Departure Lounge – Ryan Shotton

It is widely acknowledged that this summer’s Rams transfer activity may initially need to be more focused on outs than ins.

The current squad contains a significant amount of debris from various misguided recruitment drives and I am sure Pearson will also want to make some space for a few of his own additions.

This week has seen the start of the process with the departure of defenders Ryan Shotton and Raul Albentosa. I don’t think either will be getting a “legends” plaque made anytime soon, but here we firstly review Shots’ (replace vowel to taste) time at DCFC.  

When Ryan Shotton first joined the Rams in August 2014 it was generally seen as a good solid signing. A mobile centre half who can also play right back or CDM, owner of a giant throw in and a product of the Pulis Stoke era. What could possibly go wrong?

“is this the right way around boss?”

His start was solid enough, generally battling with Cyrus for the right back slot and certainly adding some physical presence to that position. An early season visit to Forest was probably his most memorable in a Derby shirt. Absolutely ran ragged by Antonio for much of the game, he redeemed himself by scoring possibly one of the ugliest goals ever scored by the Rams and rescuing a point. 

As the season continued and the Rams promotion charge collapsed, Shotton’s form and confidence fell off a cliff. Maybe his demise was symptomatic of McClaren’s general mismanagement at the time but we never saw him in CDM and rarely, if ever, saw his giant throw in’s. By this time he was also almost exclusively a centre back when Cyrus was begging to be pulled out the firing line.

In the awful last month of the season, Shots was massively implicated in some of the worst defensive displays I have seen from any Derby side. His positional sense & general awareness was beyond atrocious. Harsh as it is, I think the phrases 50p head and Toblerone boots could have been invented for him as balls regularly flew off him in all directions including into his own net at Huddersfield.

With a typical car crash performance in the following first pre-season friendly at Grimsby, a raft of centre halves signed and his reputation at the club at an irretrievable nadir, he became a forgotten man and inevitably moved on to Birmingham.

Ryan always gave 100% for Derby and it’s not his fault that he simply isn’t very good at football. We wish him well at Birmingham and have absolutely no doubt that he will nod one in against us in one of the games next season, probably off his ear, shoulder or something like that.