Earlier this week I was thinking about The Rams (as I am sure happens to you as well at times), when an interesting thought crossed my mind; did signing Conor Sammon cause Nigel Clough to lose his job at Derby?

I know a lot of Rams fans like Conor and I'll be the first to admit he has useful skills, but this was a signing that never looked like making sense.

At the time, NC had recently made two quite expensive and wildly unsuccessful striker signings in Chris Maguire and Nathan Tyson; if I had been Clough's boss at Pride Park, I would have already had some pointed questions about those two.

Early in the 2012-2013 season we still needed scoring power and in Conor Sammon, Clough finally landed the supposed ‘big one’ he had been chasing for some time.

Although Clough had never been given a lot of transfer money to spend, he decided to drop £1.2 million on the big Irishman; more than we paid for Jason Shackell, John Brayford and Jamie Ward combined.

This was despite the Rams still being quite a mediocre team with several weaknesses that could have used the money being spread over three or four players. Remember that O'Connor was still a regular at that time — with that fact alone proving that perhaps the money could have been better spent!

Sammon was really not a big success for The Rams and their acceptable position of 10th place came largely due to plenty of goals being spread through the midfield and the various attacking players.

I'm not dwelling on it but I think if all that money had been spent more wisely then last season might have looked quite a bit better.

If that had happened, Clough would not have been skating on such thin ice at the start of this season, and we may not have made such a moderate start.

And Nigel might still be at the iPro... as I said, it was just a thought.

Anyway time to move on from speculating on past history to the present day.

Whatever Patrick Bamford ends up achieving in the game; whether he makes it at Chelsea or plying his trade at a lesser club or in a lesser league — he certainly isn't another Conor Sammon, is he? A player who can score a goal in the fashion he did on Tuesday, is truly a special talent.

Tuesday's win in Sheffield gives the Rams 58 points; 12 points ahead of seventh-placed Wigan, with them having a game in hand.

For the Rams to finish sixth would usually take around 73 points. That would require 15 points from the last 15 games; say, four wins, three draws and eight defeats.

The play offs are looking hard to avoid so with that in mind, how about an automatic place?

Recognizing that Leicester have pretty much tied up first place, that leaves Burnley, Derby, QPR and Forest fighting it out for the remaining spot.

The Rams are now only two points behind Burnley making the clash at their place on March 1st a massive fixture. This match has been looking important for some time now, but recent results for both clubs now make it vital.

Lose it, and the Rams will have to make up five points on Burnley, so a result of some kind is essential for a chance of an automatic place.

Like QPR, Burnley are strong defensively and have lost only three times this season in League matches, so a win there is going to be a tough ask. But after Burnley, only Forest and Reading are the only really difficult - looking matches left.

If we can keep up our current form, I can see a lot of wins to come in the other remaining fixtures.

The Rams definitely still have everything to play for.

Photo: Action Images

davenportram added 09:28 - Feb 22 Why compare the fee for Sammon with that of Shackell, Brayford and Ward combined? Ward was almost a free, Shackell cost nearly £1m and Brayford £400k so in fact your comparison that it cost more to buy Sammon than those three combined is wrong. You say that other areas of the team needed strengthening - however a team that finishses 10th shows that most areas are strong enough and it just needed fine tuning. fine tuning Clough did last summer I doubt Sammon signing is the reason to remove Clough - I think its more a case of trying to be controversial for being controversial sake. Why write articles focussing on the past, being negative. We are on the brink of something special - focus on that.

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pkay_brum added 15:37 - Feb 23 Just a thought, indeed, but rather tenuous, I think. As players like Maguire and Tyson were duds at Derby, it was necessary and logical for Clough to sign the bustling, physical Sammon to get more presence up front. Sammon was evidently the only sort of 'marquee' signing Clough was able to make, either through his own perception of squad requirements - or club restrictions. Not forgetting that Messrs Glick and Appleby would have been the ones to ensure that the deal was acceptable, feasible and was thus pursued. It seems clear that Sammon was and is regarded as an asset in the squad by most fans I know and meet at games and events. Some will moan about Sammon's ultimate quality, but then some aren't able to see or be willing to appreciate how the output and effort of someone like Sammon can change a game, to make space amid defenders for creative players or true goalscorers. The real reasons that Clough went IMHO (and I suspect the opinion of other regulars) are that fans gave Mr Rush direct messages that more squad quality, coaching / managerial ability & experience were essential to restoring interest and pride in the team. You can read that in numerous Rush articles and comments. He communicated the requirement for renewed club ambition and investment from GSE - unless they wished to dissipate all credibility and just sign off an £8m-£10m loss annually. Rush did not move to Derby to pootle around in second-tier mid-table anonymity. The fateful changes were made; the intentions are now clear and the investment group once again has a potential Premier League asset on their hands. Their biggest challenges lie in the next stage of club development, given that promotion is finally the primary aim - consolidation and stability at the top level. Succeed, win, enjoy, thrive, seize the moment...these words mean something again at Derby!

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davram added 14:48 - Feb 24 Yeh - for some reason an old & redundant topic poses the "question". Sammon's surely proved his worth as part of a promotion-chasing squad. I really thought Conor had won over plenty of doubters last year, when he came on as sub & scored vital winning goals against Watford & Boro. As a long-time season-ticket holder I rate him as a fine squad player - a facilitator rather than a goal-machine. Fans expecting the latter will keep on grumbling, of course!

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