Clough deserved another season at Derby

Not even the sacred Clough name acts as protection in football management anymore. Not even in its most hallowed fields of the East Midlands.

Derby County sacked Nigel after narrow defeat to arch-rivals Nottingham Forest. A result which leaves the Rams in fourteenth spot but just seven points off the playoffs. 

Even in September, there seemed little wrong with their away form even if life at Pride Park needed a better result or two. 

Not forgetting the percolated coffee!

But everything is wrong with the board's decision, apparently even the manner of its delivery: young Nigel was sacked by telephone. 

Quite aside from the emotional pull of being a Clough, his track record at Burton Albion deserved more, whether a Clough, Smith or a Jones for that matter. 

Still only in his mid-forties, Nigel has fifteen years managerial experience following an extraordinary club-building exercise down the road at Albion, the club he joined in 1998 as player manager.

Over the following decade, during half of which he continued to play a regular role on the field, Clough took Burton from the seventh tier of the English football league system to the brink of promotion to League Two before leaving halfway through the 2008–09 season to follow in his father's footsteps and take over at Derby, where he served for four years. 

Clough followed his instructions and slashed the wage bill and still maintained the team on a mid table trajectory. Stability before a promotion push was being created.

When boards sack managers, what messiah figure do they expect to change things next? Who's better than Nigel Clough? The board have decided that man is QPR's ex-England coach Steve McClaren.

He has good previous at Derby: it was his organisational skills which attracted the attentions of Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson, who took him to the imminent treble winners to replace Brian Kidd.

It's clear Derby believe he has the profile and coaching experience to lift the Rams into the Premier League.

But whatever the rhetoric about the Championship being tougher than ever to get out of, the fact remains the playoff system creates a wide-open lottery in March.

Everyone knows you hit form in the spring, stay within touch of the top 10 - a massive thirty points behind the eventual champions will do. And you can get promoted to the big time! 

Clough's personal stability and experience could've navigated that. 

And indeed McClaren might bring them that prize, but it's no better preparation for promotion, nor foundation. 

The only way to get ahead in this crazy, money-driven era is to add continuity to your plan. Derby are nowhere this morning and Clough deserves another job. 

The Clough name lives on at Derby

By JOE MORRIS (making his Soccermongery debut). Joe takes a look at the Cloughs, their bond with each other - and Derby.

The relationship between father and son is always a special one, but for Nigel Clough the bond with his dad, Brian, could never be broken. Father and son were never less than best friends and you somehow knew that one day Nigel would do exactly; the same job as his doting dad.

Earlier this month, Nigel Clough became the new manager of Derby County, 42 years after Ol' Big 'Ead breezed into the old Baseball Ground. In 1967 Clough senior was an unknown, Derby were struggling at the wrong end of the old Second Division and a band from Liverpool were conquering the world.

After serving a stern 10-year apprenticeship at non-league Burton Albion, a boy called Nigel has been catapulted into the deep end at Championship club Derby County. Which is roughly where Clough senior came in. By the end of Brian Clough's career both Derby County and Nottingham Forest had become household names with trophies galore.

Brian Clough won League championships in abundance with both Derby and Forest, boasting one of the most identifiable of voices. He was forthright, opinionated, an infuriating nuisance at times but always accessible to both the public and media alike. He once called an eccentric Polish goalkeeper a clown, hollered obscenities at his players when close season training wasn't going according to plan, and in a League Cup match against QPR, lashed out at Rangers supporters.

In their Carling Cup semi-final against Manchester United last week, Nigel Clough sat quietly in the Directors Box remembering the good times with dad. In contrast to his controversial father, Nigel, it would seem, is an altogether different footballing boss. It remains to be seen whether Nigel will tell his players exactly what he thinks of them and whether cups and saucers are thrown in the dressing room.

Clough junior, apart from bearing an uncanny resemblance to Ol' Big 'Ead, is also a devoted family man. He will set out his footballing theories, put a sympathetic hug around his players when things go pear-shaped and then undoubtedly demand three points and the Champions League trophy

When he was at Burton Albion all Clough had to deal with was a postage stamp sized ground, little or no money for new players and the electricity bills. Non-league clubs are the poor relations in football's great pyramid, so when he takes his place for his first match as Derby boss the culture shock may just startle him.

He will climb into the Pride Park dug out, take in the glamorous surroundings and wonder what he's letting himself for. In the old days Derby's Baseball Ground would often resemble a gravel pit. Brian Clough would walk out on the pitch, politely applaud his adoring supporters and then watch his much revered side including John McGovern, Archie Gemmell, Kevin Hector and John O'Hare.

The task that faces son Nigel is entirely different and this time there are no European cups or League Championships on the immediate horizon. There is no Peter Taylor to confide in when the boys are under-achieving, only a reliable back room staff to hand out reassurance.

When Nigel the younger was growing up, dad Brian would often take him to to all the matches. You can still see the little boy in shorts sitting excitedly next to his dad and just smiling. True Brian Clough was a master motormouth, tactlessness personified and a man with no regard for the niceties. But he taught his players all of the game's finer virtues and he also encouraged them to treat the ball like a favourite uncle.

If Nigel Clough can make half the same impact as his monumentally successful dad then Derby County could well be back in the big time in no time. During one League encounter against Manchester City, a groundsman had to run on to the pitch to paint a penalty spot.

From the resultant penalty Derby scored. Brian Clough would have seen the funny side of that one isolated incident. If Nigel Clough can keep looking at the bright side of life then Derby County could be grinning from ear to ear.

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