Derby County must turn to Sunderland for transfer inspiration: View | OneFootball

Derby County secured promotion back to the Championship on the final day of the League One season, but are likely to be in for a busy summer in the window to ensure they kick on next season.

Paul Warne's side overcame Carlisle United in front of a packed out Pride Park, accumulating their highest points tally for league season in the process to secure a return to the division they were relegated from two years ago, with goals from Max Bird and James Collins seeing Warne’s team clinch second place ahead of Bolton Wanderers.

Derby will now be planning for life in the Championship, having earned their return to the second tier after two seasons in League One. Failure to return to the Championship at the second time of asking would no doubt have negatively impacted the club's decision-making in terms of transfers, and which players they want to keep or move on during the coming transfer window.

Their financial issues are now largely behind them, and the points deductions, too, meaning Derby return to the Championship in better shape than they left it. They were finally able to start afresh under a new regime with David Clowes taking the reins as the club's majority owner.

Derby's recent transfer strategy

One issue that the club must address is that they have very few saleable assets of their own available to turn a profit for them in the long-term, which is the price they have paid from two seasons in the third tier, when in search of too many short-term fixes.

The team has the highest average age in League One at a whopping 28, which is 0.3 higher than Stevenage, but around five years older than the lowest sides in the league - Reading and Peterborough United. Signing big names who have all played in the division above, and some a division above that, is a good way to make yourselves competitive at the right end of the table; but many of the signings made are on big wages, and short-team deals are not ideal if they had failed to bounce straight back up at the first time of asking, which many fans hoped and expected.

Derby's approach to signing players on one and two-year deals has essentially given them no time to properly build their squad, and instead piled the pressure on the club to gain a quick promotion, which they did manage this season, and experience will have played no small part. It also means they can rebuild the squad in a higher league, which is far more preferable.

Had they failed to go up this season, it would have left little room to manoeuvre in the coming League One season. Instead, they can now be selective over who they retain and release, with some experienced professionals useful squad members for next season, but plenty of players the wrong side of 30 ought to be allowed to depart.

Derby have decisions to make on players such as Dwight Gayle, Martyn Waghorn, Craig Forsyth, Conor Hourihane, James Collins, Korey Smith, and Tom Barkhuizen. Although most played to a good level this season, it has left the club short of their own assets, and all of them are out of contract at Pride Park this summer.

The same issues can be applied to loaning players to supplement your squad, which can be a good strategy, but not when you are short of your own players to grow, improve, and sometimes sell as well. Derby do have some assets of their own, but sold the likes of Jason Knight and Max Bird to help balance the books.

Promotion makes keeping players like Eiran Cashin, Louie Sibley, and Liam Thompson far easier, but they will need more youthful exuberance in the team next season in the Championship. Those with the required legs, athleticism, and propensity to improve to help take the club forward next season, with a mix of youth and experience.

Derby could copy Sunderland's blueprint

Should they fail to change their approach, then they may find themselves starting again from square one following an unwanted relegation, with another mass exodus likely, and that could be disastrous for them this time around. Big names, high wage, small contract players, and an over-reliance on loans to bulk out their squad was the way to go last summer, but may ultimately play a part in costing them this season if they fail to adapt.

Signing more 'pre-peak' players on longer-term deals in the 21-25 bracket with a bit of know-how in the Championship won't be easy but will ultimately serve Warne's side far better. There's also no telling how the older cohort will decline in the coming season, too. Derby must be really careful, even if it means spending a little extra to make their squad healthier in both size and age again.

Sunderland opted for the younger approach, perhaps to the extreme, where they could take a leaf or two out of Derby's book in terms of their approach to squad building. Their recruitment so far in the last few transfer windows has continued to reflect the policy of signing pre-peak and youth players, which Sunderland have implemented over the last couple of seasons.

Largely, it is players aged 21 and under, with the resale value and scope to develop rapidly, that have helped to add continuity and progression to the sustainable, forward-thinking model that has been put into place. Kristjaan Speakman, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus and co. nailed that side of things with Sunderland in season one and continued to build in the summer, albeit they ended up taking a step back in season two, perhaps overdoing that side of things and needing a few extra senior heads.

There's a balance to be had for both clubs, with Derby needing to adopt aspects of Sunderland's philosophy, and Sunderland Derby's somewhat, but getting things right on that front could see clubs of their size and stature within the Championship flying up the table in rapid time. Derby themselves will not want to be sucked into a relegation battle, and although Sunderland finishing sixth in their first season back would be an ambitious goal, it is not beyond the realms of possibility for the Rams.

It can be inherently risky to put the faith in too much youth, especially if they don't just focus domestically, but Derby have a solid foundation of seniority that could improve a new-look, far younger side in no time at all in 2024/25.