It would have been very easy to pity Derby County Football Club a few months ago. A team that had competed for two seasons for automatic promotion were imploding once more. An increasingly fragile defence and the notable knee injury to top scorer Chris Martin derailed seven months of hard work at the summit of the Championship.
Derby failed to win in seven matches (predominately through the month of March), and stumbled timidly out of the top six with a rare home defeat on the final day. Despite all this, and an indifferent start to the 2015-16 campaign, there remains a frenzy around the club that you would associate with more successful times.If the Rams do not appear on the 2016-17 Premier League table, it would be their longest absence from the top tier since Brian Clough’s promotion in 1969. Derby’s record of just one top flight win in thirteen years is emblematic of their struggles, and a sense of desperation has overcome the East Midlands club as this barren spell has persisted.
A stigma that follows many of the high profile Championship clubs is the importance to be ‘ready’ to make the step up to the top tier of English football. Four out of the last nine promoted teams have succumbed to the drop the following season, and only a late revival from Leicester City saved all three recently promoted teams from succumbing to the drop last season.
Remaining with that theme; Derby’s most recent promotion was a short-lived affair, and one that created a pessimistic approach to future promotions among the Derby faithful. After Wembley heartbreak in 2014, Steve McClaren was philosophical in his post-match interviews as he claimed that this young team was not quite ‘ready’. While teams are desperate to gain promotion to the ‘promised land’, there is also an air of caution surrounding the potential of that first season in the Premier League (especially when your last visit yielded just 11 points). Despite Derby County’s struggles to regain their form of the 2013-14 Championship season, there are positives to cling to for Paul Clement in terms of them being ‘ready’.
The Rams were financially restricted under Nigel Clough. The 2014 Championship Playoff Final team, mainly built by Clough, was worth approximately £2 million and had a very small wage budget. In the aftermath, Derby spent significantly more on the injury-savaged George Thorne, and with Mel Morris’ further backing this summer have spent approximately £20 million and signed nine players. A squad with very little Premier League experience has been bolstered with eight of those signings having played in the Premier League in some capacity. A return to the top flight looks likely in future seasons, albeit a short journey down the A52 is proof that flexing your financial muscle does not always pay dividends. For Derby, arguably their best football of the last few years was when the side were in the bottom-third of Championship. That season was a building block that Sam Rush and company believed they could build from with further investment. Despite still languishing in the second tier there is a sense that Derby have advanced, on and off the pitch.
While Derby have missed out narrowly in the past two seasons, they have managed to gain heavily in other areas. The style of football that was played under Steve McClaren has attracted more supporters to Pride Park (officially named The IPro Stadium), and as much fervour to the city as was felt under Jim Smith at the turn of the century. Sam Rush’s vision as chief executive has also attracted one of Derby’s most successful businessman to not only return to the board, but to invest a serious amount of money into the club. Synonymous with the sacking of Steve McClaren were rumours of an apparent disagreement between Mel Morris and the parting manager; namely in regard to his inability to categorically rule out a move to Newcastle United. McClaren acted like a disloyal partner who felt his current spouse was far too attached to cut the cord. Mel Morris has set his stall out- not just with the signings, but with a message too- Derby County will always come before any individual. With an ambitious board and management team, it’s hard to deny that the Rams look like they’re heading back to the big time.
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