Ramballs

As usual Ramballs has scoured the internet for the match reports and coverage of the weekends game. Having seen the highlights on The Football League Show, I now think Connolly’s reaction to Tyson’s run for the third goal were poor. He steps up with his arm in the air when Tyson was already on the ball. Also, I still have no idea what Hulse’s goal was disallowed for given the ease with which Morgan (I think) went down.

If you missed it, check out Bywater laughing amongst the post-match nonsense. It’s on the Iplayer around the 15m 16s mark and it’s just another reason to love Bywater.

If you haven’t done so already, check out the RamBalls report here.

Here are the match reports from around the net.

Daily Telegraph

Daily Mirror

The Times Online

The Independent

The Guardian

Daily Star

Sky Sports

Derby Evening Telegraph

Nottingham Evening Post

Football.co.uk

ESPN

RamZone.net

DCFC.co.uk

NFFC Official Site

Football 365

Zimtownship News. A Zimbabwe newspaper which is the obvious location for an East Midlands derby match report

4TheGame.com

Team Talk

Vital Football

Another point is in the bag as The Rams drew with Blackpool in a no score draw at Bloomfield road. That makes it four points from a possible nine which is a decent return for the first three games.

Defensive frailties have been the biggest worry for Derby as six goals conceded in the first week of the season demonstrates. Nigel Clough stuck with the back four from the weekends game with Scunthorpe and his faith was repaid as the lads provided the seasons first clean sheet.

Kris Commons partnered Rob Hulse up front as Clough opted for a 4-4-2 formation. Both strikers made the starting eleven for the first time of this campaign but neither were successful in their attempts to get a goal.

I don’t think this was a game for the purists as the quality appeared to be lacking in both sides. Whilst the performance may not have been the best, a point away from home is always welcome.

Read the official match report here

DCFC Fans Matchday Discussion Board
Derby Evening Telegraph Match Report

I hate waiting for things; Christmas, holidays, buses, 5pm Monday to Friday etc. That’s why I am so excited about tomorrows Championship opener at Pride Park against Peterborough. At the end of last season I was relieved when safety was confirmed and the season was finally brought to an end because my ticker couldn’t cope with the pressure. Now, after a couple of months off from it, I can’t wait for it to kick off again. It’s as if I am suffering from amnesia as the memories of last years battle for survival has been entirely replaced by giddy excitement as I wait for Saturday 3pm.

As fun as pre-season has been, we haven’t come out of it unscathed as the injury worries continue to mount up: we’ve collected more injuries than an A&E department on a Saturday night during the same weekend as a narcoleptic sufferers superbike championship and “free Stella Artois” event at Zanzibar.

Having beaten Svens men, failed to win the Bass vase, drawn to Dirty Stoke and toured the South West, all eyes now turn to the visit of Championship news boys, Peterborough United, for the 2009/10 season opener.

With Darren Ferguson at the helm, the Posh have won back to back promotions having secured second place in League 1 last season. As they begin a stint in the second tier of English football for only the second time, you can guarantee Darren Ferguson will have his boys fired up for this one as his new look squad takes shape. Back in May, Ferguson announced he was making 12 players available to transfer, including Sergio Torres, a winger signed from Wycombe for £150,000 only 12 months before.

It has been a case of out with the old & in with the new as Ferguson has brought in fresh faces to the London Road residents. Tommy Rowe, 20, signed from Stockport after the club were put into Administration at the end of last season. During Stockports 2007/08 promotion season, Rowe won the accolade of young player of the year and could well be one to watch this coming season.

Another of Peterborough’s new boys is Toumani Diagouraga who signed a four year deal with the club having moved from Hereford Town. The French 22 year old plays in central midfield and had long been admired by Darren Ferguson who unsuccessfully tried to sign him last season. Diagouraga says he joined Peterborough because of Darren Ferguson’s ambition which, if previous seasons are anything to go by, are sky high.

Of course, it isn’t all new faces at London Road. Last seasons stars are still there too as they look to prove themselves as Championship quality players.

Craig Mackail-Smith has attracted attention from some of the bigger clubs, such as Birmingham and Celtic but Peterborough are looking to hold onto their better assets. Mackail-Smith has played for the England “C” team and is known for his hard working style. He is an industrious striker who makes defenders earn their money. His movement is good, he chases everything, knows where the goal is and he looks to play the early ball wherever possible.

Aaron Mclean is the other Posh striker who the Rams defence need to be careful of. He scored 18 goals last season and, along with Mackail-Smith, is believed to have been a target of Celtics. In fact, back in January Celtic were said to be interested in both Posh strikers and George Boyd, although they could not afford the £15m asking price demanded by Peterborough.

George Boyd scored a brace in the recent friendly against Fulham and, at the time of signing for Posh, he was the most expensive player brought from a non-league team (£260,000) back in 2007.

The Rams go into the game with a heavily depleted strike force as Rob Hulse has missed most of the pre-season, Chris Porter may be out until Christmas with hip problems, Kris Commons has missed a bit of pre-season and has been looking to build match fitness recently in the games against Stoke, Burton Albion and Solihull, and Luke Varney is recovering from illness which leaves us with Steve Davies as the lone striker meaning we are reliant on Green and Pearson pushing up and supporting the attacks.

Derby will be looking for a good start but so will The Posh. Ferguson’s boys will be looking to pick up where they left off where as Derby will be hoping to forget last seasons showing and start afresh. Derby lost four of their final five league games last term. The Posh lost only three of their 23 league matches away from home last season.

It’s worth nothing that Derby have only won once in their last four league encounters with the Posh. However, in all competitions, Peterborough have only managed to win two of their previous six meetings.

I predict a tough game. Some people might think The Rams should easily turn the new boys over but as Savage said in his interview with RamBalls, we got battered by Doncaster on the opening day last season and battered against Southampton’s kids. We can’t take anything for granted, Ferguson’s lads will be looking to make an immediate impact at Pride Park and show they are competitive in the CCC. One area where they won’t be competing with The Rams is match day attendances; last season Peterborough’s highest attendance was 14,000 against Leicester and 4000 of those were foxes fans.

So after weeks of training and transfer activity, it’s now up The Rams to show some working class resolve against The Posh young upstarts.

RamBalls Prediction: 2 - 1 to the Rams

Click here if you still haven’t checked out the RamBalls online dcfc store

Check out a selection of photos from the Bass Vase final from the Pirelli Stadium. Burton Albion won the game from a first half penalty and looked good for the win. Derby did have some chances, mostly when Kris Commons was on the pitch, but the finishing touch was missing throughout the game.

Kris Commons hit the post from a free kick and almost scored with a volley from inside the area but neither chance found the back of the net. Burton had several chances and could have won the game by more had it not been for some poor finishing.

Click here to open the full gallery in a new window

Read the official sites match report here.

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.

The weekends action against Burton Albion proved to be a worthwhile testing ground for Nigel Clough as he watched two trialists try to earn themselves a contract with the club.

Patrick Kisnorbo and Mark Fotheringham both featured at the Pirelli stadium. After the match Nigel Clough told Radio Derby that the club would not be offering Fotherinham a contract as he is not better than what the club already has in centre midfield.

Patrick Kisnorbo put in a solid performance in defence and the club are going to be speaking with the player and shortly. Kisnorbo was part of the foxes squad that got relegated two years ago, although it should be pointed out that they went down with the second best defensive record in the league.

incoming transfers are also on the cards with the Rams in negotiations to bring Shaun Barker in from Blackpool although forest are also after the centre back.

One of the most difficult things for any business is preparing for the future. Sure, businesses can make plans and try to position themselves as best they can for future changes in the marketplace but they can never be certain that their plans will pay off. We’ve seen it a thousand times over; Microsoft backed hd-dvd for the 360 instead of blu-ray, but blu-ray won the format war,; banks thought they could lend to people who didn’t have the means to pay them back and still make a profit but they got that wrong too.

The “normal” world of business makes investment decisions based on a number of factors such as demand, marginal costs and, of course, the amount of risk involved. Increased productivity and efficiency can save businesses huge sums which results in more profit but in the world of football productivity is a useless measure of success.

For football chairmen, there are no guarantees that a huge investment will bring about the results they desire. Where as a new machine in a manufacturing plant can bring greater economies of scale, the same can’t really be said for a new striker. Andrei Shevchenko cost Chelsea £30m and his form at AC Milan suggested he would be worth every penny. They were wrong. He was shite.

For a club like Chelsea, with Romans billions keeping them afloat, it’s easy to spend £30m on rubbish players because they just move onto the next one. Even with Romans billions, Chelsea still haven’t dominated the way many expected they might. Yes, they’ve had more silverware since Roman arrived but they haven’t won the Champions League and didn’t look much like winning the premier league last season either. Add Many City and their oil billions to the title race and Chelsea face even greater competition in spite of Abramovichs estimated £700 million investment into the club.

Clubs that aren’t in the top four, or don’t have billions in oil dollars backing them, face difficult investment decisions. Pumping extra funds into the squad, particularly in the lower leagues, can see a club rise up through the leagues. Doncaster have climbed from non-league to the championship under the ownership of John Ryan but that has cost him £5 million. That’s a remarkable success but for other clubs, the story hasn’t been so pretty.

The Premier League, with all it’s lovely branding, pots of television cash and international exposure, has driven some chairman to the brink of insanity as they chase down a Champions League place. While he was chairman at Leeds United, Peter Ridsdale went for broke as he pushed for a place at Europes top table. They failed. They had huge debts and couldn’t pay them back resulting in administration, a player exodus and two relegations. Years of turmoil have since followed as they dropped to league 1 where they remain for a third successive season.

Newcastle are the next club to find themselves teetering precariously on the edge. The media portrays the barcode army as some sort of super club when the reality is they have big support but haven’t won a trophy for fifty years or more. If league titles were settled by the number of messiahs a club can have, Newcastle would has walked the league last season. Had someone told Mike Ashley that he’d have both Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer on his management team during the season he’d probably thought they’d do the double, he’d get the freedom of city and god himself (or herself) would concede defeat as the chief deity of the north east.

The experience of clubs like Leeds and Newcastle should act a warning to others, especially those chasing the Champions League spots. The board at Derby County certainly appear to have taken notice and are working hard to reduce the clubs debt. Under the ownership of General Sports and Entertainment (GSE) the club will be seeing a small profit this season and while this is due to a certain amount of belt tightening, it is also down to the new approach to sponsorship that Tom Glick and the team have taken. Last season our sponsorship revenues were double what they were where the previous season in the premier league. While I understand sponsorship revenue and “a small profit” aren’t likely to get fans jumping out of their seats, they are indications that the team is in the hands of professionals.

Browsing the message boards and reading some of the negativity can be seriously depressing at the moment. There appears to be a lot of criticism of the current owners for their apparent lack of investment within the squad which, according to some fans, must mean they aren’t serious and they are just here to turn a “small profit” and skim off the cream for themselves. Transfer activity is often seen by fans as being an indicator of a boards genuine hunger to bring success to club but a belief that high wages and high transfer fees are a recipe for success is terribly misguided, as the example of Leeds and Newcastle, to name but two, points out. GSE reduced the debts of Derby County rather significantly, spent approximately £9m on transfers in their first year and have doubled sponsorship revenue while freezing season ticket prices for those wishing to renew. These are not decisions of a board looking to make a quick buck and run.

Given the recent history of the three amigos it is easy to understand some fans cynicism, although I believe their is no reason to be so sceptical. The current crop of investors in Derby County are already wealthy beyond most peoples dreams and have been very succesful in their own field of work. Having the likes of Jeff Mallet, former president of Yahoo! Inc, in the investment team is a major deal. This guy isn’t concerned with playing with a train set and getting wrapped up in a false accounting scandal; he’s a serious investor with an interest in the sports business.

These guys want the club to succeed and I’ve seen little evidence to suggest that they want anything but the best for the club. What they have brought to the club is a level of professionalism that has been missing with Derby County for years. Despite Peter Gadsbys protestations, when he owned the club we weren’t great on the pitch and were terrible off the pitch. Now though, if you speak to anyone that deals with the new management team, they only have high praise for the staff. This works well behind the scenes and with Adam Pearson and Nigel Clough running the football side of the business, we appear to have a highly talented team working pitch side also.

Unless Kris Commons and Rob Hulse are sold from under our noses and the money is not put back into the squad, I’d recommend having some faith in this board. They haven’t yet done anything wrong and they have allowed both managers to buy new players. The fact remains that Nigel Clough buys the players he wants and the lower league players he has signed have been identified by him, not an American sitting in Detroit trying to balance the books. As Derby County fans we know what makes our club great and we recognise it’s potential. As such, it should come as no surprise to us that our potential is recognised and we are able to bring investment from around the world into our wonderful club.

Today is a slow news day although I missed a few stories yesterday so I’ll catch up on them as well.

Rob Hulse will not feature in this weekend pre-season friendly against Burton Albion. The Rams striker is suffering a slight groin strain but according to Nigel Clough he should return to training next week after having an injection.

The friendly against Burton is this Saturday (11th July) at the Pirelli stadium. Tickets are £15 for adults in the seating area or £13 in the terrace. This seems expensive for a pre-season game but this was all part of the deal that brought Nigel Clough down the A38 to Pride Park. We can expect the same for the next two seasons also.

News that ‘Boro are after Rob Hulse is gathering pace. The internet is awash with rumours (honestly, google nearly crashed. This is such a hot topic) that the north east club are thought to be after the 2008/09 player of the year and a bid of £3m has been mentioned.

Another young gunner could be coming to Derby after Adam Pearson revealed the club are keeping tabs on Mark Randell as a possible long loan target. Randell, 19, was the captain of Arsenal reserves last season and made appearances in the Champions league against Fc Twente and Fc Porto.

Lewis Price should be on his way to Brentford on a season long loan deal. The third choice keeper has so far failed to make an impression on Nigel Clough and could be heading out of Pride Park to get more first team experience.

On the forums there is a bit of chatter about Michael Duberry coming to Pride Park. As far as I can tell, this is currently just internet chatter, but a lot of fans seem to be of the opinion that the 33 year old would be a decent signing for a season. I’m sure he would be good for a season but let’s think about it rationally. He won’t be signing for a single season, he’ll want a couple of years at least and he’ll no doubt look for a good wage as he’s nearing the end of his career. We’ve taken on several old pros on longer than necessary contracts in recent years so let’s try to steer clear of doing the same again.

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.