Explained: What Derby County can expect from John Eustace the manager
Derby County are hoping to bring back former midfielder John Eustace to replace Paul Warne in the Pride Park hot-seat.
Warne was sacked last week after seven straight Championship defeats left the Rams languishing inside the relegation zone. The search for his successor has led Derby to Eustace, who has guided Blackburn Rovers to sixth in the Championship after 31 matches.
Derby have made an approach for Eustace and triggered the compensation clause in his Rovers contract, believed to be £500,000. Eustace will now hold talks with Blackburn’s hierarchy before deciding his next move.
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But what will Derby be getting if Eustace, who spent the final two years of his playing career with the Rams, is appointed manager? BirminghamLive’s Birmingham City reporter Alex Dicken provides the lowdown…
It is no surprise to anyone who watched Birmingham City under John Eustace that he has developed into a useful Championship manager. Eustace steered Blues to safety in 2022/23 before being harshly sacked after 11 games of the following season, with the club sixth in the Championship table.
At the start of his second season in charge Eustace managed to get a tune out of a talented but imperfect group of players. He found a way to play that achieved results, he was just unfortunate that his team didn’t dominate the ball and his name wasn’t Wayne Rooney. The less said about that from a Birmingham City perspective, the better.
Eustace, who is flanked by trusted assistants Keith Downing and Matt Gardiner, is a hard-working and dedicated coach. Having had the pleasure of watching him at work a few times, it’s clear Eustace is a driver of good standards and players seem to enjoy working with him and respect him.
You would often garner more from watching Eustace coach for an hour than you would during one of his press conferences, where he can be tight-lipped on all manner of subjects and flit between buzzwords such as ‘competitive’ and ‘togetherness’. To his credit, Eustace’s teams are usually competitive and he does have a habit for creating cohesion between players and supporters.
The football was pragmatic and Blues weren't exactly free-scoring under Eustace, but they were an effective counter-attacking team who defended soundly. All of the principles Eustace coached at Blues went out the window with Rooney at the helm and relegation followed.
A personable man, Eustace insists on his players being the same. During his time at Blues Eustace instructed his players to greet non-footballing staff on a daily basis when they entered and left the training ground.
In the eyes of many, leaving sixth-placed Blackburn for a Derby side battling relegation is a backwards step but Eustace will have his reasons. The location of Derby should work in their favour. Eustace will be able to spend more time at his family home in Birmingham with a one-hour commute to Derby, in contrast to two hours to Blackburn.
If Derby can lure Eustace back to Pride Park, they will have a manager who has proven he can fight fires successfully at the bottom of the Championship and build something more promising with time and investment.
