Derby County finally managed to make it back up to the Championship at the end of last season, after two campaigns of being a big fish in a small pond in the league below.
Now back in the second tier after this mini detour to League One, Paul Warne’s men are currently positioned in and around the mid-table spots, with relegation worries not yet on their minds.
Of course, the 46-game slog in the Championship is a long and gruelling ordeal, with the Rams thankful in the past – when they’ve been attempting to make things happen in the second tier – for the exploits of some top loanees.
Top loan performers for Derby
Most Derby fans, when recollecting about past loan heroes, would instantly turn their attention back to the managerial stint of Frank Lampard at Pride Park, who assembled a stunning squad for the second tier packed full of loan stars.
Amazingly, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Harry Wilson all called Derbyshire home during the 2018/19 season, before going on to bigger and better things with Chelsea, AC Milan and Fulham respectively.
Mount stood out during his impactful stint at the club, popping up with 11 goals and six assists, whilst his Welsh teammate Wilson staggeringly bettered these numbers with 18 goals and six assists of his own regularly patrolling the right wing for the Rams.
Tomori also had a hand in ten clean sheets that same season in league action, before going on to be a dependable performer in Italy with the illustrious Rossoneri.
Other names that spring to mind – away from Lampard’s short but sweet time in charge – include Leon Osman, who fired home three goals for Derby during 2003/04 in the second tier before becoming a household name with Everton, with faces such as Georgi Kinkladze and Chris Martin from yesteryear once won themselves permanent moves after initially impressing on loan.
Yet, even players who didn’t set the world alight on a temporary basis playing for Derby have gone on to reach lofty heights after playing for the club, with one former loanee moving for a grand price of £15m to pick up just this year.
Osula's time at Derby
William Osula would put in promising numbers for Derby under the guidance of Paul Warne during the 2022/23 campaign, enough to win himself more chances at then-parent club Sheffield United when the loan move was up.
The raw Danish attacker would fire home five goals from 21 games in total donning Derby white and black, with his transfer value during this formative time away in Derbyshire only coming in at just £124k, according to Transfermarkt.
August 2024
£15m
May 2024
£2.4m
October 2023
£831k
March 2023
£124k
Looking at the table above, Osula’s value has skyrocketed since his early football education at Pride Park, with the 21-year-old costing the Magpies a hefty £15m to win this summer.
Eyebrows would have been raised, considering Osula had only scored three times in the senior fold at the Blades before Eddie Howe’s men brashly swooped in, but football social media account Scoutedftbl would praise the expensive capture at the time, with the towering 6 foot 4 attacker labelled as “direct” and “fast” among other glowing adjectives.
He definitely displayed those characteristics when scoring a sublime strike for his former side this July, with Osula already making waves at his new Premier League side.
Still, nobody with connections to Derby would have expected that Osula was going to be a £15m buy for a top-flight club a matter of years on from his stint at the second-tier club, considering his long stretches of no goals for the Rams.
Taking into account his value of £124k when on loan at Warne’s Men, to his value now at £15m, that is a jaw-dropping 11996% increase in value, as Newcastle pray this isn’t viewed as a major waste of money down the line.
Derby had an "incredible" star on loan whose value has risen £7m since
This former Derby County loanee has really kicked on since his brief time at Pride Park.
ByKelan SarsonNov 5, 2024