Barker leaves to Join rams for close to £1m

Blackpool have agreed an undisclosed sum for Shaun Barker stated to be £900,000 by the Rams offical site. Derby County surprisingly beat Nottingham Forest who were beleived to have tabled a £750k bid plus player before intervention for their chairman. Barker left the Seasiders in Devon yesterday to complete the signing this morning.

Barker commented on the Rams official site "I was born in Nottingham and supported Forest as a youngster. But once you become a professional footballer you stop being a fan and concentrate on doing your best for your club.

Forest may have shown an interest in me but I am 110 per cent committed to Derby and very impressed by Nigel's plans for the club. He had clearly done his homework on me and as soon as I spoke to him it was clear to me that Derby was where I wanted to be.

"I can't wait for the season to start." join up with the Rams.

"I had three great seasons at Blackpool and the only two other clubs I would consider in the Championship would have been Derby or Forest.

"I made great friends at Blackpool and it's sad to leave. But this is a great opportunity at Derby."


A Nottingham-born defender Barker who was signed by Blackpool from Roherham United for a fee of £30,000 2 August 2006. His nickname came from his Blackpool team-mates who considered him to look "a little scary" and therefore like Reggie Kray!

He scored his first goal for Blackpool in the last minute against Crewe Alexandra on 21 October 2006 as Blackpool won 2-1. He said of the goal, "On the way up I quite fancied scoring. I just had a feeling and I've never scored in the last minute, so when we won the free-kick, I looked at the clock and saw it was the final minute and went for it. Keigan Parker put a fantastic ball in and luckily I got on the end of it. I think we deserved it. When we went down to 10 men we knew we were going to have to work hard to keep in the game. It was 1-1 and still in the balance when we won that free-kick at the end but we sent three big lads up to try to sneak a goal … and luckily we did that."

He won the Blackpool FC player of the year award for the 2006/07 season. In mid-August 2007 it was reported that Leeds United manager Dennis Wise was very keen on signing Barker but Blackpool manager Simon Grayson commented, "As far as we're concerned Shaun Barker is not for sale.He signed a new contract that would keep him at Blackpool until 2010 on 20 November 2007. He commented, "I've had a terrific time at Blackpool so far. It couldn't have gone better and it didn't take very long to decide to sign a new deal."