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Bill's Take: Ahoy, Matej! Will New Faces Lift Lacklustre Rams?
Friday, 2nd Sep 2016 05:52 by Bill Riordan

Back in the early 1970s I worked with a bloke named John who lived in Hatton, a small town to the west of Derby.

John was a Burton Albion fan — there were not all that many of them back then. The Rams were League Champions, of course, and one of the best club teams in Europe; Burton were about six divisions below us, as far as I can remember. The idea of the Rams ever playing league matches against Burton would have seemed laughable.

Since then, the Rams have dropped a division, while Burton have in the last fifteen years or so, achieved multiple promotions and are now in the same league as us. Not only are Burton playing league matches against the Rams, but as a result of the Rams’ awful performance at Burton last Friday they are actually above us for the first time ever.

Burton have achieved what they have by having a chairman who seems to be committed to long-term steady progress; continual shrewd managerial appointments and signings of capable, low-priced players.

The Rams have not always done any of these things.

One mistake I made in my last column was when I stated that we have a core of reliable players that will be consistently able performers and form the basis of a successful team.

I identified that there was only half dozen players to worry about; the expensive and inconsistent Clement/Rush Six; Bradley Johnson, Jacob Butterfield, Tom Ince, Nick Blackman, Andreas Weimann and Abdul Camara.

Instead at Burton Chris Martin seemed determined to be compared to the great Conor Sammon; Johnny Russell was ineffective, Craig Bryson and Will Hughes tried but accomplished little; Cyrus Christie was much less his usual self and Marcus Olsson looks terribly limited.

Keogh and Shackell did most of what they needed to, but pretty much all that Scott Carson had to do was come out and collect an innocuous cross from Lucas Akins… oh, wait….

So, not only did the Clement/Rush six not accomplish anything, but neither did the core players. Changes suddenly were very much needed and in the air.

Before the game, the Rams had taken striker James Wilson on loan from Manchester United. Since then, right on the deadline, we sent midfielder Jeff Hendrick on a permanent move to Burnley and striker Chris Martin on loan to Fulham for the rest of the season.

Incoming players were striker Matej Vydra from Watford and utility wide man Ikechi Anya also from Watford. The Rams also sent back up keeper Lee Grant on loan to Stoke and signed keeper Chris Weale from Yeovil as cover but these moves should not have much impact on the first team.

For me, this represents a series of well-worked moves. If Anya and Vydra work out, the Rams’ attack should be boosted quite a bit by greater mobility and ball skills, over and above anything we lose by releasing Hendrick and Martin.

One thing that does concern me; I said in my last column that Nigel Pearson’s success or failure at Derby will depend largely on how well he does in getting some value out of the Clement/Rush six. This seems to be vindicated by this series of transfer window moves.

Nobody wanted to sign any of these players and instead to raise money for transfers, we instead had to move core players in Martin, Hendrick and Grant. This seems to suggest that if we want to sign players during the January window, then as things stand now we will again have to raise money by moving out core players. The only candidates I see just now would be Hughes, Bryson, Russell, Keogh and perhaps Christie. In other words, to bring in quality players we have to move out key players of our own.

So after a quiet start in the transfer market, Nigel Pearson is beginning to reshape the Rams into his own team. I expect this to continue during the January window and perhaps before then through loan moves.

The match against Newcastle on September 10th was already going to be fascinating and now with a new-look Rams team, it should be even more so. COYR!



Photo: Action Images



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