Derby County exhibited an over-reliance on loan players during 2009-10; some of that strategy was enforced by an ongoing injury crisis. What shape is the Rams’ squad in today? How did the loanees fare? Who’s leaving? It will be another summer of change at Pride Park Stadium.

As our illustrious politicians try and decide how best to run our country, of a fashion, and Fabio Capello picks the men who will carry England’s World Cup hopes to South Africa, Rams manager Nigel Cough is exercising his own vote on the Derby County players he wants on his retained list.

My article isn’t the gospel truth; it’s just my opinions and impressions of where the Derby squad still falls short, what the many loanees have (or haven’t) done for us this season - and which current players manager Clough may now seek to move on.

A combination of the owners’ determination to cut player wages and the perpetual shortage of injury-free, match-fit players soon scuppered Nigel Clough’s declaration that he intended to run with a much smaller squad numbering only around 25 players.

Once the season started, we always seemed short in one department or another. In fact, the manager used well over 40 players on first-team duty in 2009-10.

The persistent unavailability of first-choice players inhibited any pattern or form in the Derby side for long stretches of the season; a couple of good results with a small climb up the Championship table always seemed to be overbalanced by disappointing reverses straight afterwards.

How did the loanees rate? Here’s my summary - feel free to disagree and offer your own thoughts!

Bryan Hughes (Hull City, midfield) - a definitive ‘emergency’ loan; i. e., use only in an emergency.  He filled a shirt for a few matches when we were short of bodies.

Jake Livermore (Tottenham, forward) - fitful, inconsequential, disappointing - is still learning his trade and was striving to attain the fitness levels required for Championship level and above.

Lee Johnson (Bristol City, midfield) - industrious, tidy, willing - a good component of the midfield engine room and the best midfield loanee until Michael Tonge arrived.

DJ Campbell (Leicester City, forward) - worthwhile; had some thrust and goal power but inconsistent.

Paul Dickov (Leicester City, forward) - A grafter and a nuisance to opposing defenders, scored goals too. 

Nicky Hunt (Bolton Wanderers, defender) - by turns, dominant or disastrous, he sometimes added strength to the defence but was also culpable in bad defensive displays.

James Vaughan (Everton, forward) - quick but ultimately ineffectual; gone as soon as he arrived. Everton procrastinated on allowing a 2nd loan spell at Derby when Vaughan was used in the Premier League side’s starting eleven - they then chose to send him out on loan to Leicester City.

Fredrick Stoor (Fulham, defender) - added quality at right back before Christmas but sadly, our multi-billionaire owners decreed that we cannot afford the services of a Fulham reserve. In retrospect (unless Fulham wanted him back for cover), a further loan might have been money well spent.

Javan Vidal (Manchester City, forward) - apparently highly-rated, but was marginal and unmemorable at Derby - not much else to say, really, just another fitness-seeking itinerant rookie.

 Michael Tonge (Stoke City, midfield) - versatile, intelligent and talented. One of the few loanees to have enhanced the Derby side for a significant period. Tonge was perhaps only with us due to Stoke’s excellent form and strength in depth. Here’s hoping we can secure him again for 2010-11.

David Martin (Millwall, forward) - he is Derby-bound of course on a permanent contract and though his appearances were restricted, showed enough to suggest that the supply to our forwards from the wings will be improved when he finds his feet and has a run of appearances.

Gilles Sunu (Arsenal, forward) - skilful, mercurial, fitful - as Stevie wonder might say, “So what the fuss?” Gilles could turn in some good spells but also vanish (another victim of inadequate fitness levels, perhaps) and he didn’t often use his pace or physique to the extent expected.

David Martin (Liverpool, goalkeeper) - impressive when the Rams needed a ‘keeper through injuries and suspensions and could be destined for a first team place somewhere soon.

Tomas Cywka (Wigan Athletic, forward) - quick, agile, inventive and Clough’s keenness to sign him permanently indicates that (if signed) he will be a first-team regular in 2010-11.

Rams fans want less reliance on loanees and my notes indicate a pretty patchy return from the ‘class of 2009-10’, when all’s said and done. Loans have their place - but let’s hope the fitness factor is dramatically improved so that we don’t again endure a similarly desperate stop-start season, seemingly at the perpetual mercy of the emergency loan system.

Of course we hope to see Martin, Tonge, and Cywka on a regular basis if deals are done soon, alongside Roberts, Brayford and perhaps Danny Buijs. Creativity in midfield and goal power up front are the pressing problems for the manager to resolve before 2010-11 kick off.

The manager’s squad development work started weeks (or months) ago of course and most managers spend springtime compiling their final shopping list and watching potential recruits, as well as making decisions on players to be shipped out. I’d reckon that at least a dozen first team regulars and marginal players will leave the club soon.

Already, winger Gary Teale and defender Jay McEveley have found that there is no new pot of gold at the end of the Derby County rainbow.

The expensive contracts awarded to McEveley and Teale by Billy Davies during the reign of the Gadsby regime lapsed shortly and will not be renewed, so both players are looking for pastures new.

It is fair to say that both have contributed to the Rams’ cause (unlike too many of Davies’ and Jewell’s signings) and have had their careers resurrected by Nigel Clough; both were outcasts sent on loan by Paul Jewell before he threw in the towel.

It’s also fair to say that Clough is right to seek a more consistent left back than McEveley (who sometimes impressed more as an ‘emergency’ centre-half) and a more productive winger than Gary Teale, who could be devastating and utterly frustrating minute-by-minute in the same game!

Four junior professionals will leave Derby at the end of June, as Darren Wassall and Michael Forsyth reorganise the Academy and feeder structure and reinforce the club’s local talent-scouting outreach. Jermaine Johnson, Henrik Ojamaa, Alex Forde and Mark Dudley are being released.

Now, “better players for less money” is Nigel Clough’s main maxim. Looking at some of the expensive but superfluous players that the club has released since he took over in terms of value for money from their transfer fees and wages, the evidence is incontrovertible - even if progress under Clough so far has been unspectacular.

Clough has relayed the example that Barker, Anderson and Buxton combined are on less money than Martin Albrechtsen earned - “a defender who couldn’t head the ball”, as described by the manager!

With the seasoned left-back Graham Roberts on the way from Doncaster Rover and Dean Moxey gaining experience, it is sobering to think of the difference in rewards given to Jordan Stewart and Jay McEveley, the incumbent full-backs when Clough arrived at Derby County!

There is promise from the Academy graduates through the success of the reserves’ side, with Ben Pringle, Callum Ball, Ryan Connolly and Greg Mills contributing well. Goalkeeper Saul Deeney may also solve a problem in that he could make the step up to first team duty when called.

The sheer number of combinations used in central defence and attack led to inconsistency and defensive unreliability until new captain Shaun Barker and Russell Anderson forged the definitive partnership. Problematic full-back positions exacerbated Derby’s propensity to ship cheap goals.

Two good full-backs are essential to progress. Too many of Derby’s defenders in recent times either lack the basic qualities needed - or haven’t consistently applied the manager’s repetitive exhortations to keep it simple; to do their own jobs first and foremost.

The difference that Barker and Anderson have made in central defence is emphatic and now we need the same steel and presence on the flanks.

In midfield we were unsettled and slow; Robbie Savage’s prodigious effort couldn’t mask a lack of quality. The incumbent wingers, including the strong-running Stephen Pearson, a fading Lee Croft and the mercurial Gary Teale were rotated with a host of loanee wide players - and just did not provide enough accurate ammunition up front.

The lack of a playmaker like Kris Commons or an aggressive runner like Steve Davies through their assorted fitness tribulations also meant that a miscellaneous bundle of temporary forward players filled in for short cameos up front, with varying degrees of success. Hence the Rams ended up in a lower mid-table position; excitement was at a premium and so were 90-minute performances.

Who else, apart from the juniors, Teale and McEveley already poised at the exit, will leave the Rams before August 31st 2010? Here are my thoughts:

Lee Hendrie (midfield) - joined in August 2009 in a swap deal in exchange for the unwanted Jordan Stewart from Sheffield United - Marginal, mostly injured/unfit, showed a spark of quality on a very few occasions when fit. 5 starts and 5 sub appearances in a season was thoroughly inadequate. Dispatched on loan to Brighton & Hove Albion without establishing himself in the Rams’ squad; a hopeful gamble, given his recent history - and a total waste of money.

Paul Connolly - good club servant but Clough is looking for more authority and quality in defence.

Lee Croft - He started like a house on fire and ended up like a wet, inert firework on a rained-off bonfire night. Clough expected a lot more from him and may jettison him summarily.

Luke Varney - Another expensive irrelevance from Paul Jewell, although Wednesdayites will disagree and bemoan their relegation plight, which will probably prevent them from signing him on!

Steve Davies - can be quick, aggressive, effective, exciting...when he plays! Clough’s pointed comments about his fitness (or lack of it) lead me to think that the manager has lost patience with him. Steve can change games but may need to change clubs to establish his talents.

Lewis Price - a good goalie and a full Welsh international but on high wages and a signing by Paul Jewell that indicated his utter lack of any prioritisation of needs (or respect for financial resources). With Stephen Bywater reclaiming the No. 1 shirt, Price has never had the chance to establish himself and spent 2009-10 on loan at Brentford. His departure will trim the wage outlay further.

Kris Commons - a match-winning playmaker - but only when he plays matches. I suspect Derby will take the money and recruit someone available for selection on a regular basis. Tomasz Cywka may help to fill the quality gap.

Clough’s opinion on Kris’s fitness and application plummeted with the forward’s constant stream of injuries and hot-and-cold performances. His nadir must have been being withdrawn at half-time at the City Ground, the venue at which Kris had tormented his former club in 2008-09 in League and Cup. His expiring contract will tip the scales.

Rob Hulse - a solid club servant whose goals (in the absence of other regular scorers in the side) have saved Derby from relegation for the past two seasons. Rob is now over 30 and Clough needs to inject more youth and pace into the side.

Non-football factors might also play a part in some departures (as it may have done with Jay). As we saw with Liam Dickinson - highly rated when joining Derby - he rapidly fell out of favour for mysterious reasons.

Hulse (with his own so-called ‘domestic issues’ to sort out that have affected clough’s selection choices on occasion) - can still command a useful transfer fee as well, which Derby would have to invest in another proven goalscorer in his stead.

Dean Leacock - a talented, skilful and composed defender but very injury prone. It’s no good having good defenders if they can’t be picked and I doubt whether Dean will ever again forge that all-important central defensive partnership to stabilise the core of the team. Russell Anderson has rendered the waiting and hoping redundant; Shaun Barker has a reliable partner at last.

I’ve actually named 15 departees (counting the juniors) - many more than the club has initially suggested! Some you might well find contentious - but none of them would surprise me.

When you consider the excessive wages that would be saved by recruiting others in place of (for instance) McEveley, Teale, Price, Varney, Davies, Hendrie and Leacock, then the club’s expectation to mould a better squad with lower wages does make sense. The latter five gentlemen made precious little contribution to Derby in 2009-10 for a very large bundle of money!

Pondering the follies and failures from preceding managers that Clough has had to manipulate until player contract expiry or feasible disposal opportunities arose, it is clearly feasible that the current regime could build a much better squad from the target budget of £10m in wages.

It all goes to show just how crucial is good management and judicious player recruitment, both to success on the field and prudent financial policy.

Nigel Clough and Tom Glick now carry the responsibility to deliver those objectives on behalf of Derby County and all of us - good luck, guys!

Photo: Action Images

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