Ramballs

Do you remember when we had a tall polish striker called Gregorz Rasiak? Do you remember how influential he was in the team back in 2005? Do you remember what happened on 31 August 2005? That’s right. We sold him at the eleventh hour for a tiny fee and no hope of signing a replacement. This summer, many Rams fans were expecting history to repeat itself.

This time it was a tall lad from Crewe who was the potential departee, and the date was 1st September 2009, but many fans had the outcome down as a bad result for the Rams from the off.  Middlesbrough, the smaller of the two North East clubs to be relegated from the premier league last season, were long known fanciers of Rob Hulse, Derby County player of the year 2008/09. He scored 19 goals in his first full season back from injury and caused opposition defenders plenty of problems all year round, so the fact that he was attracting attention came as no surprise.

The Rams had been knocking back speculation all summer regarding ‘Boro’s interested in the Derby talisman. Back in July, Adam Pearson said “Rob is our player of the year, an important player for us and not one we are looking to sell” while also denying that Middlesborough had even made a bid for the player. Speculation continued to mount as the Rams carried on with their pre-season which, ironically, didn’t include Rob Hulse due to injury.

Rob missed the opening games of the year and only made his first start in the new Derby strip in the 3-2 defeat against the red dog scum bags this previous Saturday. During this game he managed to score what appeared to be a perfectly good goal but the referee decided he’d seen something he didn’t like and disallowed the goal. Having nearly seen Hulse open his account for the year at the weekend, Rams fans would have been devastated to lose him knowing just how dangerous he is.

It looked as if he was staying put as the transfer window was closing in. Then, on the final day of business, the Derby Evening Telegraph runs the story that Rob Hulse was the target of a big money bid from Middlesbrough. Word on the internet suggested the bid was as anywhere between £3.5 - £4.5 million pounds. That’s enough to buy three Luke Varneys!

That was it for many Rams fans as they took to the inter-radiotelewaves to tell everyone how we were being sold up the swanny. Forums were awash with doom merchants passing on their wares to all that would listen. It was a like walking though speakers corner only in small font and the occasional bit of txt spk, lolz.

Whenever someone sensible said something like “FFS - it hasn’t happened yet!!” they were immediately shot down by gun fire that sounded like a manic depressive listening to Radiohead while trying to think of reasons not to die. “It’s just a matter of time……………….” they’d say as they plunged their scalpels into their limp, scarred wrists.

By 3pm the tension was downright scary. I genuinely thought some Rams fans were going to throw themselves from the top floor of the internet, splattering the Derby County forums with blood coloured pixels spelling “DCFC 4 LIFE” across the TFT monitors of Rams fans worldwide.

Sky Sports decided to re-run the bid from Boro story for a second time late in the day, which only served to compound people’s woes. There was no news on the official site and no news on Radio Derby; the silence was deafening. This, according to the non-believers, could only mean one thing- Goodbye Rob Hulse.

That’s what they all thought.

Oh yee of little faith. News came in over the official website that Rob Hulse was staying! ROB HULSE WAS STAYING!

We cheered, we celebrated, and we punched the air with glee. This was great news…or was it.

Yes, it definitely was great news but still some people moaned. Why? Because it’s what they do. Radio Derby’s Monday moan-in is full of these people and so, it would seem, are internet message boards. Rob Hulse stopping at Derby only served to prove the conspiracy theories are true if you believe what you read on t’internet.

You see, the official version of events (which I have no reason to doubt) goes like this: club receive bid for Rob Hulse, club tell Hulse about the bid, Hulse sits down with Nigel Clough to discuss options and Rob decides he wants to stay. The end.

But to some people this means that the club had accepted the bid and were quite happy to sell one of our better players without having a suitable replacement lined up. They say this is all nonsense and shows our club is being run by fools. How so, I hear you ask? Surely this proves that the club is run by people who respect other people’s right to be informed. Surely the first person who should be updated of interested in a player is the player himself because if he doesn’t want to leave, the deal is dead in the water. Offer as much as you like but if the man won’t leave, you can’t pull him through the door to your club.

In this instance, Rob Hulse decided that he was happy where he is. He weighed up the pros and cons of playing for Middlesbrough under Gareth Southgate or staying at Derby with Nigel Clough and he rightly concluded that he was better off in the Midlands than the North East. You really cannot fault the man for that.

In a world of Manchester City’s millions and Christiano Ronaldo’s ridiculous face, it’s refreshing to see a player make a decision based on his own desire to succeed rather than false promises and the lure of more money. While Derby are big spenders in the Championship, it’s probably a safe bet to assume Middlesbrough would have paid Hulse more wages and they definitely wouldn’t have made him give up his win bonus. For every Rob Hulse there are ten Mark “greedy bastard” Pembridges or Paul Kitsons , so it’s rare that a club like ours can find a player with even an ounce of loyalty when the money is on the table. Let’s hope Rob has many great years at Derby and can get up there with the Derby greats of yesterday year. At 29 years old, he still has plenty to offer the Rams.

The Rams have today captured their main summer target in Shaun Barker.

Barker joins from Blackpool on a three year deal and he revealed that Nigel Clough was a massive factor when deciding to join the rams over local rivals Nottingham Forest.

The chase for Barker has been going on for a number of weeks with the Rams reportedly having two bids turned down before the tangerines finally accepted the deal. Barker said “I remember coming to Pride Park and their was 30,000 people there and I wished that maybe I could play for a club like that and luckily I am going to be able to this season.

Amazingly, Barker has missed only a handful of games in the past four seasons, a statistic that is quite staggering given how many injuries the Derby fans have been witness to in the past season alone.

While the fee is officially undisclosed, the Derby Evening Telegraph is reporting a figure of around £900,000 has been paid.

If you want to see Barker in action, you can catch him in action against Chesterfield this Saturday.

Check out a profile of the Rams latest signing here.

Edit: RamBalls posted news of Brightons interest at 1am last night. Today the story was on the back page of the Derby Evening Telegraph. Stick with RamBalls- first for Rams news online!

News from the south coast has reached RamBalls offices (my living room) and that news is Brighton have joined Norwich and Blackpool in the race for Liam Dickinsons signature.

The out-of-favour striker is attracting a lot of interest at the moment as clubs see potential in the 23 year old former Stockport striker. The Rams will be looking to recoup as much of the £750,000 they paid for the front man last summer but there would also appear to be cash plus Dickinson deal available to the Rams as Nigel Clough attempts to bring Blackpools Shaun Barker to Pride Park.

So the Rams have landed their main target of the closed season. Shaun Barker has signed a three year deal with the club. RamBalls has provided you with a short profile of the former Blackpool defender.

Shaun Barker, 27, (DOB: 19/09/1981) began his professional career at Rotherham where he started out as in the youth team back in 2000. Shaun broke into the Rotherham first team in March 2003 and collected the young player of the year award at the end of the season. Throughout his time at Rotherham, Shaun played at right back, a position he is comfortable playing, but his preferred position is in central defence. Barker played 140 games for the Millers before moving on a free transfer to Blackpool in 2006.

Barkers first season with the tangerines was a successful one as they clinched promotion to the Coca-Cola Championship after beating Yeovil 2-0 in the play off final at Wembley. In the following season Barker missed only one game for the seasiders (due to suspension) as the tangerines maintained their Championship status. This season also saw Barker given the vice-captaincy.

The 2008/09 season saw Reggie, as he is known by the Blackpool faithful, promoted to club captain as well as retaining the on-field vice captain status. Reggie also moved from the right back position, where he had been playing for Blackpool until this time, into the centre of defence. After another successful season, which saw him start 42 league games, Barker won the accolade of players’ player of the year.

The top news today is that Derby have rejected bids for striker Liam Dickinson from Norwich and Blackpool. Norwich have had “two small bids” rejected which are likely to have fallen short of the £500,000 that Ramballs reported on Wednesday. Blackpool are likely to be the preferred choice for Dickinson as he is familiar with the Bloomfield Road outfit having spent time on loan there last season and they would provide him with the chance to show what he can do in the Coca-Cola Championship.

Tito Villas move to Cruz Azul has been completed. The hard working striker, who cost Derby £2m back in January 2008, has returned to Central America in a deal reportedly worth £1.7m which represents good business by Adam Pearson.

And finally, it would appear that Derby County have once again changed their logo by dropping the gold from the club crest. The badge, which appears to be plain black and white, can be seen on the new training tops worn at the first day back in training and in the banner across the top of the official site. Already there has been discussion on the message boards about this and it seems to be a 50/50 split as to whether fans like this or not.

Today sees the launch of the new kit in Derby Market place at 5:30pm. I noticed last night, as I walked past the market place, a huge inflatable Adidas tent thing (sorry I can’t be more descriptive) as well as black and white bunting up Irongate. As long as it stops raining, it should be a good evening. I will be at the launch and will be reporting back this evening with photos and a write up of the event.

As reported yesterday, Tito Villa is set to join Cruz Azul of Mexico shortly. The fee is reportedly around £1.7m which I personally think represents good business by Derby County.

Villa, 27, is a hard working striker to can run all day however his end product did not always match his effort. Over his 18 months with the rams, tito gained a cult following and became a fans favourite which often led the crowd to chant his name in an attempt to get him off the bench and onto the pitch.

There seems to have been a fair amount of discussion across the message boards about why Tito had such a strong backing from the fans? Was it because he scored more goals in the premiership that Steve Howard managed to? Was it because he scored against Forest? It’s much more simple than that though. Fans love a trier and will support any player is seen to be putting in their fair share of work. Good luck in the future Tito, it was nice knowing you.

Ramballs understands that Norwich City are chasing Derby county striker Liam Dickinson. The recently relegated canaries are said to be preparing a bid of around £500,000 for the striker who has yet to feature for the rams although Blackpool are also said to be in the chase.

Dickinson, 23, has failed to make an impact since joining Derby County from a year ago. Last season saw the 6′4″ striker loaned out to Leeds, Hudderfield and Blackpool as the rams looked to give Liam some first team experience. Blackpool are said to be in the hunt for the striker after he scored 4 goals in 5 starts and 2 substitute appearances while at Bloomfield Road.

Tyrone Mears has sealed his transfer to Turn Moor. Burnley have paid £500,000 for the defender although this figure could rise depending on add-ons.

Derby County took Mears on loan in January 2007 and later signed Mears on a permanent basis. Mears played 48 times and scored twice for the rams.