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The phrase ‘it’s not the size that matters, it’s what you do with it that counts’ wasn’t really designed for the beautiful game, but it certainly rings true in the case of Derby County. The Rams used 37 different players last season, yet finished a massive 20 points off the play-off pace and found themselves looking over their shoulders for most of the campaign. Just a year on from their Premiership embarrassment, Derby’s squad has become bloated and blighted by mediocrity.
The Derby model is a familiar one. Over-ambitious clubs who refuse to accept their standing as proverbial second tier dwellers have often acted in the same way. On their relegation last summer, Derby did the right thing, offloading many top earners and egos like Kenny Miller and Laurent Robert. To prepare Derby for the Championship, Paul Jewell bought an entire new team. The standard of his signings however, was questionable.
Given that Derby had been shown up as the worst team in Premier League history in 2007/2008, it was clear that the former Wigan manager already had a team of Championship also-rans at his disposal. But in the shape of players like Jordan Stewart and Paul Connolly, Jewell swelled his squad with yet more ordinary players. With Giles Barnes injured and Kenny Miller and Rob Earnshaw sold, Derby were left with a huge squad but little inspiration and little idea of how to halt a winless run that eventually stretched just short of a year.
Flick the calendar pages forward 12 months, and it seems few lessons have been learnt at Pride Park. Even with Nigel Clough now in charge, the expected summer clearout has so far failed to materialise, and the Rams continue to bid for the kind of mediocre players that already saturate their squad. Blackpool defender Shaun Barker and released Norwich winger Lee Croft are the latest names linked with Pride Park. With the club still receiving parachute payments and raking in the gate receipts from high season ticket sales, the fans must wonder where all the ambition has gone.
I commented last summer that the Championship was fast becoming a transfer merry-go-round; a swap shop of second class footballers. Derby’s transfer dealings epitomise such an idea. Quite simply, clubs who believe they should be in the Premiership are not signing the sort of players capable of getting them there. And if Clough thinks a repeat of last season’s eight loan signings is the way to succeed, then he best take a quick look at the plight of Norwich City.
Derby, like so many in this incredibly even league, are two good signings from the play-offs or two bad signings from another nervous campaign of relegation worries. Clough must make sure it is not the latter as 30,000 fans won’t settle for another year in which the Pride Park losing mentality continues to be cultivated.
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