One of the greatest criticisms levelled at Nigel Clough has been the perception that he is stubborn and will continue to persist with tactics and players that from a fans view, are clearly not working.

Whether is true or not that Nigel suffers from terminal stubborness (I wonder where he would get that from?), it seems he is no happier about what is happening at the club than the supporters. And more than ever this week Nigel appears to be listening and learning, even if it is just when speaking to the media.

It began on Monday when Radio Derby spoke to Clough about the protests and player unrest:

“You’ve got a very good friend or your kids or something like that they let you down, you get disappointed with them, upset with them, you still want to hug them, you still wanna cuddle them, you still love them. And we feel like that about this place."

“We are doing everything we can and we desperately want to succeed. I’ve lived in Derby for 40 odd years, we know what it means to the people, hopefully they know what it means to us, the staff and everybody and the players honestly.”

"I take responsibility for every single game when we send a team out but as a club we stand together and we will get through it together.”

These comments stopped me in my tracks in the same way his Cywka remarks did but this time because Nigel was finally telling us how he was feeling rather than rolling out what he thought he should say or reacting defensively to criticism. I finally felt like I was hearing the real Nigel Clough.

For me, a breath of fresh air.

Listening to Nigel talk over the last week or so you cannot help but feel that after seeing first hand how many fans perceive him that he has made a genuine attempt to let us see the real him, the Nigel Clough that those who know him have spoken highly about over the years.

There is no doubt that the Cywka comments were over the top unnecessary and spur of the moment but perhaps they will be the catalyst for the soul searching amongst the squad, management team including Clough himself.

Ever since those comments everything else has snowballed and rolled on. He himself even admitted on radio Derby this week that Cywka bore the brunt of his growing frustrations with the group.

The pressure was building and they were the valve through which much of it was released. Sadly that pressure from fans has not yet impacted on GSE or the level of investment they intend to outlay for players but it definitely seems to be galvanising the squad and management.

In today’s DET Nigel spoke about exactly what he has been doing to get things moving again:

"Nobody is ranting and raving at the moment. We had a good quiet chat with the players after the Leicester game and had a lot of feedback from them. We had another chat on Monday morning."

"Everybody is at a loss to explain how we have gone from fourth to where we are at the moment and have not won a game hardly in that time. It is interesting when you ask people because they cannot put their finger on why but there are one or two things the players say that we take on board.”

"We have certainly made mistakes in that time – the manager, the staff, and they (the players) have made mistakes, without doubt. So it is a time to say 'yes, we have all made mistakes', let's acknowledge that and move on.”

"With 16 games to go, it doesn't matter what has happened. Now is a good time to draw a line under everything and let's get on with the rest of the season. The mood, despite us not winning games, has been much better around the place this week. It is difficult to get a good mood in a football club when you are losing games because it is not a nice place to be."

In no way do comments like these prove Nigel can succeed or even get the Rams out of the rut they are currently in. What they do prove is he is not living in a bubble and not willing to concede his mistakes or work hard to develop understanding between him and the players he is responsible for getting up on match day.

I have said it before and I think it worth re-iterating that you would go a long way to hear anyone who knows, played with or under Nigel that has nothing but good things to say about the man. For him suddenly to become a talentless, tactless individual with no ability as a manager seems a little premature but that is how he is being painted by many fans.

Various reports suggest Nigel has had to slash the wage bill from 18 to 8 million pounds and then make do with loan options that are themselves not high earners from week to week. There aren’t many businesses that could make those kinds of cuts and expect the level of service not to suffer or its output to remain unaffected.

I find it easy to understand Nigel sticking to his guns at times and trying to make things work that had done the job previously. Sticking to a formation or players out of position in hindsight has proved disastrous but if it had clicked he would be considered a genius. Sure he stuck with it too long but all of us will have stubbornly persisted with a lost cause at some time in our lives against our better judgement.

Success and failure are far too close together in whatever we all do and like his dad did after Leeds, Nigel must learn from these mistakes and become better for them. Providing him with support and players will allow him to do just that, providing no tools for Nigel to work with or just simply sacking him (as Leeds did to Brian) benefits no one.

How much he has learned from his mistakes and how much his players respond to this week’s attempts to galvanise the squad will start from the minute the team sheet is handed until the second the final whistle has been blown.

Let’s hope Nigel’s new demeanour and openness is a sign that he and his players are pulling together as a united force for the remaining games to come.

It has been a week of new attitude; new signings and we can only hope the start of a new run of positive results on the pitch.

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