In hindsight, Derby County should never have let go of these 4 ex-academy players
The Rams produced a number of players who are now plying their trade elsewhere
When it comes to first-team alternatives, Derby County’s academy has undoubtedly served them well in recent years.
Several Rams first-team players, including Eiran Cashin, Louie Sibley, Max Bird, and Liam Thompson, rose through the youth ranks to become vital members of Paul Warne’s squad.
Others, though, have made the transition from youth to first-team football and have since left Pride Park.
In some cases, that is likely to have been to the detriment of the club as a whole, who may have missed out on some useful contributions from some of those players.
So with that in mind, we’ve taken a look at four former Derby County academy players to have left the club, whose departures the Rams may now regret.
Morgan Whittaker
Whittaker never quite managed to make the desired impact at senior level for Derby, after coming through the youth ranks of the Rams to make his senior debut in August 2019.
In total, he would score just once in 32 senior appearances for the Rams before being sold to Swansea City in 2021. While things didn’t quite work for him there either, Whittaker excelled in a loan spell for Plymouth last season, making an important contribution to their promotion from League One, while Derby narrowly missed out on a play-off place at that level.
The attacker has now completed a return to Plymouth on a permanent basis this summer, where he is now impressing in the Championship, suggesting that he could have become an asset for Derby, had they been able to keep him around.
Lee Buchanan
Admittedly, Buchanan’s expiring contract and Derby’s circumstances around their takeover meant there was little the club could do to prevent the full-back’s departure to Werder Bremen last summer.
However, that move failed to work out for Buchanan, who struggled for opportunities in the Bundesliga, before returning to England to join Championship side Birmingham City in this summer’s transfer window.
Given how things worked out for Buchanan in Germany, there may be some of a Derby persuasion wondering whether the player may have regretted his decision to leave Pride Park last summer, given the extra quality he would have provided had he remained with the Rams.
Jayden Bogle
