Derby County’s dealings in the transfer window left many fans unhappy, and there were two League games from which the Rams aimed to pick up points to re-start their season.

An uneventful end to the transfer window regarding promised signings brought an angry reaction from Rams fans. After securing a potentially useful goalscoring midfielder in Ben Davies, the last days of January turned out to be a bit of a fiasco at Pride Park Stadium.

Dreadful on-field results were compounded by an unsuccessful, frustrating ‘deadline day’ as the transfer window closed. Other players whizzed about between divisions, newcomers joining just about every other club in the land - except Derby County. Supporters were furious.

After Derby sold Kris Commons to Celtic, 16 of Derby’s Championship competitors managed to sign players during the remainder of the ‘window’. Some £214m was spent by UK football clubs on transfers during the January 2011 transfer window; not a single cent was spent by DCFC on deadline day. Over 100 players moved clubs on ‘deadline day’ alone - but none of them came to Derby County.

The club (strangely) also elected to sell Dean Moxey to Crystal Palace on deadline day, so leaving the squad weaker with only one recognised first-team full-back. Derby received a reported £400k for Moxey; that represented a slight profit on a player whom Mr Clough concluded had reached his level, and was not part of Derby’s future. The player was surprised, and Derby has no cover in that position.

The loss of Moxey left the Rams with one first-team left-back, Gareth Roberts. He’s been loose and wayward recently and needs to take the opportunity to secure his place in Derby’s defence. The overall idea is to prevent crosses, and to tackle opposing forwards.

You could sense mounting supporter unrest. Already disappointed at the loss of Commons, the failure to replace Rob Hulse since August and the alarming recent slump in form betray a lack of ambition and squad depth. Investment has been inadequate and it became apparent that supporters were going to tell the club: ‘it’s not enough’. After a truly rotten January, enough was enough for fans!

Who’s the forlorn Oliver Twist figure in our caption picture? Is it Tom Glick, having to go with his begging bowl to the remote investment partners? Or him requesting fans to drop their money in for season ticket renewals? Is it Nigel Clough asking Tom Glick for investment? Or does it represent the fans wanting improved results, value-for-money entertainment and some better players?

Furtive but fruitless late activity did not bring in any of the expected reinforcements in any department of the team. Derby watched Kilmarnock hot-shot Conner Sammon score again last weekend; they negotiated with Killie but his availability for a week or more had alerted other clubs, too.

Derby already knew the price for Sammon; Killie accepted a bid of £450k from Scunthorpe United in mid-January but the player rejected the move. Derby seemed to assume he was theirs whenever they took up interest, or sometime in the future. They got a wake-up call instead.

Moving in late for the player - even with a better offer than Scunthorpe - was not enough, because Premier League Wigan Athletic used stealth, financial clout and the lure of top-flight football to snatch Samman from under Derby’s nose late in the day.

Derby boss Nigel Clough said that Derby ‘would monitor him’ and perhaps make a move for Sammon in the summertime. The player was busy agreeing terms with Wigan! The Rams got another lesson about procrastination and presumption, as they did with Luke Moore. Ouch!

Tom Glick later said ‘blame me’ for the club’s failure to back the manager with reinforcements. People do blame you, Mr Glick, and apologies are not enough now, and certainly won’t be if DCFC are dragged into another relegation battle. The club did not punch its weight in the transfer market.

So, there were significant departures from Pride Park Stadium, but no arrivals. Whatever chief Tom Glick says, Rams fans do not agree that Derby has ‘a strong, talented squad that will kick on’.

The Monday night phone-in on Radio Derby certainly turned out to be an inquest from fans as to what’s going on at their club. Nothing went right, except for all the other clubs involved in Derby’s intended transactions.

To add insult to injury, although a loan deal to bring in Liverpool defender Daniel Ayala seemed to be concluded last Monday afternoon, bad news came that as he is still recovering from a hamstring injury, his temporary move to Derby could be delayed by up to a month. No defensive cover was therefore obtained - and the Rams had chosen to sell a first team defender to boot!

Derby also released Academy product Medi Abalimba on a free transfer to Oldham Athletic and forward Greg Mills went on loan to AFC Telford for the rest of the season, so with three young professionals already released, five young Rams’ professionals have been jettisoned this season.

Leicester City seem keen to hold on to 5th choice striker Martyn Waghorn; delays in progressing a loan made Clough declare that the move was now ‘extremely unlikely’. The Rams couldn’t manage to make a Foxes’ stand-by player their first-choice striker - but relying on competing Championship clubs to ‘do us a favour’ with a loan is not enough, yet again Tom.

Promotion to the Premier League is mooted to be worth £90m these days, and now there are increased and extended ‘parachute payments’ paid to relegated clubs. That softens the financial impact of relegation and assists clubs demoted to the Championship to retain good players for a strong bite at immediate promotion. Does GSE have the stomach for this challenge?

It is a gamble - but the challenging clubs are laying out a fraction of that £90m in order to attain elite status. If you polled fans, managers and commentators as to who the ‘sleeping giants’ were outside the Premier League, Derby County would appear very high on their response list.

Next week is Mr Glick’s chance to recover some credibility via early and impressive dealings in the ‘loan window’. Clough has said he wants two central defenders and two forwards; he wanted a midfielder, signed Ben Davies, lost Kris Commons - so he is still short of his complement, and as mentioned, he has no full back cover. Fans expect action, not platitudes and broken promises.

Derby captain Robbie Savage announced (through his Twitter account just before the end of the transfer window at 11.00 pm on Monday night) that he will end his playing career at the end of this season. Good of him to announce the news first to any number of anonymous Twitterers, the day before the Derby fans knew officially via the football club. 

New Wales’ manager Gary Speed picked his squad for the forthcoming international games the same day, and omitted the Rams’ skipper, hopeful of a recall. Perhaps Speed’s decision hastened Savage’s decision to hang up his boots. That’s just as well, because Sav might be needed to play left-back or striker for Derby during the remainder of this season.

The focus on Tuesday’s home game against Paul Jewell’s Ipswich Town sharpened, and internet sites and contact groups suggested that Rams fans would vent their collective spleen at the club’s controlling regime.

There was an after-match stadium demonstration - reported elsewhere on RamZone - and the twin targets of fans’ ire were GSE and Tom Glick. It takes a lot to push Derby fans to protest, but the ‘partnership’ between club and fans has broken down.

The match was another chance for Derby to get back on the points trail after 8 defeats in 10 games. The appearance of new Ipswich boss Paul Jewell added spice to the evening - and the last thing that Derby fans wanted, after Jewell’s abject spell as Derby manager, was for that hapless joker to walk away with the points.

That’s what happened, though. Derby did start brightly and took an early lead when one of Stephen Pearson’s meandering runs had some end product. He drove in a cross that Gareth Roberts forced on and Alberto Beuno stuck into the net.

It was another game where hard luck stories and ‘how come we didn’t get anything from this match?’ interviews had to be rolled out again because Derby didn’t build on that lead. Ipswich snatched an equaliser before the break.

A new signing made the difference; Jimmy Bullard (on loan from Hull for about £20k a week) drove in an accurate, low drive that Stephen Bywater failed to divert away from the net before half an hour had passed.

The attitude of the Ipswich players epitomised the often-observed ‘new manager effect’; a disjointed, regularly beaten side under the unloveable Roy Keane has turned into a sharper, more purposeful outfit with the arrival of Paul Jewell.

As with the Forest home game, there were good performances for Derby from Barker, Ben Davies, and Miles Addison with plenty of huff and puff - but Ipswich were never really put to the sword and were always in the game. Derby’s cutting edge was missing, yet again.

The Rams had their moments in the second half - but it was the Tractor Boys who made the breakthrough to score the decisive goal with just 12 minutes to go. Priskin and Norris were allowed to swap passes as they advanced and Norris rapped the ball home to make it 2-1 to Ipswich.

Ipswich, below the Rams in the Championship table on Tuesday, and above them by Saturday night after another win, had made two telling January signings. They are now regrouping for a march up the league. With Paul Jewell the benefactor of investment and recipient of the points, that only rubs it in to Rams fans’ noses. Derby slipped down a place in the table to 16th position.

The Rams played to their lowest crowd of the season - at 23,200 it was still an attendance that most Football League clubs (and a few Premier League ones) would kill for. The team did not lack for vocal support during the game - and afterwards, several hundred angry fans gathered to stage a noisy protest outside the main entrance to the stadium, with ‘board out’ chants and more colourful vocal invitations to Mr Glick & Co. rising up in the cold late night air.

Wednesday brought apologies and more promises from Mr Glick that the club would redouble their efforts to back the manager with loan players. The Derby County supporters’ trust, RamsTrust, issued a Press Release to the media calling for a meeting with the club and urging the owners to apply controlled, adequate team investment. You can read the RT release elsewhere on RamZone or on the trust’s website at www.ramstrust.org.uk .

Before the trip to Pompey, manager Nigel Clough declared that the club was in a Championship survival struggle. Having lost 9 out of the last 11 games, the glib talk about how far the club is ahead of last season needs to be cast aside and some realism - and resources put into place. More protests are expected for the televised home game on Saturday against Leicester City.

Derby travelled to Portsmouth desperate to end their losing run; they managed it in a 1-1 draw but yet again conceded a late, late goal to lose precious points. The disappointing climax led to another twist of the tale, with Clough publicly berating forward Tomasz Cywka. He took the brunt of the blame for conceding possession to Pompey at the death, leading to David Nugent finding the space to crash in the equaliser as added time beckoned.

Derby started with Steve Davies up front and Porter and Bueno dropped to the bench. Steve Davies repaid Clough’s faith by giving Derby a 1- lead just before half time, shooting in an excellent left-wing cross from Cywka.

It was a scrappy game, both sides desperate for improvement. Pompey fans also demonstrated against their board at the stadium due to lack of investment. You can read our intrepid reporter I. Saw’s excellent match report here on RamZone.

Although Derby played well in patches, Pompey had spells of dominance and built up some late momentum - and it seemed inevitable, with Derby’s brittle confidence, that the Rams would snap and let Portsmouth back in.

Clough’s post-game interview rage on Radio Derby was remarkable, inviting Cywka to ‘get back to Wigan or wherever he came from’ for not putting the ball out of Derby’s half to run down the game.

Whether the club see the light or not, buying at the low end of the transfer market or relying on young, inexperienced players too much because of a lack of squad depth will see the team making too many costly mistakes as their learning process continues.

Clough has been criticising repeated mistakes and self-inflicted defeats for so long that he seems to have come close to breaking point and several players have had a tongue-lashing. Quite how that motivates them, or encourages new players to come and work for Mr Clough in such an accusatory atmosphere rather escapes me - but then I’m just a fan, what do I know?

You can read more details and reaction to Nigel’s tirade elsewhere on RamZone, and on our Forum messageboard - join in!

Derby had at least stopped the rot after a run of defeats, though they slipped down another place to 17th position in the Championship table.

The post-match reaction from the manager added a twist with an angry, condemnatory reaction from some fans, all adding to the disquiet and worry surrounding the club. Another poor week for Rams fans and Mr Glick has some repair work with them to attend, when he makes sense of his manager’s extreme outburst.

Next up then, it’s the furry Foxes of Leicester; optimistic, climbing the table, well-resourced and with so many spare forwards that they can afford to snub their poor neighbours at Pride Park Stadium.

Is there any chance of loaning us that old basher Steve Howard for a month, instead of Martyn Waghorn? I thought not.

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RamsWeek 6 last year saw me labelling the petty-minded Forest boss Billy Davies as ‘your own worst enemy’ after he sustained his stupid accusations about an alleged Nigel Clough assault upon him during the Rams-Trees clash.

Manchester City rookie Javan Vidal joined the Rams on loan (remember him? Me neither...) and so did Stoke’s Michael Tonge. He became a fans’ favourite and made a worthwhile contribution; I’m not alone in wishing he could be at Derby again.

The Rams had used 11 loanees so far last season and were poised to add Millwall winger David Martin for the rest of the campaign, with a view to a permanent summer signing.

Derby went to Sheffield United, who unlike this year, were strong play-off contenders, and the Rams played well, even though they had to settle for a 1-1 draw. Paul Green shot Derby into an 18th minute lead and the Rams held their own to the interval and beyond.

The Blades ratcheted up the pressure in the closing stages and, with Clough furious that the referee would not acknowledge that Derby had waited in vain to bring on substitute Russell Anderson, the Rams contrived to let United grab a 90th minute equaliser, and so let two more precious points slip from their grasp.

Sounds familiar? Can’t think why!

Photo: Action Images

DCGRam added 12:09 - Feb 7 Excellent overview Paul - well written too! Does anyone else feel that the next few weeks are likley to be a critical phase for DCFC? My hope is that sensible, co-ordinated pressure from the Fans at least results in some positive reaction from the Board and Management. By positive - interpret that as you will - but I include everything in the spectrum from GSE actually leaving (admittedly unlikely) to modest funds being made available for two effective strikers.

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pkay_brum added 15:06 - Feb 8 A good February (on and off the field) is as essential as a wretched January was unwanted! Derby expects....can DCFC deliver?
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