Derby County to seek Lee Buchanan compensation fee after Werder Bremen move
- Published
Lee Buchanan featured 31 times in all competition for Derby last season
Derby County are expected to seek a compensation fee for Lee Buchanan after he was signed by Werder Bremen.
The German Bundesliga side announced on Monday that the 21-year-old full-back had joined on a free transfer.
Buchanan had an option on his Derby contract, which the League One club is understood to have been allowed to activate while still in administration.
However, a legal loophole has allowed him to get out of that deal following the club's sale to David Clowes.
Before the takeover happened last week, BBC Sport reported that at least two of Derby's seven contracted players were taking advice on an employment law that could allow them to rip up their contracts when the sale of the club went through.
Derby have not acknowledged England Under-21 international Buchanan's move and have declined to comment on the situation.
But the Rams wished out-of-contract winger Festy Ebosele well at Udinese after his move to Italy was confirmed, which entitles the club to compensation.
Buchanan, like Ebosele, came through the youth system at Derby.
And like the deal for Ebosele, as a player aged under 24 who has been developed by the Rams and played first-team football at the club, Derby would normally be entitled to compensation.
Defender Buchanan scored on his first-team debut at the age of 18 to see the Rams through in the first round of the EFL Cup in 2019.
He went on to make 75 appearances and featured prominently under former manager Wayne Rooney during the fraught 2021-22 campaign.
He featured 30 times in the Championship last season, starting 24 of Derby's 46 matches in a campaign that ended with relegation after being hit by a 21-point penalty for going into administration and breaching the league's accounting rules.
Clemens Fritz, Werder's head of professional football and scouting, said they had "followed Lee's progress for a long time now".
"He's a quick, tough-tackling full back with the experience of 70 games in the Championship," Fritz told the club website.
"We're delighted that we could convince him to join Werder."