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RamsWeek 25 - Summertime In England
RamsWeek 25 - Summertime In England
Monday, 22nd Jun 2009 01:02 by Paul Mortimer

Season 2009-10 edged a little closer for the Rams with the release of the Championship fixtures, the draw for the first round of the Carling Cup and details of the reserves’ Central League structure.

Both Derby County and their near-neighbours Football League newcomers Burton Albion will play in the Central Region of the Central League so there will be Rams-Brewers clashes to look forward to.

They couldn’t play each other in the Carling Cup first round because the teams were allocated into northern (Derby) and southern sections of the draw (Burton). Tuesday’s draw gave the Rams an away tie with League Two side Rotherham United whilst the Brewers travel to Championship Reading.

It’s a tough challenge for the Brewers, which manager Paul Peschisolido is relishing and Derby’s match at Rotherham is a fixture that will give us reasonable confidence (if we win, and the draw is kind to us!) in being able to utilise that free home League Cup voucher we’re promised in our 2009-10 season tickets.

On Wednesday, the full League fixtures were published and the Rams start their Championship campaign at home on August 8th to promoted Peterborough United. Nigel Clough expects Posh to be tough opponents and warned that promoted clubs carry a momentum and a winning habit. We certainly don’t want a repeat of opening day last season when Jewell’s diamonds couldn’t shine against new boys Doncaster Rovers!

The Rams then have their away Carling Cup tie at Rotherham United before travelling to Scunthorpe in the League - so there are three immediate banana skins to overcome against two of the promoted clubs and a lower league side.

We visit the Trees’ hovel at the end of August and the Foxes visit Derby on 17th October. On Boxing Day, Derby host Blackpool and then visit St James Park to take on relegated Newcastle, in our last match of 2009.

We’re at home to Nothingham Forest at the end of January and end the season at home to Cardiff City on May 2nd. No doubt television schedules will rearrange things soon enough but you can see the original full fixture list for Derby County’s 2009-10 season here:

http://www.dcfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10270~1694321,00.html

Promoted Burton Albion have a tough League division Two opener, away against Shrewsbury Town who are improving under the management of ex-Ram Paul Simpson - but Paul Peschisolido is relishing his challenge. He’s busy recruiting players for the exciting League challenge ahead.

Meanwhile, us football fans can only wait and wonder until these fixtures crackle into life in August! The stresses and strains of another Championship campaign will confront the club before you know it. As yet, the hopes and joys, elation and sorrows of the beckoning season are tangibly close at hand but distant enough to provoke anticipation bordering on impatience.

It’s summertime in England - football fans are ridiculously wishing away their time until August 8th!  As ever, the cricket is fitfully entertaining - locally or internationally - when undisturbed by rain. The distraction of the Confederation Cup satisfies a small part of our football hankerings as World Champions Italy are stuffed 3-0 on top of defeat by Egypt, and the Azzuri crash out of the tournament.

Wimbledon tennis is upon us; can the improving Adam Murray really pull it off? Formula One’s in financial turmoil again; Vettel triumphed as Jensen Button had to settle for 6th place in the pack at Silverstone, yet he might still fasten down F1 Championship title glory in succession to Lewis Hamilton.

The midsummer UK weather, so unconvincing; the Summer Solstice sunrise was witnessed by 37,000 folks amidst the iconic 3,000-year old monuments to healing and reverence at Stonehenge. The celebrations followed the spiritual traditions and beliefs carried down through the centuries as the sun (allegedly) “spirals its longest dance”. She is at the height of her powers and fertility at the midsummer point and a good few bottles and certain substances no doubt helped the revelry along for some.  

Maybe you’ll just risk a rather more mortal garden barbecue, between the hazy rain showers unless the partner suggests that the outdoors’ DIY should get done instead! Heyy, yes it’s midsummer - but lo and behold, it is spotting with rain again!

Annual holidays and school leave beckon; the revellers at the big annual music festivals prepare to take their rare escapism in seething fields of human goodwill and rock n’ roll energy, temporarily detached from the dour TV newsreels and Parliamentary scandals. Perhaps park picnics or day-trips enable a more modest fleeting retreat from the daily grind instead. Ahhhh, summertime in England…!

Football clubs beaver away at the edges of July, eager for the moment when the player-transfer roundabout finally begins to revolve in earnest at the turn of the month and contracts get signed. Agents’ eyes wrinkle up in the anticipated renewal of hard fiscal benefit, dollar signs in their eyes.

Suddenly everything’s happening on ‘the back page’ and soon enough, new players say how great it is to join this or that club, incoming managers are appointed and directors stroke their chins and hope for better. Replica kit, remodelled and relaunched, ships from the shelves almost as fast as Manchester United fans can peel off the ‘Ronaldo’ and ‘Tevez’ transfers from last year’s home shirt. And so it goes. Damn, now I’ve used up another useful song title!

Snap! Wake up - and you’re back in the room!

Derby’s mystery striker Liam Dickinson may be off to League One pastures, possibly with relegated Norwich City or Charlton Athletic, according to reports. He could spend next season on loan to a Division One club, as Adam Pearson stated that whilst there’s been transfer interest in him, clubs aren’t able to offer a fee that interests Derby County.

Dickinson’s value may increase if he adds successful loan spells to the goalscoring stints he put in at Huddersfield and Blackpool last term. Derby expects to move busy-but-inconsequential striker Emanuel Villa on, hoping to receive a reasonable fee for him with South America the likely destination. Paul Jewell paid £2m for him…Transfer deals involving clubs in those nations are notoriously complex (shades of Esteban Fuertes!) Numerous agent interventions and contract ownerships emerge, so any deal is likely to drag on for a few weeks yet.

Goalkeeper Roy Carroll is likely to move on too and according to media reports there might be interest from other clubs for those two poor tortured souls who think they deserve better: Tyrone Mears and Giles Barnes. Premier League clubs may be set to bid for their services soon but Derby County require healthy transfer fees, thanks very much - loan agreements won’t suffice. The club has certainly put in plenty of time, money and patience to surmount the injury problems that meant we saw only intermittent periods of promise from both players.

Player traffic in the opposite direction could see Norwich midfielder Mark Fotheringham spending time on a training trial at Derby. Fotheringham has had an invite from Espanyol, too. He looks to be a bit of a club-hopper, having had half a dozen clubs in as many years. We’ve had (and still have) a few of those at Derby too methinks, but in Clough we trust.

It’s more definite that ex-Norwich winger Lee Croft will join Derby come July and that the Rams will secure the loan services of a good young Premier League central midfielder. Barry Bannan gets a mention in the possibles of course and such a player will certainly be influential in Derby’s squad.

The jury in the Northampton Crown Court fraud trial of ex-Rams’ directors and their associates have been deliberating on their verdict since last Wednesday. They’ve received evidence gathered from 115 witnesses, 28 of whom have testified in court during the 16-week trial.

We will thus soon know the judgement regarding the conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and related charges that were brought against the five defendants soon after John Sleightholme’s board of directors was deposed from the Pride Park Stadium. Their departure followed mounting supporter protests and Co-operative bank action to take the club from the regime. The Gadsby consortium revealed that Derby County was in excess of £50m in debt immediately after the club was wrested from Sleightholme’s control.

Troubled digital broadcaster Setanta have had their television rights to 46 Premier League games and SPL fixtures terminated by the Premier League due to their failure to meet Sky TV payment agreement deadlines. Things look bleak for Setanta, but not as bleak as for those hand-to-mouth Scottish clubs that see the £3m or so currently owed to them (out of the overall £130m Setanta rights deal) so crucial to their own survival.

Unlike The Old Firm or most English Premier League clubs, they mostly don’t have giant corporate ownership funds to bail them out, or marketable players to sell off to make up their shortfalls. The collapse of Setanta is set to trigger a bidding war for those matches.

Hopefully, coverage and sponsorship will be sustained so that clubs and subscribers don’t lose out badly, as they did when ITV Digital went under in 2002. It’s yet another signal that the super clubs and the corporate empires that own or influence the direction of ‘the beautiful game’ may well be as exposed to the vicissitudes of the global economic downturn as the rest of us.

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RamsWeek 25 last year it was a similar story to the week just elapsed, with a ‘slow turning’ transfer scenario at Pride Park Stadium - lots of talk but not too much action. There were ‘plenty of irons in the fire’ according to the club spokesman.

The fixtures for 2008-09 were released and Derby looked forward to entertaining promoted Doncaster Rovers at home on opening day.  Unfortunately, Donny entertained themselves fully and carted the points off home when that day came around!

Craig Fagan completed his move to promoted Hull City and various clubs were sniffing around David Jones and Stephen Pearson, notably Stoke and Wolves. Derby still wanted Swansea’s Ferrie Bodde but their chairman remained obstinate. The Rams added Kevin Phillips to their shopping list in what eventually turned out to be another futile pursuit.

The European Championships kept the football entertainment going, even though England had shockingly failed to qualify. Spain vs. Russia and Germany vs. Turkey would be the semi-final fayre during the next week.

Photo: Action Images



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