President & Chief Executive says the ambition of Derby County's Ownership Group is as strong as ever.

President & Chief Executive says the ambition of Derby County's Ownership Group is as strong as ever.

Plans for the 2015/16 season are well underway at Derby County - that is the message from Sam Rush as he prepares to jet out to the United States of America this week to meet up with the rest of the Rams’ ownership group.



The annual close-season meeting will take place later this week, in which the club’s owners will analyse the past 12 months and distinguish and finalise Derby’s direction for the coming season.

Rush will not be flying across the Atlantic Ocean alone this week.



Derby’s President & Chief Executive will be joined by director, Mel Morris, and whilst he revealed the sense of disappointment that surrounds the 2014/15 campaign is still raw, Rush insists the ambition of the club’s owners continues to ‘burn very, very strongly’.







In the second part of his interview on Derby’s YouTube Channel, Rush said: “We have got to take a balanced view on everything and we have got to recognise that there are a lot of things that have gone well, whilst there are other things that have gone not so well.







“We have to take a view, as an ownership group, and continue to improve. We’re off to America this week, myself and Mel Morris, to speak to the rest of the owners to analyse where we are.







“We need to work out what has gone well and not so well and make sure we are fully focused for the upcoming months.







“I want to reassure fans that the ambition of the ownership group still burns very, very, strongly and we are very lucky to have the strength of this ownership group – both locally through Mel Morris and in the long-standing North Americans.”





A lot of the planning for the 2015/16 season has already taken place as Derby look to hit the ground running over the forthcoming summer.





Several local meetings have already taken place, but the upcoming meeting in America will give the ownership group the opportunity to finalise the plans for the club’s immediate future on work both on and off the field.

Rush added: “We have done a lot of planning already and certainly a lot of the work had been done prior to May.







“We’re in good shape, it’s just a case of fine tuning now, seeing the depth of our requirements, but we are very lucky to have the support that we have got.







“The owners, whilst naturally very disappointed, are extremely supportive with what we are trying to achieve and I’m looking forward to the coming 10 days or so where we finalise our budget planning and get everything in place so we can really hit the ground running.







“We’re in an excellent position. Of course there is disappointment that the objective that we set out hasn’t been achieved, but there is a belief that we are a football club that people can be proud of and one that is going to be nicely placed come the start of the season.







“Myself and Mel have had several meetings already and now we are going out to the States to develop those discussions.







“We are very lucky to have the support that we have got amongst the ownership group and the work that Mel has done over the last 12 months.







“When I say that I am talking about the work at the Academy, the Training Centre and with the infrastructure of the football club and the financial support that he has provided to everyone – alongside the long standing North American support that we have had for seven years now – has really underpinned this club.





“Whilst we haven’t quite got to where we want to, anyone associated with Derby County can see the progress that we have made.



“At times, that hasn’t been as fast as we would have liked, but the foundations are very good and we have much to be proud of.”





In part three of Sam Rush’s interview, which will appear online later this week, he talks about Derby’s sitting in the Financial Fair Play rules and also how the club must make the most of the prolonged summer break in order to be successful.





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