After being eliminated from the Championship promotion playoffs, Derby County manager Steve McClaren turned his focus towards building his squad for next season including keeping Chelsea FC loanee Patrick Bamford on board. The Rams finished third in the nPower Championship and were eliminated in the playoff by QPR courtesy of a late Bobby Zamora strike. Despite the elimination, McClaren felt the season could be seen as a success and wanted to bring back the loan players who were crucial during the season such as Bamford, Liverpool’s Andre Wisdom, and West Brom’s George Thorne.



Bamford has scored eight goals in 21 appearances for the Rams and has stated his wish to be Chelsea’s third striker next season . He has benefited greatly from his spell at Derby and has shown that he can perform at the Championship level. He has returned to the Blues and will likely get a good chance to prove himself in the club’s preseason tour especially with the club’s stars going through the trials of the World Cup.

Steve McClaren on keeping Patrick Bamford and Derby’s season:

“We’ll look back with a bit of anger, sadness and remorse but in a few days when we talk of the future, it looks bright. The next stage is keeping the players we have under contract together. I’d like to sort out the likes of Wisdom and Thorne and Bamford. Maybe we have a chance of getting them back because I think they’ve enjoyed their time here. “When we came in, we never dreamt we’d be third with 85 points, top scorers. And the key thing is the style of play. It takes courage to play because you have to take risks and sometimes we’ve lost because of that, but most of the time we’ve won. We didn’t win on Saturday but we have to keep that style of play because I enjoy watching it and the players will enjoy playing it. They’re all the positives and there’s only been one real negative, and it’s very cruel.”

While the prospect of having Patrick Bamford may excite the Chelsea fans that want the club to focus more on its youth, it does not seem likely at this point. If Chelsea brass decide that Bamford needs another loan in the Championship then a return to familiar surroundings at Derby may be the ideal situation. They could however decide that a more aggressive loan is needed for his development and he could end up at another Premier League club for the season.

Follow us on Twitter at @PrideOLondon

Like us on Facebook at The Pride of London