Paul Jewell must be wondering what's going on.

We have a two-week break – time enough to work out some tactics, get some enthusiasm going, and work on the shape of the team. All ready for the trip to Wigan Pier - sorry I mean the JJB stadium. Mind you – judging by the state of the pitch, it wouldn't surprise me if the pier had a better surface.

And what do we get? A display guaranteed to make even the most fanatical fan throw their season ticket on the ground in disgust. So what's going on? Why is that some professional footballers seem incapable of comprehending that if they play so badly or fail to compete, it actually damages their prospects of getting a new club where they can make a fresh start?

If you think about it, football managers depend on players to keep them in a job. Players who cave in or go through the motions and show an alarming level of disinterest are hardly likely to find managers queueing up outside their palatial homes demanding their agent's mobile number. I certainly wouldn't put my job at risk by going out and buying someone who was so clearly unmotivated. I would go for those who, despite the difficulties in their last club, showed a level of fitness, desire and determination to battle to the last minute.

PJ's obvious anger with his players is telling the world that these people cannot be trusted and so where are they going to go? The Championship? League One? Certainly not the Premiership. And is he going to keep many? Probably not and for some of those, their careers of playing at a decent level are almost certainly over, and as a consequence, their income is going to drop considerably. If I thought that my performance was going to lead to my salary being slashed to a level where I'd have to save for that conservatory, I'd strain every sinew to avoid that.

So why do players play so badly? Apart from honourable exceptions, it seems that quite a few Derby players are showing little desire or hunger to battle. What's going on? Is it that at Moor Farm, everyone shows keenness, enthusiasm and some sense of tactics only for this to desert them and collective stage fright overtakes them when they cross the white line on the pitch?

Maybe Steve Bruce, the man whose face is the epitome of cragginess, put his finger on it. We over-achieved last year. Remember how we all hoped for a mid-table finish? And if we were lucky, getting close to the play-offs? After all the season before we had narrowly escaped relegation. Those now facing a court case had just been bought out, and unknown to us at the time, were certainly sailing very close to the wind where the management of finances were concerned regardless of the outcome of the court case. There was a massive re-building job to be done – one that seems to have been beyond a certain Billy Davies, who has yet to find employment as a manager elsewhere.

So we're not actually underachieving this year – but performing at the level of a mediocre Championship side with no chance of competing with powerful athletes, who are highly skilled, well organised and absolutely ruthless in punishing mistakes.

Still, I'd have expected a much higher yellow card tally – and maybe the most damning statistic is to be found here where not one Derby player features in the top twenty of those collecting the most yellow cards. If you are going to battle against superior competition, then it is inevitable that you will make some mistakes when physically competing and incur a yellow card.

Harry Storer must be turning in his grave – it was he, who responding to Joe Mercer complaining that six Derby players had been clogging his (Joe's) team, demanded to know their names, saying: "It's the other five buggers I'm after."

Photo: Action Images

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