DCFC Celtic Warriors
One of the traits of Nigel Clough’s management of DCFC has been his clear and explicit dislike of foreign players.
Indeed in the cases of Cwyka & Albrechtsen some of his very public comments did well to stay the right side of what you can and what you can’t say about people not from these shores.
With this in mind (and also all the talk around the Eire games), it struck me that Clough clearly has no such issue with non English UK players.
If the much touted moves for Forsyth and Russell go through, it would not take much (specifically a short term injury or suspension to Lee Grant!) for the Rams to field an entire team of non English players next season.
Check it out:-
- Deeney
- Freeman
- Forsyth
- OB
- Keogh
- Jeff
- Coutts
- Bryson
- Sammon
- Russell
- Ward
Not an epic post today, I just thought that was a bizarre contradiction.
Rumours we have acquired the London 2012 strip to be our third kit next season are unconfirmed.
Posted on June 4, 2013, in 30 Days of Ramspace, General Rams Comment and tagged derby county, Nigel Clough, ramspace, the rams. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
RAMSPACE.CO.UK 
I don’t often have cause to take issue with what is always a very entertaining blog, but I think you’ve got it wrong here in your intro. This myth has been floating around for a good while and has even led to accusations being made that Clough is racist, which is blatantly ridiculous (and libellous, of course).
I think it would be more accurate to say that Clough has a clear and explicit dislike of players who are not very good. Albrechtsen was a highly paid player who disgusted the manager with his lack of character and application. Cywka, as we all know, got harshly treated, but ultimately, NC just felt he wasn’t able to cut it at this level. He has made similar calls about plenty of British players – Bywater, Croft, Maguire, off the top of my head. I don’t think he’s been proved wrong too often when he’s decided to offload players and that’s something I’ve blogged about in the past.
Also, while we don’t any foreigners in the first team at present, look at our youth system, where the likes of Doyle, Valentin Gjokaj, Luke Adams and Mats Morch are all progressing their careers.
He gave Bueno every chance to impress and if you recall, was also interested in signing a Dutch midfielder from Den Haag a couple of seasons ago. We were even going to take a Fijian striker on trial this summer, until bureaucracy got in the way!
I don’t think it’s fair to take the leap from a couple of heat-of-the-moment comments about individuals in the wake of a bad result to a generalisation about Clough not liking foreign players en bloc.
Anyway, sorry to nitpick – keep up the good work!
UTR
I think the lack of foreign players is more to do with scouting. Glick admitted it wasn’t worth the risk on foreign signings as the fees no longer made them a cheap option. Of the players mentioned – Morch was signed by Jewell, Gjokaj “paid his air fare” to have a trial (as Clough said) whilst Adams (now released) and the Fijian were both reccomended by an ex-Burton keeper in NZ. I don’t know about Doyle, whilst the Dutchman was recommended by Metgod. Clough has had plenty of foreign trialists over the years and seems open to recomendation, its just that we aren’t proactive about recruiting from abroad for whatever reason.