“You have to laugh at yourself. There is me saying that Man C are currently, and probably for ever, bigger than Derby, but in the round not so. What a daft comment! Eternity is a long time and certainly as big as whatever 'in the round' might be! Could it be that I cannot wait for the season to start and therefore I am behaving like a daft brush?”

“It is not a case of throwing stones , yes there are some decent players at the club to build around but we saw in the last third of the season the ability of the rest and these players are not all of a sudden going to develop with regard to their ability , what you saw is what you are going to get from them and I am afraid apart from all the pre season bravado and rhetoric with regard to what we are going to achieve it will be precious little with these players.”

“Rambo it is not "rumoured to be in the region of £2 million" it was stated by Adam Pearson on Radio Derby.”

“Rambo Most of what you say is true but Leacock forget him hes a tackle or strech away from injury every time he plays His injury record is shocking very rarely gets through 90 minutes Addison good potential no more at the moment weve seen plenty of youngsters have one good season then struggle A good centre half is essential you can have class all over the field but if you cant defend its just wasted Last season there were players saying weve got to score two or three goals to get anything out of a game and thats not on Weve had makeshift centre halves at this club for to long Last season we tried twelve different ones no wonder we struggled”

“Lets not forget, we'll have Porter, Leacock & Addison fully fit (Leacock and Addison very capable centre halves IMHO) - & although I dont really want them anywhere near the club, Barnes and Mears could potentially still be with us - give them a chance to put themselves in the shop window. Think back to when Nige first took over and we had a fully fit squad, we were playing some attractive and effective football. Lets wait and see before throwing stones eh?”

“If what Philip is saying because we have only 2 million to spend we spread it around five or six players who are of the same ilk as the majority of players we already have here (not good enough) what is the point in that.
If this guy has been targetted as being a major improvement in a key area they should be back negotiating to bring this deal to a speedy conclusion and hopefully put a bit of money back in the chest by offloading our high proportion of mediocrity .”

“Phillip, well said - I too remember the club almost going to the wall twice. I think Cloughs statement about £1m being a lot to pay for a centre half is not a general statement as most of you have taken it, rather a statement based around his "warchest" - which is rumoured to be in the region of £2 million, in which case youd have to say that he is right. Its true that this is the same chairman that agreed a £1.5 mil loan deal for Ellington, but lets not forget that last year we had parachute payments to sustain us somewhat. The reality of Derby County's situation is that the club's finances do not allow frivalous spending this year. We have done that in the past and look where it has got us? People are all moaning about having no spending power but are very quick to forget why we have no spending power. Yes, it is a boring close season and yes it would be nice to have some "big name" signings but the unfortunate truth is that they attract "big name" salarys and more often than not have "big name" attitude problems to boot. Lets just wait until the season starts and see what Clough has managed to do over the break.”

“Well seasider that's it ,he's no good to us our player's have to miss much of the season or retire injured!!!!!!!!”

“How come our chairman agreed a deal of £1.5 million just for a loan deal for Ellington Who lets face it anyone who knows anything about football was finished three years ago and is definately only in it for the money Yet he is reluctent to push the boat out for a centre which we desperately need who is at the top of his game a proper proffesional who is in the game for the right reasons There are times when i get completly embarrised by the way our club goes about its transfer buisiness why cant we just keep it out of the press till deals are done”

“im a blackpool season ticket holder and its an insult if derby dont think barker is worth a seven figure sum. I can honestly say that in the second half of last season barkers performances at cb were as good as ive seen in the ccc apart from michael mancience for wolves. It'll be a blow to pool but a great signing for you as you're gettin club captain, player of the year and he never seems to be injured (think hes only missed 2 or 3 games through injury in last 3 years)”