Two Ins And Two Outs At Derby County In The Summer
Now that Gary Rowett is in charge, Derby look to be on the up. Given their past, their turnover and their support they will certainly be among the favourites for the Championship title next season.
Hanging on to his best current players will be high on Rowett’s summer agenda, but he is an ambitious coach and so will equally be thinking about who he can bring in to improve his squad and who will leave to make way for them. Here are some possible incomings and outgoings at Pride Park:
OUT:
Ikechi Anya
Although he was only signed last summer from Watford, Anya has not overly impressed on the wing for Derby. To simplify things here; Watford are in the lower group of Premier League clubs and saw Anya as surplus to their requirements.
This alone tells us he may not be good enough to push Derby up to where they want to be. His record of 1 goal in 27 appearances for the club from an advanced position is not really looking good enough either. Anya would still command a decent fee and yet not be a big miss. So he is one player who they should look to sell.
Will Hughes
Although a lot was expected of Hughes when he broke onto the scene in 2012, he has not really kicked on. True, he is only 22-years-old he is probably not what Derby need. Like Anya, Hughes would command a good fee and so could bring in much-needed transfer funds to be used elsewhere.
Hughes is not a defensive player and so more goals would have been expected of him, by fans and coaches alike. Both Hughes and Anya are symptomatic of Derby’s main problem and should be replaced with people who can finish better.
IN:
Goal Scoring Midfielder
A few goals have been shared around by forwards Darren Bent, Matej Vydra and David Nugent but aside from Tom Ince, there is precious little coming from deeper and wider areas.
For his part, Vydra kicked and screamed to play centrally at no.10 but since being given the chance, has simply not produced the goods. Jacob Butterfield is still capable of more, but reinforcements are needed to back up whoever is up front.
Striker
Some things are obvious. One of them is that, if a club wishes to gain automatic promotion from this league they will need a 20+ goals per year man up front. Bent and Nugent are not guaranteed to provide enough goals, so a new man will be needed.
Top no.9’s don’t grow on trees but the way to look at it is, if Ince stays, there will be less pressure to find a striker. If he goes, he will fetch lots of money with which Derby can poach a good striker from elsewhere.