Nigel Clough has finally secured the services of Daniel Ayala on loan while working on other reinforcements plus the club are denying strong rumours out of Blackburn that they want keeper Frank Fielding on loan again.
Ayala Finally Fit and A Rams Player!
DCFC announced the signing of Daniel Sanchez Ayala on Friday afternoon as he joins the Rams on loan until the end of the season from Liverpool.
Things have changed quickly since yesterday when Nigel stated:
"We are in contact with Liverpool and the player every couple of days, he (Ayala) played 63 minutes on Tuesday and that was his first action in a game situation for over eight weeks, so he is certainly not fit enough to come straight in. We will try to get a solution which suits everybody and get him on board as soon as we can."
Today Nigel was relieved to finally get his man and add some depth to his defensive options:
"We're pleased to bring Daniel on board for the rest of the season, especially as he has been in demand and had a number of other clubs interested in taking him."
"I would like to express our thanks to Kenny Dalglish and Liverpool that they have decided Derby County is the best place for Daniel at this stage of his development."
"He is a talented defender who we've seen in action on numerous occasions and feel he has the qualities to help improve our defensive record, which we feel has not been good enough lately."
"This deal has been in the pipeline for a few weeks and we've had to remain patient, but the hard work has now paid off and we're pleased to have Daniel with us."
The 20 year old defender is considered a player of the future for Liverpool and was showing good form on loan at Hull city earlier this season. That was before an injury ended the deal and Ayala returned to Anfield for treatment.
He scored his first and only professional goal to date in September for the tigers against.... wait for it.....Derby County (See the picture above for the post goal celebration vs. Derby).
RamZone would like to welcome Daniel to the Rams ranks and wish him the best of luck in a Derby shirt.
We will present a full player profile on RamZone tomorrow.
Clough Combing City and Beyond For Loans!
Clough is also looking to deliver on his assertions that the club need new strike options and has denied that money is not the issue but in fact getting a club to let the strikers they identify out on loan at what is a crucial part of the season for most clubs:
"We are phoning clubs and trying to persuade them to let players out but there is a reluctance to do so, clubs are not going to let anybody out who is in the starting 11."
"If they are on the bench, they are unlikely to let them out and so you are looking at players who are even further down the pecking order. Although clubs have these big squads in the Premier League, there is not a lot of depth in the strikers.”
"We talked to Manchester City this week about a striker and they said he might be fourth choice or something until Balotelli gets fit, and that is the situation we are encountering. I think Emmanuel Adebayor went to Real Madrid. We'd have had him!”
"But seriously, I would have to say at the moment it is not particularly a financial issue. We have money there for wages to bring players in. We haven't got £40,000 per week for Yakubu (who Leicester City has signed on loan) but we have enough to bring strikers in.”
"So it is down to availability and of them being better than what we have got. If they are not in a Championship 18, are they better than Steve Davies, Chris Porter, Alberto Bueno or Tomasz Cywka? That is the dilemma.”
"It is frustrating because we feel performances have generally been not too bad and we need somebody up there just to get us a goal out of nothing, which is what Steve Davies provides. We have lost Kris Commons, who had the ability to do that, although he had a tendency to give goals away.”
"Ben Davies might do it for us from set plays."
Perhaps Clough spoke to City about Jo; the Brazilian striker has had loan spells at Everton and Galatasaray but recently returned to the club. That one could be hoping for way too much but they did help pay Bellamy's wages so you never know.
A more likely City loan might be for Alex Tchuimeni-Nimely. The 19 year old Liberian born player has appeared for both the Liberian and now English U21’s. He has an impressive international scoring record with 15 goals in 11 matches for Liberia and 1 in 3 for England.
He has only appeared once for City this season in one Cup game and would no doubt be looking for first team football. Either way, whoever it is, we can only hope we see some someone added to the books soon.
When Burton Albion can sign promising young striker Scott Winnell on loan from Premiership club Wolves, you have to wonder what we are doing wrong as logically that doesn’t make sense that in comparison, we struggle to attract anyone.
That is until you remember this is Derby County FC where the illogical is our reality.
Fielding Returning To Pride Park?
As third choice keeper behind Robinson and Bunn at Rovers, there can be no doubt a quality keeper like Fielding is just wasted. After his stint at the Rams during which he was a strong and decisive option between the sticks, it was surprising no one snapped him up in January on loan or even a permanent deal.
As an England Under-21 international the player was hugely popular during his three-month loan spell with the Rams earlier this season as he showed great poise and distribution, the latter being something that fans regularly criticise Stephen Bywater for.
During his 10 matches with the Rams he more than looked the part and was a major factor in the clubs rise to the top four of the league.
With rumours flying around regarding Stephen Bywater's comments on Twitter and what they may have meant (did anyone consider he may have been talking about Cywka?), if in fact the criticism was directed at his manager then perhaps ‘Psycho’ may find himself on the outer very quickly.
There has been a lot of noise out of Ewood Park that the Rams are back in for Fielding and it could simply be a case of not confirming anything until the deal is done to avoid Bywater realising his days are numbered.
All speculation of course but that’s football!
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