More New Faces Imminent?

It`s all go at Pride Park following the end of the 2010/11 season with a number of ins and outs and it looks as though more new faces could shortly be on their way with talk of up to four bids for players going being made and The Rams` chasing a number of out of contract players. After agreeing permanent deals for Jamie Ward, Frank Fielding and Theo Robinson along with new deals for Saul Deeney and Ross Atkins and announcing the release of Chris Porter, Greg Mills and Arnaud Mendy it has been a busy summer for The Rams already. Manager Nigel Clough has already spoken of his desire to get the deals done early and told dcfc.co.uk:

'We've got the three in, which is a start. That is all it is, a start. We are now cracking on with the next stage of our recruitment, which is talking to clubs about players we are interested in and also talking to players who are out of contract. We have already submitted bids to clubs for a couple of players, and we will be doing more next week."

Rumours have circulated that Martyn Waghorn of Leicester City is the target of one such bid after Clough tried in vain to bring the striker Pride Park during last season. With an experienced midfielder also a priority after the retirement of Robbie Savage it has been reported that John Eustace has been targeted, the Watford captain is familiar to Clough after spending time on loan with The Rams during the 2009/10 season. After significantly reducing the wage bill over the last twelve months Clough now has some room to improve his squad but after a season of struggle he knows he may face a fight to bring his targets to the club but continued:

'We hope that everything we have going for us at Derby will play a big part in players' decisions such as good training facilities, Pride Park and especially the crowd, that it might just sway things in our favour. Wages wise we think we will be competitive, but what we are asking is for players to have faith in us. We don't think we are as far away from a top six challenge as the table suggested over the course of the season.'

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