Celtic completely robbed Derby County in 300k transfer deal - he was pushed out of Pride Park | OneFootball

Joining Celtic from Derby County in 2011, Kris Commons went on to become a huge success in Glasgow.

Boyhood Nottingham Forest fan Kris Commons infamously crossed the East Midlands divide when he swapped the Garibaldi for the Rams in 2008.

Playing an integral role during Derby's post-relegation rebuild in 2008, the Newark-born Scotland international came up with some fantastic moments during his time at Pride Park.

However, Commons swapped Pride Park for Celtic Park in 2011, before going on to have a fantastic career north of the border in Glasgow.

Commons played an integral role for Derby post-relegation

Commons became one of Derby's key men during the early part of Nigel Clough's tenure at Pride Park.

He produced numerous moments of magic, often at particularly crucial times, to help keep the Rams in the Championship.

After coming through the ranks at Stoke City, Commons spent four years at Derby's fierce rivals Nottingham Forest, where he recorded 15+ goal contributions in each of the Reds’ three seasons in League One.

With his contract expiring at the end of the 2007-08 season, Commons made the controversial decision to up sticks down the A52, becoming the first player to leave Forest for Derby since Gary Charles in 1993.

He has since told BBC Scotland’s Sportsound that he was “desperate” to stay at Forest but felt insecure about his future.

Commons said: “I had to make a decision that was unpopular with the Forest faithful, but I felt like I’d been backed into a corner where I couldn’t get out.”

As a result, Commons made the move to the Rams and joined Derby the summer after their infamous 11-point Premier League effort.

Although his time with Derby was injury-hit at times, Commons was a key figure in ensuring the Rams survived in the Championship, scoring crucial goals against Coventry City and Blackpool in the 2008/09 season.

He scored five league goals and set up nine that season, but his biggest moments came in the two cup competitions.

The midfielder famously scored a screamer with his left foot to defeat Manchester United 1-0 in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final, a result which remarkably came with Derby in the middle of a run of just one win in nine games in the league.

Just over a month later, in Nigel Clough’s first game as Rams boss, Commons netted a late winner as Derby came from 2-0 down to defeat Forest 3-2 in an FA Cup fourth-round replay and secure their first win at the City Ground since 1971.

Derby eventually finished that season 18th in the Championship, eight points clear of the bottom three.

The 2009-10 season saw Commons make just 20 appearances in the league, contributing three goals and five assists.

His best form in a Derby shirt actually came in the 2010/11 season, just before his exit. Commons had 13 league goals (the highest total of his career), from just 26 games, when Celtic bought the Scottish international for £300,000 in January 2011.

Commons went on to achieve further success after an unwanted move

Prior to his move to Celtic Park, Commons had expressed his desire to stay at Pride Park, with six months remaining on his contract.

"Of course I want to stay, without a doubt," Commons told BBC Radio Derby.

"I'd like to think that something will be sorted by the end of the season. This is exactly the same position as I was in at Forest, wanting to stay, wanting a new contract that never came, and then you get put in the position that you have to start looking elsewhere.

"But I don't want to even have to start looking elsewhere," he added. And unfortunately for the midfielder, his time at Pride Park was indeed coming to an end.

And after leaving the club in a far from ideal way, Commons went on to be a huge success at Celtic in five and a half seasons.

He won five Scottish Premiership titles, two Scottish Cups and one Scottish League Cup, with his five league titles the first five of the Bhoys’ famous nine consecutive titles during the 2010s.

Commons ended his time at Celtic Park with 70 goals and 54 assists from 174 games in all competitions.

He enjoyed the best goalscoring season of his career in 2013/14, when he netted 27 times in the league from just 34 games and also contributed 11 assists. Unsurprisingly, that run of form saw him win PFA Scotland’s Premiership Player of the Season Award.

Commons later played five games in the Scottish Championship for Hibernian during a loan deal in 2016/17, scoring twice.

He was released by Celtic in the summer of 2017. Commons was briefly linked with a return to Hibs, this time on a permanent deal, but those links never materialised, and he ultimately called time on his career.

A 12-cap Scottish international, Commons experienced the very highest levels of football on several occasions. He finished his career with 13 Champions League appearances played from start to finish when Celtic famously beat Barcelona 2-1 in 2012.

However, his departure from Derby will always be disappointing to look back on, given that the player himself was so keen to stay. But from a Celtic perspective, the £300,000 fee turned out to be an absolute stroke of genius.