Derby County have brought an old face back into the club, with Paul Warne admitting that former forward Martyn Waghorn is currently on trial with the Rams.
How many goals has Martyn Waghorn scored?
The striker has been around the EFL for a while now, having spent 13 seasons in total playing Championship football over the course of his career. His most recent stint came with Huddersfield, although he had two teams during the 2022/23 season. He began the campaign with Coventry, featuring eleven times for them in the second tier. However, only three of those were starts and with only one goal to his name, he was allowed to leave and find football elsewhere.
He was duly snapped up by the Terriers in the same division come January and went on to play 13 times for them in the Championship, bagging another goal.
Waghorn once more though finds himself a free agent and is still on the hunt for his next team. He has been well capable of producing the goods in attack over the years though, although he last hit a double-digit goal tally back in 2019/20 during a stint with Derby. Since then, he has managed only five, one, one and one in consecutive campaigns, although his game time has also steadily declined too.
Is Martyn Waghorn signing for Derby County?
Now, according to Warne, via Derbyshire Live, Waghorn is back at Derby, albeit on a short-term deal. He is currently on trial and is training with the League One club, with the aim of getting him back to fitness.
However, Warne didn't rule out a potential permanent deal for the striker should he be impressed with the former Rams man but did state that he would be allowed to join another club if they came in for his signature with Warne's "blessing." The manager said:
"I realise he's out of contract and he lives not far away. I just thought you should treat ex-players with respect so I invited him into train. I've been completely open with him and if he signs for someone tomorrow then he goes with my blessing. There might be something here for you, there might not. Just train and play in the games and if we can help each other out, great. We'll see. It's more that I am helping him out and not in a patronising way, but it's hard to train on your own as a footballer."
Waghorn, who shares the same agent as Max Bird and Louie Sibley, is still a player who is capable of doing a job in the EFL despite his age, with Mark Fotheringham praising how good he was at Championship level. During his time in charge at Huddersfield, when the striker also played for the Terriers, he stated the attacker was a "solid, top player" and added that he looked "calm and composed" when he did feature on the field.
The fact he was able to still go out and do a job in the second tier could bode well for Derby in the third. Whilst he is only on trial currently, if he makes an impression on this short-term basis, then snapping the 33-year-old up on a permanent contract, for free, could be a decent bit of business for the Rams, making this one to watch.