ACADEMY NEWS: Quartet Join Up With Rams Under-21s

Derby County’s Under-21s squad has been bolstered with the arrival of four new signings.

Morten Spencer, Alex Stepien-Iwumene (pictured above), Jerome Richards and Emmanuel Ilesanmi have all linked up with Jake Buxton’s squad on a permanent basis.

Norwegian midfielder Spencer was most recently with Leeds United and he featured regularly in Premier League 2 during his time with the Whites.

Midfielder Stepien-Iwumene left Southampton in the summer and spent some time on trial with Derby’s Under-21s towards the end of last season, featuring in a handful of matches.

Richards, also a midfielder, also had a period with Derby’s Academy on a trial basis last season, having impressed at Enfield Town at youth level.

Forward Ilesanmi was previously with Harrogate Town and made six first team appearances across the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons.

In addition to the quartet linking up with Derby’s Under-21s, defender Ryan Bartley (pictured above) has penned a new deal for the 2024/25 season.

Midfielder Adebayo Fapetu, who was out of contract at the end of June, has elected to move on and departs with the club’s best wishes for the future.