Derby County

Derby County: 'Not promotion or bust this season'

By Pascal Lemesre, Football League Editor | 10 July 2015

Derby County's Brandon Furse tells Sports Mole that it is not "promotion or bust" for the Rams this season.

Derby County's Brandon Furse has told Sports Mole that it is not "promotion or bust" for the Rams in the Championship this season.

The East Midlands outfit have been close to promotion the last two seasons, first losing in agonising late fashion in the 2014 playoff final before missing the playoffs on the final day of the season last term.

Bobby Zamora of QPR scores the winning goal during the Sky Bet Championship Playoff Final match between Derby County and Queens Park Rangers at Wembley Stadium on May 24, 2014 © Getty Images

There has been a change in management this summer at the iPro Stadium, with Steve McClaren departing and taking the Newcastle United job and former Real Madrid assistant Paul Clement taking the head coach job.

The Rams have been busy in the summer window, breaking their transfer record to sign Tom Ince and adding several other players to their ranks as they bid for promotion back to the Premier League.

Their business was given a further boost this afternoon when supporter Richard Jones pocketed £5,000 for himself and won the Sky Bet Transfer Fund of £250,000 for the Rams to spend on transfers.

Thomas Ince of Derby County celebrates with Richard Keogh and Will Hughes as he scores their first and equalising goal during the Sky Bet Championship match between AFC Bournemouth and Derby County at Goldsands Stadium on February 10, 2015 © Getty Images

After beating nine other finalists to the prize, Derby's head of ticketing, analytics and technology, Furse, told us: "It's fabulous. We can't believe it and weren't expecting to win at all. It's great news for the club and we really hope it can make a difference."

Despite their big-money moves already that are worth far more than the Transfer Fund prize, Furse is confident that the cash will make a difference.

"There's no reason why not," he added. "We're busy trying to add to the squad that we've got - it's a talented squad, but we're still trying to add to it.

"We've got a new football management team who have come in with their own ideas, so we need to invest and do what we can to get out of the Championship and into the Premier League.

"We've been really close the last couple of seasons and there's no reason why a little bit of help like this can't make a difference and give us that extra boost."

And here are our #SkyBetTransferFund winners with @JimWhite and @nataliesawyer pic.twitter.com/JEHqa3ZgMa
— The Football League (@football_league) July 10, 2015

Furse revealed that at least 75% of the Sky Bet money would be used in the summer window and that the mood of the club was optimistic, despite last year's disappointing collapse, where the Rams won just two of their last 13 games to miss out on the top six.

"You do talk about [last season]. You do analyse - what was good, what was bad, but you don't dwell on it for too long. We don't want to go through a whole draconian process of overanalysing last season. You do need a little bit of time to reflect, dust yourself down and pick yourself up again.

"We are aiming for promotion. Whether it happens this year or not this season is another thing. If it doesn't happen again, we will not be too over the top regarding our analysis and disappointment.

"We're not gearing up our business for promotion or bust, so we'll strengthen the next season and again the next season until we do get promoted."

As well as Ince, Derby have also signed Darren Bent, Alex Pearce, Scott Carson, Chris Baird and Andreas Weimann this summer.