Louie Sibley.

Is it just not every Derby fan's lifetime dream to hit the best possible career goal on their home debut, hearing the roar of Pride Park erupt as soon as the ball hits the back of the net, wheeling away in celebration as goosebumps stick up at the back of your neck, shivers down your spine as you realise you've just scored an absolute belter that will be talked about for months to come?

Lucky Louie Sibley.

Starting with our academy system at the age of approximately 7, joining up with the under 8s team and he has stuck with us through thick and thin ever since, for 11 years and he has gradually progressed through the age categories, often making leaps of progress and entering the next age category two, three years above his own age. It was clear, from a young age, that he most certainly had talent, and the attitude required to make it to the top level. In the 2017/18 season, he was awarded the Academy Player of the Year reward that subsequently led to him achieving a first year scholar in the following season, and it is mind blowing to think that he got his scholar just last season. That proves just how fast he has progressed, all thanks to hard work, support from his family, and the right attitude to the game, beautifully complemented with his natural ability.

The Secret Scout over at the Daily Mail stated that Louie Sibley had the perfect physique with a 'strong frame, powerful upper body and square shoulders' - meaning he was already physically suited to the professional level of the game. It is incredible to think that at this point, Sibley possessed enough talent to turn the heads of the national news! The article can be found here - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7922243/THE-SECRET-SCOUT-Derbys-Louie-Sibley-forceful-midfielder-impressing.html. Standing at 5'11 approximately, and at the young age of 18, he will probably continue growing and becoming stronger and faster - becoming even more accustomed to the professional game than he already is... he is going to be one hell of a player.

The biggest aspect to his game is most probably his resilience - if the ball gets away from him, or if he is dispossessed, he will not give up in attempting to claw it back. Having bags of stamina benefits him in this aspect as he is able to bomb it forwards to collect the ball and force errors from the opposition but to brilliantly combine it with his ability to read the game, he is a little Messi, the Derbian Messi perhaps. The issue with some young players is that they do not own responsibility, they can tend to let their performance levels drop and hide behind the stigma that players of their age isn't ready for the professional game, but with Sibley, that will never be the case. Headstrong, his ruthlessness and aggression, married with quite a fair bit of yellow cards, lets the opposition know that he is on the pitch, and most recently, his little battle with Scott McTominay of Manchester United was recognised and enjoyed by the national audience, and to be honest, I absolutely loved how he wasn't afraid. He simply does not back down. It is something that we have needed for a long time, that ruthless streak in our midfield, some sort of bite that warns off the opposition and protects our defence, adding an extra line to our defence, and Sibley possesses that. He will most certainly be crucial to the squad sooner than we all realise.

His involvement in the under 23s is already significant, considering he is only 18 years old and have played only 59% of the minutes that the u23s have accumulated, yet was involved in 21% of the goals. Internationally, he has collected a total of 9 caps; 6 for the u17s, 2 for the u18s and 1 for the u19s. More impressively, he made his debut for the u17s at the age of just 15 years old, then went into the u18s at the age of 17, and within the same year, he went into the u19s. So he has been making leaps through the age categories, and it would be very wrong of us to not recognise that and use it to the benefit of the club and the squad. A strong trait to his performances is that he will not be the one running rings around others, his stubbornness to stand his ground and to decide the pace of the game, forcing others to be the one chasing after him and trying to unnerve him.

Making his first professional debut on the 12th of August, 2019, playing a total of just 15 minutes but still managing to get stuck into the game, getting 11 touches and was on the pitch when fellow academy graduate Buchanan scored the only goal of the game. He followed this up with his first league debut on 21st December, 2019, playing for the final 20 minutes and topped off his performance with a beautiful fight. Admittedly, losing your head isn't the best idea in a game but it for sure riled up the fans, and losing 3-0 away to bloody Reading, we wanted to see passion, desire and hunger and Sibley showed that. Of course, we loved it. This season, he has played a total of 25 games for various age categories, and has gotten 6 goals and 7 assists, a mind blowing amount for this level of professionalism... and of course, in typical Louie Sibley style, he's picked up 12 yellows in these games! 8 of these games are for the first team, playing against Scunthorpe, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Crystal Palace, Northampton (both games), Manchester United and Blackburn. Playing a total of 410 minutes, he has gotten 163 touches, averaging a touch every 2.5 minutes but if we take away the Reading game, where the game were not a very fair one in my opinion due to refereeing decisions, Sibley played 398 minutes, 163 touches and a touch every 2.45 minutes; that is higher than the majority of the squad. In the Premier League 2, with the u23s, he has played 11 games, scored 4 and assisted 3, as well as picking up 5 yellow cards - proving himself to be a significant part to the squad and more than ready to make the step up into the first team. In the u19s European adventure in the UEFA Youth League, he has played 4 games, scoring just once and assisting four, but also picked up 3 yellow cards. He is a critical cog to how the team ticks in both the u19s and u23s, and I wouldn't be too surprised if he becomes one in our first team in the near future.

He has played in a total of five different positions this season, including at left back, as a striker, attacking midfielder as well as a central midfielder, so he is very versatile and flexible, as well as being open to opportunities to learn. His most fruitful spells came in the central midfielder position, playing 14 games there and scoring four times, then following that up with seven assists. Another position that have proved to be suitable for him is as an attacking midfielder, having played seven games there, scoring twice although he has not assisted there, taking on most of the chances himself.

Now to just to give a couple of defensive statistics and you can create your own conclusions-

- Scunthorpe 0-1 Derby: 15 minutes played, 11 touches, 0 fouls won, 2 fouls conceded, 1 yellow card, N/A tackling success, 0% duels won, 1 interception, 60% passing success, and 1 key pass.

- Nottingham Forest 3-0 Derby: 58 minutes played, 25 touches, 3 fouls won, 3 fouls conceded, 0 yellow cards, 100% tackling success, 46.2% duels won, 0 interceptions, 55.6% passing success, and 1 key pass.

- Reading 3-0 Derby: 20 minutes played, 6 touches, 0 fouls won, 1 foul conceded, 1 yellow card, 1 fight, N/A tackling success, 0% duels won, 1 clearance, and 50% passing success.

- Crystal Palace 0-1 Derby: 89 minutes played, 27 touches, 1 foul won, 4 fouls conceded, 0 yellow cards, 33.3% tackling success, 33.3% duels won, 0 interceptions, 75% passing success, and 100% crossing.

- Northampton 0-0 Derby: 75 minutes played, 29 touches, 3 fouls won, 2 fouls conceded, 0 yellow cards, 100% tackling success, 46.2% duels won, 0 interceptions, and 52.9% passing success.

- Derby 4-2 Northampton: 12 minutes played, 0 touches, 0 fouls won, 2 fouls conceded, 0 yellow cards, N/A tackling success, 0% duels won, 0 interceptions, and N/A passing success.

- Derby 0-3 Manchester United: 80 minutes played, 33 touches, 3 fouls won, 1 foul conceded, 0 yellow cards, 66.7% tackling success, 54.5% duels won, 0 interceptions, and 87.5% passing success.

- Derby 3-0 Blackburn: 76 minutes played, 32 touches, 3 fouls won, 2 fouls conceded, 1 yellow card, 0% tackling success, 50% duels won, 1 clearance, 66.7% passing success and 1 key pass.

As you can see from the statistics I just provided, he has been gradually improving his performances over this season, and apart from a couple of bad games against very physical opposition (Northampton and Reading), Louie Sibley has focused on his potential and just worked at it, and it shows in his performances. Unfortunately, I cannot provide a snapshot of just how good he really is, you would have to watch him play live to truly understand because his positioning, timing of runs and his knowing of when to release passes; there are no statistics for that. But you can trust me on the fact that he is something of a hidden gem.

In total, he has played 1,894 minutes this season across these different teams within the Derby County system, getting 6 goals and 7 assists like I mentioned earlier, meaning he gets a goal every 316 minutes, and is involved in a goal every 145 minutes. He has remained consistent throughout his progress of the academy and into the first team, upholding standards and remaining professionally focused on objectives.

Financially, he is a huge asset to us already, and his market value was noted to be £600,000 at the end of January, 2020, and has already had a 50% increase to £900,000 when mid March rolled around, so obviously, he is important to us and our value, plus we could demand millions if he was to ever leave (hopefully never) because he is home grown talent, English talent that would be able to fit the strict criteria of Premier League clubs - having to have a certain proportion of British players to foreign players I believe.

Overall, he does not really have any obvious weaknesses in his game, as in his skills and performances, they can only improve in the future. Passing accuracy will improve within time and experience, tackling accuracy comes into play too and all those little aspects will improve with further game time - that is only natural. As for his discipline, all those yellow cards will have to be reduced but it is mostly due to inexpertise, mistiming his tackles and personally, some were undeserved due to the abhorrent quality of referees this season. His reading and understand of the game, link up play with academy graduates Jason Knight and Max Bird is already at a good quality stage, his enthusiasm and attitude in learning and determination to better himself is all an ideal combination for him to blossom with us, and very quickly. Being a midfielder is probably the toughest position, to me, because you constantly have to have eyes on all areas of the pitch, and pretty much have eyes at the back of your head, so for a young player to be able to grip onto the understanding and to be comfortable in a midfield position deserves a lot of praise, the same goes for Max Bird, and it is that natural perspective, understanding and perception of the game and the pitch that will go a long way.

Was our replacement for Craig Bryson right under our noses the entire time?

"I want to be involved in the first team so I’ll keep pushing myself and working hard every day and hopefully more appearances will come." - Louie Sibley