Derby County’s squad-building plans moved ahead with another signing whilst speculation about Rams players leaving Pride Park Stadium also increased.

The main news of the week was the permanent signing of former loanee Tomasz Cywka, who declined a new deal at Wigan Athletic to join Derby County.

He had been with the Latics for 4 years (he was ironically a Paul Jewell signing) and whilst developing, never broke through into their Premier League ranks.

Rams boss Nigel Clough saw enough promise during the loan spell to want him in his reshaped squad; Tomasz has penned a two-year deal at Derby. He’ll be out of contract at the end of June so will move to Derby on a free transfer.

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez still has high hopes for Tomasz but acknowledged that the 21-year old will have more first team opportunities with Derby.

The Rams certainly need quick, sharp consistent players up front to improve their goal scoring rate so here’s hoping Cywka fulfils his promise at Pride Park Stadium. Derby’s main striking target, Scunthorpe’s Gary Hooper, is attracting lots of interest from other clubs with a mooted £2.5m price tag placed on his services.

The Iron are looking to cash in on their top goalscorer, who will be in the last year of his contract in 2010-11; I can’t see Derby doing a deal on that scale unless outgoing transfer fees facilitate it.

Given the interest shown in Rob Hulse from newly-promoted Leeds United (who is in the last year of his contract at Derby), part of such a substantial sum that Derby might pay can be forthcoming.

The Rams won’t now rake in the £4.5m that they declined from Middlesbrough for Hulse last year but hopefully Leeds United will cough up £1m - £1.5m of that. They are keen to sign Hulse and Derby might also take more of Ken Bates’ money if they also sign Derby full back Paul Connolly.

We have the ‘delights’ of clashing with DirtyLeeds again next season and with Millwall winning the Division One play-off final 1-0 against Swindon Town last week we face two of our most unloved opponents again, in what will be known as the NPower Championship. It only seems like five minutes since we were helping both clubs through the relegation trapdoor!

The Rams launched their season highlights DVD, which I’m surprised lasts longer than the few minutes it takes to feature the home victories against Newcastle and Forest and the goal spree against Preston.

The other commercial news (unless I’ve missed the unveiling of any further commercial partners) is that the new Adidas shirt launch takes place on July 16th; you can already fork out £40 on a pre-order for a shirt, on an as yet unknown design if you are so disposed.

It was a ‘Green Day’ for Rams midfielder Paul Green, who impressed the Republic of Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni after two good outings for the R o I side in last week’s friendly games.

Green scored with a first half- diving header on his full debut in the 3-0 victory over Algeria and attracted praise from the national coach. Green had earned his first cap a few days beforehand with a tidy substitute’s appearance against Paraguay.

Well done to Greeny - and here’s to a long and successful international career for him. When fit and buzzing, he is a very effective player and the only Rams’ midfielder with a goal touch. A paltry goal a season from such as Savage and Pearson isn’t enough!

Ex-loanee Michael Tonge is now on the transfer list at Stoke City and apparently out of Derby’s reach, which makes Green’s role at Derby important. Green’s rise to prominence could attract substantial bids (with Glasgow Celtic reported to be ready to offer £1.5m for him) but I for one hope that the club will resist them as manager Clough seeks to reinforce his midfield options.

England took two wins in their final World Cup preparation matches, beating Mexico 3-1 at Wembley last Monday and then defeating Japan 2-1 in Poland on Sunday. In both of their friendly international games this week, the Three Lions side failed to press enough or move the ball quickly and purposefully until the second half and got stronger in the second period of each match.

Mexico were tidy and good on the ball but defensively suspect. The sprightly Japanese side were obligingly prone to mis-direct their desperate defensive clearances into their own net, to concede the game to England in the second half with two own-goals. Mind you, England must still tighten up a bit at the back.

Ex-Ram Tom Huddlestone had his full England international debut at Wembley as a second-half substitute against Mexico (no, Derby won’t benefit financially from any transfer clauses!) and he started the game against Japan. His leisurely pace didn’t suit Fabio Capello’s requirements after a flat first half showing - and there was more urgency with Cole, Gerrard and Lampard after the break.

Fabio Capello’s 23-man squad announcement is imminent and the action starts in South Africa in a matter of days. How many ‘years of hurt’ for us is it now? Let’s hope that it is not another inglorious failure or soft penalty shoot-out elimination! Ohh – and keep practising those spot-kicks, Lampard..!

At the top of the international game’s administration, UEFA’s finance ruling decrees that all European clubs must live within their means. By 2012, all clubs must be run on a break-even basis, Clubs living beyond their means to ‘live the dream’ should become a thing of the past if they cannot spend more than they are earning. Pigs might fly!

Debt-dump clubs such as Manchester United and Liverpool, victims of leveraged buy-outs, would be untouched by the present proposals. Whether the indulgences of rich playboys like Roman Abramovich’s in writing off hundreds of millions of pounds-worth of Chelski team-building debts will be curtailed remains to be seen.

Measures proposed seem unlikely to curb the excesses of the corporate super-clubs. The Glazers aren’t budging from Old Trafford, but if Roman fell out of love with Chelsea, perhaps Stamford Bridge would rapidly revert to its previously unspectacular achievement levels.

The unsustainable debts racked up by Portsmouth and possibly others to follow could be a thing of the past. Rulings over mandatory quotients of home-grown players giving greater emphasis on youth and Academy policy for top clubs allied to the authorities making clubs operate on a more realistic financial basis, can reinforce the objective of ensuring that leagues become more competitive. 

The IFAB this week voted to allow football authorities the power to extend the ‘five-official’ experiment to Champions League and 2012 European Championships qualifiers.

Having five officials on the pitch might sometimes give them a better chance of seeing and adjudging incidents properly... however, if they can find five good officials for every game, I’ll be amazed!

Poor officials will still make dud decisions and many fans (me included) do wish that FIFA would finally take the obvious step of introducing goal-line technology into the game to resolve some of the most common refereeing gaffes.

The allowance and disallowance of goals because of ambiguity as to whether the naked eye saw the ball crossing the line really should be a thing of the past. Ohh, well...

Meanwhile, regarding Lord Triesman’s World Cup bid betting suggestions faux-pas, FIFA have announced that they "found no indication that there is any basis to the allegations reported" and so no further action will be taken.

That declaration was welcomed by England’s bid committee but we have to wait until the end of the year to find out if the scandal has scuppered England’s long-awaited wish to again host the tournament.

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RamsWeek 22 last year said it was a case of ‘you can’t always get what you want’ when Blackpool rebuffed Derby’s initial bid of £400k for centre half Shaun Barker. We now know that Derby got their man in the end.

Blackpool finished above Derby last season as well; let’s hope they don’t make an audacious bid to re-sign the Rams’ new captain for their assault on the Premier League in 2010-11!

I commented that clubs like the Seasiders would probably remain a ‘feeder’ club for bigger clubs like Derby, an observation which now looks quite daft, given Derby’s hopeless show in 2009-10 and Blackpool’s promotion!

Manager Nigel Clough was chasing Exeter’s Dean Moxey and wanted winger Lee Croft was released from relegated Norwich City.

Defender Lewin Nyatanga helped Wales to beat Estonia 1-0 and clumsy Claude ‘Clod’ Davis got sent off playing for Jamaica against Haiti. Manchester United were humbled by Barcelona in the Champions League Final. At home, Chelsea overcame Everton 2-1 to win the FA Cup.

Photo: Action Images

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