Coming Home
After 20 years as a Ram in exile, Derby County Blog author Ollie Wright returned to the East Midlands with a young family in tow. Once Covid restrictions lifted, Pride Park would once again be in easy reach... unless, of course the Rams' seemingly endless ownership saga ended not in a takeover, but in liquidation.
This is a story of administration and relegation, interwoven with personal reflections on being a dad, being a son and learning to live with depression and anxiety. It was written at Pride Park at half-time intervals and on trains to and from games.
“Of all the seasons for me to come home, this was the season.”
Tens and Nervous 2: Derby County in the 2010s, Volume 2 (2015 - 2020)
“The biggest risk of all, the thing I dread, is that the Morris story – the local boy made good, the dream owner – turns into a Fawaz-shaped nightmare of instability and kneejerk head loss…Whatever your conception of the ‘Derby County Way’, one thing we can all agree on is this – it is bigger than one man.”
From the departure of Steve McClaren to the arrival of Wayne Rooney, this chaotic era in Derby County history was directed and dominated by executive chairman and owner, Mel Morris. The carousel of managers twirled, millions were spent like confetti and the Rams suffered repeat play-off heartbreak. Mel’s Way was certainly never dull. Ollie Wright’s Derby County Blog documented the madness as it unfurled.
THE DERBY COUNTY LIBRARY
Tens and Nervous: Derby County in the 2010s: Volume 1
This was the period in which Nigel Clough patiently built a team that Steve McClaren took to new heights, only for crushing disappointment to follow as the Rams twice fell short of promotion in dramatic style.
But alongside the desperate lowlights were some fine performances to savour - not least the unforgettable 5-0 - as the likes of Craig Bryson, Will Hughes and Chris Martin rose to become Derby heroes.
Ollie Wright's Derby County Blog turned ten years old in 2020. This book compiles the highlights from his first five years of Rams coverage.
Life During Warnetime - Promotion Special: Derby County's escape from League One
This ain’t no party
This ain’t no disco
This ain’t no foolin’ around…
This is League One. A second season of slumming it in the backwaters of English football, after the administration crisis that nearly killed Derby County.
2023/4 would be a second and maybe final chance for ‘The King of League One’, Paul Warne, to achieve a promotion that should never have been necessary. From the East Upper, author Ollie Wright tried to make sense of a world in which the Rams took on teams from towns where pastimes such as horse racing, rugby union and sh*thousery are more important than football.