Nigel Clough - opinions from a Derby fan

[brownie4583]

I agree with Rampage...we need someone more passionate than Clough.He sounds too similar to DW for my liking!

 

[Selly]

I have yet to read a compelling reason why we would employ this man.

Cheap? Available? Game Changing?

Reasons we would, as distinct from reasons we should, employ him...

 

[oldblade]

Thanks for the heads up on Cloughie.

It may be worth considering that with Derby and Notts Forest, he would always be frightened of making a mistake, because of the comparisons made to his Dad.

Given that he has no ties with the Blades, (other than we sent forest down to Div II) he could be his own man, and perhaps go out with a more positive attitude.

I am a bit concerned about giving a job to his brother, so if we go with him, we should have a few stipulations in place. I don't mind his brother freelancing, but not on the payrol.

I like the fact that he demands 100% from his players, because 'Bugger me, some of them need a serious kick up the arse'.

I think it's a bit harsh to say we relegated them. We won a game at a late stage in the season which meant Forest could no longer get enough points to stay up. Forest's poor showing in the previous 38 or so matches is really what relegated them.

As for Nigel Clough, I don't think he's the right man for us and feel his appointment will be another mistake. However, like most of us, I will get behind him and see what happens.

 

[Bladesman]

So just another blades way appointment then.

Average manager at best.

 

[Hartley Hare]

Get Keegan in.

 

[Sharpestblade]

Clough would not be my choice. No history of promotions, obsessed with one way of playing ie "roll it out from the keeper" (like Weir) and not a motivator. Having heard his interviews I would fall asleep during team talks.

Biggest problem for me is we need to either accept that we bring in another 10 new players and accept that the transformation will take time or we look at the players we have and decide what type of manager we need. The Port Vale performance tells you we have enough players to play what some call hoof (but I don't think it is) and the David Weir performances tell you we need a lot of new players to play that way. To play "roll it out from the keeper football" we need two full backs, at least one centre half with pace, at least one winger, at least one defensive midfielder. Oh and then we need a season for them to gel and then another season to tweak a few players to get the blend right and then another season and maybe we'll get out of league one!

In addition I believe "roll it out form the keeper" football has a low chance of promotion. Pressure on the back four causes mistakes in league one. The more you have the ball with your defenders and the less with your attackers means you are going to concede goals and struggle to score them especially if you have the wrong players - as David Weir showed us.

Finally, I don't think the home crowd (as a whole) actually responds to "roll it out form the keeper" football. We are all bored to death watching the ball go backwards and forwards between the back four - so slowly that the one attacker can actually catch up with it, even though it's one against four! We all want to see chances and lots of them. When this happens the atmosphere is electric and the place is rocking.

Hopefully in a few months time people can re-post my thoughts and have a good laugh at how wrong I got the Clough appointment!

 

[Rampage]

Surprised to read that. I've never seen a manager jump about as much as he did the last time Derby where at the Lane.

Well, I should have said he would sometimes inexplicably get irate with poor refereeing decisions and occasionally lambasts certain players.

But in his last ever game at Forest, where we were losing for most of the match and playing poorly, he just leaned against the dugout biting his nails.

 

[Rampage]

One thing a few of you have mentioned is something I've not really considered - the burden of being the manager at Derby. His philosophy was to never lose, rather than always try to win - and maybe that might be ingrained in his history for the club, and that would change with you. Who knows?

I didn't want to be the bearer of doom - almost whichever name you're to be linked with at this stage in the season, he's going to make your stomach churn. I'd take Clough over Mowbray any day of the week, and I'd hate to see my team convert to Pulis football. That's the problem with sacking a manager in the Championship or League One - all of a sudden you're reminded the country is brilliant at giving jobs repetitively to average and poor managers.

What's the club's relationship like with the fans? I forgot to mention that we've got one or two prominent supporters who have been working hard to improve the Pride Park atmosphere, and they've also been campaigning nationwide for safe standing. When no one else would listen, Clough would always have time for them and would fight for their point. If Clough hadn't been our manager, then I don't think we would have been successful in our little feng shui experiment with moving home fans behind both goals.

 

[2ndtenorblade]

Have I missed something? Has Clough been appointed?

 

[kop_blade9]

you only missed the fact that in most peoples heads they think it is a done deal

 

[JohnDenver]

Thanks to Rampage although I suspect there are very few managers of mid-table clubs who wouldn't get a similar write-up. In our position we either go for a lower league manager who's on a roll but has limited experience. Or we go for a manger from above us, but who find himself out of work.

I'm also heartened by this statement: "Players always played for him and you could never accuse them of not trying,". With our squad, it shouldn't be hard to do well in League 1 if he can instill that attitude. When people talk about passion I usually roll my eyes. The only measure of passion that matters is whether the players show it.

 

[Rampage]

I'm also heartened by this statement: "Players always played for him and you could never accuse them of not trying,". With our squad, it shouldn't be hard to do well in League 1 if he can instill that attitude. When people talk about passion I usually roll my eyes. The only measure of passion that matters is whether the players show it.

I would consider passion and effort to be slightly different traits in a team, though. Effort wasn't the problem - players would run around until their guts would burst, and if Clough told them to run through a brick wall, they'd run through another one as well just to impress him though.

However, the "passion" wasn't there often enough. If we were 3-0 down at half time, that was it. What you saw for the first 20 minutes of games is what you got for the rest of it, generally speaking. I'm really at a loss to what he used to say in his half-time team talks. He considered our defeat to Forest a good performance...which based on effort was certainly true, but not one player on the pitch had the passion and drive to actually make anything happen. There was little about his own personality which was infectious. It was all very, very boring and he departs with only a dozen memorable performances from the team.

There was a real perception amongst some fans that Clough thought if the players ran about enough, results would eventually come. I myself don't think his philosophy was quite that drastic, but he often judged on our performances more on the ability to carry out instructions and effort than chances created and goals kept out.

There is an important difference between Sheffield United now (if he does take over) and Derby County when he took over. You're a club that can only go up - yes, things are glum in League One but this is a brilliant opportunity to gain the momentum other big clubs promoted from your league have benefitted from. Clough took over a side only marginally improved on the worst team in the history of English league football, and was told to reduce the wage bill. Stability was the only thing we asked for. In many ways, I can't help but feel it would have been healthier to be relegated again and to rebuild properly from there...

 

[1889]

I am still at a loss to understand why, given that managers contracts are not governed by the FFP rules, that the club has not flexed its new found financial muscle and lured Ferguson out of retirement or courted someone of that ilk, as a statement of their game changing intent.

I have to say Nigel Cloughs potential appointment doesn't really fill me with optomism. The OPs assessment is pretty much the way he comes across, neither passionate or enthusiastic, very monotone and well, as he concludes, a bit dull.

However I am trying to take heart from the fact that I thought David Weir was a very shrewd appointment by the board and I honestly thought they had pulled off a real coup by recruiting someone who had all the makings of a top class manager. What's more, the Notts County performance just reinforced that opinion. To be fair, I'm still at a loss to understand how he turned out to be quite so alarmingly bad.

So on that basis, if it is going to be Clough, then I will get fully behind him and sincerely hope that my initial feelings are as far wide of the mark as they were last time !

 

[louthblade]

Interesting article on the Clough sacking

http://www.theleaguepaper.com/features/columnists/389/sad-and-shameful-sacking-of-clough/

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

I have yet to read a compelling reason why we would employ this man.

His first signing when he took over at Derby in 2009 was super Chris Porter for £500k.

 

[gavtheblade]

His first signing when he took over at Derby in 2009 was super Chris Porter for £500k.

oh no-----------

 

[Jon Bon]

Have I missed something? Has Clough been appointed?

You shook hands with Jim Phipps. Did he not mind-meld with you?

 

[vorpal blade]

A nicely worked thread, thanks, Teenage Rampage, sweet.

In my tired state I stumbled over a typo for a second or two.
"He never made a substation till the 70 minute"

The French make our substations for us now I spose, that spellchecker has a sense of humour.

 

[Ian MacMillan]

So what are everyone's thoughts on Nigel now ???

 

[mattbianco1]

Brilliant thread. This is the exact reason why I'm not slagging any of our new signings off. We don't know how they'll be. The proof will be in the pudding

 

[grafikhaus]

So what are everyone's thoughts on Nigel now ???

Nonwithstanding Rampage's fine effort, it's different strokes. Some people just work and others - the majority - don't. I think NC is firmly in the first camp. He's also young enough to keep learning on the job, and not be set in his ways.

His signings have been superb (Paynter apart - a stop-gap, backup player.) Also the way he's brought other players up to speed - Murphy and Flynn in particular - has been awesome.

No doubt there'll be hiccups along the way (England might want him post the 2016 Euros flop ), but so far so good.

He's injected a passion into this pre-season I can't remember. (In 06, pre the PL season, I felt nothing but fear.)

Early days, but NC is shaping up to join the other 3 great managers I've seen - Harris, Bassett and, yes, Warnock.

In Nigel we trust.

 

[Pinchy]

The most instructive statement is to be found in the final paragraph from Sharpest Blade.

Personally, I never treat comments from fans of other clubs about their players or managers as some sort of special, revered wisdom. We haven't got any [except me, of course], why should they?

 

[travellingblade]

When I first read that article, I didn't realise it was followed immediately by one stating that we shouldn't get rid of avid Weir.

How ironic?

I wonder if the author would maintain the same sentiments now?

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

So what are everyone's thoughts on Nigel now ???

Very happy with Mr Clough but still think Pulis is better and results at Palace would back me up.

We have someone for the long haul at last though and I'm sure Clough will become a legend.

 

[LSF]

The most instructive statement is to be found in the final paragraph from Sharpest Blade.

Personally, I never treat comments from fans of other clubs about their players or managers as some sort of special, revered wisdom. We haven't got any [except me, of course], why should they?

Quite agree Pinchy. The thread confirms my long held opinion that the average football fan generally knows fuck all and loves espousing the fact. ​

 

[raul]

We've been here at least twice before. Club looking like getting relegated. Old manager - Bassett, Robson - gets the boot. New manager - Kendall, Blackwell - comes in, stops the rot and sends us on an upward curve, finishing strongly and having us all looking forward to the promotion charge the year after. We know how it ends - the usual disappointed trudge back to Wembley Park Tube.

The miracles NC worked last season dwarfed the ones above, but that only adds to the level of expectation for the new season ahead - the difficult second season. Whilst HMS PTL is defiantely still in dry dock, everyone I've spoken to expects us to be incontention for automatic promotion and NC should be in no doubt that's the minimum target.

Where he differs from the previous two managers who couldn't get us over the line is that he's universally popular and the crowd will stay with him for longer if -as is inevitable over a 46 games season - things don't always go to plan. Secondly, he has that most un-SUFC like benefit of us not actually lurching from crisis to crisis. Off the field management appears calm, measure and professional and mirror the traits we see in NC.

It's there for the taking Nige,all the boxes are ticked, go take it.

 

[judge]

We've been here at least twice before. Club looking like getting relegated. Old manager - Bassett, Robson - gets the boot. New manager - Kendall, Blackwell - comes in, stops the rot and sends us on an upward curve, finishing strongly and having us all looking forward to the promotion charge the year after. We know how it ends - the usual disappointed trudge back to Wembley Park Tube.

The miracles NC worked last season dwarfed the ones above, but that only adds to the level of expectation for the new season ahead - the difficult second season. Whilst HMS PTL is defiantely still in dry dock, everyone I've spoken to expects us to be incontention for automatic promotion and NC should be in no doubt that's the minimum target.

Where he differs from the previous two managers who couldn't get us over the line is that he's universally popular and the crowd will stay with him for longer if -as is inevitable over a 46 games season - things don't always go to plan. Secondly, he has that most un-SUFC like benefit of us not actually lurching from crisis to crisis. Off the field management appears calm, measure and professional and mirror the traits we see in NC.

It's there for the taking Nige,all the boxes are ticked, go take it.

Wish he had the sort of backing kendall and blackwell were given or in blackwells case the dearth of talent at his disposal
Dont think it will matter though I expect us to have a good enough season to go up automatically but only if we bring in two or three quakity signings (permanent or loan )

I wasnt overwhelmed at the appointment but he won me over but im not overly expectant either this division is so poor that even an average 60% season will get you in tge play offs
Im hoping that the wave of optimism carrys us over the line for once

 

[Northyorksblade]

For the first time in a long while, I am excited about the coming season. That worries me.

 

[shorehamview]

The proof will be in the pudding

No it won't. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, the pudding itself will prove nothing.

 

[judge]

No it won't. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, the pudding itself will prove nothing.

Unless it was used to murder someone