Blackburn had too much guile for Derby County youngsters, admits Nigel Clough

“Nigel and his backroom staff have always been too comfortable in their jobs and this has lead to a certain complacency. Stability is important, but in the case of Derby's management this has now gone too far. As a consequence poor results are dismissed as either bad luck or attributed to factors beyond their control. No attempt is ever made to take responsibility for their own actions, excepting the occasions when we actually win a game. Nigel's task has not been easy, but very few managers would have been given the benefit of the doubt to the extent he has. Even Alex Ferguson's job was constantly in jeopardy for the first five years of his tenure at ManU. I always get the impression that Clough lacks personal ambition. He is a local man and after ten years at Burton, I feel he would be content to see out his career managing his local team without any particular concern as to whether we actually achieved any thing on the field of play. Successful coaches, as well as displaying some tactical nous, have a burning passion to succeed. We have had far too many performances devoid of any thing resembling passion, particularly in Cup competitions, to be entirely convinced he has any of that. Look at his body language when he is slumped in the dugout and his indecision during critical phases of games.
Like all Rams fans I was desperate for Clough to succeed, but the goodwill has all now dried up.”

“Nigel Cloughs continual excuses for HIS and GSE's failings .
They both make excuses for each other and the players.
They need a stronger manager than Clough, the air would be BLUE if Dad Brian was in the dressing room.
His team selection, tactics, players bought and sold, 4 long years and going backwards.”

“That is a poor excuse from nigel clough just look at oldham they beat liverpool 3-2 an their team is probaly on less wages then our players an they beat a team full international players its about time you left nigel an take your back room staff with you I m not going to blame gse anymore you are the one that picks the players an tactics”

“Just look at the stats.Not ONE shot on or off target for the full ninety mins.

Go to any park,watch school boys,and you would see at least some shots.”

“Go to Spain look at the bargin Swansea picked up in mitchu no one had heard of him till he played for the swans bargin of the prem and goals to back it.”

“Poor tactics by NC again. Time to come off the fence and tell it like it is; GSE are not prepared to back him and DCFC to develop a side to seriously challenge. He's right that the youngsters are not up to the big teams level yet but this is his responsibility to do something about it be it loans or other aquisitions. The fact is we are never going to improve from where we are due to the boards lack of investment and this is why the gates are dropping. It is time to stop short changing supporters and state facts; not keep being sycophantic to GSE board”

“Keogh & Sammon cost over £2.2m I think and are IMO both very poor players. I would like to think that for that money, we could have done considerably better in the transfer market. One sensible option would be to have some scouting capacity beyond these shores, where the bargains are most often found. Before (or since) the promotion year I dont think I have ever been more excited than when Idiakez, Raziak & Bisgaard came along.”

“Yes bad tatics stop making excuses,don't blame it on wage structure ,there old men our young guns should of run rings round them,and they come down from prem because they was not good enough just like us!be lucky to Finnish in top half of the table if we keep pro forming like this.”

“Both JohnZFish and DCFCOAP are perfectly correct in their observations and comments as NC seems to make excuses at times for poor defeats. Bad goals being conceded are the reason we are in mid-table and will remain there as I have stressed on more than one occasion. I was hoping for a top10 finish with the emergence of Will Hughes to augment the side however I am beginning to think that probably will not happen. Ironically we were scheduled to play the same opposition away on Saturday had we not been engaged in the Cup and I dread to think what the score could have been because we were outgunned in every department at PP. Nigel is right that we were well beaten by the experience of Murphy and Pedersen but our defence is absolutely woeful and has been most of the season. Their wage bill we cannot compete with, which is a subject that I have strong views upon throughout the leagues, but we made some big mistakes in the summer recruitment period defensively. It is rumoured that Steve Davies and Jason Shackell did not get on and they both went to assist the dressing room however whether this is true or not we shall never know. What is blindingly obvious is that we need to score goals in order to make up for what we concede so no progress is being made on that score.
We cannot guarantee that Shaun Barker will return fit and well in a few months time and if it is the case that he cannot reach the high standards of before, as many players find after a serious and lengthy lay-off, we could be facing a dilemma to replace him. Having lost him for this complete season it almost amounted to suicide to lose Shackell also as many pointed out at the time. Unfortunately if there is one thing that Nigel inherited from his dear father it is a stubbornness of character and at times like those of moving Shackell out we saw a plain example of it. It afflicts his tactical decisions also I'm afraid.
However that it is the pessimistic view of things and fortunately we have some extremely talented youngsters to put a smile on fan's faces and, provided we retain those players and manage them well and providing that we get capable defenders in the frame, we should be able to mount a serious challenge for the top 6 next term. Hopefully that will bring a bit of a boost to the ailing attendances, and therefore the finances, that have been seen this term.”

“There are several championship clubs above us in the league with lower transfer & wages budgets.”