I'm a bit torn on the whole Derby thing.
Rightfully they should be punished. Should go down and Wycombe come up and the balance has been restored.
I can't help but admire the job Rooney has done to galvanise them.
But...
From a financial point of view I find it staggering they are allowed to say "no sales".
I know they do have a lot of young players there already. But the fact that it will condemn them to relegation if there is a huge fire sale shouldn't even be a consideration when you owe £60m, half of which is to Inland Revenue.
I know Transfermarkt isn't the gospel but it is consistent. You have players listed on there - Buchanan (2.5m), Byrne (1.2m), Bielik (5m), Bird (4m), Knight (6m), Sibley (3m), Lawrence (5m), Jozwiak (3.5m).
I know given th circumstances they'd struggle to get those values because everyone would know they need the cash, but I don't see how you can be all woe is me vs the EFL and IR when you're sat on 30m worth of saleable assets.
I know it is unrealistic to expect all those chips to be cashed in mid season but the league could let them bring in loans or freebies if they left but just seeing the solution to this issue as some white knight coming along rather than actually running the business as a going concern seems plain wrong.
Wednesday did the same when they defrauded the coop bank. One minute they were blackmailing them to write off 16m yet not long before they were brazenly refusing a 2.5m bid for Tudgay from Burnley because they didn't want it to impact their on field prospects.
If you end up in so much shit, you should be down to playing the U23s, hastily recruited free agents and the youth team. Maybe that is what Rooney thinks be is doing given the young players in the team but to be allowed to say no sales not even of senior players sends the wrong message. It should be out of their hands. By no means give them away but to blankly be allowed to rebuff bids seems not right.
If that is the expected outcome is playing exclusively the kids and a few waifs and strays and having an ever decreasing group of senior, valuable pros retained, then just maybe they'd be a little more reserved with their spending.