Marked for Max Johnston
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Derby County have gone to Chelsea with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Everton have kept their man, and Derby County go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matt Clarke, and the manager let it.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match16 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Carlton Morris. 2‑0 against Swansea City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match16 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for Derby County
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Jaydon Banel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match18 Jan 2027
Position 13, 29 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Marked 7.95 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Derby County had the best player on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
8 matches without a win for Derby County
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Derby County are no longer polite ones.
Match26 Dec 2026
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Sam Szmodics and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Max Johnston commits to Derby County for another 4 years.
Match26 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jaydon Banel, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Carlton Morris knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Carlton Morris trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Derby County may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match5 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Derby County
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Derby County are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Middlesbrough, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Callum Elder and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Craig Forsyth and Derby County agree another 1 years.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Dion Sanderson
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Bobby Clark makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Derby County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matt Clarke, and the manager let it.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicholas Wright was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Derby County dressing room was either.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Bryan Urueña
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Queens Park Rangers will be the happier side with the point.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Carlton Morris keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Derby County say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Matt Clarke’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Derby County needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
1‑3 to Watford, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Max Johnston and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jacob Widell Zetterström, and the manager let it.
Market26 Oct 2026
David Ozoh is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Derby County has been clear about where David Ozoh stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Matt Clarke
Nobody at Derby County is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
David Ozoh knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Derby County, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The shirt belongs to Eiran Cashin now
At 24 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Derby County have a decision that made itself.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Carlton Morris and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Derby County told Patrick Agyemang something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market28 Sep 2026
Callum Elder is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Derby County has been clear about where Callum Elder stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Bryan Urueña
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Max Johnston
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sam Szmodics was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
Leicester City left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jacob Widell Zetterström, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Nicholas Wright to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Max Johnston knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Max Johnston trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market21 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Patrick Agyemang signs something — a contract at Derby County or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hull City in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Derby County can pretend not to have heard.
Match12 Sep 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Sam Szmodics in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Derby County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Millwall, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Nicholas Wright could afford to be generous.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Derby County, another week without a signature from Adam Phillips.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.