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Bill's Take: Perhaps We Are Only One Player Short Of Promotion
Friday, 27th May 2016 07:48 by Bill Riordan

Last week the Rams announced the retained list and as expected, Stephen Warnock and Conor Sammon were the only senior players released this summer; they being the only ones out of contract.

Should we expect many other players to be leaving the club?

Almost certainly there will be players going out on loan during the coming season, just as Baird, Shotton, Pearce and Albentosa did in the season just finished. I do not think it likely that we will be seeing many — if any — players leaving on permanent transfers as I doubt many players will be offered better contracts than those they have at Derby, and few will turn their backs on the sort of contracts that the Rams have been handing out.

It seems to me that this does somewhat restrict the club’s ability to bring in new players, if the Rams wish to keep a reasonably sized and well-balanced squad.

In fact, this situation does not improve an awful lot in the summer of 2017 with the players out of contract next summer being Lee Grant, Cyrus Christie, Chris Baird, Jake Buxton, Ryan Shotton, Richard Keogh, Raul Albentosa and Darren Bent.

Christie and Keogh will certainly be offered new contracts in the next couple of months but the players most likely to be leaving in the summer of 2017 are pretty much all defenders, while Bent would be the only one going from the midfield and attacking part of the squad.

This means that not only are the Rams amply stocked with midfielders and attackers for the coming season (2016/2017), but also for the season following (2017/2018). It is not until the summer of 2018 that we see numbers of attacking players out of contract including Hughes, Hendrick, Hanson, Martin and Russell; while Bryson, Butterfield, Johnson, Camara, Ince, Blackman and Weimann are all on the books until the summer of 2019.

What does all of this mean for the club in the immediate future? It looks to me as though the Rams have painted themselves into a corner by giving long contracts to players who have not really looked the part for this club as yet.

If the Rams are to bring in new faces this summer, those moves will need to be balanced by players leaving on loan or on permanent moves. This is going to take some hard and creative work by those in charge at the club, since not many clubs will be clamouring for the players the Rams need to get rid of.

The only other alternative to lightening the load, is to appoint a manager or head coach who will be far more successful at getting the best out of the players than our coaches were able to during the season just completed.

I hope to see a summer where the Rams will focus intently on bringing in players of the right quality, rather than going for quantity as we have been lately.

Perhaps we really are only just one player short of promotion...




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