Rob Wilson knew what he was talking about.
"This is the last roll of the dice sort of thing," he said before the play-off final. The winner takes all and the loser loses a lot of things.
They won at Wembley. Three years later, they traveled to Australia to prepare for a new season with Brazil star Philippe Coutinho in their squad.
Derby have just begun their first third-tier campaign since 1986 and only the fifth in their history after local businessman and lifelong supporter David Clowes saved the club.
Fans hope the opening-day win over Oxford in front of 31,053 at Pride Park marks a shift towards a more stable future for one of England's most historic clubs.
The past three years have seen a lot of bad news, including drunken car crashes, ill-advised social media posts, Financial Fair Play trouble and failed takeovers.
Mel Morris wouldn't give anything away after Derby lost the play-off final.
Morris was down but not disappointed according to someone who was with him. There was a feeling that spending would have to be cut but, just a couple of months later, Derby signed Krystian Bielik for $10m. The owner of Pride Park needed to have a plan. He had a plan all the time.
He had doubts.
He says that the writing was on the wall. The accounts were in bad shape afterDerby made losses.
Critics argue that owners should be allowed to invest in their business. A club can go bankrupt if the owner doesn't stay.
They weren't on their own, but Derby were dependent on owner investment. There is a statement in the auditors' reports that says the auditor is happy to sign them off as a going concern because the owner is willing to keep investing. It is in two different colors.
Morris had a plan for Rooney. Three days after the deal was announced, it was known that England's record scorer would join the club.
The summer of change was triggered by the play-off defeat that resulted in Phillip Cocu replacing Frank Lampard as manager.
There were storm clouds. The rain almost wiped Derby out of existence.
It was going to be a disaster when a team bonding session took place in September.
Tom Lawrence rammed his Range Rover into Mason Bennett's Mercedes as they left the Joiners Arms. Two other Derby players and Lawrence fled the scene after they were over the limit. Richard was found unconscious in the back of Lawrence's car.
There was a lot of repercussions from the incident. After pleading guilty to drink-driving, Lawrence and Bennett were banned from driving. After the incident, they were fined six weeks' wages by Derby and played against Barnsley.
One of Derby's highest-paid players and facing 15 months out of the game because of injuries sustained in the accident was sacked.
Derby sources don't believe that Keogh is treated differently because of his financial value. There were differences in the conduct of the three men.
Keogh disagreed. He challenged the decision and in May 2021 was awarded £2.3m in compensation. In an interview with the Guardian in October 2021, he said: "It's pretty obvious to most people what happened."
When his contract expired, Lawrence joined Rangers. After the crash, Bennett joined Millwall. Bennett said "burn" in a video that was posted on social media in May 2020. He said it was not intended to be made public. He signed a permanent contract with Millwall that summer.
One long-serving Derby employee said that there was never a feeling that they were out of the public eye. It's difficult. Everyone has a sense of self worth.
The downward spiral began. Soon, it would speed up.
The month of Rooney's arrival as a player- coach at DC United was when Derby were charged with breaching financial regulations.
Although the case initially went Derby's way, the EFL won an appeal against a specific point relating to the amortisation method it used to value its players.
It took almost a year and a half to confirm that victory. The club was docked nine points after they accepted additional violations.
Derby stayed in the Championship at the end of the 2020-21 campaign. They had finished above them.
Morris was unwell and trying to find a buyer for Derby. He lost money on the club and was no longer willing to support it.
He had agreed a deal with a company owned by a cousin of Manchester City's owner. Contracts were drawn up. The funds were going to be given. They didn't arrive.
On 7 April 2021 Morris agreed another deal with Spanish businessman Erik Alonso. That also fell through, but not before Alonso had posted what he hinted was his own property to show evidence of his wealth, which turned out to be a screengrab of a house being sold by an unrelated estate agent in the United States.
With no alternative buyer in sight and Morris unwilling to inject another £15m to cover Covid-related losses, Derby entered administration on September 22, 2021.
Concerns around the club had been growing and it was a devastating blow.
The club had to lay off staff at the peak of the Pandemic. The fact that Derby didn't top up the 80% of wages received by the government was not uncommon. At the time, staff didn't know that the bills were not being paid. Morris wasn't as visible as he used to be. The club was stripped of it's membership due to unforeseen circumstances. The costs were reduced.
They were cut more when the administration came.
After going into administration, there was an additional 12 point deduction. The relegation was confirmed after the defeat at Queens.
More potential buyers came and went by this time. A group of Americans backed out of a negotiation with the former Manchester City chief executive. Appleby was the former chairman of Derby. The Binnie family tried to make a bid, but were told it wasn't high enough. ill feeling remains to this day after the administrators were criticized for their approach
There were more problems within the process due to legal action from Wycombe and Middlesbrough over Derby's overspending.
It is thought that it would have been better if Derby had been demoted in 2020. It would have prevented the legal battle. The wage bill of the club would have been reduced due to the sale of players. It would have been a better place to sell things.
Derby started the 2022-23 season without another 15-point penalty because of the amount of money needed to buy the club and pay off their debts. It would take over 50 million dollars to bring the club and stadium back together.
Chris Kirchner came back to the table four months after he withdrew from the talks. He was close to Cook and Stretford. On April 6th, he was granted preferred bidder status.
It was odd for a man on the verge of an important deal to act like that. He met Derby fans at a local pub, but when it came to the actual deal he left a lot of detail to Cook as he flew around the world.
Kirchner withdrew his bid on June 14th despite repeated claims of delays in transferring funds. Kirchner blamed the situation on opposition from a board member of his US company Slync.
He said that it was always one bad apple that ruined the group. Questions about the source of his money were not answered.
The chief executive of Slync was suspended from his job. He has stopped following his account on social media. Triple S stepped in to pay May's wages on his behalf and is now claiming over two million dollars.
Fans were worried about the possibility of liquidation. It seemed like a real possibility. Clowes entered this maelstrom.
Clowes bought the stadium to make it easier to sell Derby. Until this season, he used to watch from the North Stand after buying the club.
Those who know him describe him as lacking in ego. He is sad. He and his wife cried on the tube in London when they learned the purchase had gone through.
According to one source, Derby County has become a synonym for backdoor chicanery. Clowes would like to change that.
He wants Derby to be sustainable. The way it will have to be is a season or two in League One. Clowes is not likely to give money to his club.
There wasn't much to say before the game on the opening day of the season. He didn't want to walk to the center circle. Clowes only had an interview with the match programme and a chat with the TV station.
He said "Stability, integrity and progress" when asked what he wanted Derby to be.
Most Derby fans would be happy with that.
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