Derby are back after two years in League One, trucking along quite nicely at home where only dire refereeing against Norwich has spoiled a 100% record, but struggling with the demands of aways against the division's better sides - Ollie Wright (@DerbyCountyBlog) puts us in the picture.
How were your two years away?
To employ a Lampardian transition: ‘Well, there’s not much point plugging the books I published about it to this audience, is there Clive! No, but seriously, it was horrible.’
As you’ll know from your own dalliance a while back, the standard in League One is pitiful. The cliff edge from second tier to third tier is insane. The first season had an element of novelty to it, I suppose, but the second season was just gruelling. You play against clubs from towns where football isn’t even the most important sport and you lose to some of them. The majority of fans at Pride Park rocked up expecting us to win every game easily and moaned their heads off whenever we didn’t. In short, it’s nasty and I never want to go back.
Pretty decent start after that nightmare on opening night right? How would you assess it so far?
I’d say that even after three defeats on the spin, we are basically on track to do what needs to be done this season, which is get to 50 points by any means necessary and stay in the division.
Derby in the league so far…
Blackburn 4-2 Derby Dolan 19, Weimann 72, Szmodics 76, Ohashi 84 – Nelson 67, Wilson 88
Derby 1-0 Middlesbrough Jackson 14
Watford 2-1 Derby Bayo 31, Sissoko 76 – Adams 2
Derby 3-0 Bristol City Goudmijn 28, Jackson 60, Ozoh 89
Derby 1-0 Cardiff Goudmijn 28
Sheff Utd 1-0 Derby Hamer 53
Derby 2-3 Norwich Forsyth 60, Blackett-Taylor 90 – Sainz 45, 65, 87
Sunderland 2-0 Derby Bellingham 40, Isidor 55
Any particular reasons for the disparity between home and away results so far?
It should be pointed out that we’ve had a difficult away schedule. Blackburn seem to be much better than we expected after selling Szmodics and embarking on a successful last-ditch striker trolley dash; Watford continue to enjoy the benefits of multi-club ownership; Sheff U have parachute payments and Sunderland, having recruited well, are riding very high. All four of those clubs are currently in the top eight. Nevertheless, four away games with nil points is a major concern and emphasises the gulf in class between this Derby squad and the teams who are aiming for promotion.
At home, we pulled off a shithouse win for the hall of fame against a generally-admired Boro, routed Bristol City in one of my favourite Pride Park afternoons in a long time and then did enough to deservedly sneak past Cardiff (that one was no classic, but who cares). The 3-2 defeat to Norwich last Saturday was heavily assisted by incompetent officials, but Langford and co’s howlers don’t mask the fact that we didn’t deserve any more than a point out of that game.
In short, we’re nowhere near as good as the top teams, but have enough in the squad to get the job done against some of the lesser lights and it is a big help when an ardent 26,000 or so get into it at Pride Park. It’s disappointing but really no surprise that we aren’t able to do much against the likes of Sheffield United or Sunderland at this stage of the rebuild, but I’ve been encouraged by the home performances on the whole.
Where are the fans with Paul Warne? Admittedly I’m getting content via Elon’s platform of hate, but it seems the fans haven’t warmed to him or his football despite a promotion?
When it comes to Twitter these days, remember Lou Reed’s advice to ‘believe half of what you see and none of what you read’. And don’t go on the ‘For You’ tab unless you’re a member of Britain First.
Warne is quite probably the most fundamentally decent bloke ever to manage Derby County. He got part one of the job completed by achieving promotion at the second attempt. However, two years into his tenure, his squad is very much still a work in progress. Warne has made it clear that he favours a back three and wing backs, but is struggling to consistently put a team out in that formation.
Regardless of any bitching on socials, Warne will be OK for the foreseeable future unless results completely flatline, because he has the maximum possible support from David Clowes. Expectations amongst anybody sensible - which very much includes the owner - are minimal for this season and so unless the Rams find themselves cut adrift at the bottom of the table by Christmas (or there is a takeover and new owners decide to go in a different direction), I think Warne will have the opportunity to keep building the squad he wants in January and beyond.
Overall assessment of your transfer window?
I think it’s important to briefly recap for readers from the outside looking in exactly where we are in terms of rebuilding the squad from scratch. Post-administration, the EFL mandated that Derby couldn’t pay transfer fees as part of a two-year business plan (basically the club operating with financial stabilisers). A squad of free agents, largely veterans, was duly scrambled together for League One. Most of those players, such as Conor Hourihane and Korey Smith, have now left, which is fine as they weren’t suitable for Warne’s needs, or the Championship in general.
We made a start on building a Championship squad, more or less from scratch. However, there was too much to be done in one window and there are still worrying shortages, particularly up-front.
Stand out performers and weak links so far?
The team have managed to score a few goals, but these have been shared around, which makes up for the fact that Jerry Yates has none and has only managed three shots from six league starts. Yates has shown some deft touches and his link-up play with Nathaniel Mendez-Laing in particular has been exciting at times, but all of his best work has been done a long way outside of the box.
Fortunately for us, Kayden Jackson has looked much more of a threat and has chipped in a couple of goals, while Kenzo Goudmijn is a very bright and creative midfielder who has also scored two. Kenzo was an excellent signing, bearing in mind the modest price tag involved. Goalkeeper Jacob Zetterstrom was the most expensive signing of the summer and while there have been some mutterings about his eccentric distribution of late, his huge frame means that he fills the goal much more convincingly than last season’s number one Joe Wildsmith did.
Ins: >>> Jacob Widell Zetterstrom, 26, GK, Djurgarden, £1.5m >>> Ebou Adams, 28, CM, Cardiff, £1m >>> Kenzo Goodmijn, 22, CM, Alkmaar, £800k >>> Ben Osborn, 29, CM, Sheff Utd, Free >>> Corey Blackett-Taylor, 26, RW, Charlton, Free >>> Kayden Jackson, 30, CF, Ipswich, Free >>> Jerry Yates, 27, CF, Swansea, Loan >>> David Ozoh, 19, DM, Palace, Loan >>> Rohan Luthra, 22, GK, Cardiff, Free >>> Nat Phillips 27, CB, Liverpool, Loan >>> Marcus Harness, 28, LW, Ipswich, Loan >>> David Ozoh, 19, DM, Palace, Loan >>> Tawanda Chirewa, 20, AM, Wolves, Loan
Outs >>> Louie Sibley, 22, CM, Oxford, Free >>> Joe Wildsmith, 28, GK, West Brom, Free >>> Korey Smith, 33, CM, Cambridge, Free >>> Conor Hourihane, 33, CM, Barnsley, Free >>> Dwight Gayle, 34, CF, Released >>> Martyn Waghorn, 34, CF, Released >>> Scott Loach, 36, GK, Retired >>> Tyrese Fornah, 24, CM, Salford, Loan >>> Darren Robinson, 19, DM, Hartlepool, Loan
Revised expectations for the season?
Before the start of the season, I was hoping that we could stay up. Having seen the first seven games, I feel cautiously optimistic that we have enough to do that, assuming a fair wind with injuries.
A takeover in the offing? Good news or alarm bells. This Clowes bloke has seemed disappointingly sane so far.
I met David Clowes recently. He is entirely sane, very straightforward and even a blog-wielding nutter like me has to tip my hat to him as an awe-inspiringly dedicated Derby County obsessive. He is basically the model custodian. However, his total command of his own marbles means that he has no wish to keep hold of the club for longer than he has to. With legend and statue status secured, he will now do everything possible to vet any potential successors and will certainly have no truck with the kind of charlatans and frauds that an increasingly desperate Mel Morris was willing to entertain as he tried to palm the club off onto any tyre-kicker who would take it. Any change at the top comes with the risk of it going Pete Tong, but whoever takes the club on will be as close to kosher as Clowes can guarantee.
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