Frank Lampard fired blanks with ambitious £2.75m Derby County transfer | OneFootball

Dutch winger Florian Jozefzoon even rejected Leeds United to sign for the Rams from Brentford in 2018

Frank Lampard brought in nine new signings during his one and only summer transfer window at Derby County.

Three of them arrived at Pride Park within a week, which looked like impressive business on paper.

First came Mason Mount on loan from Chelsea, then Harry Wilson followed from Liverpool - yet these are two players who hardly need an introduction.

Instead, it was the third signing of said week, a permanent deal worth £2.75m for a Dutch winger from Brentford, that proved to be so disappointing.

How Frank Lampard reacted to £2.75m Derby County, Florian Jozefzoon transfer

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When Florian Jozefzoon chose Derby over Leeds United, both clubs having had identical bids of £2.75m accepted by Brentford, the expectation at Pride Park was high.

Here was a player who had scored seven goals and provided seven assists in 39 league appearances for the Bees the previous season, and also won back-to-back Dutch titles with PSV.

Lampard said at the time of the 27-year-old signing for Derby, "Florian is a player that I have been tracking since I first got the job here so it’s fantastic for us to get the deal done.

"I watched him at Brentford last season and he is an exciting player. He is willing to run at and in behind defenders so his speed and creativity make him another really strong addition to our squad.

"At 27 I think he’s in a prime age and I am sure he can bring all his excellent qualities to Derby County."

The ex-Chelsea legend even reserved special praise for the club's recruitment effort in getting all three deals over the line that week, adding, "Credit should go to the club for getting this deal, and the Mason Mount and Harry Wilson signings, over the line this week."

While Mount and Wilson obviously went on to become full England and Wales internationals who both played in the Premier League, Jozefzoon's career went in the entirely opposite direction.

Florian Jozefzoon was apparently the 'most skilful' player at Derby County

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What made Jozefzoon’s Derby spell so baffling was that teammates constantly praised what he could do in training.

Several of his Rams teammates named him as the most skilful player at the club. Yet there was a huge gap between what he showed at Moor Farm and what he produced on matchdays.

Across his entire stint at the East Midlands outfit, Jozefzoon only managed three goals and two assists in 48 appearances.

Albeit very few, there were glimpses when he reminded everyone why Lampard had been so keen to sign him, though. But, it's also worth noting that the attacker only started 13 times in the Championship during his first season at the club.

His late winner against Hull City secured a fourth successive victory for the Rams in September during the 18/19 season. At Carrow Road against Norwich City a couple of months later, in the same campaign - when the floodlights went out - Jozefzoon equalised in the 87th minute.

The next one's a massive reach but it shows just how disappointing he was to watch. At Wembley in the Championship play-off final against Aston Villa, Lampard turned to Jozefzoon from the bench, and the substitute delivered a cross that Jayden Bogle headed back across goal for Jack Marriott to make it 2-1 with nine minutes remaining.

The following season, Marcelo Bielsa led Leeds to promotion from the Championship, ending their 16-year exile from the Premier League. Had Jozefzoon made the short trip up the M1 instead, things could have been very different.

Meanwhile, Brentford themselves earned promotion to the top flight two years after that, in 2021, having replaced Jozefzoon in the summer of 2018 with Said Benrahma.

The irony was that Lampard’s successor, Phillip Cocu, was the coach who’d guided Jozefzoon to consecutive Eredivisie titles at PSV.

You might have expected the reunion to spark something in him, but the opposite happened. Things declined to the point where Cocu didn’t even give Jozefzoon a squad number for 20/21, making it clear the winger had no future at Derby. He later joined Rotherham United on loan, but that stint was just as disappointing.

In February 2026, Jozefzoon announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 35.