Since Steve McClaren took the reigns at Derby, our form has been nothing short of stupendous. One defeat in ten games (and that one loss to runaway leaders, QPR) has propelled the Rams into the play-off places.
If this current run continues, then automatic promotion must be considered a real possibility. Of course, form can come and go, as Gianluca Viali will tell you. Nevertheless, other teams looking to get promoted this season will have to see Derby as real contenders.
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said, after our 0-1 win recently, that Derby are the best side he’s seen this season. It’s looking good: Derby are the Championship’s form team, and next season might hold the possibility of huge, exciting money-spinning ties if we can manage promotion to England’s elite competition.
If the Rams can climb back to the Premier League, surely we’d love to be back there!?
Who could forget Paulo Wanchope’s magnificent solo goal at Old Trafford (an obvious first choice, I know), or Malcolm Christie’s winner at the same ground to secure safety in 2001 (or, indeed, Jim Smith’s poor bewildered face as the same player missed a sitter in the same game to guarantee the points).
How about the devastation after Patrick Viera scored a late equalizer to deny us the points at Highbury in a 2-2 draw in 1996? Or the season after, as the Rams produced a wonderful performance in a 3-0 win over the Gunners at Pride Park?
The inimitable Bald Eagle took Derby to mid-table security and two consecutive top ten Premier League (or Premiership, as it was known then) finishes, playing some joyful attacking (and often reckless) football, before it all unfortunately petered out with the sales of both Wanchope and the peerless Stimac, plus the loss of form and eventual sale of Dean Sturridge. And I haven’t even mentioned Eranio, Baiano and Asanovic yet.
To be sure, those were happy and glorious years.
Unfortunately, our last brief stay in the Premier League in 2007-8 was decidedly less happy and glorious. One win all season — an all-time low. Eleven points — another all-time low. At least we didn’t beat Swindon Town’s record of goals conceded, although we gave it a go, losing by four or more goals to Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal (twice), West Ham, Chelsea, Aston Villa, and Reading.
Relegated in March, Paul Jewell’s side went 32 games without a win. THIRTY TWO!
As we currently sit pretty in the play-offs, I wondered whether I want to sit through anything remotely as bad as that season ever again. It was genuinely heartbreaking to see my beloved Rams humiliated week after week. A number of things can be born in mind here.
Firstly, there’s no reason why those good times of the late 1990s can’t be recaptured. Many newly promoted teams have done remarkably well over recent years. Swansea and Southampton are just two examples of teams that have thrived since joining the top flight.
Of course, this season Crystal Palace are struggling, but Hull City (sorry, Hull Tigers) and Cardiff City, wearing their traditional red, are doing okay so far. The general trend seems to be that teams capable of rising above a Championship that is tightly packed but full of dross can flourish at the higher level.
If clubs can invest prudently and thoughtfully, rather than haphazardly and extravagantly (yes, I’m looking at you, QPR), then anything is possible. If we can keep Will Hughes, which admittedly seems unlikely, then you never know what we might achieve. Mid-table obscurity would not be impossible, as well as highly desirable.
The abovementioned Swansea, many supporters’ second team, are a perfect case in point. Since almost dropping out of the Football League altogether not so long ago, the club has aimed at a long-term trajectory that has taken them into Europe.
With the careful hiring of managers with a mentality that is both winning and aesthetically pleasing, plus the nurturing of young players and supporter representation on the board, the Swans are the darlings of the Premier League, and rightly so.
Now, it would be silly to compare the owners and board of Swansea to that of Derby, but we have seen signs over the years that our owners aim to build carefully without rushing things, slowly adding quality players to the squad each season. If not this season then surely next, we would hope to be seriously pushing for promotion, and the aim would be to emulate teams like Swansea and Southampton.
And here’s my second point. From this season, the team finishing bottom of the Premier League will earn more money than Manchester United did last season for actually winning the damn thing.
This is due to the massive new TV deal that is now in place. Add to that the huge increases in parachute payments given to relegated teams, and it is clear that there is a significant incentive to get into the Premier League, although it must be said that that has obviously always been the case. Nevertheless, the financial incentives for promotion from the Championship have never been greater — it is imperative to be promoted sooner rather than later or risk falling behind.
The massive amount of cash given to newly relegated clubs gives them a huge advantage over other Championship clubs. It will just get harder to get promoted over the coming years. And Derby, being a team that may well be in the mix-up for promotion come the end of the season, will feel this as keenly as anyone.
Third point. Is promotion what we really want?
When I say this to my friends, they all think I’m insane, but hold your fire for a minute or two. Ready?
Okay… I don’t actually want us to be promoted. Not this season. Maybe not even next season. I can see I’ve got some explaining to do. Let me give you two reasons why, with the second being by far the most important.
So firstly, and less importantly, we have to ask ourselves whether we are ready for the Premier League. Last time round, in 2007, I started off hopeful, was then depressed, then angry.
After it was certain we’d be going down, I convinced myself to just enjoy the ride, no matter how bad things got. But then the anger and depression came back as the defeats continued to pile up. No one enjoys seeing their team humiliated week after week, becoming the laughing stock of the football world.
Now, this may not happen again and we may win more than eleven points, but it would be a real achievement, were we to go up, to stay there. Serious investment would be needed.
Of course, going up and then coming straight back down is more financially advantageous than not going up at all. Perhaps it’s preferable — we buy in a load of over-paid, over-priced, and under-performing prima-donnas, we go down and then get shot of them, re-entering the Championship stronger than when we left it, as QPR did last season.
Perhaps we invest more wisely, and struggle valiantly. Perhaps we perform admirably and finish mid-table. Who knows?
But here’s my second point. Yes, the Premier League looks very nice in its high heels, make-up, and tight skirt. But underneath, what is there? Nothing. It is a vacuous and rapacious money-making machine that chews you up and then spits you out.
Do we really want to be a part of that? This is a world of football in which Manchester United have dozens of commercial sponsors, including Mister Potato, the club’s "Official Savoury Snack Partner”, and Kansai, their "Official Paint Partner”. Excuse me? Could you repeat that, please? Since when did a football club have an Official Paint Partner?
These days, we’re known as "consumers” and "customers” rather than as fans and participants; club owners talk of "marketing the brand in expanding foreign markets” and suchlike; and the Chief Executive of the Premier League can seriously and publicly float the idea of a 39th game to be played in Asia, the Far East, or some other traditional football stronghold.
Fine, most of you probably do want to be part of that. So fair enough. It’s not like the Championship and the whole of European football isn’t the same all over. The Championship is a gruelling and increasingly desperate and undignified scramble for the right to eat the crumbs that have fallen from the top table of English football.
I can just imagine the Premier League elite watching the likes of Leicester and QPR duke it out in the same way that President Snow sits back and chuckles maniacally as poor old Katniss Everdeen battles against a system she can never beat — at least not without compromising her strong moral principles.
The rest of European football is catching up — witness the soul-destroying progress of PSG and Monaco in France, and the shameless duopoly of La Liga, due in no small part to the ridiculous distribution of TV money in Spain (Although this season and last were better, in 2012 third-placed Valencia were closer in points to relegated Villerreal than second-placed Real Madrid).
Personally, I’d rather be out of it. My local team here in Prague, Bohemians 1905, have no lofty ambitions, but pride themselves on being the only counter-culture anti-fascist club in Prague, as do another of my favourite teams, Germany’s St. Pauli. My other team, Alfreton Town, who this season went part-time, would be delighted just to spend another season in the Conference, despite being in the mix for the play-offs.
There’s more to football than just winning. Deep down, football is more or less the same game that it ever was. Sometimes rules change. Players, managers, and owners come and go. But it’s the same game, and we, the fans, will always remain, as will our clubs, barring some disaster. And don’t think it can’t happen — look at the implosions suffered by fans of Portsmouth and Coventry, to name but two.
I can safely say that my love for Derby County has neither increased nor decreased when we do well or do very badly. I’m in it for the long haul and have been for the best part of thirty years. Of course, winning and doing well is always exciting, and it’s one of the reasons we continue to pay our money, and it’s why we continue to hope against hope. As Sepp Herberger once gnomically remarked, "people go to the stadium because they don’t know how the match will end.”
On the one hand, on average, Bohemians attract around 3000 fans per home game, Alfreton less, maybe 700, if they’re lucky. But that’s okay, because this is the soul of football. The Premier League, on the other hand, is a distant cousin of the game.
Last week, I surprised my partner by shouting loudly as I looked at my mobile phone. I told her that the reason for my excitement was that Derby had scored a last-minute winner against Middleborough, and that we were now fourth in the table. "But I thought you didn’t even want them to go up this year?” she asked me, not unreasonably.
I was momentarily caught out, stuck for an answer. "Yeah, I know, I’m a hypocrite,” I replied.
Secretly, I want us to stuff Leicester, Forest and the rest, see us on Match of the Day and watch contentedly as Will Hughes becomes a global star with the Rams.
Even if by doing so means joining the stinking, morally bankrupt and venal world of the Premier League.
Oh, the hypocrisy of the modern football supporter.
Charlie Robinson has joined RamZone as a regular columnist for the site. A life long Rams fan who teaches philosophy and sport for a university in Prague, he has written about various football related subjects for websites and magazines.
Welcome to the team Charlie!