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In the past few years, Derby have finally become the promotion pushing team fans have craved and waited patiently for since their return to the Championship almost 10 years ago. The Rams have reached Wembley once, occupied top spot in the Championship on more than one occasion and have been bookies favourites to win the league every year since 2014. Yet each year brings disappointment with Derby self imploding or falling at the very final hurdle in the bid for promotion to the Premier League. The club’s support remains steadfast but many are quite rightly wondering how many more times they will have to hear “it’ll be our time next year”, after another failed promotion attempt.
Derby were knocked out of the Play-Offs at the semi-final stage after a dramatic tie against Hull City, with the Rams almost pulling off history by coming so close to overturning the 0-3 deficit from the first leg, winning 2-0 at the KC Stadium and pushing the Tigers to the very brink of self-implosion. It was a spirited fightback but not enough to undo the horrific damage done in the first leg at the iPro. It was once again a case of so near yet so far. Another failed season – as – and another summer for Rams fans of wondering what could have been. How many more times will they be left to feel this feeling of disappointment and increasingly fraught optimism before finally achieving promotion – if they do at all?
On social media, rumours abound over what causes these yearly implosions, ranging from behind-the-scenes fracas to the players simply not having the ‘winning mentality’ to get over the final hurdle. Whatever it is, someone somehow needs to address it. The team currently is arguably the best squad The Championship has ever seen assembled, with the quality in that team enough to make some Premier League teams lick their lips, yet they have failed to produce this season on a level high enough to win promotion. Could it be that the team simply hasn’t gelled properly – there has been a lot of upheaval with many new strong personalities; or could it be that many of the newer arrivals price tags have skewed people’s perceptions of their ability?
Its hard to know exactly where the blame lies, with many of the newer arrivals performing superbly, certainly Scott Carson, Jason Shackell and Jacob Butterfield have been very good, but it is notable that many of Derby’s better performances have come when the ‘Old Guard’ of lower key signings have been at the fore. The two legs of the Play-Offs vs Hull are a prime example. The Derby starting XI in the first leg cost £18m and lost 3-0, the starting XI in the second leg cost just £8m and won 2-0. Could that be a sign of the problems at the iPro, or was a fight back to be expected after the truly disastrous way the first leg ended?
Regardless of personnel, if the team follows Darren Wassall’s rallying cry in his own post-match interview, that if Derby showed the same fight and desire as they did in the second leg for an entire season then they would win the league next year, then they have the potential to do exactly that. Some performances this season have suggested that the Rams have turned up to some matches with a swagger about them, only to be rudely awoken and defeated, despite player and manager interviews to the contrary.
In matches where Derby have fought and battled, they have come out winners. Take any match vs Hull (aside from the home 3-0 defeat) this season and the admittedly scrappy 1-0 victory at home to rivals Nottingham Forest and that much is obvious. Few teams can handle Derby when they are at their best, the 4-0 victory vs Hull in March is proof enough of that, but the question remains as to why Derby struggle to replicate such performances when the going gets really tough.
Could it be the lack of the correct coach at the head of the players? The players can be as good as they want, but they need the right manager to guide them over the finish line. Steve McClaren probably could have done it if he had ignored the misguided advances of Newcastle United, speculation which was never properly dismissed and is largely contributed with the catastrophic downfall of last season. Paul Clement is clearly a very talented manager and I’m fully confident he will go on to have a very successful career, however he was not the right choice for a Derby team hurting from two years of disappointment.
Derby now need an experienced manager that can handle prima donnas – if there are any – in the squad and knows how to guide players when the going gets tough at the business end of the season. There are plenty of managers out there to choose from and Derby is arguably one of the most attractive jobs going at the moment. Indeed, David Moyes (my personal candidate for the Derby job) , which, with no disrespect towards Aston Villa at all, is surely less attractive as a job than that of Derby County. Villa are in an absolute state and need a colossal turn around to rebuild themselves and regain supporters trust, whereas Derby potentially just need the one missing ingredient to get them over the line come May each year.
The players are there – even if the squad does need trimming – the support is certainly there (social media was abound with compliments from Hull City fans post-match describing how good Derby’s support was over both legs) and there is no lack of financial backing. Unless the football world knows something about the inner workings at Derby that we mere mortals do not then I fail to see how Mel Morris can be stuck for candidates and hand the job to someone who is not up to the task.
Derby are currently stuck in a rut and many supporters are wondering how much longer they can hold on to their best players. like sharks around a wounded whale and to hold onto the wonderkid past this summer would be an achievement in itself. Some players are close to being past their prime and will soon begin the inevitable decline as a footballer that afflicts all but the very best players. The Rams need to capitalise with the quality of this squad before a complete rebuild is needed. They will not want to be looked at as the Derby team of ‘what ifs’, they will want to be known as the team that finally delivered the Rams back to the top flight to stay. Only they can do that, but they need the right manager to get them there.
We have seen all the evidence laid out by the jury over the past 3 years. Judge Morris, it is now over to you to deliver the verdict and set the Rams free into the Premier League, or condemn us to life in the Championship. I pray you make the correct decision.