Derby County chief executive Stephen Pearce has revealed that Paul Warne wasn’t sacked earlier through fear of missing out on John Eustace.
The Rams ended a two year stay in League One last year by clinching second place behind champions Portsmouth. The aim this season was to retain their Championship status, giving them a platform to build on ahead of their long term ambition of returning to the Premier League.
The campaign started brightly enough. By the beginning of November, Warne had guided the club into the top half of the table. However, their form began to stutter and a run of two wins in 16 games saw them move into the relegation places.
The pressure on the manager began to mount at the turn of the year, with fans making their voices heard. Warne clinged on until February though and was eventually replaced by John Eustace, who opted to give up a promotion fight with Blackburn Rovers for a relegation battle.
The former Birmingham City boss worked wonders by securing safety with a run of two defeats from their last 11.
Delay Imperative To Land Eustace
With the season now confined to the history books, CEO Pearce has revealed the delay in sacking Warne was due to fears that they wouldn’t be able to prise Eustace away from Blackburn earlier. Speaking to the Rams Daily Podcast, he said:
“Would we have liked to do it earlier? If we had to, yes, but all of the signs told us John would not have come if we’d done it earlier and we wouldn’t have got the same calibre of manager as we got in John Eustace.”
Continuing, he admitted that he maybe should have pulled the trigger sooner but refused to criticise Warne:
“The results speak for themselves.
“I’m accountable to the board and to David (Clowes) but ultimately I would also say that when we made that decision with regard to making that change and appointing John Eustace, I have to be accountable for that because I was the one that put him forward, that said to David ‘Let’s go and get him’ and that got him over the line.
“In terms of something going wrong, Paul got us promoted. We missed out on the last game of the season in the first season to Sheffield Wednesday to get into the play-offs.
“Second season we were promoted with our record points total. Paul wasn’t a failure.”
Writer’s View
At the time, it seemed strange that Derby were clinging on to Warne for so long when the club appeared to be in freefall. It seemed even more bizarre when it was revealed that Eustace was their primary target, somebody who appeared to be unattainable at the time. However, they pulled off a masterstroke. It may have been ‘squeaky bum time’ towards the end of the campaign but they survived and now have one of the most highly regarded coaches in the EFL. Next season could be a big one for the Rams.
