Derby County's stance on Birmingham City, Hull and Huddersfield target should be clear: View | OneFootball

After a slow start to the 2023-24 League One season, Derby County have certainly been showing their promotion credentials more recently as they aim to be back in the Championship in August 2024.

Defeats in the first month of the campaign to Wigan Athletic, Oxford United and Bolton Wanderers put doubts on the capabilities of Paul Warne to get the best out of his Rams squad, but they are now unbeaten in their last nine league matches and eight of those have been wins.

Going into 2024, Derby will sit fourth in the table and just two points behind Bolton in second, and there have been several stars who have shone more than others.

One of those is Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, who is showing that perhaps League One is above him despite being 31 years of age now.

Capped by Guatemala for the very first time earlier in 2023, Mendez-Laing has showed a different level of form in the first half of the current season, with five goals and seven assists to his name - just three less goal contributions than he bagged in the whole of last season.

Hull, Huddersfield and Birmingham show interest in Mendez-Laing

And according to BBC reporter Alex Howell earlier this week, Championship clubs are taking a look to see if Mendez-Laing will be acquirable in the upcoming January transfer window.

Huddersfield Town, Birmingham and Hull City have all been linked with a swoop for the winger, with the trio claimed to be monitoring the progress of the 31-year-old ahead of next month.

Two of the interested parties managers have had Mendez-Laing under their wing at some point, with Terriers boss Darren Moore having the winger at Sheffield Wednesday, whilst Liam Rosenior for the brief time he was interim manager of Derby had Mendez-Laing playing for him too.

Rosenior however has played down the links to Mendez-Laing this week, but it would not be the first time that a manager has denied something and it has ended up coming off in terms of a transfer story.

Mendez-Laing has a contract that expires at the end of the current campaign, so it is little surprise to see that clubs are keeping an eye on his situation to see if they could potentially strike a bargain for a rotational winger for the second half of the season.

Derby should keep Mendez-Laing at all costs

However, Derby need to take stock of the situation at the start of the January window to try and make sure that Mendez-Laing's head does not get turned by the speculation surrounding his name.

The winger has played in the Championship plenty but the last few years have been an unsettled time - at Derby though he is starting week in, week out, looks to be happy and is playing some of the best football of his career.

He is surely too important for Derby to lose as well at this stage of the season, and in the last two months in particular he has exploded with goals and assists a-plenty, helping to push County closer to Portsmouth at the top of the League One table.

No real fee that Derby could get for his services in January will be enough to re-invest into the squad or would get a player as effective as Mendez-Laing has been this season, so it would be a really bad move to consider a sale at this point in time - unless an unlikely seven-figure bid arrives.