop completely packed up
yesterday. After dozens of attempts to turn it on and half an hour
on the phone to Dell, it was diagnosed as a knackered mother board;
about £200 to repair and over a week to sort it. Tonight, it
miraculously burst back into life. However, if things go quiet for a
while, you know what's happened.
June 26th
Good old Paul Ince, he may have finished one
place from the Conference last season but at least in his own mind
he's still in the big time. Commenting on the earth shattering news
that he's resigning from Macclesfield to take over at MK Dons he
said "It feels like the decision Thierry Henry has had to make
regarding going to Barcelona". I bet Gazetta Dello Sport had to hold
the front page.
June 24th
Email received:
"We clocked the DCFC
flag too, but not only that, but there was also nearby at a later
(or earlier) gig a massive white traditional Ram flag swaying in the
night sky! Marvellous, and good passion that man."
June 24th
The Simon Jordan v. Iain Dowie court case as been
interesting, with the verdict being that Dowie did lie to get
out of his Palace contract and therefore could be facing a £1m
compensation claim. It's gone so far that even if Jordan decided
that he'd proved his point and wasn't bothered about the money,
Dowie still has to pick up the legal tab for both sides. Jordan's is
an estimated £400,000 and I would imagine Dowie's is similar
(probably less on reflection as his chaps were evidently not in the
same class as Jordan's. Even so, in law, as in football, you can
suffer a heavy defeat yet still pick up a whopping cheque and drive
off in a house-priced car).
If things had have worked out at Charlton, i.e.
they were still in the Premiership and he was still manager, I
daresay he could have just lobbed the bill in the invoice tray. As
it is, he's facing his biggest shocker since he first saw his own
reflection. It's one of Jordan's biggest bugbears that players and
managers don't honour contracts as clubs have so let's see if this
changes anything.
June 23rd
Norwich are just showing off now; after their £2m
bid for Billy Sharp (see 20th June) they're now waving a £1.5m
cheque at Southend for Freddy Eastwood. With strikers disappearing
off the market like single girls in a nightclub, I wonder who will
be left for us? The problem is, everyone's wondering around with
armfuls of Bacardi Breezer's and now the Championship have
gatecrashed like a bunch of lairy students with a loan to burn
(Norwich, Wolves and even Sheff. Wednesday and Burnley have bid £1m+ this summer
already).
At least we're better off than last year when we
only had one striker on the books- now we have two. However, if the
definition of a striker is someone who has "struck", you could even
discount Macken.
June 23rd
Did everybody see the massive "DCFC" flag down
the front at Glastonbury? The best thing was that it was the only
football flag there, not one in a thousand like you see at the World
Cup. Well done to the owner, whoever you are.
June 22nd
The Derby Telegraph ran a front page story
yesterday implying that Peter Marples had resigned from the board
after the death of one of his friends n a helicopter crash on May
2nd (Headline- "I've
rethought my life after mate's death in helicopter").
The offical club website says that neither Marples nor his wife have
been involved in operational matters for months. I'm not sure who is
trying to prove what to who- and I'm not particularly bothered- but
there is definitely something fishy here.
June 20th
It's a little known fact that obscure Scottish
lower division part-timers Queens Park are the official tenants of
Scotland's 52,500 Hampden Park. In a similar move, plans have been
announced today of a 50,000 capacity stadium being built on the
outskirts of Nottingham.
June 20th
Now I realise why I had a seemingly random
contact from Espanyol. I wish they'd have mentioned the friendly at
the weekend, I would have had my first exclusive.
If you venture to their myspace page and try to
watch the video, this message I received may be helpful (sender's
punctuation):
The video basically..s about the building of the
new stadium for the 2008-09 season.
INFORMATION
CONSTRUCTION OF THE MOST MODERN STADIUM IN SPAIN
BUILT ON A 36.000 M2 AREA
4-STAR STADIUM
CAPACITY: 40.000 -42.000 PERSONS (UEFA FINAL CONDITION)
BUILT UNDER ENERGETIC EFFICIENCY CRITERIA
1.113.000Wp PHOTOVOLTAIC ENERGY SURFACE
PARKING: 3.278 PLACES
BUILT UNDER ACCESSIBILITY FOR HANDICAPPED PEOPLE CRITERIA
PROJECT PHASES
TWO PHASES:
First Phase: 40.000 seats
Second Phase: 42.000 seats
(According to my wife Photovoltaic energy is
basically "light energy)
As I've missed my exclusive, I'll try a
speculative one: I see Norwich have agreed a fee of £2m for Billy
Sharp today. £2m? That sounds a lot of money for a mid-table
championship side...they must have a windfall on the way. Robert
Earnshaw anyone? (Now watch him sign for Sunderland).
June 18th
After all the hoo-ha about how much money we
would get if promoted, I'm starting to realise what the actual
spending power of it is. A classic case today was Marlon Harewood,
who West Ham want £5m for. That's potentially half the budget
(depending on what you hear) for a striker whose inability to do his
job left West Ham facing certain relegation (he scored 4 times all
season). It was only the arrival of his contraband
replacement that kept West Ham up by the skin of their teeth (fortunately for
the Hammers, Tevez needs plenty of skin to cover those nashers).
(Obviously if we sign him it's an inspired move
and I've every confidence in Billy rejuvenating him!)
June 18th
To give clarification of yesterdays entry- the
Espanyol tunes are on http://www.myspace.com/espanyolbcn not our
site jukebox.
The more I think about "Steve Bloomers Watching",
I think it definitely needs re-recording. I mean, even Neighbours
and Home and Away re-record their theme tunes ever few years. I
reckon we need to scrap the plodding bluster of the current version
and give it a more contemporary feel. How about "Steve Bloomers
ravin'/ Glo-sticks in the air/ Steve Bloomers ravin'/ Like he just
don't care" accompanied by the floodlights on strobe setting. We can
give the ball boys whistles and air horns as well.
June 17th
My latest friend request was bizarrely from
Espanyol. They have their club anthem on the site jukebox and it's
worth a listen; the passion comes through even though I couldn't
understand a word of it. Even better though, they have a rock
version of it which I imagine would definitely hype the fans up. A nu-rave version of Steve Bloomers Watching anyone?
June 16th
Since promotion, I've also had contact from a few
general football sites. One of them contains what they've called a
"West Midlands Football Report". It concludes:
"Birmingham's
average of 22,274 placed them eighth but it meant that more than a
quarter of Molineux, The Hawthorns and St Andrew's was empty each
home game – and this from clubs which like to consider themselves of
natural Premiership status."
(Wolves were 10th and West
Brom 11th)
A nice stat to quote if
you ever need it.
June 15th
Far be it from me to big myself up but who needs
Lord Stevens when I'm around? As soon as I saw Blessing Kaku's name
scribbled down in the Panorama documentary several months ago I
smelt a rat (although in truth his Ali Dia* style performances
whilst on loan with us first planted seeds of doubt) and now he is
on the official Lord Stevens dodgy transfer list. (My suspicions
were in the journals several months ago).
It also didn't need Hercule Poirot to work out
that there was something fishy about Bolton's relentless pursuit of Oman's national goalie to be their third choice; and
subsequently not play him for three years.
*man who signed for Southampton after claiming to
be George Weah's cousin. Souness brought him on as sub only to bring
him off 20 minutes later.
June 15th
Premiership reality. First text received about
the fixtures:
"Just seen the fixtures. Can't wait for Sky/Sentanta
to fuck them up"
Funnily enough, I was discussing going to
Tottenham away with sender today. We could get a train ticket for
about £18 (£14 yesterday, there's people sharper than us) but we
decided the match could be moved to four possible slots. We'll wait
until Sky let us know in July.
June 12th
June 8th- Neil Lennon's agent announces "Neil's
been offered a contract by a top Premiership club and several from
the Championship..."
June 12th- Neil Lennon signs for Forest.
Why on earth would you do that?
June 11th
I was told today about plans to increase the
capacity to 40,000+, so as soon as I got home I went straight to the
"horses mouth"- the official club website. Not a word about it.
However, if you want to know the latest McDonald's product, unsure
which razor to buy or want to play on-line poker; it's just the
place.
June 10th
Just to emphasise the point that people are
generally more interested in the Premiership than the Championship;
Virgin Media and World Soccer have been on to Chris already about
contributions of some kind. The last time anything like this
happened was when Chris was interviewed by Sky Sports...when we were
in the Premiership (under the Baseball Bat fanzine guise).
(The local media remain resolutely unmoved by our
efforts; surely the odd Burley column would brighten up the Derby
Express?).
June 10th
The latest hard luck story I heard regarding
tickets was when a teenage lad on the check-out in Sainsbury's
moaned to his colleague that he was "gutted" season tickets had sold
out. My first thought was: if you're that bothered about going to
matches, why have you got a Saturday job?
June 7th
There's a few Wembley photo's in the myspace
photo's section. The link to myspace is above the heading (somehow
this was missed by a regular reader).
June 7th
I mentioned before the play-off's about the
number of Rams fans who came out the woodwork and heard several
stories about people trying to get tickets for the final who had not
once mentioned football to me, never mind Derby. The latest one is
season tickets. Just today a bloke at work was asking me and a
fellow Ram about our chances next season, speaking from an obviously
neutral and un-informed standpoint. After a quick squad analysis, we
said about season tickets selling out, to which he replied "yeah I
know, we tried to get one" ("we" being him and his son) "but I
thought your son was a Man U fan?" my colleague asked
"yeah...well..hmmm". One of us dismissed this with sneering narrow
minded elitism (me), whilst the other enthused how great it was to
be winning local fans back.
June 5th
The season ticket sell-out is both an interesting
and unprecedented phenomenon at the club. It's surprising how
(relatively) few tickets are available compared to the Pride Park
capacity (23,500 out of approx 33,500). The away fans bit is
understandable but there seems another 5,000 (about 15%) out
circulation, set aside, according to the club , for "sponsors,
players tickets, corporate, directors box" etc. Well, at least it's
not a Club Wembley situation; wherever these tickets may go, you can
guarantee there's no banks of empty seats when there's a big game at
Pride Park (yes, I've had a few in my time).
I had to feel sorry for a chap I used to work
with who I bumped into the other day. He's always had a season
ticket and has watched more than his fair share of rubbish over the
years. The play-off run completely emptied his bank account, so he
couldn't afford to re-new and planned to do so next month. Now it's
the Carling Cup or a long queue for him. (On the other side of the
coin, he must have been in a vacuum from the local press and didn't
know about finance deals until it was too late- so he'd let the
tortoise get away to some extent. He's not the brightest chap so I
assume he's not reading).
June 2nd
For some reason I don't get the Trader (local
free paper American readers) despite living quite centrally. I saw a
copy at my parents the other day and forgot how good Neil Hallam
was. (Oh, come on!, at least he says something, unlike the
Telegraph. Me and Simon bumped into him at Sheffield station after
the United game during the Phil Brown era, or was it Wednesday? We
had a good day at both- "apart from 90 minutes in the middle" as my
dad would say. Anyway, he was almost as pleased at being recognised
as Steve Elliott in the Blue Note and poured forth all manner of
gossip; some of it from the press conference and some "off the
record" from Pesch.)
Where was I? My train of thought has taken the
scenic route. What I was originally going to say is that Neil Hallam
wrote that as a result of promotion, Billy Davies would get a
£500,000 bonus plus his £600,000 salary doubled to £1.2m. Not bad.
He'll soon be joining the millionaires club. He if carries on
moaning we'll chuck him in The Priory.
June 1st
A lot was said about the amount of Health and
Safety checks required before the new Wembley could open. So it's
reassuring to know that if disaster struck everything should be
fine- as proven when 33,000 West Brom fans safely evacuated in two
minutes last Monday.
On the subject of West Brom, Chris Perry has been
a bit scathing about us. I suppose you can understand his
bitterness, especially after being released today. If the Baggies
had won, he would have been seen as being released by a Premiership
club, as it is he's just another has-been descending the divisions,
no longer good enough for Championship also-rans. This fall in his
personal stock will probably set him back a couple of grand a week.
(Conversely, Seth Johnson will hopefully benefit
from the opposite effect. Only months after Billy tried to work him
off to Crewe, Seth should have a few decent contracts on the table.
Sadly, there will not be a Derby County one amongst them).
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