Derby County next manager must, David Clowes stance - Rams handed response to brutal Paul Warne sacking
Four days after the transfer window closed Derby County are looking for a new manager having parted company with Paul Warne.
The Rams have this afternoon released a statement thanking Warne for bringing the club back into the Championship, praising his integrity and welcoming him back to Pride Park.
However, owner David Clowes did not beat around the bush when he explained: “Results in football dictate decisions and we felt that to give us the best chance of retaining our Championship status, the time was right to make a change."
DerbyshireLive writers have given their response to the breaking news
READ MORE: Derby County news live - Paul Warne leaves Pride Park, Rams make next manager statement
READ MORE: Breaking: Derby County sack Paul Warne as club releases statement
Leigh Curtis
Paul Warne's legacy as Derby County manager will be the promotion he delivered last season - the first club enjoyed in 17 years and against the backdrop of transfer restrictions. He created memories that will last a lifetime for fans, both young and old, as the city was brought to a standstill as it partied for 48 hours.
He is honest, he is principled, and has an incredibly big heart. This will have been a very tough decision for the owner, David Clowes, who shared a very good relationship with him since appointing him in September 2022.
It's incredibly rare for any club to release a statement after a manager's departure that says they will always be welcome at the club they have just left. That just shows the respect with which he is held.
But after seven straight league defeats, and from listening to Warne over the last couple of weeks, you sensed he knew the writing was on the wall. The challenge for Derby is to find a successor capable of transforming results but crucially tease goals from a team that have been in short supply in recent weeks. That is a fundamental problem that still needs solving.
Steve Wollaston
I'm not a Derby County fan and I don't see them week in and week out so my views won't be as valid as those who do go and pay their hard earned cash watching the Rams.
But I have seen plenty of Championship football and enough seasons to know that football is a fickle beast in one of the hardest divisions around.
The timing of Paul Warne's departure is baffling, given the transfer market moves and the manager doing his usual press duties, just yesterday.
Time will always be the biggest proof of whether a decision is right or wrong, but for me, I don't really understand why the Rams have come to the decision they have.
Warne is a manager who can get a tune out of his players, it's hard to imagine it was a lost dressing room.
What it is, and will remain, is a team that isn't strong enough to be competing consistently higher up in the league.
They may just have made it very difficult to stay up, because upheaval at this stage of a season is a risky business.
Rich Cusack
I am shocked. Despite the club's horrendous run of form, for which there were mitigating circumstances like a seemingly never-ending injury list, Derby stood by their man.
Paul Warne was David Clowes' man and you can see just how much it hurts for the owner to have to sack someone he is clearly so fond of, as a man as much as a coach.
The losing run has proven too difficult to ignore, though, and Warne has paid for that.
What I would like to know, though, is why now? Why was seven straight defeats enough and six wasn't?
Fans who have demanded Warne's departure have now got it, and now it will be interesting to see where the club go next.
What is clear is that Clowes is not a man who shirks the big calls. He replaced Rosenior with Warne after Derby won a game and now he's called time on a promotion-winning manager.
Brian Dick
Is it surprising? Really? Maybe knowing how close Clowes and Warne have been, possibly. But seven straight defeats only has one ending and Derby’s league position is parlous, they have no choice but to do something about it – and they weren’t able to do enough in the transfer window.
Look at their rivals in and around the relegation zone. Plymouth have changed manager and have hinted at an improvement. Luton have changed manager, Hull have changed manager, likewise Cardiff and Stoke. Mark Robins has really settled things down at the bet365. This is utterly predictable.
I really feel for Warne but honestly I didn’t see him arresting the current slump. It will be enormously painful for a man who is yet to cross the bridge from League One to Championship manager. He will rightly argue that at both Rotherham and Derby he has not been given the tools.
However, a return to the third tier is not an option for the Rams. There would be an enormous drop off in revenue and that’s what Clowes is dealing with. Thing is, if they do go down, who better to bring them back up than Warne.
In the meantime, to ensure that doesn’t happen, they need to find a firefighter, someone who can find a way with this lower end squad and scrabble together enough points to make the Pride Park more appealing in the summer.
