Not only should we have stuck with him I would welcome him back now
He is the best we have had since Jim Smith
And also the blades are lower now than when they sacked him

That was not Nigel's decision that was the chairmans

Yesterday's game was that dire it reminded me of one of Clough's games.

Griff is right, we would be dished that 5hit up week after week and be playing in front 18k if he was here.

He post match interview would then be as infuriating as Wassalls was: deluded, deflective, and as if he'd been watching a different game.

I'd say it was more Rush than GSE that opened the trapdoor on Clough.

It's been widely said even by the most anti Clough brigade that he did a great job, stabilising the club and getting rid of the deadwood, but as for the football on show let's not kid ourselves it was hardly inspiring.

We need someone who knows this league and has history of getting out of it.

We have to allow the club to stabilise. It will take time with the bad apples being sorted. Get some attacking flair back and some passion back.

GSE didn't make a decision because they didn't know what they where doing. Nigel basically ran the club. They where a bunch of chancers and no more.

Igor

The Season isn't over yet! Time to start getting behind the lads ( because first 10 mins aside PP is like a morgue lately) and support Wassall for as long as he is considered the man for the job.

An interesting read from a group from dcfcfans that Mel invited to Moor Farm at the weekend.

http://dcfcfans.uk/topic/21921-breakfast-with-mel-and-no-bacon-or-sausages/?page=1

OOE

What a man

Love ya bro

Go Eddie!

the only thing clough would have got us is near bottom table or more likely relegation,mel morris should never have got sole ownership,the americans should have stayed.mcclaren was dogged by injuries and loan players returning to home clubs.i wish he had stayed.clemment had a few injuries but mostly brought players in who were not as good as what we had.then proceded to pick and mix the team

If I may remind again, McClaren has spent how many millions and where are Newcastle in the poorest premier league in yonks?

A bit like the situation at Villa with Newcastle I think Igor. Damage already done long before McClaren took over.

It is nice to know I am not the only Rams fan to have appreciated Nigel Clough. He really did a tremendous job when he was here. The one thing Mac had over Nigel was his philosophy of attacking in order to defend a precarious position (1 goal lead). But he did have many more attacking resources than Clough did who mostly had only defenders he could bring on.

But think of the. Playing value of the players Clough signed compared with the very costly failures of recent history.

Anyway, it's beginning to look as if he'll be back at the iPro next season and he'll certainly gat a warm welcome from me.

Any 'improvement' we had under Clough slow or otherwise had stopped.

11/12 61 points (big improvement on 10/11 because he bought 10-12 players in the summer)
12/13 58 points
13/14 11 from 9 = projected total of 56 points

I agree with Baz on this. Saturday was straight from the Clough handbook

"Eddie went who I had loads of issues with when he first joined as he liked to call other members ***** on a regular basis,"

It wasn't just me then.

Some facts about the Clough McClaren era.

At the beginning of Clough's final season Derby lost 3 home games but two of these were to Burnley and Leicester who went up automatically. We were unlucky to lose against Leicester. The other one was Reading where Russell gifted them a goal.

We only lost one away up to then and that was a narrow defeat to the doggies. We had also lost away to Leicester in the league cup.

The bad defeat was Burnley where Freeman was shown up to be seriously lacking the ability to defend against decent wide players. Remember he had been forced to get rid of Brayford to Cardiff.

All McClaren did when he arrived was solve the full back problem by bringing in Wisdom. We played exactly the same passing as under Clough until the new year and played our way up to second.

We lost ground in the early part of the year (sound familiar) and McClaren changed the way we played to a more direct style using the wide players more than working the ball down the middle. The acquisition of Thorne enabled him to play more on the flanks as Thorne was covering our defenders.

Had Clough addressed the full back situation I see know reason why results would have been much different under Clough as they were under McClaren. We wouldn't have been relegated as someone said earlier.

Clough's problem was that unlike his clebrated father he was too risk averse. This probably came from managing so long in none league and making do with what he had. Had he a been a little bolder I think he could have made us into a side which could challenge for promotion and without collecting a load of expensive deadwood.

"making do with what he had"

What he had in non-league was one of the biggest budgets, consistently, and yet he still failed to achieve promotion. What he had, in non-league, was a procession of mates at the end of their careers happy to turn out for a few more years at a much lower level to help their mate out, and for the love of the game.

He wasn't forced to sell Brayford any more than he was forced to buy Conor Sammon; these are the decisions he made as manager. It should also be remembered that he couldn't manage any player who had any level of ego; what use would he be in charge of the modern high-level pro?

He didn't take us down, no, but neither did he take us up. 'Stagnation' was the signature of his tenure. He took over the bones of a side that had achieved promotion, failed dismally under Jewell despite significant spending, but were nonetheless decent Championship standard players. The descent stopped under Clough, sure, but how much of that was down to his management skill and how much would have happened anyway is subjective.

There is much sense and recognition of reality in what you write Spart. The only point I have difficulty with is your belief that such a lack of defensive and attacking forces was down to Clough. These were the days when (quite rightly) GSE held the purse strings very tight. Clough had little option but to live within the means at his disposal.
I would love to see Nigel back here with the MM backing.

You begrudge Clough any praise don't you 666?

Be assured, we were on a fast track to oblivion after the infamous 11 pointer. Worst team in history, far worse than the Man Cities Newcastles and Leeds teams that fell a lot further than we did. I think it is a shame if we Clough's contribution to stabilising our club is brushed under the carpet. All I've seen recently with the expensive aquisitions is his good work being undone. What he really needed was probably McLaren as a number 2. but owd Schteve is far better than that isn't he?

"What he had in non-league was one of the biggest budgets, consistently"

Absolute nonsense, and you know it! Or, if that's what you actually think then you know nothing about Burton Albion or how Ben Robinson operates.

NC could have had any coaching staff he wanted within reason. And yes, I do think he may well have fared better with a decent number 2 who had opinions woth hearing.

Garner, Taylor and Crosby were his choices alone.

As far as I can tell the strongest argument in his favour is that he was better than his predecessor.

"What he had in non-league was one of the biggest budgets, consistently, and yet he still failed to achieve promotion. What he had, in non-league, was a procession of mates at the end of their careers happy to turn out for a few more years at a much lower level to help their mate out, and for the love of the game."

For the bulk of his time at Burton the team were semi professional so where do you get this stupid idea from, other than your fevered imagination. He did have contacts to pull in a few experienced professionals though.

If it was Clough's decision to sell Brayford, why did he sign him again the first chance he got, as Manager of Sheffield United.?