Former goalkeeping coach Eric Steele has been sharing his thoughts on the possibility of Lee Johnson being named as the new Derby County manager.
This comes after Steele recently made an appearance on the Sportscene Podcast where he spoke about a number of different topics concerning the Championship club.
On the topic of who could potentially become the next Derby manager after the club parted ways with Phillip Cocu earlier this month, Steele had this to say on the matter.
He said: “I had a name thrown at me today and I thought, what a good shout. Lee Johnson, ex-Bristol City manager, who took them to sixth position twice, was relieved of his duties, knows the Championship, plays good football, brought a lot of the players that we saw playing for Bristol City into that squad and setup, so when somebody suggested [him] to me today, I thought, I could see that.”
Throughout his managerial career so far, Johnson has had spells at Oldham Athletic, Barnsley and Bristol City.
In his most recent job in management, 39-year-old Johnson was appointed as Bristol City’s manager back in February 2016 where he took charge of 217 matches in total in which they won 84, drawn 53 and lost 80 games before leaving the club in July 2020 (per Transfermarkt).
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TIF Thoughts on Steele’s comments on Johnson potentially being the next Derby manager…
Given how Johnson has been a manager since 2013 and picked up quite a bit of experience under his belt, this could make him a potential name to take the job at Pride Park now that Cocu has left.
However, looking at how Johnson lost almost as many games at Bristol City as he won, this could be an issue for Derby or any club potentially thinking about hiring him.
In our view, with Derby recently losing their first two Championship clashes with Wayne Rooney, Justin Walker, Liam Rosenior and Shay Given as the interim coaching team at the club, this shows to us that they need to hire a proven manager as soon as possible, with the club currently sat in the relegation zone.