Derby County will hope to avoid past disappointment with £600k signing

Kenzo Goudmijn, a Dutch midfielder, was signed by Derby County on Wednesday. However, the club may be a little afraid that Goudmijn would end up like other previous Dutch Rams players.Goudmijn, 22, signed a four-year contract with Derby after Paul Warne’s team reportedly paid AZ Alkmaar £600,000 to acquire their fifth summer signing. Ben Osborn, Jerry Yates, and Kayden Jackson joined in recent weeks, while Corey Blackett-Taylor’s loan move became permanent at the beginning of the summer.

The 22-year-old appears to be a promising potential for the Rams, who head to Spain for a pre-season friendly against League One team Stockport County on Friday, July 19, as well as a training camp during the week. AZAlerts originally reported that the player was connected to a move to England at the end of June.

Goudmijn will have plenty of time to acclimate to his new teammates during this absence. Derby will begin their Championship campaign away at Blackburn Rovers, marking their first Championship campaign in two years.

The East Midlands-based club, though, might be concerned that the Dutchman might find it difficult to get off to a fast start, as Florian Jozefzoon and Mike te Wierik did in previous years.

Derby’s Dutch disasters

The Rams have struggled with their last two Dutch players, te Wierik, who joined the team in 2020, and Jozefzoon, who joined from Brentford in 2018 during Frank Lampard’s stint, despite the excitement around Goudmijn.

In February 2020, Te Wierik signed a pre-contractual agreement to join Derby ahead of the 2020–21 season. The manager, Philip Cocu, had high hopes for the center-back’s physical attributes to aid the team’s fight for the play-offs in the upcoming season.
Even though he played in the season’s first two games—against Reading in the league and Barrow in the EFL Cup—it was evident that Te Wierik was unable to keep up with the intensity of Championship football as Derby fell short of expectations.

In just his third match for the team, an EFL Cup second round matchup against Preston North End, the then-28-year-old was sent off. He played just three more games before being instructed to move on in January 2021 after receiving a suspension for the following match against Luton Town.

During his tenure at Derby, Jozefzoon—who had prior experience playing in the second division of English football—was overshadowed by the team’s other wingers.

The current Bandirmaspor player was outperformed by Harry Wilson, Tom Lawrence, and Duane Holmes, and during his third season at Pride Park, he was sent on loan to Rotherham United.

Perhaps the Rams’ most memorable moment came during their December 2018 comeback against Norwich City, when Lampard’s team overcame a 3-0 deficit to win 4–3 thanks to a Jack Marriott injury-time goal. Jozefzoon’s equalizer was his last goal in black and white, coming 2.5 years before he would eventually leave.

The Dutch winger played just 14 times in the 2019–20 season under Cocu, failing to produce the kind of results that would have justified his £2.75 million purchase. He was eventually loaned to the Millers and subsequently sold to Quevilly Rouen Metropole.