"£8m-£10m" - Derby County: Craig Bryson's worth in current market debated | OneFootball

The Scottish midfielder joined the Rams for just £350k in 2011.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

The 2010s saw Derby County grow from a team that circled around the bottom half of the Championship table into one that challenged for the play-offs on multiple occasions.

Under the guidance of first Steve McClaren, and then Darren Wassall, Gary Rowett and Frank Lampard, the Rams came ever so close to achieving their dream of returning to the Premier League.

At the heart of the majority of those teams was a £350k bargain signed in the summer of 2011 from Scottish side Kilmarnock. Craig Bryson became somewhat of a club legend throughout his eight years at Pride Park, and was voted as the 'Player of the Decade' in a BBC vote in 2022.

Now retired, Bryson was one of the greatest signings that Derby has made in the 21st century, and he instantly became a fan's favourite, scoring vital goals in big games, including a hat-trick against Nottingham Forest in 2014.

He was one of the most valuable players in the entire squad throughout his eight years in the East Midlands, and put in timeless performances consistently.

A prime Craig Bryson's market value in 2024 would be high

Nowadays, you would be hard-pressed to find a player at £350k that is ready to play in the Championship.

The Rams look to have worked another bargain in 2024, bringing Kenzo Goudmijn to the club from AZ Alkmaar for £600k in July, but he is yet to fully prove himself in black-and-white. Nevertheless, the early signs are promising.

However, with Bryson's goal-scoring form, particularly in the 2013/14 season, from central midfield, his transfer value in the present day would be a lot higher than it once was.

Finances in the Championship have reached stratospheric levels in the last few years, with parachute payments a huge reason behind that, and with that in mind, Football League World asked their Derby Fan Pundit, Shaun Woodward, how much he believes a prime Bryson might have been worth in today's market.

"Craig Bryson was a goal-scoring box-to-box midfielder who had an unbelievable engine on him," he started. "All the players respected him, and I think he was a driving force behind some of our better years over the last decade.

"So, for me, I would say in today's market he would probably be around the £8m-£10m bracket. We've got to be realistic as he was still a Championship level player even though we loved him."

Shaun continued: "I would still say because he played in the Championship, it wouldn't be higher than that. If he was in the Premier League then you could double that, but the fact he never played at that level would keep him under £10 million for me."

Bryson never got to taste his promotion dream with Derby

Despite his performances for the club across his 276 appearances, he never managed to reach the promised land of the Premier League in black-and-white.

Instead, Bryson won promotion while out on loan at Cardiff City in 2017/18. Under the guidance of Neil Warnock, the Bluebirds finished second in the Championship behind runaway winners Wolverhampton Wanderers.

It was perhaps a bittersweet moment for the midfielder who had tried so hard to win promotion with his parent club, and when asked by the club's media about the experience, he said: "I do want to take this opportunity to say, though, that experience I had last year is something I still desperately want to feel with Derby.

"The club has been a massive part of my career and my life. To experience that with this club would be the pinnacle."

If Bryson had managed to get to the top flight with Derby in 2014 in that heartbreaking play-off final, then his market value would have skyrocketed. But, to most Rams fans, the Scot will always remain priceless.