OLLIE WRIGHT

@ derbycountyblog

Last season was strangely uplifting – there’s never been a relegation season quite like it. We worked incredibly hard against unbelievable odds, putting in some genuinely outstanding home performances. With a level playing field, we’d have comfortably stayed up.

The big talking point has largely been whether the club had played its final season after almost 140 years... This season will be different because

Wayne Rooney is gone and there’ll pretty much be a whole new squad. Our key player will be one of our ace recent academy products, Max Bird [ below], if we can persuade him to stay.

The active player I’d love to have back is young striker Liam Delap – sold to Manchester City much too soon.

I’m least looking forward to playing

Manchester City’s Under- 21s in the EFL Trophy. Being forced to act as match practice for a bunch of well- groomed ‘ wonderkids’ is the most humiliating aspect of relegation.

Fans think our ground is a fine stadium in its own right. I’m hoping the noise we can generate with our tails up will blow visitors away this season.

Look out for centre- back Eiran Cashin. He shone at the end of last season and debuted for Republic of Ireland U21s.

The opposition player who grinds my

gears is Peterborough’s Jack Marriott. He should have been a hit at Derby – now he’s back where he came from.

Fans think our owner is well, we all thought it was American Chris Kirchner, as he said so on Twitter. Then interest from Mike Ashley failed to materialise. Step forward, property developer and Derby fan David Clowes, who bought Pride Park from Mel Morris, provided interim loan funding to stabilise the club, and then completed a takeover. Supporters are profoundly grateful.

The fans’ opinion of the gaffer is that interim manager Liam Rosenior was an integral part of the backroom team who took on Mission Impossible last season and galvanised the fanbase. Should he get the chance to pilot Derby longer- term, he’ll have earned it.

The pantomime villain will be Morris – the owner who drove Derby County so spectacularly off the rails.

We’ll finish 14th.

FFT VERDICT

12TH

After a turbulent summer, Derby’s new owner must stabilise matters off the field while interim manager Liam Rosenior does the same on it. An instant return is unrealistic due to inevitably delayed activity, so a top- half finish represents Phase One for the latest Rams rebuild.