Derby County and Nigel Clough could not have predicted how Norwich City loan agreement would work out: View | OneFootball

Chris Martin joined the Rams on loan in 2013, before going on to make over 200 appearances in an eight-year stay at Pride Park.

Derby County's 2012/13 season is one that is remembered mostly for the arrival of two modern-day club legends.

The Rams had finally recovered from their terrible 2007/08 Premier League campaign, and while they had finally made the jump from the bottom-half of the Championship table to the top-half, it still looked as though they were years away from making that final step back towards the play-off places.

However, a decision made by Nigel Clough in February 2013 was the catalyst for the relative success that Derby had for the rest of the 2010s.

Having already brought in Craig Forsyth on loan, Clough worked a deal with Norwich City to sign Chris Martin on a one-month deal, before his loan was extended for the rest of the season.

While he did struggle for goals during his short time at Pride Park in 2012/13, it set him up for a fantastic career with the Rams.

Martin's loan deal proved to be an extraordinary one for Derby

While he had struggled for minutes at Norwich in the Championship, he proved to be a huge part of Clough's plans during his loan, starting in all but one of his 13 appearances and scoring twice.

The son of legendary manager Brian Clough, Nigel was so fond of the striker that he brought him back to Derby for the 2013/14 campaign on a permanent deal, as Martin left the Canaries on a free.

Despite Clough being sacked in September 2013, the Rams' number nine immediately proved why his former boss was so keen to bring him to the club. Over the course of the season, he scored 22 goals in the league, helping the Rams to third in the table before scoring twice in the play-off semi-finals.

Steve McClaren was able to get the most out of the then 24-year-old, with Martin combining excellently with Jamie Ward and Johnny Russell to give the team a fantastic chance at promotion that was not taken, as Bobby Zamora sent QPR to the Premier League with a last minute winner in the 2014 play-off final.

The striker continued to play a major role in the next two seasons, scoring 33 times in the Championship in 80 appearances between 2014 and 2016, as the Rams' stay in the second tier extended.

Rams fans will never forget the impact Martin had following his short loan spell

11 years after his original loan spell, Derby's supporters are possibly still in disbelief at how Martin developed, especially considering his goal-record in those 13 games was not spectacular.

Nevertheless, he played a key part in the Rams' relative success throughout the 2010s, although he was sent on three loans towards the latter stages of his career at Pride Park, playing for Fulham, Hull City and Reading.

However, Martin was given one last chance in black-and-white in 2019/20 under the guidance of Phillip Cocu, scoring three goals in his first four appearances of the season.

While it was not the easiest of years for Derby, he ended the campaign with 11 goals in 35 appearances, including a last minute equaliser against bitter rivals Nottingham Forest in his sixth to last game as a Ram.

Martin ended his career at Pride Park with 76 goals in 224 appearances, seven years after he was signed by Clough on a one-month deal. It was a move that perhaps nobody saw coming, and will be one that will be hard to replicate at any point in the future.