From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Sam Szmodics took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Derby County tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Sam Szmodics takes the afternoon — 9.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sam Szmodics provided it, and the 9.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Derby County did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Sep 2026
So close: David Ozoh’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Fulham moved on, David Ozoh reports back to Derby County, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Match5 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Derby County have 4 straight wins of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 14 in, 10 out at Derby County
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Henrik Meister 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market31 Aug 2026
Carlton Morris has left for Bournemouth in a $12.8M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Derby County sell a favourite for $12.8M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Carlton Morris was one of the reasons people came, and $12.8M does not replace that by itself.
Market31 Aug 2026
West Ham United paid $4.9M and Derby County took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
No thanks: Lois Mignolet rejects the move
Derby County had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mouscron, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Derby County have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Derby County asked and Crystal Palace said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad24 Aug 2026
28 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Houston Dynamo have kept their man, and Derby County go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Derby County, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at OGC Nice is saying, and nobody at Derby County is enjoying the guessing.
Squad24 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No deal for Malick Thiaw at that price
Derby County offered $45.8M; Newcastle United said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sunderland have kept their man, and Derby County go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.06, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Derby County have done the hard part with Olympiacos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 44 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$45.8M on the table at Newcastle United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$21.8M was the most the club would pay and Bournemouth were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brentford have kept their man, and Derby County go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlton Morris and Derby County agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Bobby Clark gets it from the manager
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Jacob Widell Zetterström’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Carlton Morris asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
52 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Derby County asked and Tottenham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Charleroi for Jacob Widell Zetterström 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
474 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Corinthians: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Carlton Morris asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market3 Aug 2026
61 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.