Derby County of England new signing, Jordon Ibe has been described as a quality player that will help The Rams boost their attacking options and add extra quality to their squad depth, as they seek to finally seal promotion to the English Premier League this season, megasportsarena.com reports.
The Rams came pretty close last season, with Chelsea’s current handler, Frank Lampard in charge, and now that they have Dutch legend, Philip Cocu running their technical duties, former Super Eagles’ defender, Pastor Taribo West’s former club are twice as ambitious as ever, such that the arrival of Ibe is seen as a catalyst for progesss.
Cocu is leading the shower of encomiums on Ibe, who rejoined Derby on a two-year contract after the 24-year-old former Liverpool winger left Bournemouth as a free agent earlier in the summer, and reunites with the club he previously played for during a 24-game, five-month loan spell from The Reds in 2014-15, with five goals to his name.
After joining Liverpool from Wycombe Wanderers in 2011, Ibe played 58 games for The Reds before going to Bournemouth for a then club-record £15m, then went on to score five times in 92 appearances for The Cherries before his contract expired at the end of last season.
He is now back at Derby on a two-year contract, buzzing with memories of how he scored five goals for the English Championship side over a period of five months during his previous stint at Pride Park, and the Nigerian-born lad is already talking about hitting the ground running, despite being left out of the squad that faced Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
Cocu explained that Ibe had to be excused from that game, in order to allow him work with their strength and conditioning staff to build up his sharpness and match fitness levels, as he has not played a competitive game since September 2019.
Nonetheless, the move back to Derby accords Ibe the opportunity to finally put behind him the nightmare he faced at Bournemouth, during a torrid time on the south coast behind him, and the underachieving lad admitted he faced several difficulties during his days with The Cherries.
He went on to confess that he was affected by online abuse and failed to make things work with The Cherries’ coach, Eddie Howe, while a couple of personal social skirmishes saw him spend time in rehab for mental health therapy, after crashing his £130,000 Bentley car into a cafe.
He was charged with driving without due care and attention as well as for failing to stop at the scene of an accident, after which he was handed a £7,500 fine and banned from driving for 16 months; but he is now back at the club where he impressed during a 24-game loan spell.
That period which came over five months in the 2014/15 campaign, before then facing four very difficult seasons on and off the pitch following a £15m move to Bournemouth, scoring just three goals in the EPL, ids what will spur Ibe on to excel at Pride Park, and Cocu has encouraged the lad by reeling out accolades about what the former Liverpool protégé will offer his squad.
Cocu told Derby’s website: “Jordon is a player with a lot of potential and undoubted ability. He has performed for several years in the Premier League and at 24 years of age he still has many years ahead of him in his career.
“We have been keen to strengthen our attacking options out wide for some time, while we believe Derby County is the right place for Jordon at this stage of his career.”
