FM09 Official Derby County Discussion Thread - We'll be back! (In the Premier League)

Important Stuff

Derby County Football Club is a professional football club based at Pride Park Stadium in Derby, England, playing in the Football League Championship.

The club was founded in 1884 and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888. It is therefore one of only eleven clubs to have appeared in every seasons of league football since its inception. Derby's competitive history includes two spells as English League Champions, one FA Cup title and an appearance in the European Cup semi-finals. The club is nicknamed The Rams in tribute to its links with The First Regiment of Derby Militia, which took a ram as its mascot and the song The Derby Ram as its regimental song.

Copied from Wikipedia

Reputation: National

Chairman Status: Loves the club

Legends: Steve Bloomer, Brian Clough

Icons: Too many to count!

Fierce Rivals: Nottingham Forest, Leicester, Leeds United

Other Rivals: Stoke, Chesterfield, Notts Co

Finances: Secure

Media Prediction: 4th

Transfer funds: 3 Million Pounds (5.75 million $) (Not adjustable)

The Breakdown

GK

Roy Carroll (Very good GK but he's in his 30's)

Stephen Bywater (Sell)

Lewis Price (Keep, best prospect)

Ross Atkins (Keep or Sell)

Overall Grade: B+

Roy Carroll is your man until he retires or he goes past his prime, I would keep Lewis Price, Stephen can go.

Defenders

Martin Albrechtson (It's up to you on what to do here, good defender, but not as good as others here)

Paul Connolly (Keep him, Good defender)

Lewin Nyatanga (Keep him, Good defender also)

James McEveley (Keep him, Best defender imo)

Dean Leacock (Keep)

Andy Todd (Sell)

Jordan Stewart (Sell imo)

Overall Grade: B+

Plenty of talent here, but not enough to deserve an A.

Midfielders

Miles Addison (Sell)

Robbie Savage (Sell)

Paul Green (Keep)

Matt Richards (Sell)

Giles Barnes (Keep)

Kris Commons (Keep or Sell, Either way is good)

Gary Teale (Sell)

Mile Sterjovski (Keep, Best Midfielder)

Overall Grade: C

Not much here, try and find some decent players.

Attackers

Paris Simmons (Sell)

Liam Dickinson (Keep or Sell)

Rob Hulse (Keep)

Emanuel Villa (Keep)

Overall Grade: A

Best part of this entire squad, Utilize it to your advantage!

Team Grade: B+

Good team, but you'll need to bolster a weak midfield to make them great.

Loan players

IN

Przemyslaw Kazmierczak (Best player you have on loan)

Andrejs Pereplotkins (I never really use him)

Nacer Barazite (Great Player, but too much work will tucker him out)

Nathan Ellington (will join in 09)

OUT

Tyrone Mears (can't really judge him)

My top 5 transfer targets for Derby

1: A good central midfielder (Not a problem for me since i only have 1 in the tactic i use)

2: A good right midfielder

3: A good wingback (Only if you have WB's in your tactic like me)

4: A good defender (you could use an extra defender)

5: A backup striker (Your forwards are good but they won't last forever without getting injured, in this case Roy Hulse)

Suggestions to fill those needs would be appreciated.

It's the end of the January window in my first season and I am sitting in 6th place, 4 points ahead of Norwich in 7th and 2 points behind Ipswich in 5th. I made it to the 5th round of the league cup but only the 3rd round of the FA Cup, knocked out by an injury time goal at Wolves in a replay. Basically gutted my entire team and started anew. I am starting to get into finacial trouble as my bank balance is only 5.5 M (USD).

My team:

GK: Roy Carrol/ Ian Walker (on loan from Bolton but hasnt played since Nov when Carroll went on a tear)

DR: Jean Joel Pierre-Doumbe

DC: Glauber (on loan from Man City)

DC: Will Haining

DC: Dorian Deverite (On loan from Spurs)

DL: Jorge Riberio

ML: Kris Commons

MC: Alexy Smertin

MC: Kaz

MC: Celso Borges

MC: Binya

MR: Don Cowie

MR: Marko Cirulizza

MR: Mile Sterjovski

MR: Giles Barnes

ST: Tito Villa

ST: Rob Hulse

ST: Sebatian Abreu

ST: Jung Jo-Kook

Great thread mate

Liked your grading system... Reminded me of my school days..

I'm into March and I am now 750K in the hole...still in 4th place and shoud make the playoffs but I am concerned with my bank balance. How do I get back into the positive?

I'm into March and I am now 750K in the hole...still in 4th place and shoud make the playoffs but I am concerned with my bank balance. How do I get back into the positive?

do you have any backups that are costing you a lot of money (salary wise)? if that's the case, you may want to sell them. not the best of tips, because i usually don't get much income if any this way, but it could be worth a shot. (Also, make sure you sell a few of your older players, if any, with high salaries and invest in youth, because that could be the problem)

I have tried to get rid of Davis, Todd and Savage but no one will take them. I have most of my youngsters out on loan with their wages payed as well. I sold Leacock and Stewart in Jan since I didnt play them all that much. I can only hope the end of theseason payout brings me back into the black.

We are going up say we are going up!! Derby County 3 Norwich Cit 2 AET Championship Playoff Final. After sneeking into the 6th and final playoff spot by beating Sheffield United 3-0 on the last day of the season, we depatched QPR by an aggrigate of 4-1 and then beat Norwich in the playoff final to secure promotion. While it was unexpected and this team is no where near ready for the Prem I am delighted at the win. Now it will be gearing up for a long, long, season in the Prem. My transfer budget is only 3M usd...any ideas who I should get to help me stay up?

We are going up say we are going up!! Derby County 3 Norwich Cit 2 AET Championship Playoff Final. After sneeking into the 6th and final playoff spot by beating Sheffield United 3-0 on the last day of the season, we depatched QPR by an aggrigate of 4-1 and then beat Norwich in the playoff final to secure promotion. While it was unexpected and this team is no where near ready for the Prem I am delighted at the win. Now it will be gearing up for a long, long, season in the Prem. My transfer budget is only 3M usd...any ideas who I should get to help me stay up?

good job on getting in to the Premier league. I haven't played as Derby for quite a while. i don't know exactly who to recommend. all i can say is try and get undervalued veterans and mix in a couple youngsters here and there.

P.S. are you still having financial trouble? if so, you may have over spent a little.

Congratulations on getting promoted, thats a great achievement considering the state of the squad at the beginning, i just hope you dont repeat what we done in real life by going up too early! I've just started a season with them (still in pre-season), and would welcome any recommendations in the way of signings? I've shifted all the 'deadwood' into the reserves (all transfer listed) and i'm left with a squad which is hardly capable of pushing for mid-table, let alone the playoffs.

Keep us informed yankee_ram!!!

Well due to the weather here we had a power outage at the same time I was saving my game so I lost my intial Derby game. So started again and lost to Watford in the playoff semi-final on a 5-4 aggregate. I am currently sitting in 3rd position at the end of November in my second season. I told the board that I would get in a playoff place and was given 14M usd to spend. My finacial troubles are much better, I have leveled off my spending and such.

So season Two of Derby County:

Transfers In:

Jean-Joel Pierrie Doumba (WBRL) Celtic 1M

Josh Lambo (GK) FC Dallas 925K

Glauber (DC) Man City 775K (was on loan last year made it permanent)

Kenny Cooper (ST) FC Dallas 3.4M

Rodrigo Possebon (MC) Man United Loan

Laurent Pionerr (GK) Montpellier 3M

Pedro (WBL,AML) Arsenal Loan

Elliot Parish (GK) Free

Jack Rodwell (DC) Everton Loan

Harvard Nordveit (DC) Arsenal Loan

Henrique (ST) Fluminese 4M

Leonardo (ST) Palmerias 5.5M

Transfers Out:

Giles Barnes Hibernian 2.2M

Ruben Zadkovich MK Dons 85K

Martin Albrechsen Aab 190K

Tyrone Mears Stoke 1.3M

Kris Commons Hull 600K

Liam Dickenson MK Dons Loan

Roy Carrol West Ham 140K

Alexaner Prijovic Charlton 120K

Rob Hulse Watford 2.6M

Paul Connonly Scunthorpe 220K

Sebastian Abreu Blackburn 3.6M

Paul Green Wigan 230K

Jordan Stewart Sunderland 750K

I play a 4-2-4 Standard with:

----------Sifakis---------

Ribero---Glauber---Bjordal----Bustos

-------Borges-----Cowie

---Krivets-------------------Conway

------Henrique-----Cooper

Subs:

Pioneer

Leonardo

Sterjovski

Nordveit

Machado

Dumbe

among others

I got Derby promoted in the second season. Finished a disappointing 7th in my first but still got a new contract which was quite lucky to be honest. I signed a lot of youngsters in my first season and they started to come good in the second. I signed a lot of free players aswell in the summer and improved the squad immensely. I stormed the league with 97 points.

In the Prem at the mo, my team is this:

Gk: Nelson Fernando - Regen goalkeeper who is the muts. Only 21.

Dr: Jiri Sisler - Another regen. Only 21.

Dl: Djimi Traore - Has done well for me so far.

Dc: Martin Kavdanski - Signed as a replacemnt for Nyatanga who I sold for a couple of million. Has been fairly solid for me. Have a regen coming through the ranks that will likely take his place by the end of the season.

Dc: Darren O'Dea - Signed from Celtic on a free. Has been relatively good for me.

Mr: Lubos Kalouda: Was on the transfer list so I snapped him up for just over £1million.

Ml: Helder Barbosa: Is out injured at the moment but was signed for under £200k and has been class for me.

Dm: Drissa Diakite: Was on the transfer list so got him for under £100k has been solid for me.

Am: Axel Witsel: Signed for £12million in the summer. Was my big summer signing and has done alright for me. Has that touch of class that I was lacking.

St: Robert Lewandowski: Was banging them in last season.

St: Dani Aquino: Has been a revelation for me.

I have a pretty big squad that seems to be full of good attacking mids. Here's a selection: Barnes, Wilshire, Skjelbred, Borges, Krivets. Is pretty tough finding a system to fit them in. Reckon I'll be selling Barnes and Borges / Skjelbred in the next window.

I am having trouble with Borges, he gets irked when I don't play him every match. He is a starter but he needs a rest now and then and last season he was injured yet peeved at me. I am thinking of selling him come January, Krivets has been awsome for me.

I got Derby promoted in the second season. Finished a disappointing 7th in my first but still got a new contract which was quite lucky to be honest. I signed a lot of youngsters in my first season and they started to come good in the second. I signed a lot of free players aswell in the summer and improved the squad immensely. I stormed the league with 97 points.

In the Prem at the mo, my team is this:

Gk: Nelson Fernando - Regen goalkeeper who is the muts. Only 21.

Dr: Jiri Sisler - Another regen. Only 21.

Dl: Djimi Traore - Has done well for me so far.

Dc: Martin Kavdanski - Signed as a replacemnt for Nyatanga who I sold for a couple of million. Has been fairly solid for me. Have a regen coming through the ranks that will likely take his place by the end of the season.

Dc: Darren O'Dea - Signed from Celtic on a free. Has been relatively good for me.

Mr: Lubos Kalouda: Was on the transfer list so I snapped him up for just over £1million.

Ml: Helder Barbosa: Is out injured at the moment but was signed for under £200k and has been class for me.

Dm: Drissa Diakite: Was on the transfer list so got him for under £100k has been solid for me.

Am: Axel Witsel: Signed for £12million in the summer. Was my big summer signing and has done alright for me. Has that touch of class that I was lacking.

St: Robert Lewandowski: Was banging them in last season.

St: Dani Aquino: Has been a revelation for me.

I have a pretty big squad that seems to be full of good attacking mids. Here's a selection: Barnes, Wilshire, Skjelbred, Borges, Krivets. Is pretty tough finding a system to fit them in. Reckon I'll be selling Barnes and Borges / Skjelbred in the next window.

Yeah Borges hasn't done much for me at all. Am struggling to find a place in my team for him.

Have you had the board upgrade anything for you? They did my youth facilites (now excellent) at the end of season one.

just started as my beloved derby county. Any advice on a tactic to use?

I used a 4-4-2 my first year and I am going with a 4-1-3-1-2 my second year and it seems to be working.

Season Two is finished and we won promotion to the BPL via the playoffs. We dispatched Notts Florist 4-0 on aggregate and then beat Birmingham 2-0 at Wemberly, Sunderland and Watford also went up, with Norwich, Colchester and Ipswich going down into League One. In January I brought in:

Andy Harris - Hearts AMR 35K

Cedric Cambon - Litex DC 1.2M

Pablo DeMuner - Treistina DRC 1.9M He was a major bust

Abdus Ibrahim - Toronto FC AMR,ST Free

John Naim - St. Mirren WBR 14K

Dario Ventucci - Juve MC 2.8

Francious Clerc - Olympic Lyoness DR 4.2M

Transfers out:

Sergie Krevets - Blackburn 7.75M

Josh Lambo - Xanthi Loan

Celso Borges- Nimes Olympique 550K

Ruben Bustos - Blackburn 7.25M

Johan Bjordal - Cardiff 5.75M -Bought him back for 3.5 M after Cardiff went Down from the EPL.

Made a profit of 26.5 million at the end of the season thanks to being frugal with salaries and doing well selling players. Pride Park is being expanded by 8000 seats which will be done on 10-6. I also got a Chinese Commercial link so that should boost finaces as well.

Season Three Pre-Season Update

After securing promotion via the playoffs I went about strengthening the back line for along hard season. I was given 1000-1 odds to challenge for the title and told the board I was only going to try and avoid relegation. For the FA Cup I am expected to get to the 4th round and the 3rd round of the Carling Cup. I am still playing a 4-2-4 standard but think I might make a couple tweaks to it.

Transfers In:

Leandro Greco - Roma AML Free

Morten Gamst Petersen - Blackburn AML Free

Juan Matel Mata - Lille AMLC 20.5M

Johan Bjordal - Cardiff DC 3.5M

Sebastian Puygrenier - Zenit DC 14.75 M

Transfers Out:

Steven Davies - Norwich 575K

Liam Dickenson - Sheffiled United 975K

Don Cowie - Hull 1.1M

My lineup looks like

--------Sifakis------------

--Clerc--Glauber---Puygrenier---Ribero

----------Venitucci---Mata----------

--Ibrahim---------------------Petersen

-------Leonardo-----Henrique---------

Subs:

Pioneer

Cambon

Cooper

Greco

Conway

Bjordal

??????

Any suggestions for avoiding financial meltdown at the end of the first season? I got saddled with the signings of Ellington (who I don't want) and Varney (which I am being blamed for) as well as massive wages to pay (nobody wants Savage at 24,000 a week but I did fob Villa and Sterjovski off in Jan).

How could I have avoided all this? What did I do wrong? Was it simply not getting promoted?

Hmmm... I've been playing a save since release day with the mighty Rams.

Well it's 2014 and Derby are atop the world.

First season started fairly poorly but my side became a force and marched to the Premier League with 96 points.

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4015/transferscompletemq3.jpg

There's my first few seasons of transfer activity.

Nyatanga ended up Captaining the side to the Champions League and Premier League Title before being dropped to the bench now.

Any suggestions for avoiding financial meltdown at the end of the first season? I got saddled with the signings of Ellington (who I don't want) and Varney (which I am being blamed for) as well as massive wages to pay (nobody wants Savage at 24,000 a week but I did fob Villa and Sterjovski off in Jan).

How could I have avoided all this? What did I do wrong? Was it simply not getting promoted?

Get promoted and sell the useless ones as quick as possible.

I sent Ellington back to Watford before January in my game, mainly because they made him terrible for some reason. He came back of course and scored some goals for the reserves.

I'm in 2nd with 7 games (5 home/2 away) to go in my first season.

Reading are 16pts clear at the top, I've got 4pts & 2 games in hand on Wolves in 3rd so should be good for promotion.

I made quarter final of the league cup (Lost 4-1 to Spurs) and quarters in FA Cup (Lost replay to Bolton 2-1)

Financial meltdown is VERY close but promotion should solve it. (£9.5m loss for the season so far).

Getting shot of Savage, Todd and all the other ridiculous high earners in close season will be very handy!

My team:

GK: Carroll/Price

DR: Connolly

DC: Nyatanga/Albrechtson

DC: Dorian Dervite (Loan Spurs)/Tozer (£1.3m Newcastle)

DL: Stewart/Steve Smith (Loan Rangers)

ML: Charlie Adam (£475k Rangers)/Kris Commons

MC: Kazmierczak/Fabien Delph (£600k Leeds)

MC: James McArthur (£450k Hamilton)/Merida (Loan Arsenal)

MR: Barnes/Sterjovski

ST: Steve Fletcher (£3.6m Hibs)/Varney

ST: Villa/Andy Keogh (£700k Wolves)

Carrol has been superb, Nyatanga & Dervite brilliant at the back, Adam has been good most of the season and Fletcher has been a great signing, 26 in 36 league games but struggled to get any one else to score consistantly. Looking forward to promotion and signing some quality players - I'm trying to buy British where possible. Mancienne on a free is my number one target as well as signing Dervite permanently from Spurs - our parent club.

Wierd how players like Barnes and Nyatanga have be unsettled by the likes of Swansea, Blackpool & Barnsley in recent weeks all of which are struggling in the bottom 6 of the division, despite success on the pitch, having the highest average attendance and that Derby are one of biggest teams in the championship.

Just started my game, bought fatih tekke for £300k from zenit and this great prospect right back from tajikstan farkod vasiev.

won all my first 4 games, cardiff A plymouth A barnsley H norwich H

saving my 3 million for alberto paloschi in the jan transfer window

anyone who hasnt discovered palsochi should look him up now

hes a fantastic prospect and available for around 2 mil

It's Jan 3rd in my second season.

Currently 16th place - Bolton, WHam, Newcastle make up the bottom 3 then it's the promoted teams with Reading 1pt behind & Wolves 2pts ahead.

Only managed 2 wins, Newcastle at home and Chelsea away(!), but only lost 5 games so loads of draws - last game was 1-1 away to ManU! Lost to Chelsea in League Cup.

Pre-season shopping went well, eventually got Mancienne on a free, Chris Burke (Rangers free), Gunter (Spurs £3.8m) Schneiderlin (So'ton £1.8m), Mattock (Leics £1.6m + 2 players), Bischoff (Arsenal free), Lafferty (Rangers loan), Kennedy (Celtic loan). Managed to sell most of the deadwood, though Savage continues to linger on his £24k/wk and could only get Varney out on loan as he's rubbish!

Giles Barnes refusing a new deal so it's handy Adem Ljajic has just arrived for £95k, forgot I'd agreed terms with him at the very start of the game.

Next game is Liverpool away. Finances looking alot better than last season, so it's consolidation in the Prem & looking to having some decent cash to spend next season.

It took me 2 seasons in the Premiership to get a good wad of cash...

Anyhow, who cares about Football Manager...

DERBY 1 - 0 MANCHESTER UNITED

The most incredible performance from a side without a manager, third/fourth choice defenders and my god... We showed the Champions of England, Europe and the World who was boss without fear. Let's just pray we can keep that up in the second leg.

It took me 2 seasons in the Premiership to get a good wad of cash...

Anyhow, who cares about Football Manager...

DERBY 1 - 0 MANCHESTER UNITED

The most incredible performance from a side without a manager, third/fourth choice defenders and my god... We showed the Champions of England, Europe and the World who was boss without fear. Let's just pray we can keep that up in the second leg.

AMEN to that, I was so proud of the lads and the way they played. Derby Till I Die!

just finished my second season with Derby, finished a very respectable 6th in the Premiership

Robert Lewandowski was a revelation upfront for me finishing the season with 22 goals, and i'd recommend keeping Kazmierczak, he managed to hit double figures for me both in the Championship and the Premership

I'll get a screen shot up soon with my team etc on, big hopes for my third season though - got a 21 million budget

Wow, I never knew this thread was here for the best team in the world! I've just fnished my fifth season:

I love managing the boys, but I must disagree with the original post that Albrechtsen is actually great!

Yay !! Just found the Derby Thread !!

Just thought i'd tell my fellow Rams fans how i'm getting on

Well i'm in my fourth season and i'm in the mighty Premiership !! I won the Championship in my first season which I really wasn't expecting but wins get coming and coming and I was loving it !!

Then came the tough task of playing in the Premiership with not alot of money !! But I signed a couple of players for free and signed some important players that helped me and I finished an very respectable 10th !! Then came the next year with around £15 mill to spend and I felt I could have spent it a little better, but I finished the league in another 10th position !! At the start of that season, I got myself a 16 year old goalkeeper called "Jesus" who is supposed to be a wonderkid, so im seriosuly looking after him, and I had also signed a player called "Jaime" from Athletico Madrid for free. He was only 20 or something and he was amazing in that season, he caught the eyes of so many bigger clubs, and obviously because i'm only Derby County, he wanted to play at a bigger club. Many teams came in with £7-9 million pounds, but Man City came in with a £9 mill pound bid, and as Man City are loaded, I thought to myself, lets negotiate this, so i managed to sell the guy for £19 Million !! Thats a profit of £19 Million !!

Any way, this season i had a budget of £25 million, but plus the £19 million, I had some cash to spend !!

I've got a few people in, and i'm doing really well so far in the Premiership.

Heres my squad at the minute...

Also heres how im doing in the premiership...

And now I have a real GEM of a young player just come in through my youth squad called Jason Reid !! Look at his stats for a 16 year old !! Hes going to be a star !!

Ill keep you rams posted in the future on how things are going !!

Love to all !!

What a great result we had tonight! Commons and Hulse are beginning to look like their coming together. Down with the scum, bring on United!

What a great result we had tonight! Commons and Hulse are beginning to look like their coming together. Down with the scum, bring on United!

I lost my mind when Commo scored, what a game. I see Billy was whining yet again saying we won becasue we have spent our parachute payment on the playrs that played last night. What a dumbass.

Mate Billy is an idiot anyway, glad he's gone after the pieces we've had to pick up from his management of the club or lack of.

By the way another great result over the weekend against Plymouth! Hulse is really looking good under Cloughie and as for Commons he is the star of the show.

So is Sav, he looks a new player and I'm loving it. Still need a LB if we are going to have a top 6 finish next season. In Clough we trust!

Yeah got to agree mate, he looks hungry! I think we really need to sort the defence and maybe buy one or two players to mould into it.

Not a Rams fan, but for some reason I like using them in FM. Had them up to the top of the Premiership in 07, now I'm taking them up again in 09. Just started again, have played through pre-season, and then drew 1-1 with QPR at home, and someone 1-1 with Accrington Stanley in the League Cup, before sneaking past on penalties. I'll put it down to my squad needing time to gel, as there's so many new players in there.

Here's my lineup for now:

GK: Carroll

RB: Connolly

LB: Jorge Ribeiro (200k from Benfica)

CB: Seyfo Soley (Free)

CB: Leacock

RM: Mile Sterjovski

LM: Commons

CM: Borges

CM: Mascio/Kazmierczak

ST: Chunbungu (90k from Sundowns, decent stats - 15 Acc/Pace, 16 Finishing best ones)

ST: Rob Hulse

I've got rid of Bywater (900k to Man City ), Gary Teale, Paul Simmons and a couple of other reserve players, so I've managed to keep my budget exactly as it was, at 3 million, and my wage bill is about 30k below the budget, so I've got money to spend. I'm looking to bring in a decent target man striker to replace the ineffectual Hulse, and also maybe a better left winger than Commons. I've got Ciurlizza arriving in January so I think the rest of my midfield is fine, and the defence should be good enough to keep me going till next summer when I can get a RB and a CB maybe on Bosmans.

So anyone got any good tips for a target man striker and a good left winger that'll come to Derby in the first season?

Cheers

To be fair commons is a great player on fm09 but lacks the physical stats to keep it up BirdmanT, but other than good luck and welcome to the gang.

You might want to see if Leonardo from Ajax will come on loan for your left winger, if not try Sergey Krivets from BATE I got him for 1.1M and he can play both left and right side. For your target man Derby just got Chris Porter in the January window and he has a finishing of 17, I tend to use Villa as my target man or have you used Ellington as well?

Sent Ellington back to Watford, I've signed four strikers I just don't need him. I don't even want him coming back to us in the summer. Villa doesn't look that good, I'm not sure I'll use him. Since that post I have managed to sign Krivets, for 450k so I'm happy with that. Also got a bargain called Tordoya at CB to replace the shaky Leacock. Signed a target man up front called Kushev, whos ageing but has great TM stats. Finally I splashed my remaining budget on a lad called Christian Benitez (1.7m) who looks like a great pacey striker to play off Kushev. He's already setup Kushev twice in the past two games and also scored on his debut.

Finally things are starting to look up!

Important Stuff

Derby County Football Club is a professional football club based at Pride Park Stadium in Derby, England, playing in the Football League Championship.

The club was founded in 1884 and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888. It is therefore one of only eleven clubs to have appeared in every seasons of league football since its inception. Derby's competitive history includes two spells as English League Champions, one FA Cup title and an appearance in the European Cup semi-finals. The club is nicknamed The Rams in tribute to its links with The First Regiment of Derby Militia, which took a ram as its mascot and the song The Derby Ram as its regimental song.

Copied from Wikipedia

Reputation: National

Chairman Status: Loves the club

Legends: Steve Bloomer, Brian Clough

Icons: Too many to count!

Fierce Rivals: Nottingham Forest, Leicester, Leeds United

Other Rivals: Stoke, Chesterfield, Notts Co

Finances: Secure

Media Prediction: 4th

Transfer funds: 3 Million Pounds (5.75 million $) (Not adjustable)

The Breakdown

GK

Roy Carroll (Very good GK but he's in his 30's)

Stephen Bywater (Sell)

Lewis Price (Keep, best prospect)

Ross Atkins (Keep or Sell)

Overall Grade: B+

Roy Carroll is your man until he retires or he goes past his prime, I would keep Lewis Price, Stephen can go.

Defenders

Martin Albrechtson (It's up to you on what to do here, good defender, but not as good as others here)

Paul Connolly (Keep him, Good defender)

Lewin Nyatanga (Keep him, Good defender also)

James McEveley (Keep him, Best defender imo)

Dean Leacock (Keep)

Andy Todd (Sell)

Jordan Stewart (Sell imo)

Overall Grade: B+

Plenty of talent here, but not enough to deserve an A.

Midfielders

Miles Addison (Sell)

Robbie Savage (Sell)

Paul Green (Keep)

Matt Richards (Sell)

Giles Barnes (Keep)

Kris Commons (Keep or Sell, Either way is good)

Gary Teale (Sell)

Mile Sterjovski (Keep, Best Midfielder)

Overall Grade: C

Not much here, try and find some decent players.

Attackers

Paris Simmons (Sell)

Liam Dickinson (Keep or Sell)

Rob Hulse (Keep)

Emanuel Villa (Keep)

Overall Grade: A

Best part of this entire squad, Utilize it to your advantage!

Team Grade: B+

Good team, but you'll need to bolster a weak midfield to make them great.

Loan players

IN

Przemyslaw Kazmierczak (Best player you have on loan)

Andrejs Pereplotkins (I never really use him)

Nacer Barazite (Great Player, but too much work will tucker him out)

Nathan Ellington (will join in 09)

OUT

Tyrone Mears (can't really judge him)

My top 5 transfer targets for Derby

1: A good central midfielder (Not a problem for me since i only have 1 in the tactic i use)

2: A good right midfielder

3: A good wingback (Only if you have WB's in your tactic like me)

4: A good defender (you could use an extra defender)

5: A backup striker (Your forwards are good but they won't last forever without getting injured, in this case Roy Hulse)

Suggestions to fill those needs would be appreciated.

Nice opener

Just started a new game with Derby.

Tranfers In:

Darron Gibson. Loan From Man Utd

Macauley Crhisantus. 875k from HSV

Mascio for 55k

Federico Laurito coming in january:D

Tranfers Out:

Mohammed Camara to Barnsley for 16k

Mark Dudley, Loan to Mansfield

Liam Dickinson, Loan to Mansfield

So im pretty happy of gettin Laurito becouse hes becomes class in couple of seasons

Good signings there mate, both Laurito and Mascio will be fantastic players.

How did people get rid of over paid lady boy savage?? no 1 wants him im offering him out for 700k still no1 will bite, any tips?

I found that no one will loan or buy him so I kept and played him till January and there were a few small bids from random clubs, but he ended up going to Blackpool or Barnsley I think. I know what you mean though he is over pai on his nearly 100k a month wage, but he can also be good.

Just got Promoted to the prem !

Well done bjoggi! Where did you finish in the championship?

Well... My side is starting to become too dominant now.

The side's top asset is now a 22 year old regen called Ivan who is outright the best player on the planet, and has been since he was 19.

Anyhow, onto real news, what's everyone's thoughts of Nigel so far? We're certainly looking a better side now, and it doesn't seem to be a bubble this time, with a good build up we're finally looking like the side we should have been from the start.

Well done bjoggi! Where did you finish in the championship?

Came second after Reading , also i got Bojan free !

just won man utd 4-2 in the first game in the prem !

My god Bjoggi well done on the double achievement of beating the best team in the world and getting the best wonderkid on the game. they seem to release him every season, god knows why.