Tykes in talks with Rams youngster

Another Rams player has entered the Pride Park revolving doors, and is set to leave the club on loan. Lewin Nyatanga has struggled to earn a regular place at Derby this season, after being a regular last campaign, and the club have given Barnsley permission to hold talks him over a possible three-month loan move. He is under contract with Derby until next summer, but will travel to Oakwell today for further talks.

Having developed as a player through the Rams academy, he signed professional forms for the club in August 2005. That month also saw him captain the Welsh Under-21 side prior to his seventeenth birthday, and also make his Derby debut in a League Cup tie against Grimsby Town.

Nyatanga made the record books in March 2006, aged 17 years and 195 days, he made his full international debut for Wales in a friendly match against Paraguay in Cardiff, breaking Ryan Green’s record as the youngest ever Welsh international. Despite his inexperience, with only 17 first team appearances for Derby behind him, he played well on his debut and was praised by Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs.

In 2006, Nyatanga won the Welsh Football Writers’ Young Player of the Year award, but with Billy Davies taking charge at the club, his first team appearances were limited and he moved on loan to Sunderland, but returned in January this year. Nyatanga made 11 appearances during his spell at the Stadium of light.


The talented Wales international has started five games for his country this season, ironically one more than he has for the Rams, and in a bid for first team football he will now discuss a loan switch to aid the Tykes’ battle against relegation from the Championship.