It was reported in the Daily Mail that Derby County may be close to liquidation. Rams Review contributor Andy Buckley-Taylor gives his thoughts on the latest news.
If the reports in The Daily Mail are to be believed, our club is perilously close to going out of business.
It has been suggested that if a deal isn’t done with HMRC for a reduction in payments, that we will fold. No deal. No takeover. No more Derby County!
One of the founding members of the football league gone. Wound up. Liquidated!
This is the club that had the legendary Steve Bloomer and the first team to win a post World War Two FA Cup final! We were the Champions of England in 1971/72 under Brian Clough and Peter Taylor then again three years later with Dave Mackay in charge.
The less intelligent football fan may laugh and sneer. The distasteful comments coming from The Red rivals across Brian Clough Way and some Leeds fans who seem to talk about our club more than their own (that Play Off defeat still hurting them?)! A few Rotherham, Middlesbrough and indeed Wycombe fans are sticking the boot in too!
Any serious football fan will not want any club to go out of business. Indeed a few Forest fans I know have wished us luck. If we are gone they are deprived of a rival. Rivalry makes football. Notts County are hardly ever in the same tier and I doubt the thousands of Forest fans who sang “We only hate Derby” will be looking forward to a phoney rivalry with Leicester. Besides Leicester are miles ahead of both our clubs.
The conundrum facing HMRC is 1) They do a deal for 25% of monies owing, but creating a precedent or 2) Insist on the full amount knowing that the club will likely go into liquidation and they would then receive nothing! That is the big stumbling block! Even if the administrators sell players in January to raise funds, the can is only being kicked a little further down the road!
Of course the man responsible for this is one Melvyn Morris! He ran up the debts, he hoodwinked the fans and he is ultimately responsible for the demise of our great club. If we don’t survive he will go into history books as the man who ruined the club!
I don’t usually talk politics in football columns (I have friends who support all three main parties), but the Conservative led Derby City Council have our owner as their business ambassador for the council. They have stated they see no reason to remove him! Could it be because he has donated to their party! If I was a Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green or any other party candidate next May, I would make this a major election issue!
Derby County Football Club is a major asset for both the city and county. Those responsible for its demise must be shamed! How can a local council support the person responsible?