Why this Championship club need to learn from Leicester

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Recent seasons have seen an upturn in Derby’s fortunes and a seemingly inevitable return to the Premier League just around the corner. Since the hiring of Steve McClaren in October 2013, the club have transformed from a mid table ‘sleeping giant’ to a contender for promotion almost from the get go. However, the heartbreak at Wembley in the 2014 Play Off Final against QPR was not the last time the club would be destined to fall at the final hurdle in the coming seasons.

The 2014\15 season started steadily, with the Rams occupying a place in the top 6 from September onwards and being 5 points clear at the top of the Championship in late February. Despite such a commanding position, Derby went on to win only 2 of their remaining 13 games (against relegated Wigan and Blackpool) and dropped out of the play-off places with a humiliating 3-0 home defeat to Reading on the final day of the season when a single point would’ve seen them into the play-offs for the second year running.

Now in the 2015/16 season, the story looks to be repeating itself. This time under the management of Paul Clement, Derby went on a run of 1 defeat in 19 games and were top on Boxing Day 2015. However, once again the club seem to have slammed the self destruct button, failing to win in the league in 2016 until February – a 3-1 away victory over out of form Brentford – with owner Mel Morris sacking Clement following a 1-1 draw away at Fulham. Darren Wassall has since taken the reigns until the end of the season but this doesn’t seem to have had much of an effect.

Derby did win back to back games for the first time since December – the win over Brentford followed up by an uninspiring 1-0 victory at home to Blackburn Rovers – but the lack of confidence and the clear disappearance of quality in both games was uncovered in a deeply disappointing 2-1 loss away at Wolves, a team who had failed to win in any of their previous 7 games. The expectation of promotion has all but vanished for most Rams fans, with many even agreeing that the play-offs may be a waste of time and a slight embarrassment if the club get turned over, which many fans expect to be the case.

With the annual meltdown and self-destruction seemingly in full swing, is there a chance that Derby are doomed to forever be so close yet so far from finally reaching the ‘promised land’ of the Premier League. Maybe a good example would be to look at the other two Championship clubs in the East Midlands, Leicester City and bitter rivals Nottingham Forest.

Starting with Leicester, the club were in a similar position to the Rams for many seasons, spending big money from their millionaire owners but only really flirting with the play-offs, being knocked out at the semi-final stage almost annually without really making much of a challenge. However, after 3 or 4 years of continued disappointment, the Foxes blitzed the Championship and won the league almost at a canter, hardly being threatened after the midway point of the season. After barely staying up in their first season back in the Premier League, the club now have an incredible chance to do the impossible and become champions of England, the first club outside of the ‘big four’ (Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd and Man City) to accomplish such a feat since Blackburn Rovers in 1995. It seems incredibly unlikely that any other Championship club could challenge for the title so effectively after getting promoted, but there’s no reason to think that the Rams can’t emulate Leicester’s blitzkrieg of the Championship and win the league in the coming seasons.

Forest are in a drastically different situation to Leicester, both on and off the pitch. Having looked nailed on for promotion whilst ‘King Billy’ Davies was in charge, the club failed on numerous occasions to win automatic promotion and, as with Leicester, fell out of the play-offs at the semi-final stage on a couple of occasions. The club slowly began to decline, partially due to the shock of the mysterious death of then owner Nigel Doughty, and have since been shackled to mid table obscurity, with numerous managers filling the post at the City Ground, many leaving or being sacked due to an often turbulent relationship with controversial owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi. Coupled with this decline on the pitch, the Reds have been placed under a transfer embargo having broken FFP rules and seem to be in an ever increasing mountain of debt with recent reports of failing to pay players and staff. The team itself has talented individual players that occasionally seem like they’ll mount a promotion challenge, but seem to fall away towards the end of the season and become once more embroiled in off the field turbulence.

These appear to be the two paths open to the Rams at the moment, with the club sitting somewhere between the Foxes and the Reds, both metaphorically and in terms of league position. The club is crying out for stability if they are to emulate Leicester’s success in the Championship, with a permanent manager and settled team absolutely critical in order to finally mount a successful promotion challenge that doesn’t fall flat as soon as the pressure is on. Derby have spent a huge amount of money in the past year, both on transfer fees and player/staff wages, and have to ensure that it’s not money that goes to waste season after season.

Leicester spent wisely – after initially appearing to have thrown money everywhere for no real reason – and are now fully reaping the rewards and then some. Forest, on the other hand, have seemingly thrown money away and are now feeling the effects of that with no light at the end of the tunnel. Its now crucial that Derby do not throw money at any player that becomes available and find themselves in increasing debt and transfer embargoes. The squad needs to be settled, it needs to learn how to play together and it needs an experienced manager at its helm if the club which has been so well built and prepared for the Premier League – a fact repeatedly mentioned by both club and pundits alike – is finally going to live up to its billing and achieve promotion that is so craved by the fans.

Featured image: All rights reserved by Alex Hannam.