Rooney is looking for quick deals to boost the squad
WAIT FOR TAKEOVER DOES NOT AFFECT TRANSFERS
WAYNE Rooney says Derby County would like to complete their business in the January transfer window as soon as possible.
The Rams interim manager was asked about the club’s transfer plans, as well as the proposed takeover, following the 1-0 away defeat against Sheffield Wednesday on New Year’s Day.
■How are the club’s plans going for January?
WR: We have got targets we want to bring in and we are working on that. Hopefully, we can get our business done early, and the sooner the better for the squad.
■What positions are you looking at?
WR: All positions, we want to improve our squad and if the right players are out there available for us, we will look and see if they are the right players for us to take.
■Does the situation with the takeover affect your transfer plans?
WR: The sooner that (the takeover) is done, the better for us. We can identify targets, I can identify targets I want to bring in, and then it is on the owners to produce that player for me.
Will the proposed takeover delay those plans?
WR: No. I have already given them some targets I want to bring in. Of course we all want it (the takeover) done but from my point of view I have no update on the situation and I’ll keep moving on.
■What about your own position? WR: I am not worried about my position.
As far as I am concerned I am the manager of this football club. The takeover is the most important thing and once that takeover is done it will be better for everyone.
■Has the January transfer window come at a good time?
WR: I think the January transfer window has come at a good time to try and add some players to the squad. Hopefully, we will have a few new additions to the squad.
IT was the day Rams fans had long awaited.
The Second World War might have been over for five months. Something akin to real competitive League football might have returned around VJ Day. But after six long, war-weary years, the first real sign that things were getting back to normal came in early January 1946: the third round of the FA Cup.
Derby County, after closing down on the outbreak of war in September 1939, had started up again in 1942, when they joined the Football League’s regional competitions, often using as guest players pre-war professionals, now based in the military near Derby.
When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, the conflict in the Far East carried on until August, when atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought it to an end.
Football needed a transitional season and the pre-war First and Second Division clubs combined to form two strong divisions, north and south. The Rams, with former Everton forward Ted Magner in charge, found themselves playing against the likes of Arsenal, Spurs and Aston Villa.
The FA Cup, however, was resumed, although for the first time in the competition’s history, up to the quarter-finals, ties would be played on a home-and-away basis.
Seventy-five years ago this week, the Rams travelled to Kenilworth Road for the first leg of their third round tie against Luton Town.
The Hatters, who had finished 1938-39 in mid-table in the Second Division, were struggling along in the interim Football League South. Even so, they could not have expected the bombardment that the Rams, one of the great clubs of the 1930s, were about to launch.
Derby fielded one of the best forward lines in the country.
It contained wartime guests Raich Carter and Peter Doherty, both now signed permanently, centre-forward Jack Stamps, pre-war England winger Sammy Crooks and Angus Morrison, whose “transfer fee” had been the box of cigars given to the major who recommended the Scotsman to Derby from army football.
Morrison was also a centre-forward but on this day switched to the left wing in place of the injured Dally Duncan.
The Rams ran riot, their 6-0 victory leaving no doubt that they would proceed to the fourth round.
One of the stars of the show was Stamps, who scored four. Six years earlier, he had been one of the last British soldiers to escape from Dunkirk.
Crooks and Carter scored the others, leaving one Hatters fan spluttering to the Derby Evening Telegraph reporter: “What a combination! We’ll be slaughtered at the Baseball Ground.”
The reporter told readers: “Five minutes after the start, the result was inevitable. Luton were never in the same class as Derby County, who played exactly as they chose – surprisingly fast in the mud – and for most of the game had the Luton players running round in circles.
“Individualism – an ominous word when related to football – was completely absent. Each goal was the result of clever, unselfish teamwork, with the forward in the best position finishing off the concerted movement of brilliant scheming and complete understanding.
“Doherty was the architect of victory. He was hard-working, inspiring, dazzling.
“Several times when in front of the goal, he passed to a colleague who was in a better position.
“I do not want to detract from Stamps’ grand performance – he was always in the right place at the right time – but he scored his four goals because he took the perfect openings that were made for him.
“Morrison bewildered with his speed … Carter sent in several terrific shots but for the most part he played a delightfully constructive game.
“His close passes and tricks repeatedly spread-eagled the defence … Engineered by Doherty, executed by Carter, and finished off by Stamps – that was the formula for most of Derby’s goals.
“Sammy Crooks outwitted all attempts to stop him… His goal had the touch of genius. He was well placed to shoot hard but, seeing the goalkeeper advancing towards him, Crooks lifted it over Duke’s head into the net. Many other players would have slammed it and probably missed the net.
“… Leuty’s clearance off the goalline, when Needham slashed the ball across the goalmouth to the far corner, was a miracle. Apart from the groans of disappointment, even the Luton supporters applauded him.”
At the Baseball Ground on the following Wednesday afternoon, in a game inevitably lacking a competitive edge, the Rams won 3-0, with two goals from Carter and one from Morrison, and thus began their march into history.
■Adapted from The Day That Derby Won The Cup. Anton Rippon’s Derby County books are available from www.northbridgepublishing.co.uk.