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Funny Thursday
I’ve built it up. I called it funny Thursday but that’s probably not the case at all. I should probably have called it the Midweek Mild Chuckle but it’s too late for that, I’ve thrown myself in at the deep end and now you are expecting laughs. What could be so funny on a Derby County blog posting on a hot Thursday in the middle of July when there is no news to speak of and we’re basically all waiting for tomorrows kit launch? The answer is nothing. Nothing could be funny today so instead I’ll point you in the direction of some funny things elsewhere, after all, I can’t be expected to do all the work.
First up is the Festival of Football blog (tagline “A Humorous blog about the wacky world of football”) and the news that the BBC, upon getting access to Coca-Cola Championship television rights, have decided to show West Brom vs Newcastle as their first match; two sides relegated from the Premier League last season kick off. Festival of football is a blog worth checking regularly for a somewhat skewed view of the soccersphere.
In other news, it would appear that Derby County have branched out into the world of porn, or at least they are supplying the wardrobes. Many thanks to David on www.dcfcfans.co.uk for bringing this to the worlds attention.
He knew he was about to score
Finally, a video of an angry goalkeeper. We’ve seen angry goalies a thousand times over; Peter Schmeichel regularly used to berate his team mates and Bruce Grobbeblaar famously went mental at Steve McManamanamanamanamanamanaman. This keeper is something else though. As the opposition striker runs through on goal, he is judged to be offside and the keeper isn’t happy about it one little bit. Unbeliveabley though, the striker gets booked for his part in the whole affair.
Tito Villa off for £1.7m
As reported yesterday, Tito Villa is set to join Cruz Azul of Mexico shortly. The fee is reportedly around £1.7m which I personally think represents good business by Derby County.
Villa, 27, is a hard working striker to can run all day however his end product did not always match his effort. Over his 18 months with the rams, tito gained a cult following and became a fans favourite which often led the crowd to chant his name in an attempt to get him off the bench and onto the pitch.
There seems to have been a fair amount of discussion across the message boards about why Tito had such a strong backing from the fans? Was it because he scored more goals in the premiership that Steve Howard managed to? Was it because he scored against Forest? It’s much more simple than that though. Fans love a trier and will support any player is seen to be putting in their fair share of work. Good luck in the future Tito, it was nice knowing you.
BBC Announce First Four Live TV Dates: Derby County vs QPR is on the list.
The 2009/10 season sees live domestic league football returning to the BBC, albeit only 10 matches throughout the season. Auntie Beeb has today announced the first 4 games that she will be showing which includes QPRs visit to Pride Park Stadium. Here is the list in full:
- West Brom v Newcastle, Saturday 8th August BBC1 5:30pm
- Ipswich v Newcastle, Saturday 26th September, 5:30pm (channel tbc)
- Derby County v QPR, Saturday 24th October, BBC2 5:30pm
- Cardiff City v Forest (booooo!) Sunday 1st November BBC1 2pm
The first thing you might realise from looking at that list is the appearance of a certain team twice. Yes, that’s right, the geordies make it into the first two live tv games which seems grossly unfair. Given that the BBC only have 10 games, I think it is reasonable to expect them to show a different two clubs each time. We’ve waited years for league football to be shown on the terrestrial stations, even longer for it to be on the Beeb, yet they couldn’t even be bothered to think of another team from the Championship that they could show instead of Newcastle.
And so it begins….the medias love affair with Newcastle being the mighty team in crisis. Can Alan “yet another geordie messiah” Shearer save them from their Coca-cola nightmare? I for one hope not.
Derby County Fixture Changes
Sheffield United at home has been moved to a 1pm kick off. The date remains 12th September
Swansea away will now be a Friday night (November 20th) 7:45pm kick off
Forest at home has been moved to a 1pm kick off but remains on the 30th January
Canaries are after Dicko
Ramballs understands that Norwich City are chasing Derby county striker Liam Dickinson. The recently relegated canaries are said to be preparing a bid of around £500,000 for the striker who has yet to feature for the rams although Blackpool are also said to be in the chase.
Dickinson, 23, has failed to make an impact since joining Derby County from a year ago. Last season saw the 6′4″ striker loaned out to Leeds, Hudderfield and Blackpool as the rams looked to give Liam some first team experience. Blackpool are said to be in the hunt for the striker after he scored 4 goals in 5 starts and 2 substitute appearances while at Bloomfield Road.
Tito Villa Set to Leave, Popsides brilliance strikes again, Fotheringham tries his luck
Bye Bye Tito
News has come in that Tito Villa has left Derby County for Mexicos Cruz Azul. No confirmation from the offical site yet although Yahoo! Sports are reporting the deal has been reached between the two teams. “We have reached an agreementwith Derby County of England for the transfer of Emmanuel Villa, who will arrive (in Mexico) on Tuesday to undergo a medical and sign a contract,” Cruz Azul said in a statement. Tito Villa looks set to leave Derby County
Popside strikes again
Internet football forums are strange, but brilliant, places. Unlike many other forums on the internet, such as digital photography, pc gamer or butterfly murderer forums, football forums bring in a real cross section of society prepared to discuss all of lifes many aspects. Take, for example, the typical PC gamer forum. It’s filled with 15-30 year old guys who can spend hours debating the pros and cons of the lily power magic potion in the latest “Fairies and Daisies: Wrath of Pollen” MMORPG. You might find the odd female gamer on there but she probably looks like a man and thinks a snog is a character from World of Warcraft. Likewise, on a specialist photography forum you’d find a group of yawn inducing dullards patting each other on the back as they all understand why the Nikon D700 is worth £600 more than the Olympus E-30. Boring.
Football forums provide people tend to draw people in from a larger pool. From your middle class sorts, with their tickets in the west stand lower and a flask of organic fair trade coffee with garbaldis for dunking in their half time drinks, to the working class joe bloggs who eats pies, drinks watered down lager and leaves 5 minutes before full time so they can get back to the pub and to the bar before the crowds arrive. These people come together on the internet to discuss general stuff with the occassional word about football thrown in for good measure. And sometimes, just sometimes, you get a genuinely quality post that will make your day. Read on…
Popside.com is my first choice Derby County message board. Good banter, reasonably efficient modding (occassionally bordering on Nazism) and it has, as all good messageboards should, a resident rival fan. Hello Russ!
Last week saw the discovery of a post by Russ P, now Pablo due to his post count getting worryingly high for a Forest fan on a Derby message board, from back in 2005. As a rule Russ has an opinion that he wants everyone to hear so in this instance, I’ll do my bit to make it heard by a wider audience.
Russ said
“If you ever saw JJ [Jermaine Jenas] in Forest shirt, you would know that there was no gamble; he’s the English Patrick Vieira, and he’ll be captain of his country within the next three years. He’s that good, Paul Hart said when he broke into the Forest first team that he had the ability to be the player of his generation and he genuinely wasn’t exaggerating. He will, I believe, go on to be better than Lampard; Jenas and Gerrard will be the first choice England midfield by the time of the European Championships in 2008.”
I won’t be asking for Russ’ lottery numbers, stock market investments or racing tips anytime soon. Thanks JR for uncovering that gem from the archives.
Fotheringham Joins Derby For a Trial
Mark Fotheringham will be joing Derby County for a Trial
Mark Fotheringham will be joining Derby County during the pre-season period for a trial period. Nigel Clough has brought him in as the rams only have Paul Green, Robbie Savage and Stephen Pearson who can play in the centre midfield position. Fotheringham started his career with Celtic before moving to to the swiss team Aarau, Rangers and then Norwich. During his time at Norwich he became club captain and scored 4 goals in 76 appearances. Read more about Mark Fotheringham here.
WordPress & Derby County
This blog appears to be one of the few dedicated Derby County blogs on wordpress so when I started searching from Derby County related blogs I wasn’t expecting much. That’s why I want to show you this little piece which is a great write up about the appointment of Nigel Clough as our glorious leader. This article cuts through a lot or the tabloid nonsense and tells a more likely story.
Green recovers, young gunner signs and Croft speaks
The Derby Evening Telegraph are today reporting that the energentic rams midfielder, Paul Green, has recovered from the fractured metatarsal which ruled him out for the season back in March.
Lee Croft has told the official site that once he visited Moor Farm, and spoke with the Nigel Clough, he knew Derby were the club he wanted to sign for. I’ve certainly heard that before. It’s almost as if the club release the same statement from every new player that signs. Surely one day there’ll be a player who says “I’m here for the money. Anything else is a bonus.”
Arsenal has released Cormac Hegarty, 16, from their academy and he has now joined Derby County on scholarship terms. Hegarty is a central midfielder who featured in the gunners youth side which won the Atalanta Cup and the Zinédine Zidane Tournament last summer.
