Derby County: With hindsight, £3m profit on Burnley FC transfer was good business | OneFootball

Matej Vydra struggled to impress after leaving Pride Park

The 2017-18 season ended in somewhat agonising fashion for those of a Derby County persuasion.

A sixth place finish in the Championship table had been enough to earn the Rams a shot at promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs.

But after beating Fulham 1-0 at home in the first leg of their semi-final, a 2-0 defeat at Craven Cottage in the reverse fixture ended any hopes they had of a return to the top-flight.

After that, Derby would then lose some key players in the summer transfer window of 2018, none more significant than Matej Vydra.

The centre-forward scored 22 goals in all competitions for the Rams over the course of the 2017/18 campaign, winning the Championship Golden Boot in the process.

That earned him a place in the Championship team of the season, and saw him win multiple honours at the club's own end of season awards.

As a result, some of the facts and figures behind the striker's exit may well have been rather frustrating for those at Pride Park.

Derby did not make a huge profit on Matej Vydra

In the end, Vydra departure from the Rams in the summer of 2018, saw him head to the Premier League to sign for Burnley.

It was reported that the Clarets, who had finished seventh in the top-flight during the 2017-18 campaign, paid £11million to sign the Czech international.

That fee may have been disappointing for Derby, given it represented a profit of just £3million, from the £8million they had apparently paid Watford to sign the striker two years earlier.

Given how much of a standout player he had been for the club in the previous campaign, making a profit of well below 50% on him, may have caused some disappointment around Pride Park.

Indeed, that campaign had not been a one-off for Vydra either, with the striker having enjoyed some prolific seasons with Watford in the Championship earlier in his career too.

One of those had included promotion to the Premier League with the Hornets, meaning the prospect of his goalscoring talents may have left the Rams feeling they were entitled to a larger profit.

It is also worth noting that at the time of his departure from the Midlands, Vydra still had two years remaining on his contract with Derby.

That therefore meant they did have scope to negotiate without being at imminent risk of losing him for free when they agreed this deal with Burnley.

As a result, that too may have given rise to a sense that they could have demanded a bigger profit for the sale of Vydra.

Ultimately, though, it could be argued that, given the way things went for the striker at Turf Moor, a profit of £3million for Derby actually proved to be rather good business.

Matej Vydra struggled for form with Burnley

Watford and Derby.

Across his four years with the club, the striker never scored more than three league goals in a single campaign for Burnley.

Indeed, he would, in total, score just eight goals in 82 Premier League appearances during his time at Turf Moor, a return of less than one goal in every ten appearances.

Such a return is one that feels considerably underwhelming for a striker who they spent such a fee on signing.

He would then depart Burnley in the summer of 2022, leaving on a free transfer following the club's relegation to the Championship, and the expiration of his contract.

That, of course, means the Lancashire outfit missed out on the chance to recoup any sort of return on their own investment in the striker.

As a result, with what they know now, it is hard to imagine that Burnley would pay that £11million to Derby for the signing of Vydra, if they had their chance again.

Beyond that, since leaving Turf Moor, the striker has scored only 12 times in 72 appearances in all competitions for Viktoria Plzen in his native Czechia.

With that in mind, it seems as though the Rams may have got the last of the best of Vydra, during the 2017/18 campaign.

As a result, the initially disappointing £3million profit Derby made on Vydra off the back of that, now seems rather more respectable, given what has happened since then.