Marked for Bryan Urueña
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Fleetwood Town waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Derby County is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Derby County asked and Chelsea said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match9 Jan 2027
It had gone 9 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lennon Wheeldon has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Carlton Morris was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jaydon Banel 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Everton: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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
Match19 Dec 2026
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match19 Dec 2026
5 matches without a goal for Derby County
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Sam Szmodics 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oscar Fraulo, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Nicholas Wright left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Matt Clarke 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Bryan Urueña dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market21 Dec 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlton Morris signs something — a contract at Derby County or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Derby County did not have in the autumn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jaydon Banel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Craig Forsyth commits to Derby County for another 1 years.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Something was said to Henrik Meister and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
No hiding place for Joe Ward
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joe Ward, and the manager let it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout30 Nov 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Norwich City will be the happier side with the point.
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
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
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Brighton waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Derby County is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Kacey Myers, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout24 Aug 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jaydon Banel 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Both jobs done by Lewis Travis — 7.04
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.04, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Match22 Aug 2026
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Sheffield United scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Match22 Aug 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.