Monday's announcement that Peter Gadsby was stepping down as chairman may have come as a shock to some people. To others with their ear to the rumour mill, it was less so.

Pretty much since the day Peter Gadsby and his consortium took over the club, he has been saying that new finance would be sought to take the club on to the next stage of its rehabilitation. Since the club's promotion to the Premier League, the need for that new finance has become even more apparent.

Derby County has come a heck of a long way in the last year and a bit. The club is now financially stable but it's obvious that with the best will in the world, we're well off the Premier League pace. Fortunately, although we have a lot of work to do, there's very little points difference between the bottom of the league and mid-table security and we're a long way from relegated just yet

The target for this year has always been 17^th or above, however it's attained. Longer term though, I would think it's not unreasonable to suppose we'd want to be established in the Premier League and worrying the European places in three to four years' time

Just remaining in the Premier League would bring a huge amount of cash in but all the other Premier League clubs would be getting similar amounts and we need more than them in order bridge all the various gaps in squad depth and quality and that means bringing extra finances in.

I've always said that the Championship is a pretty nondescript division and one good season from any well organised team can earn them promotion. The same can definitely not be said for the Premier League – the real hard work starts here.

So Adam Pearson has been brought in solely to bring the finance in to enable the Rams to carry out that work. I haven't studied how he went about this at Hull City, but by all accounts he did a pretty good job of it. Hull City, like the Rams were all but out of business just a very few seasons back.

Am I concerned that he's not a Derbyshire man or Rams fan? No, not at all. There's still plenty of local representation on the board and as long as Mr Pearson respects and acknowledges that football clubs are community focal points and not money making vehicles then I don't really care that he grew up in Yorkshire as a Huddersfield Town fan. After all, footballers move around and at any point in time, the vast majority aren't playing for the clubs they grew up supporting.

So Peter Gadsby now takes something of a back seat. However, his and his colleagues on the Board's places in Rams' history are assured, having rescued the club from near certain oblivion. He may only have been Chairman for a little under two years but better that than for his Chairmanship to turn sour as unfortunately, others have famously done before him.

So let's hope that Adam Pearson is successful in bringing adequate new finance into the club and that he can do it without “selling out”. Nevertheless, it's extremely unlikely to suppose this can be done purely with local money and anyone bringing “big” money to the table is bound to want to have a major say in how it's spent.

Football at the very top has changed radically in the last twenty years or so, many would say for the worse (and I would be one of them). As fans, we all want our club to be as successful on the pitch as it can possibly be but at the same time, we want to feel a part of that success.

So having got out of a ditch, Derby County is back on the road and fast approaching a crossroads. It will be interesting to see which route it takes.

© Steve Tickle 2007

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