The message from Wayne Rooney to his Derby players trying to pull off arguably the greatest of escapes in the face of extreme adversity is defiant and repeated regularly.
‘He has got into everyone’s heads that there is a chance,’ teenage striker Luke Plange said.
‘He’s always talking to us whether it’s in training or during team meetings, saying that giving up is impossible.
Wayne Rooney has been praised for doing an excellent job in difficult circumstances at Derby
‘That’s in the back of everyone’s minds during games now and everyone is putting in everything they’ve got.
‘Everyone knows it’s going to be extremely hard to do but there is always a chance we can pull it off and probably go down as one of the biggest things to happen in the Championship because of the amount of points deducted [21] and everything that’s gone on with the club recently. It would be a major achievement.’
If there is one man who needs no reminding about how quickly fortunes can change in football it is Plange.
In January last year Arsenal decided they were not going to offer professional terms to Plange, the news broken to him via a Zoom meeting in a sign of the times.
The Championship club have been deducted 21 points are set to run out of money in days
The club was a founder member of the Football League, but now feels abandoned by the EFL
The club received a formal bid of £28m from private investment firm Carlisle Capital on Friday
But by the end of 2021 Plange, previously struggling for minutes with Arsenal’s under-18s, was playing and scoring for Derby in the Championship.
The speed of his turnaround from leaving Arsenal to leading the line for Derby is one that sparked questions about the north Londoners’ judgment but Plange, 19, also welcomed the fresh challenge.
‘It wasn’t going the greatest at Arsenal,’ admitted Plange, who first joined Arsenal aged six. ‘I wasn’t getting the game time and knew I needed a change as well. I wanted to be seen and make an impact.
‘They said they don’t feel like you have a place, you’ve been here for a long time and didn’t think I’d be getting the time I wanted in the next years coming into the under-23s.
‘It was a tough one to take but I’d been thinking about it a lot and thought it would be refreshing to have a change of clubs and go to one where they can see my ability just for my ability, not anything else.'
Luke Plange struggled to get meaningful playing time with Arsenal U18 team last season
But the striker has found form at Derby and has been scoring regularly for Rooney's side
Plange had interest from Newcastle, Everton and QPR among others before he opted for Derby.
‘I didn’t mind going down a bit for more
