March 29th. How does that rank alongside the earliest relegations in history? Certainly one of the earliest I can recall since the top flight carried on past the Mayday bank holiday. And yes, I am old enough to remember when the only football still to be played after April was the FA Cup Final and the England-Scotland Home International, and everyone was washing their whites ready for the cricket season to begin, eagerly awaiting the Cambridge University v Essex match that traditionally began the county season.

Who cares about Derby and their philandering cockhead of a manager?

Anyone? Anyone? I don't think I've ever met an actual Derby fan. My mate used to go watch them all the time as he was at Uni there, but he's a Leeds fan really.

I once had to go to Derby through work. I was fortunate enough to enjoy a quick chat with a bloke in the pub next to the station, as I was waiting for my train, who had the word "DEBRY" tattooed across the knuckles of his right hand.

"Oh, fucking hell Paul"

I am, as some of you will be aware, fully in favour of responsible spending by clubs, but how much of the £50m cash bonanza that clubs get for simply being in the Premier League have Derby actually spent? They've given the impression to me (as Wolves did three or four years ago) of being quite happy to cut and run with a year's worth of PL cash under their belts. Or have they spent money that I simply haven't heard about?

They were kind enough to take Kenny Miller off our hands.

They spent about £16-17m of it.

They just spent it on shit like Rob Earnshaw (£3.5m), Tyrone Mears (£1m), Claude Davis (£3m), Kenny Miller (£3m), Emanuel Villa (£2m), Robbie Savage (£1.5m), Benny Feilhaber (£1.2m) and Eddie Lewis (£1m-ish).

They signed 11 players in the summer, and looking at them as a team, they would do well to make the Championship playoffs.

QUOTE:
My mate used to go watch them all the time as he was at Uni there

When did derby get a University?

a good mate of mine from the south coast went to sheffield uni as he was a Rams fan and had a season ticket at the baseball ground for three years

first time he went to pride park though was with me in the summer to watch them play espanyol

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A club that had the wonderful Kevin Hector in its ranks can't be all bad ... although, ok, that was three or four decades ago.

Ah yes, Kevin Hector, the ultimate nearly man.

Came within a Polish scrotum of sending England to the 1974 World Cup finals.

Derby being relegated today was certainly one in the eye for the pundits who (at the start of the season) predicted they would be relegated by Easter.

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(I wasn't trying to be funny about Kevin Hector ... he really was a fine player).

So the target's been set: this time next year we'll know whether Bristol City have beaten them...

When I was at university in Leeds, I had some friends who were Derby fans, so they do exist.

Once, we went down to Southampton to visit a mate the weekend that Derby were playing there. As it was on the way, we stopped off at the Baseball Ground for a look around, wandered in an open door and found ourselves in the club offices.

Suddenly, in walked Jimmy Sirrell. What a nice man - he escorted us out, but not without sorting us out for tickets. Roy McFarland was a miserable sod, though, which disappointed my Derby mate, and when we got to Southampton the game was called off due to high winds.

You know how sometimes a team starts performing after relegation, gaining results as if a pressure has finally been lifted?

Derby aren't going to do this, are they?

Gretna down yesterday as well.