Retained list

[ramAnag]

There is no disputing he hasn't really performed for the club, but as MA rightly points out, at the time of his acquisition Derby couldn't pay transfer fees and had a very limited budget. For every McGoldrick who turns out better than expected, there will always be a Washington who doesn't, every club signs players that don't perform for whatever reason, at least we didn't pay a fee!

It wasn't an economy measure to get players in free, it was a case of having to, due to the financial restrictions at the time. When one can only shop in the bargain basement, its hardly surprising that one or two will not be up to standard, after all Derby have shelled out millions before now on players that have proven no better than Washington!

Whilst I understand the sentiment about "injury prone" players RA, where does one draw the line? A player that has had injuries isn't necessarily going to suffer a run of injuries again, equally a player may get injured immediately after signing with no prior history and never fully recover. Or you could get a quality player at a bargain price, think Seth Johnson! So dismissing such players can be a mistake.

In any case, we are now in a position where we should have more choice over players and having survived as a championship team ought to be attractive, though it has been pointed out that Birmingham and Wrexham are coming up with money to spend, so it will not be easy.

‘Hasn’t really performed’…must be one of your greatest understatements.

We don’t completely agree on this one. I totally ‘get’ the bargain basement thing but there have just been too many wasteful signings of ‘broken’ players in my book.
I don’t include Nelson because he experienced a one off knee injury but has still provided value for money and one and and half (out of two) seasons of being an ever available/ever present, but, to my way of thinking, Washington, Ward, Ozoh, Nyambe, Waghorn, Bradley and Elder have all been poor signings because of their lack of availability.
I even really rate Nyambe, Ozoh and Elder but it’s no use being good if players play a couple of matches and then miss months of the season.
In all walks of life/employment one’s ‘attendance record’ is crucially important imo and that is just the same with footballers.
I’d like to see some protection for clubs giving ‘injury prone’ players a second chance so that some sort of ‘pay as you play’ contract kicks in at some point ensuring players are able to live comfortably but protecting clubs from having to fork out astronomical salaries for, in Washington and Anya’s cases, doing virtually nothing.