Blackpool will always be envious of Derby County over £11m transfer | OneFootball

Blackpool will always be envious of how much Derby County sold Tom Ince for, given how much the Seasiders managed to get in the past.

The tale of Tom Ince’s career is always shrouded in the question of “what if” in regard to his own potential, but Blackpool will also have that sense of envy and regret, questioning “what if” they had been able to maximise his eventual departure from Bloomfield Road.

Ince, the son of Paul, came through the academy at Liverpool and enjoyed a short stint on loan at Notts County before properly breaking through into first-team football at Blackpool.

He joined the Seasiders in the summer of 2011, following the Seasiders’ relegation from the Premier League, and immediately became a key man for Ian Holloway’s side as they finished fifth in the 2011/12 Championship campaign.

Over the course of three years, he became one of the best players in the second-tier and was often linked with a move away, with the likes of Ajax, Inter Milan and Monaco said to be interested, but Ince remained on the Lancastrian coast until a loan spell in the Premier League with Crystal Palace began in January 2014.

That move was intended to showcase Ince’s talents at a higher level before his contract expired in the summer, but he instead managed just eight appearances for the Eagles and didn’t quite hit the heights expected.

It didn’t prevent a move to the Premier League, with Hull City eventually agreeing a compensation package with Blackpool – but that fee was poultry in comparison to what he eventually moved on for.

Ince’s stint at Blackpool and what could have been

Ince backed up that 2011/12 campaign by scoring 18 goals in 44 Championship appearances in the 2012/13 season under an array of managers, including his father, who took charge in mid-February.

Ince again put up good numbers in the first-half of the following season, but his departure followed the sacking of Paul Ince in January, having notched seven times in 23 games in the league.

Ince’s eventual move to Hull came as a result of the Tigers agreeing a £2.3 million compensation package with Blackpool, a fee that didn’t necessarily reflect the quality of his time at Bloomfield Road, nor appropriately evaluate how good he was as a player.

His time at Hull didn’t work out too well, and he was back on loan in the Championship at Nottingham Forest soon after, before joining Forest’s East Midlands rivals Derby County on loan in January 2015, where he flourished again as he scored 11 goals in 18 games to help the Rams to an eighth place finish in the second-tier.

The summer of 2015 then saw Derby for a fee of around £4.75 million, before a couple of extremely impressive seasons at Pride Park whereby he scored 12 in 42 games and then 14 in 45 in the league.

The big money moves to Huddersfield and Stoke

After that stint at Derby, it was the Rams who reaped the financial rewards of Ince’s services, selling him back to the Premier League with an £11 million move to Huddersfield Town.

Again, his move to Huddersfield didn’t necessarily work with two goals in 33 appearances in the top-flight – but he still went for a hefty sum as Stoke City purchased the winger for an initial fee of £10 million in July 2018.

Ince, who spent four seasons as a Stoke City player with loan spells at Luton Town and Reading during his contract at the Bet365 Stadium, moved to Reading for the 2022/23 campaign and has been at Watford for the last couple of seasons.

He has made over 500 club appearances but arguably his most memorable and impressive time came at Blackpool, who will feel extremely envious of Hull, Derby and Huddersfield.

Having given him the platform, Ince earned Blackpool, where he played 113 times, over £2 million less than the Tigers, over £8 million less than Derby and over £7 million less than the Terriers, clubs for whom Ince made a combined total of 174 appearances for.