Ramballs

How time flies? Ramballs was born one week ago today and already I’ve had some fanastic feedback, plus an amazing number of hits, so first of all I’d like to say thank you for reading the blog. It’s pretty time consuming, even though I haven’t added any huge articles or created a stunning design, but it’s good to see you guys coming back to check my updates. We even made it into the top 100 wordpress blogs of the day on July 4th.

DCFC News

This week saw the completion of two outgoings from Pride Park as Tito Villa and Tyrone Mears finally said goodbye.

News had been circulating for a number of weeks regarding Mears’ move away from the East Midlands. Portsmouth, Marseilles and Burnley were all touted as possible destinations for the right-back with the Turf Moor outfit finally sealing the deal on Wednesday. Derby fans were not surprised by the sale given the previous allegations made against Tye regarding his dash through a window to escape to France during Paul Jewells ill-fated reign. Burnley are reported to have paid £500,000 plus add-ons for the energetic defender.

Tito Villa has been sold to Cruz Azul, a Mexican club, for £1.7m. This represents a loss of £300,000 on the striker but most fans think this is a fantastic piece of business by Adam Pearson and the club. While Tito may have been a fan favourite, it was clear that he was not going to feature regularly for the rams and it was in the interests of both parties for him to move on.

Regarding his time at Derby County, Tito said “The most beautiful thing I’ll take with me is the love of the fans, I’ll remember how wonderful they have been to me and how well they treated me all the time.” I’m sure you’ll join Ramballs in wishing Villa the best of luck in the future.

The first batch of Coca-Cola Championship television dates were announced by Sky and BBC. You can find the details here and here. Derby County V QPR on October 24th will be shown live on BBC 2 at 5:30pm. Newcastle, on the other hand, have six of their first nine games being screened on either Sky or the Beeb.

The official DCFC site this week announced the continuation of the black and white half season ticket scheme. All tickets include 12 home league fixtures including a guaranteed ticket for the home tie against Forest. Prices start from £220 for adults and £84 for juveniles.

The 2009/10 home strip has been launchd. Ramballs was at the event in Derby market place and managed to bring you a exclusive photos along with some pictures from the event being held in Quad afterwards. The day was glorious, the entertainment was good, Rammie has had a revamp and the kit is, well, the kit is exactly the same design as most other Adidas strips for this coming season.Find Ramballs coverage here.

From the forums…

www.dcfcfans.co.uk has had a lot of discussion regarding the kit launch. DerbyDan seemed to enjoy one picture in particular, so much so that he made it his avatar. The picture in question was the model from the kit launch. In case you missed it, I’ve stuck her in again.

www.popside.com have been discussing their drinking habits on the “I’m so p*ssed I can’t actually speak” thread which has clocked up a rather impressive 1800 posts. DSB this week announced “I got utterly utterly tw*tmonged last night had a cracking time, was GREAT”. Keep up the good work DSB.

Ramzone featured news this week that Martin Albrechtsen has been told he can find a new club. The forum also discussed the recent closure by Sky of the rivals.net website which came out of the blue after the huge corporation realised that it wasn’t likely to turn a profit unless they paid it some attention and listened to it’s member.

And finally, there was much deliberation on the TheRams.co.uk forum about the design of the latest kit. The best mock up that I saw was from Cliffy who clearly put a lot of effort into his designs and managed to churn out quite a number of them, including the one below, my favourite.

If he hadn’t put the collar on it he’d have had it pretty much nailed on. Well done Cliffy.

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.