Rowett Pleased With Progress In ‘Patient’ Summer

Gary Rowett is content with how his plans to improve Derby County’s squad are progressing at this stage.

The Rams’ 2016/17 Sky Bet Championship campaign came to an end just under three weeks ago, and Rowett has been hard at work ever since.

With Derby’s full pre-season programme and retained list confirmed within a week of the season concluding, Rowett is working hard behind the scenes to add to his squad.

He says a lot of the work taking place is unseen at this point and has, once again, made it clear that patience will be very much required when it comes to bringing players in.

The Derby boss admits he knows what is required to move the side forward - and has a clear vision of the type of players he wants to bring in to bolster the ranks.

He told RamsTV: “In terms of the summer so far, it’s going well and we know exactly what we want to do, what we want to achieve and where we want to go to.

“It’s like the old iceberg analogy really; ninth tenths of the work is done under water. Until you see that little bit of the iceberg pop out, people don’t realise how hard you’re having to work to keep it all going.

“There’s lots of meetings and phone calls taking place, as well as strategy around what type of player we want and how they fit in.

“Of course, as we know, at this stage of the season you can get plenty of rejection where someone decides they want to go somewhere else – so you have to move on to the next target.”

He added: “It is a summer where you have to be very, very patient. As I’ve said before, we’re hoping that we can get a couple of deals done early – but I am struggling to remember any deals that are done before June!

“You’re very fortunate if you can get anyone in before then, and even during that month it isn’t that easy.”

Getting a player to put pen-to-paper can be a complex and drawn out process.

Using his experience from previous transfer windows at Burton Albion and Birmingham City, Rowett knows patience and endurance are very much required.

He says it isn’t as simple as having one target, picking up the phone and getting the player himself to drive down and put pen-to-paper.

Having just one target would be a cardinal sin so, instead, Rowett isn’t working on that basis.

Importantly, the 43-year-old insists it is important to move on quickly if a deal doesn’t look like it will come to fruition.

He explained: “Let’s say we want to strengthen in four positions, for example. We’ll probably have five main targets in those positions.

“You can very quickly run through those targets and find that they’ve re-signed at their club, a Premier League club has come in for them or you cannot afford that individual.

“There can be a multitude of different reasons behind that and, if something isn’t going to work out, you have to move on quickly.

“Agents are really clever; rather than ruling something out they can keep things stringing along and you have to try and stay in the race – even though you know you might not win it.

“At that point you do have to start moving on to other targets, but keeping some plates spinning if you like.

“To get one signing done, you might have had to chase about 15 players in all. That’s how much endurance you have to have.”

He hopes that factor can play a key role in his summer recruitment, but knows there’s a lot of work to get through before anyone puts pen-to-paper.

He said: “We’re in a fortunate position here at Derby in that people want to come to the club.

“That’s the biggest thing that I have found, certainly between my time at Birmingham and here at Derby – and that’s without any disrespect to Birmingham.

“For example, we spent about six weeks chasing James Wilson from Manchester United last summer but, I would imagine, he was waiting for Derby.

“We’re finding that players want to come to this club and that’s the first step. The next one, is making it happen, when you have the agents and finances to deal with.”