There’s no shortage of things to talk about in the footballing world; FIFA’s corruption scandal, the arrival of yet another Chelsea manager, England’s seemingly never ending fall since McClaren, the troubles facing Arsenal. Yet as a real football fan I have chosen to be slightly more original and instead examine a team that is not looked at every day by newspapers and media alike: Derby “11 Points” County.
Although at times hard to admit, I have been a Derby fan through thick and… well its been pretty much thick times during my life and yet, like all Derby fans and Nottingham Forest fans, we dream of the day we can be restored to the top of English football like the days under the tremendous manager Brian Clough, and when my beloved club reached promotion several seasons back under Billy Davies, it seemed we were ready to live the dream again. Only this was not a glorious dream, it was a nightmare.
After achieving the lowest points total ever achieved in the Premier League, we were made a laughing stock and kicked back down to the Championship, our rams tails very much between our legs. However many fans believed this would change Derby, providing finances and a slightly better squad. Wrong. We were shoved under immense debt, corrupt owners came to light and Paul Jewell decided to spend the entirety of our parachute payments on a new squad that was mostly rubbish. We had no money, an old squad in comparison to others near us, and no hope. Where was I? Every week, cheering them on, putting money into shirts each year while the “players” playing in them could’ve suited to my local team, Woking FC. And yet still over 29,000 fans sang their hearts out at home each week, willing the pride to return to Pride Park.
Paul Jewell soon realised we were a sinking ship and jumped, meaning the board were forced to find themselves a new manager. Now here’s something people don’t know about the Derby owners. They are American, and they like baseball. So much in fact many of the investors owned teams in America, and as we all know, American ownership is, rightly or wrongly about putting money before success. They seeked out a cheap alternative that could excite fans, and chose to look at the Blue Square Premier, enter Nigel Clough.