Derby Disaster: Rams Struggling in Championship
(Picture via www.htic.com). Former Nigel Pearson has played a large role in the Rams' poor start.
Derby County fans have become accustomed to let downs over the past few seasons. It all started back in May of 2014 when the Rams made it all the way to the Championship playoff finals. In what could have been one of the most iconic moments in club history, fans left devastated after QPR's Bobby Zamora struck in the 90th minute to triumph over the Rams. This proved to be a sign of more negative things to come because in the following season, the Rams were actually in 1st place for much of the season. Yet again though they didn't show up when things counted most and they played so awful over they last handful of matches that they actually missed the playoffs all together. Last year was slightly better but they choked in the playoffs losing over two legs to eventually playoff winners, Hull City.
As if their fans haven't suffered enough already, the Rams appear to be playing even worse than the aforementioned seasons. They currently sit in an astonshing 20th place in the league, merely 2 points above the drop zone. This is absolutely shocking for a team of their quality. The squad itself isn't lacking skill at all, in fact one could argue it is one of the better teams in the league talent-wise. They employ players like Matej Vydra who lit up the league with Watford a few years ago, a very respectable attacker in Tom Ince, a once highly sought after young English talent not long ago, Will Hughes, and numerous other solid starters in comparison to the rest of the league. They did lose one of their better scorers from last season, Chris Martin, but their abundance of attackers to fill his spot suggests that it's not the source of the problem here.
Rather I believe the issue lies in the (former) manager, Nigel Pearson, who is involved in yet another controversy. As if his firing from Leicester City after some of his players made an obscene video, Pearson has gotten himself in even more trouble, this time with his newer club Derby. The club decided to suspend Pearson before the Rams' match against Cardiff stating that they needed to investigate his behavior, and he is not expected to return. This conflict may have played a critical role in Derby's slow start to the season. The Rams have already experienced headscratching losses to Burton and Blackburn, but these can probably be attributed to some sort of behind the scenes conflict. If Pearson's behavior was serious enough to warrant suspension, chances are it was bad enough to impact the team in a negative way.
Of course, now that Pearson is gone, things most likely won't all of a sudden drastically improve for the Rams. In fact, under interim manager Chris Powell, they only mustered a draw against Reading. However, at least now they can move on from whatever negativity Pearson was producing and hopefully Powell or someone else will prove to be the right one to lead the club forwards. Who knows, maybe if the team starts stringing together some good results, maybe they can circumvent the agony of past seasons.
