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Stuart Says: Keep The Faith In Clough & GSE
Stuart Says: Keep The Faith In Clough & GSE
Friday, 21st Jan 2011 22:59 by Stuart Hughes

In his new regular RamZone column, we asked local writer Stuart Hughes a question relating to this weekends Forest clash and the road ahead for the Rams.

 

RamZone Asked:

'If the Rams lost or failed to put up a fight against Forest should changes be made at the club or should it be treated as another loss with long term success still the goal?'

 

 

Stuart Said:

As a fan of Nigel Clough, and a supporter of Tom Glick and the General Sports Entertainment board, I have to say that changes should not be made if the Rams lose or fail to put up a fight against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

The most important thing, particularly when running the club prudently and sensibly, is improvement season on season building to long-term success.

 

I've heard fans say that Derby County aren't improving, that the Rams are going backwards, but I don't agree with those statements at all. Going into the Watford game we were five places and eight points better off than at the exact same stage last season.

For the most part of this season Derby County have played some entertaining attacking football and have looked much better than at any time since the good days under Jim Smith.

During that purple patch period during October and November when the Rams were flying high in the playoffs, and setting that record breaking sequence of six consecutive home wins at Pride Park Stadium, I didn't hear anybody complaining or saying we were going backwards then.

We also played the league leaders off the park at Pride Park and, but for a crazy period of stoppage time, would've been the first team to defeat Q.P.R. this season.

So don't tell me there hasn't been improvement. Ultimately though, improvement will be measured by where we finish at the end of the season compared to last season.

Essentially it's the same squad of players now as it was then. They showed during that run of good form (eight wins, two draws, two defeats in 12 games) that they have the potential to be very good players in the npower Championship and what we're seeing now is a dip in form and confidence.

I agree that the loan players Shefki Kuqi, Luke Moore, and Frank Fielding are no longer here, and concede that the fact that those players are not around any more may be a contributing factor to the loss of form, but I do not agree that success cannot be attained through the use of the loan system. Ian Holloway and Blackpool demonstrated admirably last season how to use the loan system successfully and gain promotion to the Premier League.

All teams have bad runs during the season and Derby County are having theirs now, but I've seen enough already this season to suggest that the Rams will turn the corner, will put another good run of form together, and will start climbing the league table again. I am confident that Derby County will finish higher than last season's 14th place and with significantly more than last season's 56 points.

The board are constantly accused of a lack of investment but investment isn't just about high transfer fees. The board have paid off all the debt they inherited from the Peter Gadsby era, with the exception of the mortgage on Pride Park Stadium. They have also paid the player's wages and, for the most part, subsidised a salary bill in excess of what the turnover of the club could afford. All of this contributes investment to my mind.

Additionally they have made transfer fees available for the manager to sign players and I don't for one minute imagine that the deal to loan Alberto Bueno for the season was done on the cheap.

I agree with the board that, irrespective of whether we have £10 or £10 million available for transfers, it makes no sense to tell the whole world what your transfer kitty is.

The board are also accused of not communicating with the fans and here they cannot win. When they don't say anything they are not communicating, when they do say something they are accused of not telling the truth or of political spin.

As far as new players are concerned, there's essentially going to be three categories of player Nigel Clough is looking at:

 

* Quality players that will improve the squad 

* Championship tried and tested players on a par with what we have now 

* Young or unproven (at Championship level) players who can step-up

We have enough of the last two bullet point players so need to improve the squad with quality and these players cost money, not just in terms of transfer fees but also in terms of salary demands.

Unfortunately I think this is where the costs can easily escalate out of our budget range, particularly in the case of strikers. I have no reason to believe that Derby County weren't seriously interested in Scunthorpe United's Gary Hooper last summer, but once Celtic showed an interest and the fee rose to £2.4 million then we were priced out of the market.

People say that the money from the sale of Rob Hulse to Q.P.R. hasn't been reinvested but there's no point spending money for the sake of it, especially when you're working on a limited budget.

It has to be the right player, at the right price, at the right time. I have no problem with that, particularly as the January transfer window notoriously is not the right time to buy as only players that are no longer wanted by their clubs are available without the need to splash out silly money.

As a manager, Nigel Clough is an accountant’s dream because at Burton Albion the one thing that was consistently thrown at him by Brewers fans was not spending the money that chairman Ben Robinson made available to him. Nigel Clough won’t pay over the odds for players and is that such a bad thing?

I also have confidence that Nigel Clough and his management team have a longer term plan. They have already identified summer targets and they will have a lot more flexibility over wages (and possibly transfer fees) once club captain Robbie Savage is off the wage bill.

Nigel Clough was charged with stabilising a football club that had far too many mediocre players on ridiculously high wages and he is doing just that. The wage bill is now within budget and October and November showed that we do have the nucleus of a team and squad that can compete in and around the npower Championship playoffs.

Derby County are very much a work in progress and I believe Nigel Clough deserves the time and opportunity to finish the job he has started.

 

As Derby County fans we need to keep the faith, and we need to be patient, because I believe that Nigel Clough will bring success to this football club.

 

'Stuart Says' is a semi-regular column here on RamZone.

 

If you have a Rams related question you would like Stuart to discuss, email it to our editor by clicking HERE!

 

It will then be passed on to Stuart and if he has something to say on the matter then it will become a 'Stuart Says'.

 

Stuart is a local writer and Derby fan, you can read more of his written work on his website www.stuarthughes.webs.com

 

 

 

Photo: Action Images



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paulredf58 added 11:17 - Jan 20
At last! Someone who speaks some sense. Clough's track record is there for all to see. His tenure at Burton Albion saw continuous improvement year on year until they were in a place ready to gain promotion to league 2. But what he is not is a quick fix man. He is very much a slow burner. More importantly, he is also gradually overhauling the whole club - BD was never much interested in the academy, Jewell focused on the first team and built a bloated squad. These things take time - but most football fans have the attention span of a gnat. Hence all the hysteria every time there is a small blip. Thank you Stuart for making my day.
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