A decade of Derby managers.

[MadAmster]

And he was given time to build a team, those signings were made over a number of seasons whilst our league position didnt improve dramatically.


So the question is, why with that time and having signed some good players was Clough not able to get Derby a fixture in the top 6? One could argue that alone amongst our more recent managers he was truly given the target to improve the team over time, which he did, but with no significant impact and no indication that he was going to get tot he next level.

My take on Junior is that he did a good job considering the means available. We were in a dire situation and it's was a backs to the wall mentality on is part that saw us fight to stay in the division and it worked. We stayed but that was about it. Once the purse strings were loosened a little he may well have been stuck in that negative rut and unable to get out.

[wessoram]

Hmmm...isn’t that the point I’ve been making elsewhere for a while?

Anyway...with that crucial old friend, ‘hindsight’, it might appear that Clough (Jnr) made the best signings of the last decade or so but needed McClaren to get them to play together...a suggestion given credence by the fact that only Wisdom and Bamford (for all of three minutes) were, I think, McClaren’s additions to Clough’s squad that played at Wembley in 2014.

Just goes to show how different managers have different qualities. Can’t say I’d want NC back but it does make you wonder what might have been and quite how much we’ve wasted since.

Thorne and Dawkins were McClaren additions too, Ra.

[ramAnag]

Thorne and Dawkins were McClaren additions too, Ra.

Good spot...I stand corrected. Forgotten all about Dawkins, and Thorne was just a tragedy from the club’s point of view.
If I didn’t know better...with the injuries to Thorne, Barker, Forsyth and Keogh - all knees - I’d think we were cursed.

Honestly though...without all the injuries and misfortune would a squad including the likes of Grant, Brayford, Keogh, Buxton, Barker, Moxey, Hughes, Hendrick, Bryson, Huddlestone, Thorne, Martin, Russell, Ward and Jerome be better or worse than what we’ve watched since?

[wessoram]

Good spot...I stand corrected. Forgotten all about Dawkins, and Thorne was just a tragedy from the club’s point of view.
If I didn’t know better...with the injuries to Thorne, Barker, Forsyth and Keogh - all knees - I’d think we were cursed.

Honestly though...without all the injuries and misfortune would a squad including the likes of Grant, Brayford, Keogh, Buxton, Barker, Moxey, Hughes, Hendrick, Bryson, Huddlestone, Thorne, Martin, Russell, Ward and Jerome be better or worse than what we’ve watched since?

Well in a nutshell, better Ra.
People always say give a manager time to build a side. NC had the time and assembled the players you have listed above, however he was sacked for not achieving anything, McClaren and Simpson turn them around within a game (Ipswich) and take us to top 3, and play off final.
So all good players that NC brought to the club but he didn't get the best out of them.
The signings since NC left have been bang average. Butterfield, Anya and Zoon even worse.

[swaledale]

Hmmm...isn’t that the point I’ve been making elsewhere for a while?

Anyway...with that crucial old friend, ‘hindsight’, it might appear that Clough (Jnr) made the best signings of the last decade or so but needed McClaren to get them to play together...a suggestion given credence by the fact that only Wisdom and Bamford (for all of three minutes) were, I think, McClaren’s additions to Clough’s squad that played at Wembley in 2014.

Just goes to show how different managers have different qualities. Can’t say I’d want NC back but it does make you wonder what might have been and quite how much we’ve wasted since.

Well if it was its funny how you never mentioned Clough once, yet he was the one manager if you'd quoted him I'd have agreed upon as an example of the point you were trying to make - a manager who didn't actually do much with the team yet was given time by the Board, presumably because his brief was stabilise the club, assemble a team with a set budget, you'll get the time? All assumptions of course as I don't know waht his brief was.

[ramAnag]

Well in a nutshell, better Ra.
People always say give a manager time to build a side. NC had the time and assembled the players you have listed above, however he was sacked for not achieving anything, McClaren and Simpson turn them around within a game (Ipswich) and take us to top 3, and play off final.
So all good players that NC brought to the club but he didn't get the best out of them.
The signings since NC left have been bang average. Butterfield, Anya and Zoon even worse.

Can’t disagree...heartbreaking...well frustrating at least, isn’t it?

[swaledale]

Well in a nutshell, better Ra.
People always say give a manager time to build a side. NC had the time and assembled the players you have listed above, however he was sacked for not achieving anything, McClaren and Simpson turn them around within a game (Ipswich) and take us to top 3, and play off final.
So all good players that NC brought to the club but he didn't get the best out of them.
The signings since NC left have been bang average. Butterfield, Anya and Zoon even worse.

Yet we paid record fees for them, you can add Johnson etc, yet all players that had performed well for their previous clubs in many cases being voted fans player of the year? So what has been the issue?

[Geoff Parkstone]

It's the gypsy curse returning

[Andy_Faber]

Yet we paid record fees for them, you can add Johnson etc, yet all players that had performed well for their previous clubs in many cases being voted fans player of the year? So what has been the issue?

Blackman? £3m a goal. Shall we keep going?

[ramAnag]

Perhaps we’re all in a ‘rush’ to forget the alleged role of a former DCFC employee in such signings as Blackman, Anya, Butterfield and Johnson.
It would seem that Anya, who always looked good to me, was injury prone and came with a ludicrous wage deal. Blackman falls into the same category as FloJo, albeit much later, of just being a flop, Butterfield apparently never really wanted to come and hasn’t done anything elsewhere since (currently in Australia I believe) and I wish we still had Johnson. Used properly, which we seldom did, he still has plenty to offer imo. Still Derby based I think and possibly never got over being treated as ‘persona non grata’ at Derby for a while after the alleged biting incident at Stoke two years ago.