Posts Tagged ‘Derby County FC’
Nottingham Forest earned the spoils from this local derby thanks chiefly to braces from both Marcus Tudgay and Robert Earnshaw.
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Qpr’s fine form continued as they swept past Derby County at Pride Park.
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Apparently this is a done deal, but why have Tottenham bought this former-West Ham keeper?
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Derby County Football Club. Remember them? They were the team that accepted relegation from the Premier League as a given by November. They were the team who conceded six goals at home. Twice.
Well it seems that Derby County don’t really have any intention of playing with the big boys any time soon. Well, thats the theme they seem to give off with the latest transfers and rumours flying in and around Pride Park.
First of all, the move to sign Nottingham Forest’s midfielder Kris Commons. A player who was playing League One football last season. Then they bid £2m for Swansea’s Dutch midfielder Ferrie Bodde. Another player who played in League One last season, and only scored 3 times. Then the BBC link Derby to Stockport’s Liam Dickinson, who scored 21 goals last season…. in League Two (he was even playing in the Unibond First Division 3 years ago!)
Now, finally, Derby annouce they’ve signed winger Steve Davies from Tranmere. Another one from a League One club.
With this influx of interest in lower league footballers, are Derby County quite happy to “slum it” in the Championship for the next few years? They certainly don’t really seem to be trying to bring in top class talent that will get them promoted. Granted, Bristol City got to the Play-Off final and 90 minutes away from the Premiership while spending £1m on a fresh-from-League-One Lee Trundle, but its not exactly a blueprint for success.
Does anyone else think Derby want to get back into the top league? Or are they embarrassed to show their faces up there again?
Walter Smith is an intelligent manager who has worked wonders at Ibrox, so I very much doubt the following speculation has any basis in fact.
Derby County chairman Adam Pearson has warned Rangers they won’t sign 5m rated Kenny Miller on the cheap.
He said: “It’s nonsense. We’ve invested a lot of time and money into Kenny so the deal would have to be right for Derby County.
“There’s no financial reason for us to sell but, if Kenny wants to go to Rangers and the fee is right, we’ll do a deal.” (various)
Ok lets get this straight. Kenny Miller is hugely overrated, 4 goals in 30 matches is hardly prolific even if it is for Derby. Rangers managed to score 122 goals last season in all competitions, so I really do not think Smith will be held to ransom for the 28 year old. Am I wrong? Is Miller worth buying? Surely not! What do Rangers fans think?
The Sun has uncorked yet another of its top Ten lists, this time the Top Ten Signings of the Season. The top three were:
1.Fernando Torres
2.Roque Santa Cruz
3. Anderson
But we’re not too concerned about what The Sun thinks, what is your top 3 Premier League signings this season?
Everton’s ginger Braveheart Davie Moyes still reckons that his boys can overtake Liverpool and bag fourth place for themselves – despite the fact that Liverpool have a veritable cakewalk of a run-in – with Everton still having to play Chelsea and Arsenal.
Although Rafa’s men got a surprise point against Arsenal at the Emirates, Everton beat Derby 1-0 to stay just three points behind (technically four points given Everton’s rancid goal difference).
Moyes said:
“We are optimistic, we believe we can still catch Liverpool.
“We are having to push them towards the end of the season, to keep them going. It has been a long, hard campaign.
“We can put pressure on Liverpool, and if we do that and win at Birmingham next weekend it will be our highest points tally in the Premier League, that is the first objective.”
Is Moyes in cloud cuckoo land – or do the Toffees have a realistic chance?
Not every player would love being relegated from the Premiership and even fewer player would actually love playing in England’s second tier.
But Derby County’s Robbie Savage says that he would love life fighting in a very competitive Championship. Derby’s relegation from the Premiership was confirmed this weekend after they drew 2-2 with Fulham and Birmingham City beat Manchester City.
Savage rages:
I’ll love it. I like being captain and what comes with it.
I will be there to be shot at next year and I am looking forward to it.
The lads tell me it’s one of the most difficult leagues to play in as there are two games a week.
But I’m looking forward to that too because I’d rather play than train, you don’t train too much when you play so often.
We’re going to be there to be shot at, brilliant, that’s what you want.
Sour grapes?? Seems so.
It took 76 minutes for Manchester United to find a breakthrough against basement boys Derby County on Saturday, while the previous week had seen them huff and puff but fail to blow the house down against Portsmouth in the FA Cup. Sporting Life reports that Sir Alex Ferguson is getting frustrated at seeing his team fail to convert the many chances that are currently falling their way. With some crucial matches on the horizon, is the Scot right to be concerned?
“Last Saturday, missing chances knocked us out of the cup, and against Derby we made it hard for ourselves because we missed so many again,” said Ferguson on MUTV.
“We were really charitable – it was a lot of chances. Maybe it’s a little sticky spell, but we want to get over it.
“We’ve big, important games coming up, Bolton at home on Wednesday and then Liverpool on Sunday, and we want to start taking chances.
“We are making them, and I suppose that’s the biggest bonus of all.
“If we keep making them, you know at some point someone’s going to suffer. We just have to keep going with that.”
Will Bolton be the team that’s on the receiving end of the backlash on Wednesday night? Ferguson rested Carlos Tevez for the match at Pride Park and the Argentine will be keen to return to scoring ways after a barren spell for the Red Devils. However, it’s possible that they’re continuing to rely far too heavily on Cristiano Ronaldo for crucial goals, with the rest of the team struggling to find the back of the net.
Manchester United’s Premier League match with Derby County on Saturday was a special occasion for 24-year old custodian Ben Foster who was gifted his Man United debut.
Foster was on loan to Watford last season and his string of impressive performances did earn him a recall to the Old Trafford unit but he has been unable to play due to a lenghty injury. But now that Foster has returned into footballing action, the England international is pretty much buoyant and optimistic about his future.
Foster heaves a sigh of relief:
I finally feel like a United player now! I’ve been here nearly three years and it’s good to finally get on the pitch for the first team in a competitive game.
I’m not one for nerves – I just take things in my stride and try not to think about things too much.
It’s a big thing to come back from injury and to be thrown straight into the first team, but I thoroughly enjoyed it – though it was a bit harder than I thought!
Foster is a quality player and he is certainly in United manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s long term plans.
Fulham are second from bottom in the English Premier League and are a massive 6 point adrift of safety. In all likelihood the London club will go down to the Championship at the end of the season but Fulham manager Roy Hodgson says that his team can beat the dreaded drop and insists:
There’s a quarter of the season left basically – 27 points – and we’ve just got to hope we have a good last quarter.
Our work ethic and enthusiasm and energy has been very good and I don’t see any sign of defeatism or lack of belief.
I’m hoping that we will show we are a bona fide Premiership club with the mettle, the character and the quality to stay up.
There might be a good number of matches left in the season but Fulham are playing the worst football in the top flight after rock bottom Derby County. Anyway, let’s see whether Hodgson can weave out a miracle from virtually nowhere and relieve Fulham of relegation agony.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex has reiterated his faith in his 24-year old goalkeeper. Man United play rock bottom Derby County in the Premiership this weekend Sir Alex is ready to give Foster his season debut.
Sir Alex says:
Edwin van der Sar will miss the game.
Obviously, it’s a debut for Ben Foster, who I’d planned to let go on loan on Monday, but unfortunately for Tomasz Kuszczak he got sent off and misses the game tomorrow.
Ben will start and obviously he has been out for a year and has only one reserve game behind him, so it’s a big challenge for the boy.
There are certain things that encourage me about it. He’s got fantastic presence and speed, agility. I’ve got no fears he’ll be okay.
His training has been fantastic and he has done very well. He has been out for a long time, it was last June when he got the operation, but his rehabilitation went right and we did all the right things.
He’s come through very well. He has been training football-wise for over a month, so there is no question about his fitness level.
In terms of the match side of it, I don’t know about that. He has only had one reserve game, but he has so many assets that I’m confident about it.
Last season Foster was one of the best players in the Premiership and certainly the best for Watford but he has out this season until now. Foster is the best bet to replace Edwin van der Sar in the long run.
It’s fair to say that Robbie Savage has made a fair few enemies throughout a long and relatively successful football career. The Welshman, now at Derby County, has been involved in countless unsavoury incidents over the years and seen a flurry of yellow and red cards while wearing the shirt of many football clubs. However, the Derby Evening Telegraph reveal a softer fluffier side to the midfielder, after Savage stopped his car on the way to the Sunderland match to give two Rams fans a lift.
Mark Stevenson said: “I saw the car go past and noticed the driver was wearing a Derby tracksuit and said to Lauren ‘that might have been a player’.
“The car turned round and came back, the window wound down and I saw who it was.
“Robbie said ‘are you going to the game? Jump in’. It was a bit of a surprise.“He asked Lauren how long she had been supporting Derby and asked who was her favourite player.
“When he got near the ground, he said ‘here’s two tickets, enjoy the game’.“I know he took a lot of stick in some papers last week because of his new car and that but he seemed a sound bloke to me.
“Let’s face it, how many players would have stopped and given two fans a lift?”
Not only did Mark and Lauren get some free tickets to see their beloved County, they also witnessed one of the best results of the season, ie their team not losing for a change! This is clearly one of the most heartwarming stories of the football season and proof that players sometimes do appreciate the fans.
More injury woes for Derby County. Teenager Giles Barnes is expected to face a lengthy spell on the sidelines after picking up an injury in training last week and is set to go for another scan this week.
Derby manager Paul Jewell laments:
It isn’t good news. We’re sending him for a second opinion.
It isn’t cruciate ligament damage but until we get a second opinion we’ll not know too much more.
The news is not as bad for Derby as it is for the player himself. Derby are guaranteed to drop down into the Championship at the end of the season but Giles Barnes would certainly have loved to continue playing football. Poor lad, may he recover soon. Amen.
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