The Derby County Herald
Match21 Aug 2027
Nowhere to hide for Derby County
0‑3 against Ipswich Town, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market23 Aug 2027
Derby County say no — this time
The offer from Rotherham United for Bobby Clark was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Real improvement from Max Johnston at Derby County
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Max Johnston is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market23 Aug 2027
Jacob Widell Zetterström wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Derby County
Babis Kostoulas 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Sondre Langås has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
7 academy players handed senior numbers at Derby County
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Derry Murkin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market23 Aug 2027
Mark Collins steps up from the Derby County academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mark Collins has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
- Market One of our own: Jacob Foster joins the Derby County first team
- Boardroom A promise the Derby County board did not keep
- Boardroom Nobody left the Derby County dressing room in a hurry