Derby County supporters will be saddened to know that in 2017 they were very close to signing a player who has now just reached the Euro 2024 final.
Derby County are currently assembling a squad ahead of the Championship campaign.
Dutch midfielder Kenzo Goudmijn was the latest to arrive at Pride Park on Wednesday, becoming their fourth signing of the summer.
The 22-year-old joins fellow midfielder Ben Osborn and forwards Kayden Jackson and Jerry Yates in bolstering Paul Warne’s squad.
Derby have had a relative period of success in the transfer window but that hasn’t always been the case and in 2017, they could have signed a player who has just reached the Euro 2024 final.
Ollie Watkins is one that got away from Derby County
Ollie Watkins cemented his name into England folklore last night after firing a 90th-minute winner against the Netherlands as Gareth Southgate’s men reached the Euro 2024 final.
The Aston Villa marksman was introduced in the 81st minute along with Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, and the pair combined for the winning goal, sparking scenes of jubilation across the UK.
Watkins has risen to prominence as one of the best strikers in Europe under Unai Emery and after scoring the winning goal in a Euro semi-final, his value will skyrocket even higher.
Whilst Derby fans will be pleased he sent England into the final, where they will meet Spain on Sunday, they won’t be fond of knowing they almost signed the forward from Exeter in 2017.
When Steve McClaren was in charge of the Rams, Watkins recalled Derby being close to signing him in January 2017 but the reason a deal fell through was down to money, as they weren’t willing to pay the extra that Exeter demanded.
Speaking in 2020, the Villa striker said: “Steve McClaren wanted to sign me, and I wanted to go there at the time. Then it kind of fell through – so it could have been a lot different!
“I could have been a Derby player but I stayed at Exeter and things worked out for the better here at Brentford.
“It was just down to money, I think. Exeter wanted a little bit more money at the time, and a loan back, because we were doing well and ended up getting to the (League Two) play-off final that year.”
Derby County signed David Nugent instead of Ollie Watkins
Failure to capture the ‘unbelievable’ Watkins, now one of the Premier League’s best strikers, was one in a list of many transfer blunders in the Mel Morris era.
Brentford instead signed the Englishman for a bargain £1.8 million in the summer of 2017, while the Rams famously signed David Nugent in the January transfer window of that year.
Derby paid £2.5 million to sign the veteran from Middlesbrough, who was a solid Championship striker at the time but not on the same level as Watkins.
Nugent made 95 appearances in Derbyshire but only scored 17 goals while Villa’s sharpshooter bagged 24 last season alone and is firmly an elite striker at the age of 28.
Derby will forever be haunted by not signing Watkins when they had the chance, and while his career may have turned out differently if he moved to Pride Park, he was certainly far better than Nugent.