Leigh Curtis

Leigh Curtis provides close, continuous coverage of Derby County, combining match reporting with detailed work on the club’s rebuild, promotion and the realities that shape its decisions. His reporting centres on the Rams across Derby Telegraph and its Derbyshire Live platform, where he is the dedicated Derby County writer and “Our Man At The Rams”. He follows the team home and away and uses that access to explain not just what happens on the pitch, but how transfers, finances and supporter issues intersect around the club.

Derby County's promotion and rebuild

Curtis’s work documents Derby County’s recent transformation from a side rebuilding “from the ashes” to a promoted team planning for the Championship. He has produced retrospectives on the “record-breaking” promotion campaign, identifying key moments and turning points that shaped the season and the club’s path back up.

In pieces on “10 key moments” and similar season reviews, he links individual games, tactical decisions and off-field changes to a broader narrative of recovery under new ownership and the manager. He also authored a 48-page souvenir edition dedicated to the club’s change in fortunes, tracing the journey from early setbacks through to the promotion-clinching run.

Across these features he writes with an archivist’s eye, pinning down specific incidents and decisions rather than generalising about momentum or morale.

Transfers, free agents and squad planning

Transfers and squad building are a core part of Curtis’s beat, and he treats them as long-range planning rather than just individual deals.

He has written in-depth lists of “Championship free agents” running into triple figures, setting out who is available and how Derby might use that market as it prepares a “crucial transfer plan”. In Q&A pieces and analysis after promotion, he examines what the Rams need in the transfer window, discussing players such as Bobby Clark and Joe Taylor and assessing how clauses and bonuses affect Derby’s business. His coverage of setbacks, including injuries to potential signings such as Jacob Widell Zetterstrom, tracks how individual events disrupt or reshape recruitment strategy.

When ownership changes or takeover collapses force the club to rethink, he writes about which transfer has become “obvious” as the best piece of business and why, blending evaluation of players with context about budget and timing. Even when he writes around a major Premier League move, as in his piece on Kieran Trippier’s switch to Wolves, he uses the story to lay bare Derby’s own task and what that deal says about the wider market they operate in.

Finances, season tickets and broadcast deals

Curtis regularly addresses the financial side of the club, treating money as a central part of the story rather than a background detail. In coverage of Championship wages and club finances, he explains the “stark reality” Derby face, using specific figures to show how expensive the division can be and what that means for budget and ambition.

His reporting on season ticket updates after promotion focuses on policy changes, pricing and demand, tying those decisions back to the record-breaking season and the club’s efforts to manage growth responsibly. He also writes opinion-led pieces on broadcast deals, including a column on a Sky Sports agreement where he argues that while the deal may suit armchair fans, it creates pressures and inconveniences for regular match-goers.

Across these articles he consistently links financial structures, ticketing and television to supporter experience, positioning Derby’s fans as central stakeholders in every decision.

Match reports, live coverage and fan engagement

Matchdays and live coverage remain the backbone of Curtis’s work, and he is repeatedly described as following the Rams “home and away” to provide comprehensive reporting from games, press conferences and the spaces in between. He delivers reports from Pride Park and away grounds, bringing detail on performances, tactical shifts and atmosphere that reflects his regular presence in the press box. Pre-season coverage, including reports as Derby “report back for pre-season” and pieces on players facing a “big summer”, show how he treats training and preparation with the same seriousness as competitive fixtures. Curtis also engages directly with supporters through formats such as Facebook Live Q&As, where he answers questions about promotion scenes, transfer needs and expectations for the next season. External syndication of his work, such as round-ups of Derby matches carried by wider football sites, underscores that his game reporting is a primary feed of Rams news for both local and broader audiences.

Broader sports background

Although his current focus is tightly on Derby County, Curtis has a broader sports background that informs his coverage. He has previously worked on sports content editing and devoted significant reporting to Notts County, bringing experience of another club environment and a different fanbase. His portfolio runs into the thousands of published articles, with work appearing not only across Derby Telegraph and Derbyshire Live but also in other national and regional sports outlets.

That wider experience gives his Derby County writing a sense of the larger football landscape, visible in how he situates the Rams’ promotion, finances and transfer activity within the Championship and the English game as a whole.