silly season unsubstantiated transfer rumours.

[MadAmster]

Turki Al Sheikh? Not a transfer, obviously, but a potential investor…silly season or something in it?

Reading stuff elsewhere online, it seems he's joined a few DCFC related sites/pages of late. If he's not thinking of "investing" in the club, why would he bother to join those sites/pages? Maybe he just likes playing mind games on gullible football fans?

[ramAnag]

Reading stuff elsewhere online, it seems he's joined a few DCFC related sites/pages of late. If he's not thinking of "investing" in the club, why would he bother to join those sites/pages? Maybe he just likes playing mind games on gullible football fans?

Hmmm…inclined to agree with GP, but gullible or not, the DT seems to be suggesting his involvement is getting ever nearer. Not sure what to make of it all.

[MadAmster]

John Percy reporting he's talking to the EFL and to the independent regulator. JP is generally pretty much spot on with his articles so this one might have legs. Seems he has previous on football. Owned Spanish club Almeria, among others.

If it goes through will that make Rams fans the "Sheikh sh*g army"?

[Geoff Parkstone]

So looks like an alcohol ban at PP looming. And also a stadium name change

[SithHappens]

So looks like an alcohol ban at PP looming. And also a stadium name change

I don't think this happened at Newcastle?

[Geoff Parkstone]

St James Park doesn't sould like a gay cottaging site 😃😮💦

[MadAmster]

Hearing rumours of Tommo to Mansfield... and I don't mean Tommo of the DLF

[SithHappens]

Hearing rumours of Tommo to Mansfield... and I don't mean Tommo of the DLF

I like him but feel thats more his level

[MadAmster]

I found this elsewhere, seems I may have missed a fair few links to players... Those in bold are ones I have seen previously but not posted all of them in here.

Credible links so far:
GK: Patterson (Sunderland)
CB: Graham (Dundee)
RB: Tavernier (Rangers)
LB: Lowe (Sheff W), Ferry (Dundee U)
CM: Berhalter (Vancouver), De Keermaecker (Oxford)
AM: Clark (Salzburg), Szmodics (Ipswich), Chaplin (Ipswich), Cantwell (Blackburn)
RW: Brereton (Southampton)
LW: Mavididi (Leicester), Cleary (Barnsley)
CF: Tolaj (Plymouth)

[MadAmster]

As ownership of the club might be seen as a sort of transfer, here's what I saw posted elsewhere from someone who asked AI for its view. Make of it what you will. seems there's a power struggle going on in Saudi. Also he's likely using his own money so there should be no issues with the IFR on that front (no conflict or multi ownership issues).

The Clash of the Titans: Saudi Arabia’s Hidden Rivalry & The Battle for Derby County
1. The Tale of the Tape: Two Men, Two Empires
While both report directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) under the Vision 2030 banner, Turki Al-Sheikh and Yasir Al-Rumayyan represent a massive corporate sibling rivalry inside the Saudi state.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan (The Institutionalist): Governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Chairman of Newcastle United. He plays the long game, buying generational assets (LIV Golf, Newcastle) using sovereign wealth. He is corporate, calculated, and currently tightening strings to focus on domestic mega-projects.
Turki Al-Sheikh (The Disruptor): Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA). He wants immediate pop-culture victories. He successfully shook up global boxing and is now aiming his sights at English football.
2. The Financial Entanglement
The money for both ultimately flows from Saudi oil revenues, but their pipelines are entirely different:
Al-Rumayyan manages the commercial Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Al-Sheikh commands a direct Government Ministry Budget.
The Friction: While legally separate, Al-Sheikh’s massive spectacles frequently rely on infrastructure owned by Al-Rumayyan's PIF (such as events agency Sela or investment firm SURJ). It is a constant battle for efficiency and optics in front of the Crown Prince.
3. The New Flashpoint: Derby County ��
Turki Al-Sheikh has held detailed investment talks with Derby County owner David Clowes. While Al-Sheikh plans to use his personal net worth (estimated at $2.8 billion) to bypass multi-club ownership rules, his timing hits a massive brick wall.
4. Enter the Independent Football Regulator (IFR)
The UK’s brand-new Independent Football Regulator (IFR) is officially phasing in its strict Owners, Directors, and Senior Executives (ODSE) test. They are currently checking the Derby deal, and their verdict could change everything:
The Multi-Club Ownership Trap: The IFR explicitly audits "decisive influence." Because Al-Sheikh’s business empire is deeply entangled with PIF-backed subsidiaries, the regulator will heavily scrutinize whether a Turki-owned Derby and an Al-Rumayyan-owned Newcastle constitutes a backdoor state-controlled network.
The Source of Wealth Snag: The IFR will look past the "personal funds" label. Because Al-Sheikh’s personal fortune was forged directly via royal grants, land deals, and state-adjacent flips (like his profitable sale of UD Almer?a), the IFR is highly likely to classify his capital as "state-adjacent."
The Stability Threat: The IFR's mandate is to protect clubs as community assets. They will be deeply wary of allowing a foreign political sibling rivalry to play out across the English football pyramid, or risking a club's stability if an owner suddenly falls out of political favor back home.
The Ultimate Verdict: Turki Al-Sheikh’s pursuit of Derby County is the first major test case for the UK's new football watchdog. To get the green light, Al-Sheikh will have to prove an unprecedented level of financial isolation from the very state apparatus that made him a billionaire.

[SithHappens]

Got to be ways around it, Marinakis is technically no longer in control of Forest despite clearly being in control.

[ramAnag]

Got to be ways around it, Marinakis is technically no longer in control of Forest despite clearly being in control.

Hmmm…not entirely comfortable with it. Don’t like the idea of incomers starting with the ‘got to be ways around it’ sentiment. Too reminiscent of Forest and Watford, amongst others.
Of course the money would be welcome, but I like the fact that we’ve been synonymous with integrity under Clowes and not sure how much I want us to return to being mockingly known as ‘Moneybags County’ and becoming a rich man’s plaything.
Need to tread carefully on this one, imo, which I’m sure our owner will do.

[swaledale]

Hmmm…not entirely comfortable with it. Don’t like the idea of incomers starting with the ‘got to be ways around it’ sentiment. Too reminiscent of Forest and Watford, amongst others.
Of course the money would be welcome, but I like the fact that we’ve been synonymous with integrity under Clowes and not sure how much I want us to return to being mockingly known as ‘Moneybags County’ and becoming a rich man’s plaything.
Need to tread carefully on this one, imo, which I’m sure our owner will do.

Interesting this one. On the one hand I and a few other fans may well be none too keen on money from suposedly dubious sources coming into the club, but I doubt the majority of fans will give a toss.

As for Clowes, I'm sure he will tread carefully, BUT he is also a businessman and a realist. He doesn't have the resources to push the club much further and he knows that fans will expect Derby to be pushing for and eventually achieve promotion to the premier league. If he is satisfied that the guys intentions are good and the opportunity arises whereby Derby could become say a Brentford or Bournemouth, then I can see a deal happening.

[MadAmster]

This aso raises the question of how much deeper DC's pockets are. It seems he (his company) put another 16M into the club last season. That's on top of the 55M purchase costs of club and ground and the 40 odd million put in the previous 3 seasons. How much further can he go or will he go or will the family permit him to go?

[SithHappens]

Hmmm…not entirely comfortable with it. Don’t like the idea of incomers starting with the ‘got to be ways around it’ sentiment. Too reminiscent of Forest and Watford, amongst others.
Of course the money would be welcome, but I like the fact that we’ve been synonymous with integrity under Clowes and not sure how much I want us to return to being mockingly known as ‘Moneybags County’ and becoming a rich man’s plaything.
Need to tread carefully on this one, imo, which I’m sure our owner will do.

Yes I agree, I was just pointing out there are ways around these things.

The fact Marinakis can put running the club into someone else's hands to circumnavigate the multi club ownership rules is ridiculous when he quite clearly still runs them.

Its just laughing in the face of the governing bodies.

I am undecided on the investment, but I do feel to progress much further investment is needed. How many people out there that can invest but don't come with some dubious baggage I don't know.