There was a grumbly aftermath to the home defeat regarding the team’s level of performance, their capitulation from a 2-0 advantage and controversy over the fans that showered the pitch with their freebie tee shirts. Perhaps fans don’t like to be seen as just a shiny happy backdrop for a 20-second TV video-bite when they aren’t really that happy, even before the game.
MBs and phone-ins conveyed undertones of impatience and even anger from sections of the support and the manager acknowledged that Derby threw away a winning position whilst sorely missing some of the injury victims.
I wont give any run-down of the interminable ‘Medical Card’ of Derby’s squad casualties; there are journos doing that, plus the official site where player recoveries or reversals are listed. I’ll just name long-lost injury returnees in my match comments. The QPR Ram programme had Mr Clough detailing that 14 players were injured; Adam Pearson’s column said that 17 were out and the Medical Card update said that 16 players were under treatment.
Add to that a mention that the DCFC Academy recruitment officer Richie Williams is recovering from an Achilles operation, and we now only need a mumps epidemic and outbreak of swine flu to force Nigel to register the catering and Shop DCFC staff!
The boss busied himself by securing Fulham full back Fredrick Stoor on a loan extension until late December (with a 24-hour recall) and carried on his search for a loan replacement for injured Everton loanee James Vaughan in the Rams’ strike force.
On Wednesday evening, the news emerged that Director of Football Operations Adam Pearson had departed. From DCFC ‘by mutual consent’, and to ‘pursue new challenges’; President and Chief Executive’s Tom Glick announced that his remit was expanding; the football operation and control of Moor Farm was added to his responsibilities and manager Nigel Clough would report directly to him.
Clough himself said the development was ‘quite a surprise’; Tom Glick said that things ’came together quickly’ (ummm…shouldn’t that be: ‘came apart quickly?’)
Pearson had been with Derby County for two years and will now sell his shares in the club. That will remove the remaining UK ownership interest in Derby County. When Adam joined at the end of October 2007, he took over from Peter Gadsby as Executive Chairman of DCFC, and gave then-manager Billy Davies his full backing; the Rams were stuck at the foot of the Premier League with 1 win in 11 games; they back-marked until May 2008 to make it 1 win in 38 games.
Pearson had left Hull City in good shape in mid-2007 to join Derby in 2007 after masterminding the Tigers’ climb back to the Championship from near-extinction. Derby had seen the arrival and departure of a new Chief Executive Officer, Trevor Birch, within four months already that year. Adam Pearson’s aim on arrival was to bring in new investors to DCFC - and the Detroit-based GSE consortium took up the reins at the start of 2008.
However, the love affair between Wee Billy and Adam was short lived; RamsWeek 47 of 2007 reported that there was a ‘bad moon rising’ after Davies spoke out of turn, criticising Pearson. The day after that RamsWeek article was published, a showdown between the two resulted in Davies being shown the door; Paul Jewell replaced him. Derby’s dire form wasn’t arrested despite expenditure on Roy Carroll, Alan Stubbs and Robbie Savage from Premier League clubs.
A painful six-month low point in DCFC’s history led to a desperately humiliating relegation, accompanied by the promise of an instant return to the Premier League. A player recruitment bonanza followed the next summertime with 20-odd players acquired.
With Derby closer to League One than the Prem in 2008-09, Pearson and GSE removed Jewell and appointed Nigel Clough. So, a third total management regime served under Pearson’s remit in the space of 18 months. Championship survival in 2008-09 has been followed up with an unsteady start to 2009-10 whilst the club rationalises the budget and squad numbers (and copes with the injury list). The team is too close to the relegation zone for comfort.
Pearson put a lot of work into the club, albeit for a poorer return than envisaged in terms of results. Messrs Clough and Glick featured in several articles of reassurance in the wake of Pearson’s departure, acknowledging his contribution and stating that the football model already in train would be adhered to.
When asked why Pearson wouldn’t be replaced as controller of the football operation, Tom Glick explained that AP’s role was unnecessary; he strove to assure supporters that “success was just around the corner” - he didn’t think there would be “a noticeable change” for fans.
I found it strange that the Rams’ President and CEO implied that the change was a logical, easy one; just two years in is hardly ‘job done’ at Derby for Pearson and Messrs Clough and Glick lack his knowledge in football circles at this level with agents, players and the transfer market.
Simply, Adam has left Derby for the opportunity to return to Hull to try and keep them in the Premier League; he is ambitious, perhaps hoping to swap his place on the board of the Football League for a berth on the Premier League’s exec should Hull sustain their status. He’s no longer the minority shareholder of a struggling Championship club.
The temptation to use Bruce Springsteen’s 1978 song title (Adam Raised A Cain) for RamsWeek was just irresistible this week! Not to suggest that the ever-effusive Mr Glick was motivated by any jealousy, rivalry and aggression akin to the biblical account of Adam & Eve’s offspring, regarding Pearson’s departure!
Only that The Boss’s lyrics might ring true and apply to the task facing both men at their respective clubs: “You know it’s never over it’s relentless as the rain…you inherit the sins, you inherit the flames, Adam raised a Cain”. Works for me!
Clough penned (or endorsed) an ‘open letter’ to fans, who will want harmony and on-field recovery to be the watchwords. Those who question Clough’s experience at this level and voice concern about the expertise of his backroom may feel uneasy about the departure of Clough’s experienced link with football matters and Glick’s capability to operate in the UK football milieu.
Is there now a knowledge gap? TG says it’s a ‘luxury’ to have such a person (as Pearson) dealing with football matters, declaring that it was ‘simply a matter of streamlining’. Mr Glick has to adapt quickly and prove he can operate in the transfer market as well as (alongside Clough’s backroom staff) instigate a fitness and physio regime that does not render Derby’s squad in the parlous state we see at the moment.
Mr Glick will find motivating the management and Moor Farm team, recruiting players and being a football resource a great departure from his initial activities. He’s busied himself building a ticket telesales backroom, selling corporate stadium usage or recruiting partners and sponsors to energise every aspect of the commercial business and stadium revenue streams.
Ahh well…the previous incumbent of AP’s football role at Derby is in prison and Pearson is escaping for a return to the KC Stadium, to try and revitalise Hull City again - so life goes on!
Last Thursday evening’s Rams Club (Academy lottery) member forum in the Pedigree Suite saw Tom declaring that he and Clough were ‘not concerned about relegation’, dismissing the prospect. Asked if the club will spend significantly in January 2010, he said: “I don’t think so.”
He stressed that the club was well resourced with ‘lots of investors’ (I take that to mean the global GSE partners - not just ‘the fans!’) and that the 5-year plan was for Derby to be established in the Premier League. He declared that the current Pride Park Stadium regime were in it ‘for the long haul’.
On the field, a young Rams’ reserves team lost 2-1 to Macclesfield Town reserves, with Prijovic scoring for Derby and missing a penalty.
The Rams travelled to Ipswich Town on Saturday, the Tractor boys being without a League win this season, the beleaguered Roy Keane being the surprise failure so far in the 2009-10 Championship race. With Derby having the poorest away return in the League, it seemed that something had to give for one of the sides to get some relief from their mutual torpor.
Manager Nigel Clough said of Derby’s visit to Portman Road to play bottom team Ipswich town that ‘there was no better time or place to get our first away win’. Both managers played under Brian Clough at Nothingham F*rest. Clough added Rob Hulse to the Rams’ injury list - absent with gastro-enteritis and did not travel - so Paul Dickov was the lone striker.
Stephen Pearson replaced Lee Croft in the starting line-up, who reverted to the 5-man bench that included (unfit) Jake Buxton and youngsters Greg Mills and Mark Dudley. Ipswich made 5 changes from their last game as Roy Keane searched for a first Championship victory.
So which Derby County team (regardless of injury depletion) would turn up? Would it be the up-and-at-‘em side that beat Sheffield Wednesday comprehensively, or the one that faltered and flopped against Cardiff, Middlesbrough and QPR?
Derby applied pressure until Dickov shot wide as the Rams started positively and Ipswich mounted no real threat in the first quarter-hour. Robbie Savage was booked for a bit of wrestling after 24 minutes. Town’s most dangerous raid had been a Walters’ header over the top on 35 minutes but neither side showed any penetration, the goalkeepers having an easy time. A promising Rams raid ended with Robbie Savage slipping instead of shooting, then Bywater grasped an Alex Bruce header from a corner right on half time.
Derby more than held their own to the break but Ipswich took the initiative on the restart and forced several corners. Derby plugged away though, Teale having a shot saved as the Rams forced three quick corners themselves. Dickov was battling gamely with Savage and Livermore working hard. However, Ipswich grabbed the lead on 65 minutes when defender David White was allowed to steal in and head a centre into the net. Again, Derby’s marking was poor.
The busy Bryan Hughes rapped in a shot that won a corner but the Rams weren’t ruthless enough in attack. Moxey struck a 25-yarder, then Barker headed wide. Lee Croft replaced Livermore on 80 minutes; Greg Mills replaced Pearson shortly afterwards. Town came close to adding a second goal when Priskin escaped in a breakaway, Bywater saving well.
The Tractor Boys saw out added time nervously with Hughes firing narrowly over at the death as the crowd of just over 20,000 (10,000 less than Derby can command) saw Keane gain his belated relief. Again, Derby were fall guys for a struggling side and added to their own woes.
It was an improved performance over the dreadful trips to Cardiff and Middlesbrough but Derby came away with nothing and their away form is terrible. A single defensive lapse let Town in and Derby squandered some good positions. Ipswich - still bottom of the table but have only three fewer points than the Rams, who are now 20th in the table.
Nigel Clough was disappointed after a ‘spirited’ performance and again bemoaned the poor final balls his team had produced.
They can climb several places next Friday evening when the play Coventry City at Pride Park Stadium ahead of the rest of the Championship schedule - and Derby County’s home form is crucial at the moment.
__________________________________________________________
RamsWeek 44 last season had its ‘heroes and villains’; mainly in the local ‘derby’ game against the Trees of Nothingham. Before that, the Rams had a 3-1 midweek victory against relegation-bound Norwich City with Paul Green, Rob Hulse and Kazmierczak netting in Derby’s best performance of the season, which saw them rise to the top 10 in the Championship table.
Robbie Savage returned from a loan spell at Brighton & Hove Albion whilst goalkeeper Lewis Price went out on loan to Franchise FC, the MK Dons.
The main focus of the week was the home game with Forest, which boiled up to quite a climax. The hero for forest was Lee Camp, denying Derby with fine saves, the villain that stupid rookie referee Stuart Attewell, out of his depth and denying Derby at the death. Tito Villa had managed to score in both nets, his own goal giving the Trees a 2nd half lead before he redeemed himself,
Attewell disallowed Miles’ Addison’s excellent header, which would have put the Rams’ 2-1 ahead, failing to play advantage and giving a penalty instead - which Camp Saved. Then Attewell ruled out another Addison goal, for which no one could fathom his reasoning. Robbery!
