A week on from my "I don't think we're ready!" column and Derby County still haven't made any further signings.

Billy Davies is now saying we aren't ready too. The manager estimates we have less than 75% of the squad in place and that deals for new signings may go down to the wire as the transfer window closes.

Is it just me, or is that worrying? We will have played four games in August by the time the transfer window slams shut - Portsmouth and Birmingham City at home, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur away - and as Reading demonstrated last season, getting off to a good start is really important for building confidence. Our fixtures in September look very difficult - Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers at home, Liverpool and Arsenal away - so getting off to a good start in August is vitally important. As Watford proved last season, get off to a bad start and you will struggle to recover.

Last season Billy Davies bemoaned the fact that our signings weren't match fit and had missed pre-season ... and it's going to be exactly the same this season too. Even Andrew Griffin and Andy Todd, two recent signings I'd expect to be pushing for a starting place against Portsmouth on Saturday, weren't risked in the Espanyol game. In fact the only new signings used in that unfriendly friendly were Robert Earnshaw and Claude Davis with Lewis Price an unused substitute.

Any signings the Rams make this week, and I'm not particularly hopeful we'll make any, will either be rested for the Portsmouth game, put on the substitutes bench in case we need to rescue the game, or thrown into the starting 11 with very little, if any, training practice at Moorways with their new teammates. None of those are ideal situations, especially given the tough scenario of our Premiership fixture list in August and September and the fact that our opening game at home to Portsmouth must be one we need to target taking points, preferably three, from.

I understand Billy Davies comments that the playoffs mean we're three weeks behind the rest of the Premier League, and are playing catch-up, but we have still had the best part of three months now - long enough to sign seven players, surely long enough to sign the strikers and midfield players we need too? Now I don't pretend to know enough about how football transfers are negotiated and transacted, but I find it hard to understand what difference another three weeks is going to make when we've already had three months?

I guess I'm just impatient, but I'm also a realist and recognise that surving in the Premiership is going to be very tough indeed. History suggests clubs promoted from the Championship struggle in their first season in the Premiership and I expect Birmingham City and Sunderland to have long, hard seasons too. Of the 20 Premiership clubs, our 3rd placed finish in the Championship last season meant Derby County were the 20th ranked team in 2006/07. The other two promoted clubs have both spent more than us on signings so far this summer, as have teams like Fulham and Wigan Athletic who are likely to be in the relegation scrap as the 2007/08 season progresses.

Everything suggests it's going to be a very difficult season with fewer games to get points. With 38 league games this season, not 46, the last thing we want is to still be playing catch-up into the season as those games start to be played. In an ideal world Billy Davies would have made all his signings and have his squad in place for the opening game, but it's not an ideal world, and we go into the Portsmouth game far from ready for the Premiership season.

So we're underdogs and the national media and pundits have all written us off. So be it. The odds were against us last season and even though we finished 3rd, eight points clear of 4th placed West Bromwich Albion, the national media and pundits still made us underdogs against Southampton and West Brom in the playoffs.

We defied the odds then and we can defy the odds again. Billy Davies, it seems, enjoys being the underdog and all we can do is believe, keep the faith, and get behind the football club we love. I'm sure the manager and the board are doing everything they can to bring in the calibre of the players we need and we have to be patient, wait it out, and keep our fingers crossed.

But let's not underestimate the current playing squad. The players gave us everything last season, commitment, passion, work-rate, excitement, and a fantastic roller-coaster promotion season via the playoffs. They restored pride to Pride Park. We do have good players in the squad, lots of them, and we may be doing them an injustice by assuming they aren't Premiership standard just because they played in the Championship last season.

The truth is, we won't know how good, bad or indifferent Derby County will be this season until we start playing Premiership fixtures.

We believed in these players last season, let's believe in them now. Who knows ... we may be pleasantly surprised?

So let's do the one thing Rams supporters do best, let's get behind Derby County and recreate the Pride Park atmosphere we had against Southampton in the playoffs for the visit of Portsmouth. No, let's better it.

Sing your heart out for the lads!

Photo: Action Images

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