Why I’m honoured to start covering Rams
IT is impossible to begin this introduction without first paying tribute to Steve Nicholson, who has lived and breathed Derby County for the last 37 years.
He is a classy operator, a brilliant journalist and an absolute gentleman, whose professionalism allied with his knowledge has helped many young journalists in what has been a distinguished career.
Reading the countless tributes after he announced his departure on Friday, it underlined just how highly respected he is, not just by the fans of the club he covered, but also among his peers.
It has been a tremendous shift in which he has no doubt experienced the full gamut of emotions in chronicling the day-to-day business of one of the founding members of the Football League. He was the front and centre of Derby County coverage, so having been offered the opportunity to follow a master of his craft is a privileged but daunting task, given the esteem with which he is held.
But this has all happened so quickly that I’ve yet to inform my mother, so if she somehow stumbles across these words, I can only apologise.
Deciding to move on from covering Notts County has been an incredibly tough call to make, given that I have made so many wonderful friends in the last seven years at Meadow Lane.
And yet, while I feel a great sense of pride at being asked to cover Derby, there is irony and sadness too. You see, the first press box I ever set foot in was at the Rams’ old home, the Baseball Ground, in 1997.
They were playing Sheffield Wednesday on a wet and windy midweek night but the miserable weather did not dampen an atmosphere that was as loud as it was proud. My reason for being there was that I had accompanied my father, Adrian, in a week that had been spent shadowing him to learn what a journalist’s life entailed.
At the time, he was the deputy editor of Shoot magazine but was also freelancing for the Mail on Sunday, covering the Midlands beat. So off we went to see Jim Smith’s Rams’ team that included the brilliant Aljoša Asanovic, Igor Stimac and Dean Sturridge.
It was the night that sealed the deal for me in terms of what I wanted to do, even though the day before that game Muzzy Izzet never turned up for an interview at Leicester City’s training ground.
My dad was always the first person I would call when anything notable happened in my own career, whether it was news of a job, winning an award or to tell him one of my stories had made the front page rather than the back.
But, five months ago, he died suddenly at the age of 63. He was taken to hospital on a cold December morning, but after undergoing emergency surgery, he could not be saved.
So this monumental job of covering Derby comes at a time of grappling with the pain of grief for which there is no coaching manual.
Let me assure you, there is one call I would dearly love to make today if only just to hear him answer the phone with the familiar cry of “yes Boycey” before revisiting our night at the Baseball Ground.
I guess he would see the irony at a time when Derby’s future looks far more promising than it did a few months back, when we all wondered whether the Rams would survive the most turbulent chapter in the club’s history.
But late on Monday night, Chris Kirchner announced via his Twitter account that he had taken a great step forward in his bid to become the club’s new owner.
Providing a deal can be struck for the stadium with the previous chairman Mel Morris, then he will inherit a club that is virtually a blank canvas. It is a chance to rebuild a Derby that is ambitious but one that does not risk its future by being lured, as so many clubs have done and will do, into spending more than it can afford.
In Wayne Rooney, Kirchner has one of the brightest young managers in English football who did a remarkable job last season, despite the club’s relegation from the Championship. He couldn’t sign any players and he had a 21-point deduction to contend with, having
been continually hamstrung by problems that were out of his control.
And yet through the backing of you, the supporters, Rooney and his players demonstrated incredible spirit that at one stage left you wondering whether they could pull off the most remarkable of escape acts.
In the end, the task proved too great and there are no guarantees of a procession back to the Championship.
As Sunderland, Ipswich Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Portsmouth will tell you, it is a division that does not care much for reputations.
But with a new owner heading to Pride Park, a manager whose stock continues to rise, and a fanbase that has shown remarkable fortitude, patience and love, there can be cautious optimism about what the future holds.
It will be a hell of a journey. It is one that I am honoured to join you on.