Derby County should battle Bolton Wanderers for Lincoln City star if Liverpool pursuit fails | OneFootball

The Rams could look to snatch Sean Roughan if their pursuit of Nat Phillips is unsuccessful.

Derby County should attempt to battle Bolton Wanderers for Lincoln City’s young star Sean Roughan, if their pursuit of Nat Phillips proves to be unsuccessful.

Phillips has spent the season at Pride Park, having been loaned to the club by Liverpool last summer. With his contract expiring this summer, John Eustace has admitted he would like to bring the defender in permanently, but Derby will surely face plenty of competition.

However, if they ultimately miss out on Phillips, then the Rams should turn their attention to Lincoln centre half, Sean Roughan.

The 21-year-old is also out of contract in the summer and looks set to have a big future ahead of him, however, Bolton are already understood to be chasing him.

Derby want to sign Nat Phillips permanently

After surviving the prospect of relegation to League One on the final day of the season, attention at Pride Park will now turn towards ensuring Derby are comfortably clear of the battle at the bottom of the table next term.

In John Eustace, they have an exciting young manager who has already proven himself in a variety of different jobs. He had a pre-takeover Birmingham City side sitting in the Championship play-offs before he was unceremoniously relieved of his duties, and also had Blackburn inside the top six when he opted to switch to Derby earlier this year.

He has since turned the Rams’ fortunes on their head, leading a resurgence that has seen them secure their second-tier status following promotion last term.

Liverpool loanee Phillips is one of the men who has been central to that turnaround. The 28-year-old played every single minute of Derby’s last 11 league games, becoming a key cog in a defence which crucially kept clean sheets in three of the last four matches.

The centre back even popped up with a huge moment at the other end of the pitch, netting a vital late winner at Hull City on the penultimate weekend of the campaign.

Phillips’ deal at Anfield is set to expire this summer, and, with the defender having not made a competitive appearance for his parent club since the 2022/23 season, he will surely be moving on to a new club.

While he has never really become a first-team regular on Merseyside, he has built a fairly big reputation for himself across several loan spells. He has proven himself to be extremely effective at Championship level across loan spells with Derby, Cardiff and Bournemouth, while he also got a brief taste of Champions League football during a stint at Celtic in 2023/24.

With that in mind, there are sure to be several clubs in the second tier who have their eyes fixed on Phillips’ situation this summer.

Eustace has insisted that Derby will be one of those clubs, with the 45-year-old branding the defender as “outstanding” after their safety was confirmed.

Given how fruitful his loan spell has been, Derby will surely be hopeful of landing Phillips permanently, although wages could be a stumbling block, with the centre back having sat on a Premier League contract for the last few years.

Derby should target Sean Roughan if they can’t get Phillips

If Derby can’t get hold of Phillips this summer, they should instead focus on trying to secure a deal for Lincoln centre back, Sean Roughan.

FLW exclusively revealed that Bolton are currently lining up a move for the youngster, who is out of contract at Sincil Bank this summer.

Given the way that Roughan has developed over the last few years with the Imps, he is surely ready for a step-up to a higher level.

The fact that Derby can offer Championship football could provide them with a significant edge if they were to chase the defender, although, just like Phillips, it is highly unlikely they would be the only club trying to lure him away.

The Irish youth international has already amassed almost 150 league appearances for Lincoln at the age of 21, and has been an ever-present this season, having failed to miss a single minute of League One and FA Cup action.

With such experience at his tender age, Roughan has a huge potential to develop and, naturally, with that comes the potential for a huge re-sale value.

While he is free to leave Lincoln without the need for a transfer fee (if he fails to agree a new deal over the next few weeks), the third-tier side would be entitled to receive a development compensation fee, as a result of his age.

While it is currently unclear exactly what that fee could turn out to be, that could raise a possible issue for Derby.