Frank Lampard made £2.75m Derby County transfer blunder - He never lived up to "exciting" Pride Park claim | OneFootball

Frank Lampard was extremely enthusiastic about the arrival of Florian Jozefzoon at Derby, but this signing couldn't have gone much worse for either.

When Frank Lampard arrived at Derby County in the summer of 2018, he was arriving at a club with big ambitions, but one of his first signings as their manager turned out to be a huge flop.

Florian Jozefzoon arrived at Pride Park a few weeks after Lampard did with a decent reputation. A product of the Ajax youth academy, over the previous few years he'd impressed at Brentford after having arrived at the club from PSV Eindhoven in January 2017.

The former Dutch youth international posted seven goals and seven assists apiece during his second and final Championship campaign in West London, which caught the attention of Lampard/

And this was clearly a player that Lampard wanted. Derby's first bid for him of £1.5 million was rejected by the Bees, only for them to return with a second offer of £2.75 million, which was accepted.

Frank Lampard was enthusiastic about Florian Jozefzoon's Derby County arrival

Josefzoon arrived at a club which had a hint of desperation about them in their pursuit of a place in the Premier League. The 2017/18 season had ended in heartbreak for Derby, with defeat to Fulham in the semi-finals of the play-offs, and the club's owner, Mel Morris, was prepared to spend heavily to get his side back into the top flight.

He arrived at the club alongside loan signings Mason Mount and Harry Wilson, and Lampard couldn't have been much more effusive about his arrival, telling the club's website: "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".

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

Florian Josefzoon became an emblem of Derby's bad decision-making

But things didn't work out as anybody hoped, and the signs were there from extremely early on. Josefzoon made his debut from the bench in Derby's first home game of the 2018/19 season against Leeds United, a fixture which has had a bit of needle about it for decades.

But Leeds won 4-1 and Jozefzoon was largely ineffectual. Ironically, Leeds had matched Derby's £2.75 million bid for him that summer, only for the player to prefer Pride Park over Elland Road.

The remainder of his time with the club didn't go much better. Derby would get revenge on Leeds for that opening day defeat at the end of the season, beating them 4-3 on aggregate to get to Wembley and a place in the Championship play-off final.

But Josefzoon's role in this tie was minimal; he was left out of the team altogether for the first leg, and was an unused substitute for the second. And then Derby lost the play-off final 2-1 to Aston Villa, with Josefzoon getting on the pitch with 17 minutes to play but making little impact.

Frank Lampard left Derby for Chelsea that summer. Florian Josefzoon would only make another 14 appearances for the Rams the following season, and was sent on loan to Rotherham United in October 2020, having not even been given a squad number by Derby for the 2020/21 season. He was released upon the expiry of his contract with Derby the following year and went to France, to play for Ligue 2 club Quevilly-Rouen.