It's been a rocky season for Derby fans that's ultimately ended in disappointment yet again.

The Rams are onto their third permanent manager of the season after the first two were unable to get keep Derby in the play-off hunt, leading to owner Mel Morris wielding the axe.

Nigel Pearson was relieved of his duties in October before his successor Steve McClaren was sacked after his Derby side dropped to mid-table, despite initially clearing up Pearson's mess and lifting them into the play-off race.

Gary Rowett is now in charge and has managed to grind out some results in the latter stages of the season, which he's had to work with his squad.

Despite some good results, such as a 4-2 win over Fulham and a 3-1 win at home to Wolves, some performances under the former Birmingham boss haven't been convincing and has reinforced the thoughts by many fans that changes are needed this summer.

Derby fans will look back on this season as a failure, and since Gary Rowett has come in, the focus has been on preparing for the 2017/18 campaign.

Here are the TWO biggest regrets of Derby's season in 2016/17...

 

Leaving it too late in the summer transfer window

At the end of last season, Derby fans were hoping for Nigel Pearson to axe the dead weight in the squad and work on his own project as Rams manager, but that wasn't the case.

Everyone knew the squad wasn't good enough to achieve promotion because they had failed in the previous season, and that squad hadn't been added to at all.

James Wilson was the first signing, joining on loan towards the end of August and he was followed by Matej Vydra a few days later before deadline day arrivals Ikechi Anya and Chris Weale.

Chris Weale never made his debut and left later this season and in the end provided nothing, whilst James Wilson suffered a ligament injury and was ruled out for the rest of the season, meaning Pearson had only really added 2 players of his own to the squad.

Pearson used a 4-4-2 formation, but the Derby squad had played 4-3-3 for several years so some players weren't suited to the system that the former Leicester boss wanted to play.

This raised the question, if Pearson knew he wanted to play 4-4-2 then why did he wait until the last few days of the transfer window to sign players who can play in that formation?

Nigel Pearson really made a mess during his time at Derby, doing very little in the transfer window and offloading players who were passionate about the club like Jake Buxton and Jeff Hendrick.

Inconsistency

If you look at Derby's results from the last 3 seasons, in which they have blown their promotion hopes, you'll find that the squad has lacked consistency and this has been a major reason for their failure to make it to the big time.

This season, Derby have failed to beat some poor sides and have conceded late goals on countless occasions, frustrating fans and dropping points in the process.

Draws at home to Wigan, Bristol City and Burton as well as home defeats to Blackburn and Cardiff simply aren't good enough for a side looking to win promotion from the Championship.

The Rams have also conceded late goals against Bristol City, Huddersfield, Reading and Preston, resulting in them coming away from games with just a point and in some cases, a loss.

If Derby had have been able to see out games this season and stay focused until the 90th minute, they'd have won many more points and could've been better competitors for the play-offs.

Derby fans... Are these the two biggest regrets of this season? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!