It's no secret that Derby County had an abysmal time of things last season, relegated with the worst points total ever recorded in the Premier League. Midway through that season they ditched the man who had got them there, Billy Davies, and appointed Paul Jewell, a man who could not stop the rot and who many feel made no difference whatsoever to a vastly sinking ship. This is the first Summer Jewell has had to mould his own squad and bring in his own players, so do you think that Jewell can take Derby back up to the premier League? Or do you think under Jewell the Rams will fade away into Mid-table Championship obscurity?

League 1 bound !!!

I was looking forward to Derby playing in the EPL when they won the play-offs. I thought they had a pretty good manager and although they would struggle to live with the big boys in the Prem, i did not expect them to become the laughing stock which they became. They just stopped tryng half way through the season and although they would have still be relegated it was still wrong of them to play like they did. Their fans just about wasted their hard earned money which was spent on season tickets. This coming season they owe it to their fans to perform like the team they did two seasons ago. Paul Jewell is the man who needs to get the players to believe in themselves again. He will have just about the same squad he had last season and he has already added new players. There is a big difference in the standard between the two leagues so i don't think they will go straight down again. However, i wouldn't want them to come straight back up. They were a waste of space in many of their games last season and although they owe it to their fans, i would rather Reading came back up. Reading went down fighting while Derby looked like they couldn't give a f*ck at times. It was not good for football and its not really fair on the other teams who are desperate to play in the top league. Hopefully it will be their last chance in a while.

Can not see why not he is a half decent manager and given the fact it looks like he is going to be backed by the board they could be back in the prem in the next couple of seasons.....Hopefully not though

Come on leeds and forest get back to were you belong so i can great pleasure in Liverpool beating you lot again

They simply should not have won that Play Off Final of two seasons ago against West Brom, it was painfully clear not only during that season but just in that ninety minutes that they simply did not have the squad, without hugely significant improvement to even compete in the Premier League. Billy Davies admitted that upon his arrival it was a progressive, four-year plan in order to get back into the Premier League and although yes they probably gained from the financial aspects of being back in the Premiership, it was simply suicide how quickly they went up.

I personally think they were in a lot of trouble before last years campaign even began, but there were a number of decisions that did not help. Sacking Davies I think wasn't the greatest decision they could of made but I suppose partly justifiable and the signing of the likes of Robbie Savage on what i expect is a very high wage contract was bad, simply because every time i saw him play last season after he signed he simply looked like he did not give a sh*t. They could not attract decent players, their squad when they went up was poor and subsequently they had to keep faith in players like Darren Moore, Andy Todd etc who are just laughable at that level now. They were awful at the back, the Midfield offered them no protection and they couldnt't score many goals, failure throughout the team. Their supposed saving grace Giles Barnes hardly had a chance to feature and both Davies and Jewell seemed to have a dispute with Earnshaw, perhaps a man who could of got them some goals.

Initially, i thought Jewell was a great appointment, I don't think anyone was under any illusions at that stage that he could pull off some kind of footballing miracle and save them from an immediate return to the Championship, but i think many thought that he would get them playing more as a unit and install new desire in them so if they were going to lose they could do so with effort with a little dignity intact, instead of being dished out 4 and 5 goal hammerings quite frequently. But instead, if anything in my opinion they just seemed to get worse under Jewell as opposed to a little better, the defeats were just as bad, if not worse and nothing seemed to improve at all with him at the helm. I remember him unleashing fierce post match criticism upon his players to the media on more than the one occasion, which may well have been justified but that is hardly going to inspire confidence within the ranks now is it. I was present at both Reading's games with Derby last season and the away game, where we won 4-0 and went down anyway, the performance of Derby defensively was one of the worst i have seen in my years of going to watch football. They were an utter, utter disgrace.

The pressure is really on now for Jewell, I personally can see them just filling their squad up with half arse Championship players, such as the already signed Nathan Ellington, and re lapsing once more into a run of the mill, occasional playoff challenging Championship team.

I think people are being a little harsh on us. The facts are we earned our promotion by coming third in the league (after having led it for a long time) and winning the play-off's. There was no fluke involved as we all know you dont fluke an entire season.

There seems to be an attitude that West Brom should have gone up regardless of them finishing 6 points behind us and losing two out of three games against us that season.

Billy Davies was orchestrating his move the moment we were promoted and started excuses. The money simply wasnt available due to having had bad ownership previously (including crooks who are in court over their handling of the club)

When we went up Billy Davies (I think the guy is great apart from this) was unsettling people and also bought some odd players. He made comments about the chairman and it was inevitable he would go. He wanted to go. When Jewell came in, contrary to the above comments, there were improvements but over the Christmas period we missed out on a lot of points with last minute goals and some dubious decisions (although this is not an excuse we were not good enough, we just appeared to get our seasons worth over that period), this was the real end for us, not before that.

After that the heads went down but not in every match like people make out. Ask teams like Manchester United or look at the Derby-Liverpool match(ahem, not the Liverpool-Derby match). Also the Reading fan fails to mention the game at the Madjeski where most people said we should have won. People have selective memorys especially the Newcastle fan who really has it in for us. No connection to the 4 points we took off them obviously.

I wasn't trying to be critical or anything mate and it's good to get the opinion of a Derby fan. Anyone could have taken that game at the Madejski from what i remember, it was a shocking game no doubt about it.

Yeah, i spent my time typing that comment JUST because you managed to get 4points off us. Sure! The thing is, your team were a joke for most of the season. Please point out the things i have said that have been so wrong. I even said i was looking forward to seeing your team play in the EPL. I also said "they looked like they didn't give a f*ck at times". Do you know what that means? That doesn't mean that you didn't give a f*ck ALL of the time. So your bit about "selective memorys" is a load of sh!t really. My comments were not linked to the fact that your team got points off Newcastle. Most of the league did.


I hope you enjoy the championship

I was only pulling your leg Geordie JJ. We were dreadful I just meant that sometimes I hear comments that suggest the team werent putting effort into any of the games and that just not true.
Joking aside we probably will enjoy the championship as its an exciting league as long as we arent at the wrong end of the table!

I don't remember that being the case... I remember it being hard fought, but I wouldn't go so far to say that Derby should've won...

Derby will be very lucky to avoid relegation to League 1.

How long until Derby win?

Their last win was mid-September last year so it'll be about 11 months come the first fixture vs Doncaster on Saturday.

Will they go the full year (next month) without a win or will they put that to rest straight away on Saturday?

Some people on various forums think they'll last until September without winning but I think they'll beat Doncaster and start the season on the right foot.

Out of interest did anyone see Jewell's interview after the Doncaster game?

I swear blind the man was off his trolley, he was staggering around, sweating buckets and slurring his words all over the place.

I think that even after the bad start that Derby will make the playoffs.

I think mid-table will be the best they could hope for this season. They don't realy have any stand out players except for posibly Giles Barnes if he plays enough to pick them up by the scruff of the neck and drag them into the playoffs.

Krakow

The Derby disgrace continues - beaten 2 - 0 by Barnsley this time!

I think he really and truly has lost the plot completely, definetly heading for the chop without a doubt.

He was drunk in the interview after the game on the opening game of the season against Doncaster, I'm astounded nothing was made of it!

it couldn't happen to a nicer bloke