The quick-witted German’s rigorous fitness regime and astute signings have a once great club overwhelming richer rivals in the race for the Premier LeagueIt is a quirk of history that the season in which one of English football’s greatest managers, Brian Clough, won his first major trophy also heralded the start of the long and graceless fall of a club that had been home to two of the game’s other most inspiring leaders, Herbert Chapman and Bill Shankly. While Clough was celebrating turning Derby County into English champions in 1971-72, Huddersfield Town, the first club to win that title three years on the trot, finished bottom of the old First Division. They have been exiled from the top flight ever...
Derby County’s quickfire turnover symptomatic of the alarming hire-and-fire culture in the division that has seen 14 managers leave their posts this seasonGary Rowett must know he does not have long. Around 18 weeks, if the Derby chairman’s form is anything to go by. Just ask Paul Clement. Or Nigel Pearson.Derby are in their ninth consecutive season in the Championship and their appointment of Rowett to replace Steve McClaren this week means that when they face their bitter rivals Nottingham Forest on Saturday the fixture will feature two new faces in the dugouts for a fifth time in succession – a run that stretches back to January 2015. On that occasion, McClaren – in his first spell at Pride Park...
The former Rangers manager wasn’t expecting the City Ground job until the summer but now faces a survival battle, beginning against DerbySaturday’s encounter between Nottingham Forest and Derby will feature two managers both new to the fixture. For many derbies that might be unusual, but in this case it is a familiar situation: this will be the fifth successive game between the two clubs with new managers in each dugout. In the 16 months since the pair last met at the City Ground, the two clubs have changed managers eight times between them. It is as if the two rivals are competing to see which can be the most chaotic club in the east Midlands.The latest man to make himself...
The county’s fortunes have waned but Garry Monk, Carlos Carvalhal and David Wagner are overseeing promotion challenges with three sleeping giantsIt did not take Garry Monk long to start second-guessing the inevitable question. Why on earth did the former Swansea City manager want to risk his career at Leeds United, a chaotically run, fallen giant emblematic of Yorkshire’s footballing rust belt?As if working for Massimo Cellino, Leeds’ eccentric owner, was not bad enough, had Monk not read Gary Neville’s analysis of the national game’s changing topography? “The north is being cut adrift in English football and I fear the damage may be permanent,” wrote the former Manchester United captain turned pundit last year. Continue reading...
Manager has had to battle player departures as well as off-field disruptions but his no-excuses philosophy is reaping remarkable rewardIt has been quite some 12 months for Paul Heckingbottom since taking control of Barnsley, initially as a caretaker manager, for the second time. Heckingbottom cancelled his beach holiday last year, booked while fighting relegation to League Two, to make an unlikely engagement: the League One play-off final. Since winning promotion, Heckingbottom has been at the centre of another mission impossible.Barnsley, with one of the smallest budgets in the division, are looking good for a top-10 finish and the Championship play-offs remain in view after a goalless draw at Reading on Saturday. Related: Football League your thoughts: Darren Bent leads dramatic...