Difficult for Derby to build on last term - Eustace

Head coach John Eustace says the "realism" at Derby County is they will find it hard to challenge for Premier League promotion like they initially intended to this season. The candid admission from the 46-year-old is at odds with what Rams chief executive Stephen Pearce has had to say about the club's aims. Pearce has previously spoken about Derby wanting to "push on" this season while insisting ambitions of going up had not changed "in the slightest" when asked if club's failed summer takeover had stalled their plans. After a disrupted summer, in which prominent Saudi Arabia government official Turki Al-Sheikh abruptly pulled out of his agreement to buy the club from David Clowes an hour before the deal was expected to be competed, the Rams are languishing in the Championship relegation places after eight games. The early season struggles follow a 2025-26 season in which the club fell just short of the play-off spots, finishing outside the top six on the final day of the season. Eustace admits he is "not 100% sure what message is" from the club about their aims, but added he is "fully behind" whatever it is, even though he has tried to temper expectations. "It's going to be very difficult to build on last season, obviously, when you look at the squad and how everyone else has improved," Eustace told BBC Radio Derby. "It's where we are now and as long as that realism from everyone connected with the football club understands that it's going to be very difficult to get into that top eight until everyone else is fit and available, then let's see how the season evolves. "If we can't chase the dream this year, then there is no problems; we have to start again and look to build a really competitive team over the next two or three years that is going to be together. "We don't want to sign players, five loan players like we did last season, then lose them all and have to start again." Takeover collapse took wind out of sails - Pearce How perfect storm has rained on Derby's parade Eustace glad 'drama is over' after Derby takeover collapse While three of last season loan players - Bobby Clark, David Ozoh and Sam Szmodics - were signed on permanent contracts in the summer, the absence of options to buy their loanees meant they missed out on bringing Chile international Ben Brereton-Diaz back to Pride Park. He instead left Southampton for a summer move to Sheffield United. Eustace also confirmed Canada international Liam Millar, who made a deadline day loan move from Hull to Birmingham City, and Blues winger Patrick Roberts were transfer targets that the club failed to land during a summer of uncertainty around the club's ownership. "There was a lot happening in the summer with the takeover that you have to remember that we have gone from one extreme to the other, possibly," he said. "It's all part of adapting and adjusting as best we can." While there were high-profile attacking targets that the Rams could not get over the line without the financial flex of new investment, Eustace says loan striker Henrik Meister - whose agreement with Pisa includes a option to buy the Dane - and Union Saint-Gilloise loanee Mohammed Fuseini are exciting additions. "It's my job is to coach the team and get the best out of the group," he said. "You are talking about two really top Championship wingers there [in Millar and Roberts] and we will get to that position with Mo and Henrik - it's important that they have come in, and now they are developing and have to we get them up to speed as quickly as we can." Beyond the takeover turmoil and signings that escaped Derby, the club has also dealt with horrendous injury issues, with Sweden goalkeeper Jacob Widell Zetterstrom, last season's player of the season Matt Clarke and long-serving Craig Forsyth among a number of high profile absentees. "We are in a position where we have got a squad of players that, if everyone is fit, then we are very very strong," Eustace said. "But unfortunately it is very evident that not everyone is fit, and now we have get through a really difficult period." Latest Derby County news, analysis and fan views