Football League World
·26 November 2024
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·26 November 2024
FLW's Derby County fan pundit has named his pick for the club's worst ever manager
Derby County are back on the rise under Paul Warne after a difficult few years behind the scenes at the club.
Warne has overseen the Rams’ promotion back to the Championship at the second attempt, with the team coming second in the League One table last season.
The Derbyshire outfit will now be looking to cement their position at this level once again after a turbulent few years prior to their 2022 takeover.
Warne has earned a lot of praise for his work at Pride Park, restoring the team to a more stable position.
However, Derby have had a few managers in the past that have turned out quite a lot worse than the 51-year-old.
When asked who the worst manager the club ever had was, and what went so wrong, FLW’s Derby fan pundit Shaun Woodward named Paul Jewell.
He cited signings, lack of excitement and an inability to get anything out of the players as reasons for why his tenure was such a disaster.
“Phillip Cocu’s time at Derby will go down as underwhelming to say the least,” Woodward told Football League World.
“I think Nigel Pearson as well just, for whatever reason, could not get a tune out of Derby and he just did not suit the club, when he came in from his exploits at Leicester.
“But for whatever his man management or training styles didn’t suit Derby.
“So, I think those two are up there.
“But, for me, Paul Jewell.
“His record stands alone as one of the worst stints at a football club in the history of football.
“I may be wrong but I don’t think you can get much worse than Derby.
“He wasn’t blessed with the greatest squad, but it truly was horrific, a terrible time to be supporting the club.
“He just couldn’t get a tune out of anybody, whatever he tried it didn’t work.
“His signings were poor, there was nothing to really get you excited about, and the guy looked like he was just a broken record when he was doing interviews.
“So, yeah, I will remember his time but not in a good way.”
Jewell replaced Billy Davies as Derby manager during their most recent Premier League season, the ill-fated 2007/08 term.
The Rams managed a record low of just 11 points across the entire campaign, with the now 60-year-old taking over in November 2007.
Derby won 12 games during his 58 games in charge before he departed in December 2008 after they had already returned to the Championship.
Jewell has since managed just one more club after the Rams, spending nearly two years with Ipswich Town from January 2011 to October 2012.
The Derby team of 2007/08 will go down in the history books as one of the worst-ever Premier League sides and it’s difficult to see that record being broken anytime soon.
Jewell was completely unable to turn things around, failing to guide the club to a single win in the top flight.
While he had previous experience at that level with Wigan Athletic, nothing that he tried worked at Pride Park and the club was inevitably relegated by the end of March that year.
Jewell’s time at Ipswich fared better, but he’d be hard-pressed to do any worse than he did during his time with Derby.
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