Derby County: Paul Clement dubbed Norwich City signing a “major coup” – he made 140 apps for the Rams
When Derby County paid a then-club-record fee of £6m for Bradley Johnson from Norwich City, head coach Paul Clement described the signing as a “major coup” for the club, but while Johnson was never able to take the club to the top flight, they certainly got value for money out of him.
“Being able to bring Bradley to Derby represents a major coup for the football club. As I have said before, the midfield position is one we have been trying to strengthen, not just with numbers but with quality, and Bradley certainly brings that in abundance”, said Clement in the press release which accompanied the announcement on transfer deadline day 2015. “His experience will prove invaluable to us. He knows how to get out of this division, he has played a lot of Premier League football and is a leader.”
Johnson’s signature was a signal of intent for Derby’s ambitious new owner
Derby knew that they were getting a lot of footballer for their money when they signed Johnson from Norwich. At 29 years old, he’d already made over 100 League appearances for both Leeds United and the Canaries.
He’d been part of Leeds’ League One promotion-winning team in 2010 and had also been a regular in the Norwich team of 2015 which won promotion to the Premier League by beating Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off final.
In total, he made 101 Premier League appearances and 41 Championship appearances for the Canaries. He’d even played in the first four of Norwich’s Premier League matches of the 2015/16 season prior to them selling him to Derby, including an appearance in the 3-0 win against Southampton played just two days prior to his departure.
Derby were just about to embark upon a period in their history which would go on to have long-lasting repercussions for them. Web entrepreneur and businessman Mel Morris first acquired a 22% stake in Derby in May 2014, taking full control of the club for the start of the following season.
Morris had big plans for the club he’d supported as a youngster, and Johnson’s signing was the type that makes a statement, a highly experienced Premier League player with years already behind him. He was exactly the sort of player who could get the Rams back into the top flight for the first time since their disastrous 2007/08 season, when they’d won just one of their 38 League matches and were relegated with a record-low 11 points.
Johnson couldn’t quite get Derby to the promised land
Johnson couldn’t quite get Derby back into the Premier League, but it wasn’t for a want of trying. Johnson made 125 league appearances over those four seasons, scoring 14 goals. In total, he made 140 appearances for the Rams.
Derby reached the Championship play-offs three times in his four seasons at Pride Park, losing to Hull City in the semi-finals in 2016, to Fulham in the semi-finals in 2018, and then to Aston Villa in the final in 2019.
And if there was a reason for Derby missing out in this way, it rested elsewhere within the club. Clement, whose comments about Johnson had been so effusive, was sacked in February 2016, with blame being put on Clement for not “building on the Derby way and style of football enjoyed in the past two seasons”. He’d only been in the position for eight months.
It was far from the last time that something like this would happen while Johnson was at the club. Nigel Pearson was brought in at the end of the 2015/16 season but only lasted until September before leaving following a row with Morris.
He was replaced by the former England manager Steve McClaren, but McClaren was also sacked in March 2017. Next up was Gary Rowett, but he left for Stoke at the end of the 2017/18 season. Frank Lampard replaced him and was still at the club when Johnson left the club following another play-off failure and went to Blackburn Rovers on a free transfer at the end of the 2018/19 season, although he left for Chelsea shortly afterwards.
Johnson played three years at Blackburn before moving to Milton Keynes, where he spent one final season before returning to Derby as a player-coach in 2023. He remains there to this day as an assistant coach to their under-18s team, and was part of the caretaker team that briefly took control of first-team affairs following the sacking of John Eustace in February 2025. Derby haven’t yet got as close to a return to the Premier League since Johnson left for Blackburn in 2019.
Whilst Johnson never quite got Derby to the Premier League, as Clement predicted he might help to do, he was still part of the club’s most successful period of the last decade. That can not be forgotten.
