Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Souleymane Basse will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Derby County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 May 2036
Lewis Orford 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Freddie Marson 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Derby County are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Səbuhi Abdullazadə arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Derby County know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Derby County they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luca Maal 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.
Squad19 May 2036
Words at Derby County training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lewis Orford is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Ryan Francisco has taken the hint, and Derby County are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
Something was said to Jason Harris and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Derby County lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Derby County will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Derby County is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The approach has been made to Slávia TU Košice and the answer is somebody else's to give. These things are settled in private and reported in public, usually in that order.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Lewis Orford 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.
13 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
17 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Chances created: 11. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Björn Otte will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Derby County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luca Maal 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lewis Orford was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Derby County are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by the manager to a room that had heard them before.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
Björn Otte is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Derby County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jon Merino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Derby County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Derby County are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Derby County has been clear about where George Taylor stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jon Merino trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.