ADAM Pearson will probably be at Turf Moor today watching the Premier League clash between Burnley and Hull City.

But his thoughts are sure to stray to Ipswich, more than 200 miles away, where Derby County will be trying to record their first away win of the season.

His fingers will be crossed for the Rams as they go in search of a positive result after back-to-back defeats at the hands of Middlesbrough and Queens Park Rangers.

Pearson quit his role as chairman of football with the Rams this week after spending two years at Pride Park.

The official reason given for his departure was to pursue "new challenges" but he also felt the time was right to leave.

"The squad has been cleaned up. The tough work was getting the 18 players out this summer, which we have done. The wage bill is back under control and the major challenge we feel has been achieved," said Pearson.

"The club is in better shape financially and in great shape going forward. It has a good base.

"In years to come, that will be important."

Pearson's departure has come two months before the next transfer window is due to open in January.

There is a concern that his experience and contacts could be missed when it comes to bringing in players and moving others on.

Tom Glick, the club's chief executive and president, will fill Pearson's role and work with manager Nigel Clough.

"There is never an opportune time to go but going now gives Tom a couple of months to bed himself in before the transfer window," said Pearson.

"I am leaving Nigel in really good hands with Tom, because Tom is a proper guy, a good guy.

"There will not be a lot of activity in January because most of it has been done with players who left in the summer.

"There will be a couple or so to come in I think. Nigel knows who he wants and they are pretty achievable.

"So, all in all I just felt the timing was right."

Pearson admits a shortage of success on the pitch in his time at Derby is his biggest regret.

He found Derby bottom of he Premier League when he arrived and odds-on to make an immediate return to the Championship.

Manager Billy Davies left the club by mutual consent a month later and Pearson, as chairman, quickly appointed Paul Jewell who had worked wonders at Wigan Athletic and Bradford City.

Pearson oversaw a takeover of the club by American company General Sports and Entertainment in January 2008. Head of GSE, Andy Appleby, became chairman and Pearson took up the role of chairman of football.

Derby's expected relegation followed and despite Jewell signing 13 players in the summer – a ridiculously large number – the Rams struggled in the Championship and Jewell resigned at the end of the year.

Pearson turned to Clough in January this year and he guided the Rams to safety.

"I feel I can hold my head up in relation to investment in the club, moving players out and getting the wage bill down," said Pearson.

"A lot of money has gone into the club in the last two years to straighten it out and I think those issues will come to the fore because Nigel has got a decent base to build on now but it will take him 18 months, no doubt about that.

"The good moments were beating Manchester United at home and Nottingham Forest away twice, that was enjoyable.

"But there were not enough highs on the field.

"I think I'll look back with a little bit of pride at the amount of debt that has been taken from the club, the fact the wage bill is back down to Championship standard and that the average age of the squad apart from the loan players is coming down.

"I have taken satisfaction from those things but what has been missing is the excitement of a winning team on the pitch.

"But I feel certain Nigel will deliver that.

"Appointing Nigel wasn't a hard decision and as every week goes by he impresses me more.

"I think he has got everything needed to be a top manager.

"He lives and breathes the club. He has immersed it back into the community.

"He has put his heart and soul into it and I know in the coming months and years he will develop a really successful team.

"I have massive respect for Nigel. He is quality.

"I didn't realise the sheer quality and size of the club before I arrived. It has got absolutely everything. It is a proper Premier League club.

"Now it needs that extra push financially in the next six months, which I am sure it will get, and I see it coming back very, very strongly.

"It is in decent shape, it is just lacking some finishing touches on the pitch.

"I think Paul Green, Chris Porter and Miles Addison, in my opinion, will help when they return to fitness.

"Within the squad now there are some fantastic assets – Stephen Bywater, Dean Leacock, Shaun Barker, Dean Moxey, Paul Green, Chris Porter, Rob Hulse – assets which were not there two years ago, no matter what anybody says."

Asked if there is anything he would have done differently if he had his time at Derby again, Pearson said: "We wouldn't have spent any money in the January 2008 window."

Jewell signed eight players as the Rams looked to salvage some pride in the top flight.

He brought in Emanuel Villa, Laurent Robert, Robbie Savage, Mile Sterjovski, Roy Carroll and Alan Stubbs, as well as Danny Mills and Hossam Ghaly on loan.

Villa cost £2m, Savage £1.5m and Sterjovski an undisclosed fee. Carroll and Stubbs also came in on big wages.

"We should have been tougher," said Pearson looking back.

"We inherited a situation where the team was miles off Premier League standard and it was never, ever going to stay up.

"To waste that money was another big regret. The new owners were keen to make an impact but we spent too much money in that January when it should have been spent in the summer of 2008 going into the Championship.

"I did feel for Paul (Jewell).

"I personally felt he was nailed on for the job when he came in. I thought he had the right experience, I thought he was the right man for the job.

"We have discussed it since his departure and it was just one of those where it wasn't meant to be.

"No matter how much he tried, it just didn't work out.

"He did take it to heart, it hurt him massively and it does when you lose games.

"It knocks your confidence."

Pearson is unlikely to be out of the game long. "It is the industry I work in," he said.

The 45-year-old is being widely tipped to rejoin Hull whose chairman, Paul Duffen, left the club on Thursday.

Pearson worked wonders at Hull before he arrived at Derby in 2007.

He took the Tigers out of administration in 2001 and oversaw their rise from the lower reaches of League Two to the Championship, and the move to a new stadium.

"I will definitely get back into football as soon as possible," added Pearson. "On the pitch, I have a lot to prove but off the pitch I know how to sort out clubs and make them prudent and viable."