Derby’s season turns into a nightmare with drink-drive shocker, boss fighting for job and bookie sponsor storm
TWO star players on a drink-driving charge.
The captain’s career under threat from a horror injury.
A Holland legend fighting to save his job as manager.
And not forgetting Wayne Rooney’s impending arrival amid a bookie-sponsor storm.
To say that Derby’s season is turning into a nightmare is an understatement.
The only saving grace from Tuesday’s car crash — which saw Tom Lawrence and Mason Bennett charged with drink-driving and skipper Richard Keogh left with a season-ending knee injury — is that nobody was killed.
Boss Phillip Cocu is a calm man but was understandably rattled when he faced the media on Thursday.
He felt the players concerned were reckless and irresponsible and that any sort of trust between the coaching staff and squad — especially the senior stars — had been lost.
After all, not only had Derby organised the team-bonding session, they even provided transport home from the Joiner’s Arms in Quarndon so the players could have a drink.
The fact at least three of them decided to ignore that gesture and set off on a drive which resulted in a smash on the A6 will have left Cocu, who departed after dinner earlier in the evening, fuming.
And what of the man installed as the new skipper, Tom Huddlestone?
He filmed Bennett sinking a pint and being sick in a pub toilet, then uploaded the footage to social media.
Then there is the irony of Bennett, 23, being the club’s ambassador at Drinkaware’s Walking Football Cup earlier this month when he presented the trophy to the winning team, Nottingham Forest.
Cocu labelled his players ‘arrogant’ after a 3-0 defeat at Brentford last month. But he could not have expected this sort of behaviour.
Derby have yet to confirm the extent of defender Keogh’s injury but, at 33, if he has sustained extensive knee ligament damage then he faces a huge battle to get fit again.
Lawrence’s Range Rover and Bennett’s Mercedes GLC crashed at Allestree. Keogh is believed to have been a passenger in Lawrence’s car.
Cocu offered some concern for forward Lawrence, 25, whose mother Deb died while he was playing for Derby last season under previous boss Frank Lampard.
He said: “It’s been a hard and difficult time. We have to keep a close eye on him. He’s still a young guy. It’s a lot to deal with.”
Lawrence’s former agent is Peter Morrison, who was jailed for seven years for killing a traffic officer when he was speeding at 81mph on the M6 while sending up to 25 WhatsApp messages.
The 2016 crash left a second officer paralysed.
Lampard brought the feel-good factor to Pride Park — steering the club to last season’s Championship play-off final before leaving to take over at Chelsea.
But it has taken just four months to wipe that out.
It will be a gloomy atmosphere at today’s home clash against Birmingham.
Cocu is still waiting for his first home victory, with the opening-day win at Huddersfield his only three points so far.
The ex-Dutch international came under fire from fans for fielding a weakened side for the Carabao Cup defeat at Nottingham Forest last month, seemingly unaware of the intense rivalry between the clubs.
All of this before Rooney is due to arrive in January.
That move was hit by controversy when it was announced that Derby secured a bumper deal with their shirt sponsor — online casino 32Red — and handed Rooney the No 32 shirt as part of a package thought to be worth around £90,000-a-week.
Sports Minister Nigel Adams describes the move as ‘very crafty’.
Derby were also forced to issue a statement this month saying they had complied with Financial Fair Play rules following the sale of their stadium for £80million to a company owned by club chairman Mel Morris, who then leased it back.
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It was a move which Middlesbrough threatened to sue the EFL for allowing it to happen.
And Keogh was involved in a clash with a member of Forest’s groundstaff during the warm-down which left him with a cut to his head. As Keogh returned to the tunnel, he said: “He’s a f*****g bellend.”
Cocu might be using similar words to describe some of his players.