Derby County manager Paul Warne has revealed that he is currently trying to sign a central midfielder as well as another ‘attacking option’ before the transfer window closes in little over two weeks.
The Rams have had a mixed bag of results since the League One campaign kicked off nine days ago, losing 2-1 at home to Wigan Athletic on the opening day before comfortably beating Burton Albion 3-0 at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday.
The promotion-hopefuls have been quite active in the transfer window thus far, adding eight new players to the first-team squad, including the likes of Martyn Waghorn, Sonny Bradley, Curtis Nelson and Conor Washington.
However, Warne is insisting that the additions are not stopping at eight.
Speaking to Derbyshire Live, the 49-year-old hinted that he is on the hunt for at least another two players:
“I am still trying to sign a central midfielder.
“I’d like another attacking option that we are trying to do. It could be pizza and fish and chips on transfer deadline day night.
Nevertheless, Warne remained realistic when sharing the difficulties being faced by Derby County in the transfer market:
“Whatever I have got left, I have got to try to bring players in who are better than we currently have. It isn’t easy. If it was, they would be here.
“There are a lot of players who are free agents who will say ‘Yes I will come’ but they’ve not had a pre-season, they’ve not played and even if I signed them, I just wouldn’t waste the money.
“You keep looking at the Championship and Premier League squads and you’ll look and see a player and think, well he’s not played again, surely he wants to play a bit more.
“The hard thing is a lot of players want to stay in the Championship as long as they can and think if I can just hang in there, I can get in the team.”
Writer’s View
Derby County are yet to sign a central midfielder this summer and so it’s an area that certainly needs to be strengthened before the window slams shut at the end of the month.
Warne’s talk about trying to acquire another ‘attacking option’ is interesting, though. Derby County have already signed Washington and Waghorn yet it looks like the Rams are not finished with their striker poaching just yet.
