Is this RIP for Derby County as major club?

SO my beloved club, Derby County, has gone into administration. That means the club is bust, bankrupt, insolvent – call it what you will.

Presumably, without any funding, unless a fairy godmother turns up with a load of cash and a commitment to the club, Derby County is now finished, as a major outfit.

As a fan since 1944 never, in my worst dreams, did I imagine I would see this day. It is clear now that Mel Morris intends no longer to fund the wages of players and staff as well as the day to day administration of the club.

There is a link here between those days and today in that the club’s owners have let the fans down. In 1973 it was Sam Longson, a mere haulage contractor, who boasted that he only had £25 invested in the club. In 2021 it’s Mel Morris, more’s the pity as he did try to get promotion with a massive investment of over £200 million. Good luck to him.

I gave up four months of my life ‘73-74 in trying to keep Brian Clough at Derby but, in his connection, I do share some responsibility for being where we are today. Clough resigned as manager, owing to a split with Sam Longson. Later, he called me from Brighton and Hove Albion, wanting my blessing should he sign for the club. If I had argued strongly that the Derby first team were about to go on strike for his return, I think he would have driven back to Derby, without signing. Unfortunately, no one had told me of the fact.

That night he turned up at a big meeting of fans in the Queen’s Hall, Derby and broke down in tears. What a waste, and what an awful irony when he eventually joined Nottingham Forest, with whom he won back-to-back European Cup Finals. And so the greatest manager of all time (ask Roy Keane) went missing and we lacked the one man who would have laid the foundations for a permanent top-flight club, like Liverpool or Manchester United/City. Oh yes, we had success under Dave Mackay and others, but the decline has been remorseless, leading to where we are today.

A football club is not owned by anyone other than the fans. Adding to the picture of gloom is the township of Derby, a dump, shorn of its wonderful department stores. Incredibly, we applied to be the City of Culture. What a joke. We have no live theatre, orchestra or major art galleries. Drug addicts lounge around in St Peter’s Street.

So my fellow fans, Is it to be Rest in Peace? Is this the end of the line?

Writing this, I am now tearful. If thousands of fans gather in the town or Pride Park to demonstrate their grief at what has happened, maybe it might catch the attention of a multibillionaire? Forgive my sad humour.

Don Shaw, Micklelover