It is one thing for coaches to get sacked. That’s why they get hired in the first place. However, it is a whole new world to hear of a player being embarrassed in that same way. The modus operandi is to at most send the reject on a loan spell till his contract expires.

Not Derby County, unfortunately. The folks who run the show at that club seem to have their own special of “we don’t need you, get out” episode of bad blood between club and player.

The Championship club decided to end their contract with 33-year-old former Carlisle defender Richard Keogh because he decided he was not going to entertain the idea of Derby reducing his wages.

If that doesn’t tell how much the Championship sucks, one wonders what else would.

What pains about most reject is not just the fact that people you thought were family are now rejecting you but the reasons that makes them to do it. Worst still if they deny it and instead offer the most used insult in corporate world: “it’s not personal just business”.

Richard Keogh damaged his knee ligament and according to the physios, he will be out for at least a year which must have prompted Derby County into seeing the former Carlisle man as a liability instead of the asset he was way before he got injured.

The funniest part of the sad tale is that Keogh picked up that injury in a crash on his way back from a club’s get-together tagged “team-bonding night”.

Must have been nice to see how much of team bonding Derby offered him right afterwards.

As with all disputes, people will always take sides and one of the most vocal critics of Derby’s treatment of Keogh is a former Carlisle United midfielder Harry Arter.

The current Fulham man summed it up in a tweet:

“So, the one left unconscious in the car and not arrested gets sacked.”

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