Boro v Derby: some bizarre ideas from the Derby fans forum.....

davidmills said:

just found this on derby forum​

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An open letter to supporters of Middlesbrough Football Club and Wycombe Wanderers Football Club​


Posted on January 9, 2022 by lazerock


I write to you as an ordinary fan of a football club which is on its knees. Derby County is in administration and continues to haemorrhage money while its’ administrators grapple with an incredibly difficult situation. We’re told that there are two potential buyers waiting in the wings, but the mess left behind by our previous owner, Mel Morris, means that concluding a takeover is anything but straightforward. Nothing is certain and an institution which has been vital to the fabric of our city and county for well over one hundred years is at serious risk of extinction.

Morris’ stewardship of our club was in my opinion reckless and ultimately ruinous. He spent beyond the club’s means. He gambled with our long-term future, put everything on black and he lost. Now, it is fans like us who are left to contemplate the potential for a future without our beloved club, which has been a fixture, passion, frustration and consolation for all of us for as long as we can remember.

Steve Gibson was onto Morris. He could see that something was amiss and he pursued his grievance via the EFL for as long as it took to bring Morris down. In the end, after protracted legal warfare, it was shown that Morris’ regime had indeed breached financial reporting
standards and so punishment, in the form of a points deduction, should follow. To that extent, Gibson’s position has been entirely vindicated.

The nine-point deduction for financial irregularities, coming on top of the 12-point penalty imposed after Morris placed Derby into administration, effectively condemns the club to relegation this season. The EFL has, in any case, applied stringent embargo conditions which have prevented Derby from competing with its rivals in the transfer market. Barring a miracle, there will be no escape from this straitjacket and we are going down.

I am confident in saying that Derby fans pretty much universally accept that Morris was in the wrong and, of course, the club deserved to be punished as a consequence. We were absolutely appalled, in particular, when we learned that Morris had left a huge tax bill unpaid. We crowdfunded to pay off another shameful unpaid debt, to St John’s Ambulance. But we cannot crowdfund to satisfy HMRC and every other creditor. We don’t have the financial power to save our club, as much as we would love to.
That is why I am asking you to look at our situation with empathy and understanding. We know that Morris’ shenanigans had an effect on the Championship and we understand that you will have been gutted with the outcomes of, in Boro’s case, 2018/9, when you missed the playoffs by a single place and point, and in Wycombe’s case, last season, when you were relegated by a single place and point.
However, at this point, with our club’s future hanging in the balance, I humbly ask you to consider whether your chairmen’s decision to sue our club for financial damages is reasonable or proportionate, when Derby County is at its lowest ebb and at genuine risk of ceasing to exist.
Couhig and Gibson will maintain that they are acting in the fans’ interests, in your interests. I ask you to consider whether that is truly the case in this instance. Even if you believe that your club deserves to be paid millions in damages, please think for a moment about the role your club plays in your community and then try to imagine what your life would be like without it. The impact on our city and county would be crippling.
I recently polled our supporters and found that 39% said that the crisis at Derby County has impacted on their mental health. 10% said that this impact had been significant. Real, ordinary people are being seriously affected by capricious decisions made in boardrooms to which we have no access.
We are not talking here about the temporary fluctuations of promotion and relegation, as important as they are. We are talking about the very serious possibility that our club could die.
Please ask yourselves if you would be happy for your chairmen to help send a fellow professional football club into liquidation and, if not, please contact to ask them to reconsider what they are doing. Make your views known by writing to the club directly, to your supporters’ trust, or other favoured supporters’ group.
It may well be that both of your clubs earn promotion this season. Even if that does not prove to be the case, it is still clear that in the end, properly-run clubs will always prosper. All we are hoping for is the opportunity for new owners to take on Derby County and run the club in an honourable, sustainable way, putting the Morris era firmly behind us.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I’ve always believed that true football fans can speak to fans of any other club and share an understanding of what their club means to them, which is in the blood and is a fundamental love extending way past petty, partisan rivalries.

Yours sincerely,
Ollie Wright
Click to expand...
DOWN TO PLAY THE MACKEMS, YOU'RE GOING DOWN TO PLAY THE MACKEMS!
 
I think the open letter from Ollie Wright is excellent and probably reflects the views of most Derby fans. Derby people are good people in my experience. Very warm and welcoming mostly. Down to earth and not up themselves.

There are affinities - Cloughie, Rioch & Todd, McClaren. Both clubs have had tremendous times through managers forged in the others club. Also, things used to be very warm between Gibson and Derby. After the Riverside was built, Derby came to us for help and advice on Pride Park, which was a copy. Before it opened, Gibson invited the entire staff from Derby up to the Riverside for a tour and to see how it all worked, so they hit the ground running.

They are hurting, with good cause and some of them are lashing out, but they do blame Morris more than anyone.

Wright isn't demanding anything, he's asking for help.

The problem is their club, the person they were happy to have in charge at the time, so the Derby fans should accept they are somewhat culpable for that, broke the rules. The rules are there for a reason, they are supposed to provide a level playing field so that clubs and fans reap fair rewards. By breaking those rules, that didn't happen and there are therefore victims in this. Yes, Derby have been punished already, but that is only one part of the situation. What about the victims? Those victims are Boro and Wycombe. Boro were robbed of a reasonable chance of a huge payout, which actually would be the difference between our clubs own survival were it not for Gibson's continued shovelling of his own personal money in to the club to prop us up. We cannot say we were definitely financially impacted, but there was an opportunity denied. Wycombe were certainly victims.

This is a problem that needs tackling. I wish it wasn't Derby but clubs should be punished for wrong doing and clubs impacted should be compensated by the team responsible for things like this.

Ultimately this is a problem with the form of capitalism we practice in this country. People should be held to account. Morris/Derby knew what they were doing. It's not that they were a company that folded due to circumstances outside their own control. They entirely controlled it.

We should tackle capitalism.

That said, they've entirely elected tory tvvats, so I kind of lose some sympathy there and I've also just remembered quite a few South Derbyshire miners broke from the NUM and joined the UDM scabs, who we now know were colluding with the Tories to undermine the strike. Yorkshire and the North East mining/industrial communities have long memories, so on reflection, fck 'em.
 
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I feel sorry for their fans, but like any club it has its fair share of those who lack a bit of brain power and cant see the irony in blaming Gibson for doing what was necessary to bring the rule breaking to account.

I have sympathy for the fans, but not for the cheating, its as simple as that really.
 
Lefty said:
I think the open letter from Ollie Wright is excellent and probably reflects the views of most Derby fans. Derby people are good people in my experience. Very warm and welcoming mostly. Down to earth and not up themselves.

There are affinities - Cloughie, Rioch & Todd, McClaren. Both clubs have had tremendous times through managers forged in the others club. Also, things used to be very warm between Gibson and Derby. After the Riverside was built, Derby came to us for help and advice on Pride Park, which was a copy. Before it opened, Gibson invited the entire staff from Derby up to the Riverside for a tour and to see how it all worked, so they hit the ground running.

They are hurting, with good cause and some of them are lashing out, but they do blame Morris more than anyone.

Wright isn't demanding anything, he's asking for help.

The problem is their club, the person they were happy to have in charge at the time, so the Derby fans should accept they are somewhat culpable for that, broke the rules. The rules are there for a reason, they are supposed to provide a level playing field so that clubs and fans reap fair rewards. By breaking those rules, that didn't happen and there are therefore victims in this. Yes, Derby have been punished already, but that is only one part of the situation. What about the victims? Those victims are Boro and Wycombe. Boro were robbed of a reasonable chance of a huge payout, which actually would be the difference between our clubs own survival were it not for Gibson's continued shovelling of his own personal money in to the club to prop us up. We cannot say we were definitely financially impacted, but there was an opportunity denied. Wycombe were certainly victims.

This is a problem that needs tackling. I wish it wasn't Derby but clubs should be punished for wrong doing and clubs impacted should be compensated by the team responsible for things like this.

Ultimately this is a problem with the form of capitalism we practice in this country. People should be held to account. Morris/derby knew what they were doing. It's not that they were a company that folded due to circumstances outside their own control. They entirely controlled it.

We should tackle capitalism.

That said, they've entirely elected tory tvvats, so I kind of lose some sympathy there and I've also just remembered quite a few South Derbyshire miners broke from the NUM and joined the UDM scabs, who we now know were colluding with the Tories to undermine the strike. Yorkshire and the North East mining/industrial communities have long memories, so on reflection, fck 'em.
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I remember Boro fans singing "Scabs" to the Mansfield fans at their ground during the strike, as a lot Nottinghamshire miners broke ranks.

It was great when the Stags fans joined in and the whole ground chanted as one.
 
Jonny Ingbar said:
I feel sorry for their fans, but like any club it has its fair share of those who lack a bit of brain power and cant see the irony in blaming Gibson for doing what was necessary to bring the rule breaking to account.

I have sympathy for the fans, but not for the cheating, its as simple as that really.
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I feel for their fans too, they dont deserve it, which proves for every Leicester City owners there are, sadly, more Derby County owners
 
Jammyd said:
I feel sorry for them........then I go on twitter and see what a lot of them are saying. The feeling soon disappears.
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Spot on.

Vile abuse directed at Gibson, our club, fans, town and anything else. I’m sure most Derby fans are reasonable like the letter writer, but too many posting unnecessary stuff for me to have much sympathy.

That said, I hope they survive. But not in the championship.
 
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