The Nerazzurri grabbed the Champions League title and the domestic play-off climaxes unfolded further, as Blackpool audaciously snatched a place in the Premier League. Back in the Midlands, the Rams continued their quest for new players

The national and international stories developed alongside England’s World Cup preparations, progressing against the backdrop of the Triesman 2018 bid ‘bribe’ scandal.

It all made Derby County’s modest news seem rather tame fayre in comparison but manager Nigel Clough and his staff were still working hard to improve the Derby squad.

The Rams captured the Crewe pair, defender John Brayford and midfielder James Bailey, with Crewe chief Dario Gradi asserting that it was an initial £1m deal rising to £1.6m via appearances and add-on clauses.

Both are young and keen to make a step up and if they can realise their potential at Derby, they will fulfil the Rams’ aim to mould a team based upon young, hungry players that can take the club upwards.

Rumours abounded regarding Rob Hulse joining Burnley and the Rams fancying Stephen Naismith from Glasgow Rangers and Hibernian forward Derek Riordan, whilst another Rams’ striker target, Billy Sharp was the subject of an unsuccessful £650k bid from Doncaster Rovers. Perhaps Derby will now try and tempt Sheffield United to part with the marksman for a sum closer to £1m?

Billy Sharp isn’t yet a Derby player and neither is Tomasz Cywka, even though the young Polish striker was poised to conclude negotiations with the Rams, only to be prevented from travelling due to the dreaded Icelandic volcanic ash and its effect on air travel.

Midfielder Michael Tonge’s proposed 2010-11 loan spell at Pride Park Stadium may be stymied because Stoke City made the player available to offers. The Rams won’t pay Prem wages or the large transfer fee expected and hence a player that arguably did as much as anyone to secure Derby’s Championship survival could be beyond our reach.

Through being so reliant on loan players, Derby remain at the mercy of the player’s parent club. Clough’s hopes and wishes will be pretty low down the agenda for a Premier League club wanting to cut their losses to as little as possible on an under-utilised asset.

Tonge certainly provided the sort of midfield spark that Derby sorely needed and the manager will somehow need to provide more strength and thrust in the middle of the park if Tonge is plying his trade elsewhere next season.

The Rams will help Chesterfield FC launch their new stadium, with a friendly being the inaugural game at the Spirites’ new venue, the b2net Stadium on July 24th.

Derby’s midfield dynamo Paul Green increased his international visibility by impressing Republic of Ireland coach Trapattoni during the training camp exercise. Greeny came through two practice matches well and will be included in the full RoI squad for friendly matches later this month.

At European club level, two class and clinical strikes from Diego Milito saw Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan take the Champions’ League trophy at the expense of Bayern Munich. The so-called ‘special one’ is however set to jump ship and take the reins at Real Madrid; such is the giddy merry-go-round of Continental European managerial appointments.

At domestic level, plucky Blackpool came from behind in the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium yesterday; they shocked the favourites Cardiff City by winning 3-2 to reach the top flight for the first time for almost 40 years.

After defeating the Red Dogs and dumping them out of the play-offs, winning both at Bloomfield Road and the City Ground, Blackpool won the 2010 Championship play-offs to clinch the so-called ‘richest prize in football’ with the £90m game (that prize seems to have gone up by £30m even since Derby triumphed against WBA in 2007!)

Ian Holloway’s men had showed their indomitable team spirit with a thrilling second-half recovery at Nothingham, before again confounding the bookies to sweep the Welshmen away at Wembley Stadium when they came from 2-1 down to win the final.

Olly has transformed Blackpool in a short space of time and must now prepare the Tangerines to try and hold their own in elite company. With their meagre resources and modest stadium and facilities in comparison to such as Derby, Blackpool put the efforts of the Rams players in the shade.

Never mind Derby’s so-called ‘highlights of the season’ DVD out shortly - the Rams players should sit down and watch DVDs of Blackpool and then set about emulating the tenacity, determination, passion and pride that has carried the Tangerines from being relegation favourites to Premier League status!

Huge crowds, big wages, big stadium, world-class training facilities - and we barely escaped relegation again. Blackpool made nonsense of the slow build, patient mantra that’s drilled into us from all sources in Derby and our expectations from Rams players will run higher next season.

Holloway’s brave troops will certainly have a very sprightly seaside shuffle in their step when they are training later this summer along the windy Golden Mile sands. It will be very interesting to see how their season 2010-11 unfolds!

For Cardiff, there is uncertainty over the future of manager Dave Jones and star players, club refinancing through a new board and the departure of the unloved Peter Risdale, who had deceived the fans in January by selling season tickets early, ostensibly to acquire more players to reinforce their promotion push.

That initiative came with the promise of a refund if the Bluebirds gained promotion and realised 10,000 instant subscribers, only for Risdale to turn tail on the supporters and tip those receipts into the HMRC coffers.

The club has been the subject of 4 winding up orders and owed HMRC £1.9m and has a debt of £15m. Woe betides if GSE pulled a similar stunt at Derby!

The increased parachute rewards might make the Premier League more of a ‘closed shop’ in time, with the advantaged (freshly relegated) clubs yo-yoing between the Championship and Premier League. It’s now possible for a promoted team to at least have a softer landing financially when dumped back into the Championship should they have a torrid time in the top flight and suffer instant relegation.

The changes in the reward structure might make the Premier League more of a ‘closed shop’ in time, with the advantaged (freshly relegated) clubs yo-yoing between the Championship and Premier League. Teams such as WBA already prove consistently too good for the Championship but not strong enough to consolidate in the Premier League.

Unless or until there is more realism in Premier League wages, fans of smaller, relatively ‘minnow’ clubs like Blackpool might soon find that their team will have an even harder time bucking that trend to challenge at the top of the Championship, let alone reach ‘the promised land’ of the Greedy League.

Some players will always move on from relegated teams and endeavour to sustain their top-flight careers but relegated clubs will now have the advantage of larger parachute receipts over 4 years. They could thus retain better squads than many fellow Championship clubs - and that will make the 2nd tier an uneven competition.

For the time being, the surprising and romantic ascendancy of Blackpool FC will excite their fans and players but cause high blood pressure in the boardroom as they endeavour to reinforce the team for the Premier League campaign. Will they be a one-season wonder?

Even though the fixtures will be out in a matter of a few weeks and Blackpool fans can ponder dates at Old Trafford, The Emirates, Anfield and Stamford Bridge whilst Derby await another set of Championship fixtures, it still seems a long wait until 2010-11 for us all!

___________________________________________________________

RamsWeek 21 last year saw ‘days of future passed’ when Derby County and Burton Albion links deepened, as Paul Peschisolido and Gary Rowett formed the managerial team for the newly-promoted Brewers. They have since managed to establish Burton in the Football League.

Johnny Metgod joined Nigel Clough’s coaching staff at Derby and defender Andy Todd moved to Perth Glory.

Derby were still hoping to sign Nottingham-born Shaun Barker from Blackpool (who had only recently recruited Ian ‘Olly’ Holloway as their new manager) and snapped up young midfielder Ben Pringle from Ilkeston Town. Nigel Clough was also chasing defender Dean Moxey of Exeter City and John Brayford from Crewe Alexandra.

Giles Barnes had an ankle operation but was expected to be fit in good time for 2009-10 pre-season training at the start of July....

Photo: Action Images

Arsenal Polls