David Clowes Support Thread

[swaledale]

Good to see a big current negative being turned into a positive by a thread such as this and I agree 100% with both AF’s and MA’s comments above. Without Mr. Clowes stepping in in late summer 2022 we probably wouldn’t have a club and those now criticising him obviously have very short memories.

That having been said...defending Mr. Clowes is not the same as suggesting he hasn’t made mistakes. He almost certainly has. He was, and still is to an extent, a very inexperienced football club owner and that is to be expected. The removal of Rosenior and his replacement by Warne would now appear to have backfired as is certainly suggested by the comparative records of the two since the former was rapidly re-employed by Championship Hull.

Has Warne let Mr. Clowes down? Obviously not deliberately but very possibly...yes. He arrived with an enormous amount of hype which, two or three months apart, he simply hasn’t lived up to. As far as spending Mr. Clowes’ money wisely is concerned I’d suggest that Wildsmith, McGoldrick, Smith, NML, Nelson and Nyambe have provided the best returns while Cashin (arguably our most valuable asset) was developed as a first team regular under R&R...so it’s easy to see where the money has been best spent.

Should we come unstuck again on Tuesday evening then the proverbial knives will be out. Should they be pointed in Mr. Clowes’ direction. Absolutely 100% not! Should PW be a target for abuse. Again imo...no...it doesn’t help, but he cannot escape criticism. I repeat...I have little knowledge of the financial situation and neither does anyone on here, but the huge support which turns up at PP week in, week out do deserve better and so does David Clowes.

OK then wise guy rA, give me examples of "experienced" football club owners? When you have done that, give examples where they have been more successful than an "inexperienced" football club owner?

Mel Morris had no experience of owning a football club before he bought Derby, I can't remember you criticising him as an inexperienced owner, but maybe that was because he was spending millions and changing managers every 5 minutes??

You seem not to appreciate that it takes time generally to build a club even if the owner has millions at their disposal. It took the late owner of Leicester City 6 years from taking ownership in 2010, to winning the Prem in 2016. It took years for the billionaire owners of Man City to get them into the position they are in today (and millions of £ and quite a few managers).

Clowes has made mistakes? Really? He made a decision that was based on the available evidence a sound one, he took time to work with the Derby board and people who know football to develop a strategy for the club. One of those decisions was to appoint a manager with actual experience of managing in this league and who furthermore had achieved 3 promotions from the league to replace Rosenior who had no previous management experience whatsoever. AT THE TIME it was a decision that made perfect sense.

He and the board didn't appoint some "big name" aka Rooney or one of the usual suspects, they appointed a manager whose CV looked perfect for the job. It hasn't as yet paid off, but not of all of that can be put at Warne's door and there is still 3/4 of the season left.

Whilst Rosenior is making a decent fist of the job at Hull, this is no indication what he would have been like at Derby with the attendant financial restrictions, but in any case its all conjecture and its easy to make an observation based on hindsight.

Warne is obviously not performing as well as expected, BUT neither is he making a total pigs ear of it, its infuriatingly inconsistent but take a look around, managers at all levels have these issues, Ranieri won the prem with Leicester then gets sacked the next season!

Football fans are notoriously fickle, they are also notoriously impatient and very good at spending other peoples money!! This sense of entitlement, the huge support that turns up at PP every week deserves better! Do they? Why? They seemed happy enough when Mel was spending millions and ultimately getting the club relegated and into administration, well now they are going to have to show a little bit of patience and put up with things not going as well as they would like.

Yes valid criticism of Warne is fine, part and parcel of being a football fan is thinking one could do better than the manager and expressing ones views, but lets be realistic here.

If Clowes sacks Warne, he blows probably a million money he doesn't want to waste and would a different manager be any better? This is league 1, Derby are still restricted financially until at least next summer whoever comes in, it would be a gamble with no guarantee of improvement and as an astute businessman, Clowes is not going to take that gamble (irrespective of what fans might say) unless it becomes clear that he has to.

That is not the case at the moment, if (and at the moment it looks a big IF) Warne gets some consistency into performances and Derby string 2 or 3 wins together then the picture will look very different.

As for having no idea of the financial situation, well the fact that Derby didn't pay a significant transfer fee and didn't buy a prolific striker for £1 million (which is the minimum it would have taken to get one) tells you all you need to know. The club is on a salary cap and a restriction on transfer fees until next summer.