Teams relegated from the Premier League regularly fail to bounce back as they anticipate - and Derby County was no exception in 2008-09. That wasn’t surprising, given Derby’s disastrous crash.

An unexpected promotion in 2007-08 signalled a club apparently rebuilding at great pace under the new a local consortium, but the dream soon became a nightmare.

The parachute payments have all been spent (some well before relegation); several hopeless players signed by Billy Davies and Paul Jewell have been paid off with an accompanying, painful financial penance to current boss Nigel Clough.

As with previous seasons under GSE, there are no Championship table targets declared publicly, only that progress is anticipated. Is that fiscal-led caution to be regularly buttressed by foreboding references to such as Pompey, Southampton, Leeds and other collapsing clubs?

Or, have previously-stated ambitions to restore Derby to the Premier League become displaced because of investor reluctance or disinterest? If owners and investors truly believe in the manager, they should now drive on a little more confidently and get the club out of second gear.

Fans know that the owning consortium includes remote but globally ambitious billionaires who have spent heavily in other areas of their sporting and commercial interests. Supporters want to celebrate Clough Jnr, not witness him as an ordinary managerial casualty of a club whose regime - whoever they may be - cannot deliver.

GSE’s self-sufficiency drive has met financial targets - but paying fans have watched very poor value for money. The team floundered in the Championship under two different managerial regimes. Jewell’s entourage enjoyed a supermarket dash for a grab-bag of many players; Clough’s regime had to clear out the rubbish, endeavouring to field focussed players who will do the job they are asked, if and when fit to play.

The ticket office at Pride Park Stadium has a poster on the wall, worded with blunt pragmatism as uttered by Nigel Clough last season: "You either do your job...or you don't", a stark demand for consistency that might well have come from his father's mouth.

The manager expects 100%. I wonder if a copy of the poster adorns the home dressing room wall?

We have been pootling around the bottom half of the Championship for two years, surviving relegation to the third tier with only a game or two to go. Fans want to see more progress, not 6 or 7 years of cut-price mediocrity with promotion another half-dozen years away. Has the squad been improved enough qualitatively to succeed?

A stadium monument per season (Steve Bloomer; Lionel Pickering, and for 2010-11, Brian Clough & Peter Taylor) promotes goodwill between boardroom and turnstiles, and nods to deserving heritage causes ignored by previous regimes - but it does not replace an attractive team, with players that are worth watching who bring success.

Derby has a renowned, well-subscribed fanbase - we may again top the attendance figures, but to an extent, interest will wane (even if the season-ticket count always assures a huge recorded figure at Pride Park Stadium) and impatience could set in. The players need to work hard to make fans react and to restore the stadium to a place that opponents have to endure, rather than one that they enjoy coming to.

Fewer injuries might allow Clough to expose some of the promising youngsters to more first team action and find extra strength in depth. The casualty list disrupted selections to a ridiculous degree, loanees were shipped in and out and relied upon more than is healthy, corrupting the ‘steady build’ philosophy that the club recants. Using over 40 players in a season signals instability and inadequacy and inhibits progress.

So it is anticipated that last season’s injury debacle can’t possibly be repeated this time around, although Derby start again with several long-term casualties (Davies, Pearson, and Addison). The best defender at the club is still building up to fitness and a handful of other players are getting back in the groove after various foot, groin, hip and knee operations.

The goalkeeper can be among the best at this level and Mr Clough may have sorted out the full back problem, so the flanks may not be as inviting to the opposition. Central defence should be more ruthless and determined, assuming Barker is fit, Anderson maintain his form and Leacock toughens up (as well as staying fit); we should not be as porous or generous as last season.

Clough has bolstered the midfield with a little more youth and mobility but the reliance on Savage as captain and leader is a restraint on progress in my opinion.

I suspect this is more of a trade-off for the ‘contract-spread’ recently applied to the outlandish terms that Robbie enjoys (courtesy of Jewell, who also apparently drove the daft-haired Welshman close to suicide) than of any need of the man himself in Derby’s midfield, or his limited and waning footballing abilities.

Michael Tonge will be missed, unless another player becomes a creative, consistent and authoritative figure in the middle. Perhaps Brayford, Pringle, Cywka and Martin can make significant contributions, and Green and Bailey provide some dynamism?

The dearth of goals from midfield and the absence of a reliable partner to target-man Rob Hulse has yet to be overcome, hence the attack isn’t wholly convincing; Hulse may yet attract a fee, (though we’re told no offers for him have been received).

Porter needs to establish himself, Commons has to avoid injury and Steve Davies has a make-or-break season - well, half a season, when he clambers from his well-worn treatment table again.

As for Luke Varney, he makes up the numbers until loaned out or sold it seems. Despite overtures about a ‘signature’ signing like Billy Sharp or Gary Hooper for £1m+, as yet there is no 2010-11 signing that has excited or energised the fanbase.

The relatively strong squads at WBA and Newcastle United took their expected promotion prizes last season and shoe-string, homespun Blackpool surprised everyone, not least manager Holloway and his board by winning the play-offs. Will they be lambs to the slaughter in the top flight, like Derby County were 3 years ago?

The Championship doesn’t look as strong this season; there are many clubs of a uniformly cautious financial outlook and unexciting squads. If Derby cannot now make progress, it will be a surprise to me even if we still look light years away from being a promotion team.

With more luck and application, a top ten finish should be achievable by any club of our size that is purporting to make progress; a top six slot is attainable with more incoming quality on a loan or permanent basis.

Derby face a tough start at Leeds United in front of television cameras but LUFC are after all a recovering club from the third division and are no more a Revie mean machine than Derby are Cloughie’s Aces or Mackay’s warriors of the 70s.

A draw at Leeds, a League Cup win at Crewe then a home win against cash-strapped, depleted Cardiff City would kick off the campaign satisfactorily - so just do it, Derby!

Photo: Action Images

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