And it is indeed a loan, till January. The Club is delighted to confirm the signing of Chris Martin from Derby County on a season long loan. The 27-year-old striker was born in Suffolk but is a full Scotland international, eligible because of his father. He joined Norwich City’s academy at a young age and made his debut for the first team a few months after his 18th birthday. He quickly impressed after breaking into the Canaries’ senior side, scoring the winner on his third appearance, before netting in four consecutive Championship matches. Martin scored 13 goals when he spent the 2008/09season on loan at Luton Town, including at Wembley as they beat Scunthorpe United 3-2 in the Football League Trophy Final. He returned to Norwich the following campaign, and was on target 23 times in 48 appearances as they won the League One title. Further loan spells with Crystal Palace, Swindon Town and Derby followed, before he joined the Rams permanently in the summer of 2013. He departed Norwich having scored 34 goals in 117 outings. His first season as a permanent Derby player was a prolific one, as he found the net 25 times as they reached the Championship Play-Off Final, where a late Bobby Zamora goal condemned them to defeat by Queens Park Rangers. Four days later he was handed his Scotland debut in a 2-2 draw with Nigeria at Craven Cottage. Martin was also a regular scorer in the subsequent two seasons, taking his Derby County tally to 61 goals in 148 outings. He scored his first Scotland goal in qualifying for the 2016 European Championship, and he is currently with the squad ahead of their World Cup Qualifier against Malta.
Must be used to it. He was still in his Sotland strip when he signed. please log in to view this image
Happy with this, plus the young Brazilian lad from Chelsea. I think Jokanovic has got decent signings in all the positions we needed. I'm now officially optimistic for the season.
Seconded. Guess tomorrow we might get some more detail about the loan deal for Martin and draw conclusions about the money implications. Also perhaps what went wrong with the Cyriac deal - which is presumably why we switched late on to Piazon. Building on the optimistic note, the really good news is our holding on to Ryan Sessegnon despite some late pressure - believe from Man City.
Never going to take to Piazon. He played for Malaga and is from Chelsea. Only thing that could have made him worse for me is if he'd been a tour guide at Betis's ground during his free time.
Chris Martin is the last of a stunningly good set of 14 signings this window. You could almost say he completes a sky full of stars for us.
I wouldn't hold his past against him; there is more rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents and all that.
Looking at the deal we struck with Derby, it seems to be season long loan fee of £2.5m (although some have put it as low as £1.6m) and an option to buy at the end for between £4.5m and £6m. [I suspect the lower figure is on the assumption that the loan fee can be deducted from the transfer price.] But why a loan and not an outright purchase? First, getting a proven striker and especially one who should fit our system for around £2m, given some of the prices that we've seen, is great business. He'll be 28 when the option to buy comes up and we'll know by then exactly what we're getting and maybe more importantly (dependent on our fortunes for the rest of the season) what we need. Also though - and this is total guesswork - there was the distinct likelihood that we were still angling to buy Cyriac (£5m??) and had stuff like FFP in mind. As it turned out it appears Oostende tried to gazump us (not the first time a Dutch club has done that) and we told them to b.. off. Instead going at the last minute for Piazon on loan to cover our bets. Guess we can always go back for Cryiac in January if needs be. All in all a decent and sound bit of business.
Actually, I think the loan is sensible. It could well play in with FFP, the rules of which are still a mystery to me, but if he isn't actually all that good - and I have read reports that he isn't and has attitude problems (albeit from Derby fans who may just have the hump he has left them, rather like Leeds fans did with Rosco) then we can put our foot firmly on his backside in May next year. Everyone's a winner.
One possible reason for the loan rather than a permanent transfer is that loan deals are much quicker and easier for clubs to process at the sharp end of a transfer deadline.
