Silent deadline day for Rams was always likely to be so
deadline day came and went without Derby County adding to their squad.
That was likely to be the case, so there was no real surprise, but it still fuelled the frustration and disappointment being felt by fans.
The situation with the EFL and the crippling transfer embargo was never likely to change overnight.
As things stand, the Rams cannot add to their squad because they have their full quota of 23 players of ‘professional standing.’
However, a barren deadline day does not really change the sorry situation very much.
They cannot now make a loan signing, if they were allowed to – they were interested in Manchester United defender Teden Mengi – but they can still sign out-of-contract players if/when they get the goahead.
What is clear, and has been clear for some time is that this needs to be sorted out.
There needs to be a solution to the impasse, there has to be an endgame to ease the suffering of supporters.
Talks continue between the club and the EFL in search of a conclusion to this long-running saga which has dragged on far too long.
Meanwhile, Derby’s squad remains in urgent need of strengthening in order to cope with a demanding Championship campaign which will pick up pace after the international break with a toughlooking run of five league games in 20 days.
They face back-to-back away fixtures against Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion before Stoke City visit Pride Park Stadium. Derby then travel to Bramall Lane take on Sheffield United and that is followed by a home game against Reading. If there was one relief for Derby’s beleaguered supporters it was that no club came in and prised away any of their young talent either on deadline day.
It would have taken a seriously significant offer for the Rams to have parted ways with one of their promising youngsters.
L e e Buchanan, Louie Sibley and Jason Knight are just three of the club’s Academy graduates to establish themselves in the first-team picture in recent seasons, with the former putting in another good cameo off the bench at the weekend against Nottingham Forest.
The left-back was linked with a move to the Rams’ East Midlands rivals earlier in the summer, as well as Scottish giants Celtic, but he and all of the others are still on board – and there was one simple reason.
The transfer embargo Derby are under means they could have sold one of their youngsters for £10m but they could not then have gone out and spent any of that on recruitment.
Therefore, it would have to have been a very serious offer for that to have happened.
Of course, it would have freed up space in the squad but they could only be replaced with out of contract players, assuming the EFL gave them the go-ahead to do so.
Nervous as they are about the situTRANSFER ation, Derby fans were alarmed by a couple of innocuous tweets by Sibley.
The 19-year-old has featured in every match for the Rams this season and scored against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane in the Carabao Cup a week ago.
Three-and-a-quarter hours before the window closed, Sibley tweeted “Proud to wear the shirt!”
The message was followed by a ram emoji, the club’s Twitter handle and accompanied by two photographs from the Forest match, in which he again tagged the club’s account as well as Puma, his sponsors.
It led fans to think he might be flagging up an exit from the club.
They need not have worried.
Derby could have sold one of their youngsters for £10m but they could not then have gone out and spent any of that.