The first time I watched the Rams in the very early 1960’s, the team was full of players named Jack, Geoff, Ken, Frank and Johnny with a chap named Harry was the manager.

How could any of us have imagined back then that these many decades hence the Rams would be managed — or at least head coached — by a man named Darren?

Early last week before the Preston match, I was thinking this had the look of a must-win game. In order to stay in touch with the top two and also remain in the top six, the Rams needed to begin winning again. This did not happen, of course; another draw being our reward for a shoddy performance.

I would not have said Fulham was a must-win, simply because it was an away game. Over the weekend though, I started to wonder if Paul Clement had seen Fulham as a must-win to save his job. My reason was the makeup of the Rams bench for the match; apart from goalkeeper Lee Grant, we only had one defender on the bench; and that was left-back Stephen Warnock.

Injuries to any of the other three back four positions would presumably have been filled by holding midfielder Chris Baird. After Baird was subbed in the 67th minute, there was no other defender but Warnock. It looked as though Clement was sacrificing a well - balanced bench in order to get the most attacking options, should they be necessary.

While Clement’s sacking on Monday came as a shock, it has also left some mixed feelings. The almost Zen-like public comments Mel Morris has made since the sacking, including references to the ‘Derby way’ and the need for continual improvement, have suggested that he and Clement may never have actually really been in agreement on the way that Clement was expected to do his job.

Perhaps the fiasco that was the Clement era was inevitable; we had an inexperienced chairman, an inexperienced head coach and a relatively inexperienced chief executive. We can only hope that the whole of the Rams’ management group has learned some hard lessons from this.

One thing you cannot expect is to achieve success by simply throwing money at the transfer market; the players brought in must be better than those they are to replace.

Another lesson is that the credentials a manager or head coach brings are really important, and that they have been a proven performer over many years. In retrospect, the case can be made that Clement never should have been appointed; his credentials were terribly thin.

As an example, Nigel Clough had a long playing career at the highest level in the game, and during that time played under some of the country’s best managers. Before arriving at Derby, Clough had a long and successful spell in management, albeit at a much lower level.

The much maligned Steve McClaren also had a reasonably successful playing career, followed by a long and successful career as a coach and manager before joining the Rams.

Clement in contrast was a good story; a man with little success or longevity as a player, who had risen to several extremely prominent assistant coaching positions. But that was all it was, a good story. The current mania for coaching trumped his lack of experience in playing or managing.

I am sure there are examples of those who have succeeded in their first attempt at management at high levels such as the Championship. One that comes to mind would be Sean Dyche, whose first position was at Watford. But in saying that Dyche already had enormous experience as a player, including numerous promotions plus he had coached and been assistant manager at Watford.

A final lesson for the Rams is that the new manager or head coach must be responsible for transfer market dealings. For me, this argues in favour of a manager, rather than a head coach.

During the Clement era, I always had a feeling that Clement may not have had all that much say in the players signed; signings began too soon after Clement was appointed to be sure of that fact. There were too many signings that have not fitted in to the team that he continually used.

All managers will make signings that do not work out but Darren Bent, Alex Pearce and Andreas Weimann all arrived shortly after Clement, have never really seemed to add very much and were all regularly discarded from the match day squad.

It is also hard to believe that a fully involved manager would see the release of a player such as Jamie Ward with Weimann as a massive step forward.

As fans, we are always considered the riff-raff of the football world; next to the “football people”, the managers, coaches, players, writers and broadcasters; we know nothing and our opinions count for little.

But it was not us fans who gave Paul Clement his oversized reputation or who appointed him to a long and lucrative contract. While there were many Rams fans who were excited about the Clement appointment, there were also many who expressed concerns about his lack of experience as a player and manager.

But life for the Rams goes on. We just have to hope for a better appointment next time, and as I said above, hope that those in power at the club will exercise better judgment and find a better fit for the ‘Derby way’.

Photo: Action Images

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