Derby County F.C.

About Derby County F.C.

The club was formed in 1884 as an offshoot of Derbyshire County Cricket Club. They originally wanted to name themselves directly after the cricket club as Derbyshire County FC , but objections from the local football association (who thought the name was too long) led them to choose Derby County FC .

The Rams, as Derby County are known, initially played at the Racecourse Ground, like their parent cricket club. As well as competing in a number of friendly matches and informally competitions, Derby County also entered the premier British football competition of the time: the FA Cup.

Derby County were founder members of The Football League when it was launched in 1888. In 1891, they absorbed another Derby club, Derby Midland F.C., who had been members of the Midland League. Steve Bloomer, generally considered to be Derby County 's best-ever player, joined the club in 1892. In 1895 the club moved to a new stadium, The Baseball Ground (so called because it was previously used for baseball), which became their home for the next 102 years, and adopted their traditional colours of black and white.

Derby 's Chairman, John Sleightholme, resigned in April 2006, saying his position had become untenable. The rest of the board followed him later that month. A popular consortium of local businessmen led by former vice-chairman Peter Gadsby bought the club, reducing its debt and returning Pride Park Stadium to the club's ownership in the process. In June 2006, former Preston North End boss Billy Davies was appointed Derby County 's new permanent manager, with Julian Darby as his first-team coach. In his first season, Davies took Derby to the Championship play-offs, where they beat Southampton on penalties in the semi-finals before defeating West Bromwich Albion 1-0 with a second-half Stephen Pearson goal (his first for the club) at the new Wembley Stadium to secure a return to the Premier League and the £60m windfall that achievement is reputed to bring.

Despite Derby 's promotion however, there were persistent rumours of a row between Davies and the Managing Director Mike Horton over the appointment of an assistant for Davies. On 5 June 2007 Horton resigned from his position on the board, and he was followed shortly afterwards by Jill Marples and her husband Peter Marples. Horton claimed at the time that his departure was for family and business reasons however, and he has since been replaced on the board by experienced football executive Trevor Birch

Derby began their summer signings by buying Robert Earnshaw from Norwich for £3.5 million, breaking the club's transfer fee record. Derby have now appointed Colin Miller as assistant manager and Craig Brown as footballing consultant. Billy Davies also signed a 12 month contract extension until 2010

 Current squad