Nathan Byrne had spent the last four seasons with Wigan Athletic, where he picked up the club's player of the year award twice.
The signing was a much needed one for Derby County who recently lost academy graduates Jayden Bogle and Max Lowe to Sheffield United for a reported fee of around £7m for the pair.
So what does Byrne bring to the Rams?
The defender can play both full-back in a four at the back and wing-back in a five at the back. He is stronger going forward than defensively as he chalked up seven assists for Wigan last season.
He is certainly comfortable on the ball, last season he averaged 0.9 key passes per game and 1.5 successful dribbles per game, showing his ability on the ball going forward, whilst also showing similarities between himself and former Rams full-back Bogle, who average 0.6 key passes per game but 1.7 successful dribbles per game.
Byrne can do it at both ends of the pitch, compared to other right-backs in the league he had the fourth most chances created and most assists along with the third most crosses blocked and also most shots blocked, proving his worth on the defensive end as-well as going forward.
Derby manager Phillip Cocu has shown already in pre-season and in the Carabao Cup game against Barrow that he is not afraid to change his system up, utilising both a 4-3-3 and also a 3-5-2/5-3-2.
It would be expected should Derby play with wing-backs that Byrne will operate in the right wing-back role, taking away more defensive responsibility and allowing him to use his strengths going forward to create chances for the likes of Martyn Waghorn, Jack Marriott and Louie Sibley.
With Derby signing Byrne for a reported fee of around £200k, this could very well turn out to be a smart piece of business being a like for like replacement for Bogle.
Derby manager Cocu says Byrne will give his side more "forward power" from full-back.
“I am very pleased,” Cocu said when reacting to Byrne’s signing in an interview with RamsTV.
“We worked quite a bit on getting him in because we knew there was a lot of interest in Jayden Bogle so we had to be prepared that when he made his step to the Premier League, we didn’t need a lot of time to get the player we wanted in. That player was Nathan Byrne.
“Nathan is an offensive-minded right full back. He has played a lot of games, so he is quite experienced and is the type of player we need. He adds age to the young squad we have and a little bit more experience, which is more than welcome.
“Andre Wisdom is more of a controlled right full-back and Nathan will give us more forward power, so we are very pleased he is part of the squad.”