Hendrick one for future as he knocks on door at Rams
NIGEL Clough sees Jeff Hendrick as a big part of Derby County's future plans but the Rams will be without the promising young midfielder for most of pre-season.
Hendrick has been named in the Republic of Ireland squad for the UEFA Under-19 Championships in Romania this month.
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Jeff Hendrick
The eight-team tournament runs from July 20 to August 1 and the Republic will prepare at a training camp in Rome from Sunday.
Hendrick is training with the Rams first-team squad at Moor Farm and Clough has been delighted with the 19-year-old's development and progress in the past 12 months.
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The manager says Hendrick is knocking on the door of the first team.
"Of the youngsters, Jeff is the closest and if we don't get another midfielder in, he will be even closer," added Clough.
"He has progressed a lot in the past 12 months. He has matured, physically as well as mentally."
Hendrick was a key figure for the Reserves in their totesport.com League success last season and he appeared as a substitute for the first team in the final four matches of the Championship campaign.
Clough was keen to take a close look at Hendrick in the upcoming pre-season friendlies and the Rams boss is a little frustrated about losing the player for a number of weeks.
"We would love to have had him involved with us during pre-season but this is too good an opportunity for him to miss," said Clough.
"He was involved in Ireland's qualification campaign and deserves the chance to go and play in the finals.
"Being involved in the tournament means he will keep fit and be playing games, so when he does return he will be back involved with the squad."
Hendrick has shown up well in the first week of pre-season.
"The only reason you have doubts about starting with Jeff in the coming season is because he hasn't played," said Clough.
"If he was 25 years old and you saw what we see out there on the training ground, you would say he was in your starting 11.
"But when he is 19 you do have to be a little bit careful.
"We don't like to talk about individual players but let's just use John Eustace as an example because he has been identified as a target of ours.
"John has got 13 or 14 years experience on Jeff, or something like that, but there is not an awful lot John does that Jeff can't and you would hope in six months to a year's time Jeff will be doing what John does anyway.
"That still doesn't mean we don't need the likes of John in to get us through."
The Republic of Ireland are in the Under-19s finals for the first time since 2002 and they have been drawn in the same group as Greece, the Czech Republic and hosts Romania.
They start against Greece on July 20 and face the Czech Republic (July 23) and Romania (July 26).
The top two teams will qualify from each group and the semi-finals are on July 29 and the final on August 1.
Spain, Turkey, Serbia and Belgium are in the other group.
Derby have first-team friendlies against Burton Albion (July 16), Macclesfield Town (July 19), Morecambe (July 22), Crewe (July 26), Exeter City (July 30) and Aston Villa (August 3).
Comments
by Pridewoodpark
Saturday, July 09 2011, 8:29PM
“I'd like to see Micheal Tongue,back here.Thought he added some class to our midfield.May be it's his wages.We could then get rid of Pearson.”
by Russell2011
Friday, July 08 2011, 9:57PM
“Rumour has it the Mouse will be arriving next week”
by Longpigmss
Friday, July 08 2011, 3:46PM
“It's a fair point Bob, but your opinion is based on 1 season.
I used to live in Coventry and as a result kept and eye on them and hoped they were ******* than derby. They call him John Useless there, so you can see he's not always a hit. He also spent more time injured than playing and when he was fit he was loaned out.
He had a good season last, but he's not someone I dream about coming to Derby. I also think your picture is not as big as you think it is. Hopefully for your missus your exaggeration stops there.”
by B_o_b1
Friday, July 08 2011, 11:48AM
“John Eustace - played 42 games for a team that finished higher than us last season and was captain and player of the year. I'd be more inclined to take that as a reflection of his ability than a few games played for us on loan fur us when short of match fitness and not settled. Still, what would I know. I only look at the bigger picture before forming an opinion... ;)”
by BreastonRam
Friday, July 08 2011, 11:45AM
“Nice comment, Heanor Ram.”
by HeanorRam
Friday, July 08 2011, 11:02AM
“Pete , you may have a point ! He looked a good player when he had the chance last season and the more he plays the better he will become. Happy we are moving forward as a club, my opinion is its the right way to go.
For too long players have been charging huge sums just to turn up and sit on a bench at a club, in time the money has not been passed from club to club in transfer funds but from club to agent and players and as a result has gone out of football.
What we are seeing at Derby is a forward thinking club who have realised that young hungry and talented players can be got for a reasonable fee and on a reasonable salary. I would prefer to go back to the way it was with higher transfer fee's and lower wages but we can't so that's that. Building through our academy and reserves is the way to go and buying a mixture of experienced and you talent is for me a master stroke by Nigel and TG.
Yes last season was at times brilliant and at times awful no getting away from that, but when you see players showing heart and passion and giving 100% it's a far easier road to success than when you see no effort or ability from a lacklustre overpaid journeyman.
This season i will as always start with a dream of promotion or a trophy win at Wembley and that will never change, to be a football supporter you have to believe you can do it even if the odds are stacked against you. Its sport and anything can happen :)”
by Longpigmss
Friday, July 08 2011, 10:38AM
“I'd rather give this guy a chance than sign John Useless, but I do think we need to sign and experienced midfielder. Addison could have done the job if fit as well, but again is pretty young still.
I hope we look towards someone other than Eustace though for that experience.”
by Taffram
Friday, July 08 2011, 10:16AM
“We'll how the Irish u19s do in the tournament, if he's any good he should influence the team from midfield. I was never particularly excited by the prospect of signing John Eutace, David Norris would have been good, recently moved from Ipswich to Portsmouth on a free.”
by PeteDerby1
Friday, July 08 2011, 8:42AM
“Is this the start of the softening for a failed attempt to land John Eustace, or is Hendrick really that good?”