Jack Bryan is a football writer and life long Derby County supporter.
It has been yet another packed couple of weeks in the crazy world of Derby County, with hopes of Championship survival dashed. But, there is finally some new hope when it comes to the club exiting administration.
Let’s start with the Rams’ return to action after the international break. On 2nd April, Preston North End were the visitors to Pride Park, and contested a game in which both sides finished with ten men. Preston had the better start, but Liam Lindsay’s red card offered us a route back into the game. When Max Bird was given his marching orders, I was left feeling a sense of déjà vu. We had thrown away our man advantage after a rash foul; the 1-0 win at home to Peterborough comes to mind. But, as we did on 19th February, we got a late goal, albeit not quite as late as Sibley’s versus the Posh. Ravel Morrison, who had just returned from Jamaica, scoring a brilliant scissor-kick half-volley in the 81st minute, North End goalkeeper Daniel Iversen having just made a great double save.
For more on that game, Ravel Morrison, and other topics, have a listen to the podcast episode released on 5th April, in which I made my debut.
With Reading and Barnsley sharing the points between them at Oakwell that weekend, we had reduced the gap between us and safety to six points, but the gap increased to nine points with six games to play, Reading having won 2-1 at home to Stoke in their game in hand last Tuesday night.
On Saturday, the Rams travelled to South Wales to play Swansea, who were 2-0 up after just sixteen minutes. Joel Piroe was the scorer of both goals, the former PSV man getting on the end of a Hannes Wolf cross for the first, and taking advantage of poor Derby defending to slot the ball into bottom left corner of the goal again, with another first time finish, for the second.
Derby pulled one back in the 22nd minute, when Tom Lawrence just about scored a penalty won by Luke Plange. Andy Fisher got a hand to the ball, but couldn’t keep it out.
The rest of the first half wasn’t great, and although the game livened up a bit in the second half. However, the main stories from the rest of the game are controversial refereeing decisions. There were calls for Ryan Allsopp to be sent off in the first half, after bringing down former Rams loanee Jamie Paterson, and there had been appeals from Swansea players to the referee, claiming a handball by Curtis Davies, when the score was still 1-0.
The worst decision, in my opinion, came in the last minute of the game, as the referee failed to award a blatant penalty after Bartosz Cybulski was dragged down in the box. As he has done many times this season, Wayne Rooney expressed his frustration with the referee in his post-match interview, saying, “I hope the referee gets banned and fined but that is not good enough.”
Despite the loss, the gap to safety stays at nine points, Cardiff having come from behind to beat Reading. Although still possible, our survival hopes are now incredibly slim.
On a more positive note, there seems to be a brighter light at the end of the tunnel with regards to our club’s long term future, with American businessman Chris Kirchner having been named by the joint administrators as the preferred bidder on Wednesday.
This is undoubtedly a positive step, that we have been waiting months for, so it should be celebrated, but with caution. The administrators have now ‘entered into a period of exclusivity with Mr. Kirchner and his advisers,’ per the statement that they released on Wednesday, making Kirchner the favourite to buy the club, although there is still ‘A lot to be done’ per Kirchner’s twitter. This surely includes discussions with the EFL about a potential further points deduction if the bid doesn’t satisfy EFL and their insolvency policy.
Many have voiced concerns about Kirchner, who first expressed his interest in buying Derby towards the end of last year, before pulling out in December, but the reality is that we will never know if he is the best person to take the club forward, ahead of some of the other names touted over the last few months.
I know Andy Buckley-Taylor has already covered this in a previous blog post, but I feel obliged to mention that some awful, potentially offensive tweets that Chris Kirchner posted a few years ago came to light last week, prompting the Slync.io owner to delete his account and create a new one, after rightly receiving much criticism. As Andy called for him to do, Mr. Kirchner should apologise.
On his new twitter account, Kirchner conducted a question and answer session on Friday night. This is perhaps a sign that the improvement in communication that we have been crying out for will be implemented should Kirchner take charge. In this Q&A, he confirmed that Garry Cook is involved, as had been rumoured, and said that he and his team ‘are going to do a lot more on the access/media front’. He also tweeted that more investment will be going into the women’s team, to which Head Coach Samantha Griffiths responded ‘Exciting times’. This is a sentiment that I, again cautiously, share, for the women’s team, and the wider club. A preferred bidder finally having been named, I now feel hopeful that the club has some direction and will be able to move forward.
In further tweets since Friday, he has answered more fans’ questions, and on Rooney he said, “He’s told me he’s staying.” And to end on another positive, Derby were named as the EFL’s Midlands Community Club of the Season at the beginning of last week. The Derby County Community Trust is another important part of the club which must be protected. Kirchner also tweeted last night that more fan involvement is ‘core’ for him and his team, personally, I hope that includes the DCCT.
Overall Kirchner is so far talking the talk in these Q&As, and at this stage that is all he can do. Can he walk the walk? That remains to be seen.