What happened?

After missing out in the play-off’s the previous season, optimism was high for the new campaign. However, the low key signings of defenders Marc Edworthy and Andrew Davies were followed by the underwhelming capture
of Paul Thirlwell. Kevin Poole and Dean Holdsworth joined the coaching staff but both became Rams players during the season.

The hammer blow came on the final day when Grzegorz Rasiak was sold to Tottenham sparking the Rams Trust to print “Board Out” flyers for the away game at Crewe

The legacy

This was more a story of inactivity and left Rams fans completely demoralised, we began the season as promotion contenders but ended it as relegation candidates. Edworthy remained for the duration of his contract whilst Thirlwell was allowed to join Carlisle.

"....and the thing I like about Holdsworth is he's a winner"

"....and the more I thought about it, I kept coming back to Eddie Lewis"

If it looks bad to you Paul,
imagine how we felt?

What Happened?

With The Rams topping the first division in January 2007, Billy Davies went on a shopping spree to clinch promotion and augment the squad for the anticipated Premier League campaign. Teale, Fagan, Pearson, Mears, McEveley, Jones and Macken all joined. 

The Rams went backwards, quite literally, and scraped home via the play-off’s. Few of the new signings made a good impression and all featured in what is officially The Worst Team Ever after promotion.

The legacy

History has been kind on two accounts: firstly Teale, Pearson and McEveley are all back in favour with management and fans; secondly, no major losses were incurred in getting rid of those that were moved on. Make no mistake though, only Jones had any credibility BC.
 

What Happened?

Billy Davies spent around £12m on a group of players to add to his previous clutch of signings, in an effort to consolidate The Rams status as a Premier League side. New signings included Earnshaw, Feilhaber, Lewis, Todd, Davis, Miller and Griffin. What happened next has been recorded several times in various football record books.

The Legacy

The signings allegedly cost us our first parachute payment after relegation and Davis’ pay-off this year will cost us a slice of our second payment. Pay off’s to Lewis and Feilhaber and losses on sales made it collection of costly mistakes. The players were, to a man, utter dog muck.
 

What Happened?

Jagger had a thankless task in trying to sign players for what was basically an already relegated side. Villa, Sterjovski, Ghaly, Savage, Carroll, Mills, Robert and Stubbs all signed but The Rams failed to win another match all season and galloped towards the lowest ever points total. Many fans thought “well, we can’t be any worse can we?” We were.

The Legacy

20 months on and only Savage remains – ironically the player Jewell decided should be completely ostracised for the following season. We didn’t lose too heavily on fee’s but we would have incurred a couple of golden goodbyes.

What Happened?

Jagger decided to completely rebuild the squad and added 14 new faces. This included some good signings such as Hulse, Commons and Green but also some expensive mistakes such as Ellington, Kazmierczak and Dickinson. Others such as Albrechtsen and Stewart haven’t worked out whilst players such as Zadkovich and Pereplotkins can be filed as simply pointless. Jewell did sign some decent players but it should be remembered that a pre-season promise of promotion eventually lead us to a relegation scrap.

The Legacy

Jewell left the coffers empty and Clough with a massively bloated squad. Sorting the mess out has taken the Rams back to another rebuilding phase whilst losses incurred will leave the budget stretched for another year at least.