Come on Derby!

Excuse me for getting a tad excited about the new players being signed by my beloved football club Derby County. I have been a Rams fan for almost sixty years and apart from a period in the seventies and a short burst in the nineties we have really suffered! Much to the surprise of most of us we scrambled into the premiership last May via the Play-Offs and since then we have won one match.

Now we have a new manager, a new Chief Executive and suddenly players are descending on Derby like confetti. Every day there are rumours and much to the credit of the club these rumours are being confirmed. It is a great time to be a supporter solely because we will have hope for the second half of the season!

The players coming in are a colourful crowd however and our manager Paul Jewell must have huge confidence in his ability to manage them. Firstly he signs an unknown Argentinian striker from Mexico called Emmanuel Villa. OK I'll believe him when he says that he will make the grade but many of the South American stars have in the past taken time to settle down.

Then Danny Mills breezes in from Manchester City. Danny is an intelligent and articulate footballer but I wouldn't like to share a pitch with him. His disciplinary record is riddled with brushes with the authorities and so I am concerned that he will prove to be a problem. He is a leader though and he can also play a bit.

We then take Frenchman Lauren Robert on some kind of short term contract. He is available because his former club Levante in Spain cancelled his contract. The reasons are not known but one other thing worries me; Sir Bobby Robson is quoted as saying that he was the most difficult player that he ever had to deal with when he was at Newcastle. Wow that is some indictment! He has a helluva left foot however so we will have to wait and see.

Waiting in the wings is the Egyptian Hossam Ghaly currently on the books of Tottenham and formerly with Feejenoord, the Dutch giants. He is not being played by the Spurs because he threw his shirt into the face of the former manager Martin Jol after he had just been substituted. He was then loaned out to Birmingham but last a matter of hours before he was sent packing after a row about training methods. If he settle however, he could become the best Rams midfielder since Stefano Eranio strutted his stuff.

Now to top it all we are on the verge of signing Robbie Savage! Can you imagine the dressing room at half time if they go in losing! You must also remember that we already have characters like Darren Moore, Andy Todd, Matt Oakley and Claude Davis. Oh for a glass on the dressing room wall!

I think we might lose our nickname of the Rams and become the Rabid Dogs but somehow I just think that it might work. Most of these guys are drinking in the Last Chance Saloon and there is nothing like that to motivate people with god given talent.

I see my local bookie is offering 1-1000 that Derby will be relegated. I bet I won't get 1000-1 that they stay up. The second half of the season could be very interesting.