April Fool week has been notable for several rather strange happenings. The most important for Rams fans was the goal by Connolly. Those of us hanging on the DET's Match Centre's every word had started to despair when, with time ebbing away, he suddenly popped up to score.

If you had suggested with a crystal ball on Wednesday morning that ‘Connors' was going to score – most of us would have confidently predicted it as an April Fool. It however ensured another point towards safety with matches running out for most of the teams below us.

Another more sensational April Fool that wasn't – was the appointment of Alan Shearer to be Newcastle manager for the rest of the season. It left me wondering what was happening behind the scenes.

Therein lies one of the inequities of football. No matter how passionate you are about your team, you can do nothing about who buys into the club and who they recruit. Like Newcastle, Derby County have fared quite badly in that department for many years. Thankfully Derby's management by the present owners suggest that this is becoming a bad memory.

Certainly where former Directors of Derby County have been concerned, there have been recent reports of allegation and counter-allegation flying around in court along with alleged death threats apparently being made. These make for hair-raising reading and makes one wonder if this is real or a gigantic April Fool being perpetuated on all of us.

Regardless of the outcome of the trial, I would still ask are they 'fit and proper' persons' for the running of a football club? I tried to download the regulations for “fit and proper persons” on the FA website and my browser couldn't find the page. Why am I not surprised?

Perhaps it's because football is and always has been riddled with useless and incompetent directors who are not accountable to anyone, least of all to their fans. And some of them do get to the highest levels of the game, hence the reluctance to change anything. Clough senior has been widely touted as the best manager never to manage England – the truth is those people would have never allowed him to get anywhere near the job. For Clough possessed two very important qualities – he was working class and he wasn't afraid to mouth off. Directors are not generally from the working class and many – not just those in Derby – would have hated him with a passion for not knowing his place.

Back to Derby and to paraphrase Wilde – to lose one championship winning manager may be regarded as a misfortune but to lose another within five years looks like carelessness.

If you had a manager who steered Derby to no less than three top four places (including a League Championship) in three seasons, would you not want to keep him? Why lose him? Yes, this actually happened to Dave Mackay in 1976. After the turmoil of Clough and Taylor's departure, Mackay held the club together and refined it with more talented players winning a second League Championship in his first full season but still found himself ‘moved on' - whatever the terminology used.

Who were the Directors that moved him on? According to close accounts, Sam Longson was still DCFC Chairman but new Vice-Chair George Hardy proposed a vote of no confidence in Mackay (which allegedly Longson opposed the tactic and voted to back Mackay).

Old Big Head himself was of the opinion that if a football Director appoints a manager who then fails, then they should go together. But how often do you see a football Director holding up his hands and saying: “I made a mistake and I'm resigning with my manager who I'm sacking.” Never.

The allegation in court these last few weeks of behind the scenes threats and plots more than ever confirm my opinion that the FA is a complete waste of space when it comes to safeguarding the game. Anyone, provided that they have a few million in the bank (and sometimes not even then), can walk into a football club and do as they please. Even the Houses of Parliament apparently have more sanctions than the FA does.

I suspect that Monday night's fans' forum will show that not only are our present owners ‘fit and proper' persons, but also that they have a long term game plan for reducing the debt, improving the overall quality of the players, establishing us as a long term Premiership club (as opposed to ‘team') and are in the process of carrying it out season by season.

I am looking forward to reading the complete record of all the questions and answers because these are likely to show indications of what our current owners have in mind for Derby County as a club and, most importantly, that our club is safe with them.

Photo: Action Images

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