Paul Warne could look to Ipswich Town for reunion to ready Derby County for the Championship: View | OneFootball

Derby County are readying themselves for a first season back in the Championship for two years, having finished in second place in League One and gained automatic promotion.

The Rams have had what many would consider to be an extremely strong squad for League One this season, with Championship talents from yesteryear such as Sonny Bradley and Callum Elder and ex-Premier League stars in the form of Dwight Gayle and Conor Hourihane.

Despite how talented these players are, they are aging and are some of the more senior members of the squad. With this, injuries have occurred, and nowhere has that been more prevalent than in Derby's attack, leaving them fairly toothless at times.

So, with a tougher and more demanding division ahead of them next season, manager Paul Warne should look toward an old favourite of his to help slightly freshen up the frontline, and hopefully fire the Rams to safety next year.

Freddie Ladapo should be in a Derby shirt in 24/25

The old favourite that Warne should be looking at bringing in is none other than his former first choice striker at Rotherham, Freddie Ladapo.

The Nigerian was reliable for Warne in his three seasons at the New York Stadium, scoring 41 times in 123 appearances, spending one season in the Championship too.

He would offer pace, power and physicality to a frontline that has not had a consistent presence all season. He would also offer plenty of experience too, given his long list of former clubs, to any younger players in the attack that Warne places trust in over this summer, such as Dejaune Brown.

The now 31-year-old is an EFL journeyman, having spent time at Shrewsbury Town and Plymouth Argyle, as well as Southend United and Oldham Athletic when they were in the Football League.

Given that he has seemingly played the majority of games available to him wherever he has gone in his career and racked up an astounding number of career appearances, it would be no surprise to see Warne target him given the injury issues that Derby's attack has suffered this season.

Derby County injury woes this season

Derby's striking options have all, at some point this season, spent an enforced amount of time out of the team due to injuries.

First-choice striker going into this season, James Collins, was set to be out for the rest of the season following an injury suffered in February, yet fortunately recovered and came back into Warne's plans towards the end of the season.

Meanwhile, back up strikers Martyn Waghorn and Dwight Gayle have struggled to maintain good fitness throughout, often leaving players that are more suited to the left or right wings such as Tom Barkhuizen and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing to fill in.

Luckily for Derby, Mendez-Laing's quality has shone through, with the Guatemalan international being arguably the Rams' top player up front, scoring nine goals, a tally only bettered by Collins, and assisting a teammate 16 times.

However, with the former Cardiff City star also being on the wrong side of 30, as all the mentioned strikers above are, there may be a question as to whether he can carry on producing for too much longer, and if the Rams want to survive and then thrive back in the second tier, solutions may need to be found elsewhere.

Freddie Ladapo would be a good signing for Derby

While it has to be said that Ladapo will not be bringing down the age of Derby's frontline if he does go on to be targeted and signed, he will certainly be a smart pickup for the frontline.

He will most likely be available on the cheap, given that his current club, Ipswich, will be clearing out a fair few squad members this summer ahead of their long-awaited return to the Premier League, and given Derby's recent financial troubles, they would do well to not spend too much on a player who is on the wrong side of 30.

Derby also revealed over the weekend that they would be releasing both Waghorn and Gayle this summer, so with the saved wages and with more firepower needed, an attempt to sign Ladapo as an experienced figure as part of a rebuild up front, begins to make even more sense.

He would also have no issues fitting in to Warne's plans, as the striker, as previously mentioned, was heavily favoured by Warne during his time at Rotherham. This will arguably be a crucial factor in the signing process, as familiarity and reliability so often benefit teams when re-establishing themselves in a division.

Ladapo surely won't be the only addition that Warne makes up front this summer, but given the evidence above, plus the fact that Derby staff and supporters alike will simply want consistency from their summer transfers, the club can't go too wrong by signing the 6ft 1in Nigerian and placing trust in him to fire in goals in their first season back in the second tier.