Eric Steele, who is a former player and coach of Derby County, and presenter Chris Coles discussed all of the latest Derby County news on the most recent edition of the BBC’s Sportscene Podcast.
The pair answered listeners’ questions during the show and some Rams fans asked them about potential replacements for Phillip Cocu, who was sacked from his role as manager of the East Midlands club this past weekend.
One name that was brought up as a potential replacement for Cocu was ex-Derby manager Steve McClaren, who has been in the Pride Park hot seat twice before, and Steele was full of praise for the 59-year-old when he was asked about the possibility of McClaren taking over as Rams boss once again, though he did question whether or not McClaren would want to return for a third spell as Derby boss.
Here is what Steele had to say about McClaren in full: “I can see the argument. He’s got the best win percentage over the last six/seven years of all the managers.
“Bearing in mind, if you look at what he did spend, it wasn’t a great deal, it was done very much with loan signings – [Patrick] Bamford, [Andre] Wisdom, [George] Thorne.
“[He’s] one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked with but inevitably, everybody will say, ‘how many times do you come back? Is it the right move?’
“Inevitably, he’s going to be linked because people will remember the style. People still stop me now and say, ‘can you remember them games when we beat Leeds at home 3-0, we beat Forest 5-0, they remember the football that was played when we had [Jeff] Hendrick bombing forward and [Craig] Bryson.
“It’s understandable and I can see why, but then the question would be ‘Do you come back for a third time?’”
Would you like to see McClaren back in charge of Derby?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Steele had to say about the possibility of McClaren returning to Derby…
No manager that has taken charge of the Rams since McClaren’s first spell at Pride Park – which lasted from 1st October 2013 until 25th May 2015 – has helped the club to earn more points-per-game than they earned during that original spell under McClaren (1.85).
Additionally, McClaren guided the Rams to a third-place Championship finish during his first spell at the club in the 2013/14 season, which is a better league placing than any of his successors have managed to achieve.
Indeed, McClaren has already returned to the club once since that first spell in charge, with his second spell lasting from 12th October 2016 until 12th March 2017, however, as is clear from the dates of his arrival and departure from the club, he didn’t get to start the 2016/17 season or end the 2016/17 season at Derby, so you could potentially argue that he didn’t get much of a chance to recreate the success of his first spell in charge the second time around before he was sacked.
With the Rams currently sitting at the bottom of the Championship, it certainly seems as though the East Midlands club has not moved in the right direction since McClaren first left and so perhaps bringing him back would be a positive move for Derby.