By: Andy Buckley-Taylor
Our beloved Derby County are now in administration and staring relegation in the face. Mel Morris the multi-millionaire has decided that he isn’t going to bankroll the club any longer and has decided to abandon ship!
The fact that he was persistently blaming COVID-19 for the financial problems shows how very deluded he is if he thinks that supporters or indeed anyone is going to accept that as an excuse! There’s one reason and one reason only why we are in this mess and that's financial mismanagement of the highest order!
Morris inherited a team that had just gone close to getting promoted and it was virtually debt free! We are realistically staring liquidation in the face! No I’m not scaremongering! The fact is that we still have to pay the coaches and players and there’s very little income to do that!
Hopefully the administrators can find a buyer before January and we can hang on to the players we have. The players and management team have been fantastic through this. The players giving their all on the pitch and Wayne Rooney going way beyond his duties to the club reportedly helping pay bills for away games. He has also pledged to do what he can for staff abandoned by Morris.
Whilst we are down the owners of Wycombe Wanderers and Middlesbrough have threatened legal action against the club for breaking the rules. Mr. Gibson who offloaded losses to a company outside the football operation is hardly Mr. Ethical himself and Wycombe were beneficiaries of a Points Per Game solution to determining placings in League One, the same solution rejected by The National League.
Derby County are founder members of the Football League and there's plenty of gloating from fans of other clubs! Fans need to bare in mind it could be their club next! By all means have a go at Morris, but this episode was created by Morris and Stephen Pearce. Even Golfer Lee Westwood appeared to find it funny without showing any regard for staff losing their jobs and local businesses losing income! Perhaps Derby fans won’t be rooting for him in this weeks Ryder Cup!
We as fans must sit and wait for a rescue! It’s not going to be easy to sell the club with it massive debts!
I’m not making any excuses for Morris, but I refuse to believe that Trevor Birch isn’t getting some satisfaction out of kicking our club. Fans will recall he was dismissed by the club as Chief Executive during the Billy Davies era.
We fans will continue to attend games whatever division we end up playing in. The fans were a credit to the club last Saturday during our 2-1 win against Stoke. The players all put a good shift in too!
Finally The leader of Derby City Council, Chris Poulter, has refused to remove Mel Morris as Business Ambassador for the council. This beggars belief after the damage he has done to this proud club and the suffering he may cause to local businesses. Morris is a supporter and donator to Councillor Poulters party so I guess it was the old pal’s act that has kept in this position. I would urge fans whatever their political beliefs to let Mr. Poulter know exactly what they think to this! Totally unacceptable!
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