Following the disappointing defeat at the hands of Bristol City last week, Derby County completed their 2010-11 fixtures with a visit to promotion-chasing Reading.

After another season of mediocrity, fans are now waiting to see how (or if) owners GSE can make progress toward their mission statement: “To establish the Rams as a global brand and a Premier League force of the future”.

Retiring captain Robbie Savage declared that Derby should spend big, saying that manager Nigel Clough could take Derby back to the Premier League with a workable budget: “We're fifth-bottom because we're not good enough. It needs changes and I think this team needs a good £10m spent on it”. Savage retired from his playing career this week so could afford to be candid in his views.

There’s no doubt that 2011-12 will be a critical season for both manager and owners; supporters want quality, value and success. They want a team of winners, not triers and cast-offs. How Messrs Glick and Clough conduct the close-season transfer business will be watched very closely.

Nigel Clough said that signings would be Championship ‘names’ in stressing how the club needed half a dozen experienced players. I don’t think it is churlish to suggest that it would be even better to get a player or two who have played at a higher level (if we do have ambitions of promotion and beyond). Many fans would pine for an Igor or an Idiakez as an inspired Continental capture.

The club endeavoured to put on a positive front after the dispiriting let-down of defeat in the final home game of the season against Bristol City. There was a declaration from CEO Tom Glick that the club would be signing a £1m+ striker soon, and that they expected to sign loanees Frank Fielding and Theo Robinson on permanent deals.

Fielding, England’s current Under-21 ‘keeper, will be a good acquisition and is the type of competent goalkeeper that the club needs; Robinson is a raw and potentially exciting - if frustrating - striker. He hasn’t settled at Millwall and is still learning the game.

Robinson has been wasteful at crucial times in games in his loan spell at Derby and drew boos from the crowd when withdrawn against Bristol City, against whom he squandered several cast-iron goalscoring chances.

Messrs Clough and Robinson suffered a ‘Phil Brown/Stern John moment’ as fans conveyed exactly what they thought about his afternoon. Theo must show more composure to become both accurate and ruthless if he is to make the grade at Derby County.

At the other extreme, Manchester United’s Michael Owen was reported to be a Derby County target. Many wondered if that was just frivolity in the press or a season-ticket-renewal taster - but the club dismissed the reports as ‘laughable’! Leicester’s Martyn Waghorn and the Trees’ Nathan Tyson are other names that still go round in media circles when Derby’s transfer targets are aired.

Whatever the future for Theo Robinson and Michael Owen (not forgetting Jamie Ward…or Kevin Phillips…), any of these strikers would need a formidable target man to feed off. A centre forward who is able to receive and hold the ball, absorb punishment from defenders and play the ball to others as did Rob Hulse and (all too briefly) Shefki Kuqi will be an essential component  of an effective forward line.

Two other 2010-11 arrivals at Pride Park Stadium were also looking to the future; Young Player of the Year James Bailey said he wanted to go a step further next season and win the Jack Stamps Trophy for Player of the Year.

Bailey might well develop further with the right midfield blend around him. If he can demonstrate an increasing influence on a game he could be a solid cog in the ‘engine room’ of a successful Derby team - though I’m not sure he could take that top trophy. Now - prove me wrong, James!

Meanwhile, loan forward Alberto Bueno would like to renew his stay at Derby County. The Real Valladolid player headed home back to Spain after Derby’s final fixture of 2010-11 at Reading, not knowing his future in Spain or England. Rams boss Nigel Clough has much work to do reshaping his squad before he can decide whether to re-engage the mercurial Bueno.

With the departure of 13-goal Kris Commons to Celtic in January, Bueno ended up as a joint-top goalscorer at Derby - on five goals; a lack of goals, especially from midfield is a shortcoming which Clough must solve this summer.

Chris Porter scored a hat-trick in the Rams’ reserves 4-0 win at Sheffield United this week, which enabled them to secure consecutive totesport.com Central League divisional titles. Porter’s future at Derby is still uncertain. His contract expires shortly and he’s managed only 25 starts since Clough signed him 28 months ago.

Like all the strikers on Derby’s books, he hasn’t managed to fulfil the lone striker/centre forward role vacated by Hulse and Kuqi, nor has he had such a partner to play off for most of this season.

It was reported that defender Sean Barker may miss the start of next season as he recovers from knee surgery. He had to play on for months with his injury due to the lack of cover or poor form of other Derby defenders, so further damage was done to his joints. That has set his recovery programme back a little.

Midfielder Paul Green has undergone cruciate ligament surgery and is expected to be in recovery for the rest of this year. Good luck to both players for their recovery, two honest professionals who are a credit to the club.

In Nigel Clough’s words, Derby County’s task on Saturday at Reading’s Madejski Stadium was to avoid a losing end to the season. The pre-match media hoo-hah as usual surrounded Robbie Savage, and especially the ‘occasion’ of his final game before retirement.

Sav seemed to command more column inches on the official website (including even an exciting gallery of him training last Friday) than did the Derby promotion teams assembled by Jim Smith and Billy Davies, plus George Burley’s entertaining side that reached the play-offs combined!

There are also current players - perhaps out of favour now - that have been at Derby twice as long as Savage (for instance Dean Leacock and Stephen Bywater) who performed well in a Derby promotion team but will not get any send-off fanfare if and when they leave Pride Park Stadium.

Certainly, it’s an achievement to have an 18-year career - as Robbie is so happy to tell us regularly. Robbie received a ‘Special Achievement Award’ from Derby County at the club’s annual back-slapping event; presumably that was for his career statistics of 630 games, as his record as captain of Derby County is mediocre in terms of the team’s achievements.

Derby County and Nigel Clough in particular have been good for the climax of his career but you cannot help concluding that Rams’ captains from the past have achieved promotions and won trophies with Derby - and are men that have let their superior achievements speak for themselves.

Savage will continue to be a fixture in our sporting diet with his media career on the move. Derby County is arguably the biggest club that Sav has played for, though Birmingham City and Leicester saw the best of his playing days and enjoyed more success than recent Rams sides.

Good luck to him from RamZone - and here’s to good luck to Sav’s successor at Derby with the captain’s armband (Sean Barker, when he’s fit again) in the hope that we do soon have some real on-field success to celebrate.

1,943 travelling Rams fans among the 22,000 crowd mostly made their own entertainment, as is customary at the end of the season for Derby with nothing to achieve or celebrate on the field (save for avoiding yet another defeat); some sported Robbie Savage wigs and masks…takes all sorts! There is a generous photo gallery on the official DCFC website.

Reading FC meanwhile wanted to get on with securing the best play-off finish possible. An hour before the game, after 8 months of procrastination so typical of the English FA over any particular decision or crisis, champions-elect QPR and the other play-off contenders had heard that the FA were not docking points from top-of-the-table Rangers. QPR were found guilty of two of the seven charges of rule-breaking and must pay fines.

QPR and the others had received the stage-managed, ridiculously late announcement from the FA, whose rulings hardly resolved the thorny issues over third-party player ownership or use of unauthorised agents. The four play-off contenders could finally focus on their final games to jockey for position and fulfil their May schedule, according to the original fixture programme.

Derby boss Nigel Clough made four changes to the team that featured Ross Atkins debuting in goal, Dean Leacock played at left back in place of Gareth Roberts Jamie Ward returned from his suspension and young reserve striker Callum Ball was promoted to partner him on his full League debut, at the expense of the unpredictable Theo Robinson.

Reading rested or were missing several players but aimed to keep up their momentum ready for the play-offs.

When the action commenced, the Rams proceeded as usual; they were uncertain in defence and demonstrated poor passing ability when on the ball. Reading (as expected) took the initiative as Derby soaked up the pressure, which they did successfully for the first 20 minutes (although the Royals did hit the bar). Robbie Savage was booked when he pulled down Jay Tabb, so the referee had his ‘trophy’ booking of Sav at the final opportunity.

Savage then gave the ball away in midfield and Reading broke away; Simon Church went down under a challenge from Russell Anderson and The Royals had a penalty. Ian Harte put the spot kick past debutant Ross Atkins in the Derby goal after 24 minutes. Harte, a veteran defender, had notched 11 goals this season - that’s more than twice as many as Derby’s current top scorers.

It was a surprise when Derby equalised in 32 minutes, as their attack had been largely anonymous. Bueno fed Jamie Ward, who promptly struck a fine goal from 25 yards. Derby’s attack figured more as they gained in confidence, with Bueno and Ball combining, then Pearson being adjudged offside as he provided Callum Ball with a pass that he’d put into the Reading net.

Derby narrowly avoided their party piece in conceding a stoppage-time first-half goal in front of their costumed fans, when a mistimed Ayala clearance attempt felled Antonio in the penalty area. Another spot-kick was awarded to the home side but this time, Harte struck the post. The Rams gratefully held on to the 1-1 interval scoreline.

The second-half became a stalemate with both teams having their moments, without any further breakthrough achieved. Callum Ball had a tidy debut and showed some promise in attack.

Then, with 20 minutes to play, Dean Leacock fluffed a clearance; Reading won the ball back through Church and Robson-Kanu and the home side had the fortune to see the ball spin off Russell Anderson into the net. Just like the appalling second goal with which the Derby defence had presented Bristol City last week, this time Reading were gifted a second goal to enable them to regain control of the game.

Derby substitute Jeff Hendrick spurned a late chance to equalise by shooting straight at Reading keeper Federici as Derby ended the season in a 2-1 defeat. That made it four defeats in a row from a poor campaign in which they mustered less than 50 points. It was the worst points’ total that a Derby County team has achieved since the introduction of the three-points-for-a-win system.

Nigel said “I don’t think there was too much between the teams to be honest”; in the context of the Reading game, in patches, he was correct. In the context of the 2010-11 season, however, there were 14 Championship places and a 28 points’ gap between the two team’s respective achievements. There’s your yardstick, Nigel - and nothing less is acceptable now.

Manager Nigel Clough said (as he has with too many games in 2010-11) that the match at Reading summed up Derby’s season; some good, some bad. He said that “6 or 8 better players” will put things right. So…now get on and sign ‘em, gentlemen - this club needs pulling up by its bootstraps, and not Robbie Savage’s jockstrap!

The retiring Robbie Savage brought down the curtain on his playing career and received a warm reception from both sets of fans at the final whistle - and as it was a warm May day, he stripped down to his bare essentials of vest and briefs to toss the rest of his kit - along with his special “631 games” boots - into the Derby contingent inside the stadium.

Another headline for Robbie; that’s what he enjoys so much! Good luck to him for his future media career - he’s sure to be in the limelight for a long time to come as he aims to upstage Lineker, Lawro, Hansen and the rest of the media stalwarts in the punditry community.

Truth is, however, that as with too many of the games in recent seasons (with or without Robbie Savage), the opposition gently undressed the Rams, exposed their weaknesses and took what mattered - the points on offer at the start of the game.

It is fair to say, however, without Robbie’s experience and influence on the pitch and in the dressing room during his renaissance under Nigel Clough, things could have been even worse for Derby County. Maybe the large fee and Premier League wages spent on Savage - if invested in other players - would have achieved more? We’ll never know.

Derby lost precisely half of their 46 games in 2010-11, a statistic in itself that is quite often a recipe for relegation. Thankfully, several sides did even worse than the Rams this season. Derby County finished in 19th place in the Championship table, 7 points from relegation and 7 points behind the meagre total that they managed last season.

It has been another season of “shoulda, woulda, coulda”. Should have done better than last season, would have done so with better players or a deeper squad (or without selling and then not replacing our best players). We coulda played better on many occasions, or made that clearance, or taken those chances…..it really is time to change the record now Derby - because, Tom and Nigel, as the song goes: “Shoulda Woulda Coulda are the last words of a fool”.

Club and manager may have got the message from the fans during this year (and also during a relatively poorly-subscribed initial season-ticket renewal period) that what Derby County currently offer is little short of shocking and unacceptable. Deeds, not words are all that matter in the final analysis. From now on in, the expectations of supporters will be raised much higher. Promises made and ambitions stated must now be fulfilled.

QPR have raced to the Championship title after Warnock took hold of the football side of the club and the super-rich Loftus Road board gained some focus; Paul Lambert has taken Norwich City to successive promotions and he made what Messrs Glick and Clough merely talk and dream about into their own East Anglian miracle.

Forest, Cardiff, Swansea and Reading will now fight for the right to join them in the Premier League. Derby look on as also-rans from 19th spot, only grateful that they have not suffered the fate of Sheffield United and other big clubs that recently lost their way to slip into the third tier.

It won’t get easier to gain promotion from the Championship - it will get harder every year. Derby fans won’t tolerate a further campaign of ‘shoulda, woulda, coulda’ so it’s now or never for manager and club. It’s got to be our time next….or Glick and Clough may well be out of time.

RamsWeek will of course continue throughout the close-season to bring you news and opinion about events at Pride Park Stadium and beyond. Please keep the messageboard bubblin’, folks - and let us have your views, too!

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RamsWeek 19 last year saw the conclusion of another mediocre Derby season and supporters, having responded again in vast numbers to renew their season tickets, were told that the club was making progress and that the Derby County revival was advancing ‘step by step’.

Manager Clough commenced his end-of-season clearance by telling Gary Teale and Jay McEveley that they would not get new contracts. The manager was seeking deals to bring in winger David Martin (who?) and Doncaster defender Gareth Roberts.

Addison, Leacock, Pearson, Barker and Hulse had all undergone surgery for various injuries. Striker Chris Porter was having more attention to his hip injury, goalkeeper Bywater was recovering from rib injuries but Kris Commons was aiming to be fit and shake off his various injuries. Steve Davies had an ankle operation.

There’s an old footy cliché which declares: ‘you won’t win anything with kids’, but Derby must have coined a new one in recent seasons with their injury woes: ‘you won’t win anything with crocks’.

Italian side Fiorentina would not now appear as Derby’s opponents in the ‘marquee’ pre-season friendly at Pride Park Stadium; Premier League Birmingham City would be Derby’s opponents.

Forest lost their play-off first leg to Blackpool and the Foxes lost theirs to Cardiff. We know what happened next!

Photo: Action Images

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