There were more transfer developments at Pride Park Stadium as Derby County made progress on their first-team squad redevelopment, whilst the spectre of money circulated in other stories.

The Rams were finalising the rhyming timing of their latest minings from the transfer market, Bryson and Tyson. The poetically-matched pair comes from quite contrasting backgrounds.

Craig Bryson feels he’s ready to make the step from Scottish Premier League to the demands of the English Championship; he had a trial with the Rams four years ago but manager Billy Davies didn’t recruit Bryson, then only 20 years old. He has become a well-regarded SPL midfielder and the captain of Kilmarnock. Bryson cost Derby a reported £350k plus add-ons.

He is a ‘box-to-box’ midfielder who gets into the action, though his record shows he scores only once every 10 games or so. Perhaps he will compete for that busy role at Derby with Paul Green, though the job is presumably Craig’s for the first half of the season, whilst Green recovers from his serious injury at the end of last season.

The only thing impeding Bryson’s arrival on a three-year contract was the awaited opening of the Scottish transfer window - quite why the home nations can’t synchronise their administration dates whilst they undertake the so-called overhaul of their respective football associations is beyond me.

Nathan Tyson of course has considerable Championship experience and drew interest from several clubs, but is set to for Derby sign next week.

He comes as a free agent on a 3-year ‘Bosman’ deal after declining a new contract at Nothingham Forest. He’s following in the footsteps of Kris Commons, whose career took off at Derby once his fitness problems were resolved.

Commons also joined the Rams ‘on a free’ after choosing to leave Nothingham. Whatever Trees fans think, Commons improved his consistency, fitness, value and his scoring rate at Derby and he became a full international. Celtic got themselves a good player for £300k (which is £300k more that Forest got when Derby nabbed him!)

Though Aberdeen striker Chris Maguire has already agreed to join Derby and passed his medical, the Dons’ boss Craig Brown is still muttering about the failure of the clubs to agree a fee. He saw fit to criticise Derby for finalising the Craig Bryson deal before resolving the outstanding issue of a transfer fee with Aberdeen.

That’s none of Brown’s business - and perhaps Kilmarnock was easier to deal with? Aberdeen wants £400k for Maguire and it appears to be Derby’s prerogative whether they pay up now or go to a tribunal.

Derby remains in the hunt for Barnsley defender Jason Shackell but several clubs are chasing his signature. Burnley and Pompey are also keen to recruit him. The asking price is likely to be £1m so it’s a money go-round as to which club will offer the price and satisfy the player’s demands.

The Rams certainly need to secure the services of a dominant defender to partner captain Shaun Barker - and they still need both a ‘talismanic’ centre-forward and a creative midfield player.

Millwall, who will receive a reported £3.5m from Norwich City for striker Steve Morison, are showing interest in taking Derby’s Steve Davies to The New Den. The Rams don’t need to sell but are developing more strength in depth in their striking choices and there remains a question mark over Davies’ fitness.

Davies is on contract to Derby until the end of next season with a further year’s option. Steve’s erstwhile strike partner last season, Chris Porter, will be on the move after the club elected not to offer him a new deal; League Two Champions Chesterfield FC are said to be interested.

Derby’s CEO Tom Glick attended the Football League’s annual conference in Cyprus, with the majority of Championship clubs having voted in principle to adopt the UEFA model of ‘financial fair play’.

The practice will become mandatory for clubs competing in European competitions from 2014 and clubs will be regulated regarding expenditure so as not to live beyond their means -spending more than they are receiving in income. 

It might be a stretch to realise FL Chief Executive Greg Clarke’s hope that “this could lead to a return to the days when local communities could own the clubs, rather than rely on offshore benefactors", given the level of corporate intervention in football - but it is a step in the right direction.

There has to be a much greater willingness on the part of the clubs and the administrators - who have enabled an incipient overseas corporatism to buy up and rule the English game - to facilitate local stakeholdings and embrace supporter representation. Only this will encourage what Mr Clarke envisages. 

A new Deloittes’ report revealed that Premier League clubs spent 68% of their collective income - a sum of £1.4bn - on player wages in 2009-10.

Buy-a-trophy Manchester City spent a staggering 107% of their own turnover on wages, whilst Chelsea were the biggest spenders on player wages, shelling out £174m. Football in the UK, as ever, seems to buck the current trend of financial restraint and caution everywhere else.

Chelsea’s outlay seems to represent today’s price of a Premier League and FA Cup ‘double’…not forgetting to add in the expenditure on transfer fees and agent payments! Is it any wonder that some world football figures and associations regard English football’s current administration as arrogant and having too little control over their own domestic affairs?

The Premier League has evolved some informal economic ‘divisions’ within itself, with the ‘elite’ few clubs at the top spending heavily for success at home and in Europe. The biggest spenders will soon have toe the line and curb their expenditure in order to pass financial qualification rules.

The majority of the other EPL clubs - who don’t have the biggest corporate benefactors or the benefit of extra TV and achievement income from the Champions and Europa Leagues - generally spend more conservatively. Many clubs must always keep one eye on possible decline and even budget for the prospect of relegation upon their income whilst hoping for consolidation.

Even the Championship has become financially stratified because of the huge ‘parachute’ payments that relegated clubs now receive to cushion the drop. Resident teams including Derby, who have spent up their parachute money and remained in the Championship too long trying to reclaim Premier League status are disadvantaged - unless rich owners show tangible commitment to building a competitive squad.

There’s certainly a giddy money go-round in English football, nurtured by the Premier League and the spectacular TV deals that have been earned. The go-round is still spinning out of control and reform is needed over player wages and agents’ involvement in the game.

Wigan boss Dave Whelan has again asserted the need for wage control, and Championship clubs look likely to adopt a version of the League One ‘wage cap’ in the near future. It might take a spectacular financial crash involving a big club to finally bring home the message at Premier League level.

Seems like Paul Weller’s lyrics from ’Money Go-Round’ by The Style Council are on the mark regarding where all that money goes: “They're too busy spending on the means of destruction, to ever spend a penny on some real construction”. There’s a readable BBC blog on the subject by Paul Fletcher here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulfletcher/2011/06/football_league_agm.html#291907

One person who’s fallen off Nigel Doughty’s money go-round at Nothingham Forest is manager Billy Davies. He was sacked on Sunday afternoon, and it seems that the Forest owner has finally tired (as Derby fans predicted he would) of Davies’ constant pressure for more and more funding to build a successful team. So continues Billy’s tempestuous relationships with club directors!

He may be replaced immediately by Steve McLaren, who did such an excellent job with Jim Smith at Derby in the mid-90s. McLaren was spurned by Aston Villa for their vacant managerial post last week, after Villa fans protested at owner Randy Lerner’s intention to interview Steve Mac - and Forest could benefit from that decision as Mac is a successful coach and proven manager at club level.

Where Davies goes next is anyone’s guess - but both Cardiff City and Birmingham City in the Championship are busy looking for new managers. Cardiff let David Jones go recently, and Brum boss Alex McLeish has sensationally walked out on the Bluenoses - and could now be in the frame for the Aston Villa job!

Would either Championship club accept the baggage that comes with Billy (and I don’t just mean David ‘Ned’ Kelly)?

A shocking development this week was the Premier League’s decision to curtail funding of Supporters Direct, the national umbrella organisation for supporter trusts in England.

An anticipated £1.2m to fund the organisation over the next three years was withdrawn after the Football Stadia Improvement Fund, financed by the Premier League, reacted to Twitter posts sent by the SD chief executive Dave Boyle after his team, Wimbledon AFC, won promotion to the Football League in May. Right-wing tabloid journalism sensationalised the incident to fuel the scandal.

Boyle’s tweets posted insults aimed at the MK Dons’ owners and others - the infamous ‘football franchise’ club that was allowed to seize Wimbledon’s League status and move the club to Milton Keynes. The FSIF response to Boyle’s misdemeanour appears completely cynical and opportunistic.

Mr Boyle has sadly resigned in the aftermath and a tireless, passionate and talented man has been lost to a petty scandal which many feel has been blown out of all proportion.

SD members and trusts are lobbying MPs, the media and other bodies about the funding decision, which affects thousands of active supporters - and many trust-backed clubs playing in various leagues - who have worked with fans, clubs and charitable causes for more than a decade to benefit the game and the community.

The SD funding is a tiny proportion of the ££billions received that could be distributed intelligently and equitably throughout the game on the Premier League money-go-round.

The sense of injustice among fans is palpable and a Facebook support group has amassed over 1,350 members in a matter of hours. The responses will carry the movement forward. An official statement from the SD board is now on their website:

http://www.supporters-direct.org/news/item.asp?n=12946&cat=sd_eng

RamsTrust, the Derby County Supporters Society, has also published a reaction to the FSIF’s decision:

http://www.ramstrust.org.uk/news/1-latest-news/352-the-premier-league-cuts-off-supporters-direct-funding

The European Under-21 Championships are under way in Denmark and the England U-21s faced favourites Spain in their opening match of the tournament. The Young Lions came away with a creditable 1-1 draw despite looking second best - and Derby keeper Frank Fielding pulled off an excellent second-half save in the England goal to give his team a chance to salvage the game.

Remarkably, it’s only a week to go until the 2011-12 football fixtures are released! When the fixtures come out it always seems that the eve of the new season is upon us, as we can focus on the key dates and look forward to renewing old rivalries. Bring it on!

_______________________________________________________________________

In RamsWeek 24 last year, the World Cup 2010 commenced and South Africa rocked to their joyous theme tune, “Waka Waka!” As usual, the British media alternately hyped up the chances of the England team or looked for tittle-tattle stories about the players or manager Fabio Capello to fill up the tabloids.

The hosts drew 1-1 with Mexico as the vuvuzelas blasted their incessant discordant chorus, whilst England flunked it against the unfancied USA. Typical England! Steven Gerrard gave the Three Lions a dream start by scoring after just 4 minutes but then goalkeeper Robert Green let that soft goal in from Clint Dempsey’s perfunctory shot and America held Capello’s men to a 1-1 draw.

Rams defender Paul Connolly moved to newly-promoted Leeds United; I said then that I hoped he had a stinker when he played against Derby and Connolly kindly obliged me by helping the Rams to get a League ‘double’ over the Elland Road side during 2010-11!

Robbie Savage was chosen to co-host BBC Radio Five Live’s Saturday night ‘606’ phone-in programme with Mark Chapman. Sav also expressed a hope to continue playing for Derby after 2010-11… and I stated that I didn’t think he would be up to it.

Thankfully, Robbie later came to his senses and acknowledged that his legs had gone and he declared his intention to retire at the end of 2010-11 - and he has! As expected, he’s making a name for himself in the media and Rams fans will hear him on the BBC and other channels regularly.

Photo: Action Images

Derby County Polls