Paul Warne: Will getting Derby County promotion make Rams boss a League One guru?
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Paul Warne is Derby owner David Clowes' first managerial appointment
Paul Warne doesn't see himself as a "League One promotion guru" - well, not until he gets Derby County back to the Championship.
"If I could do it [promotion] again, then I would definitely take that title," he said with a broad smile during his introductory press conference as the Rams' new head coach.
"Three out of three, I don't know. Four out of four is quite good. It's a nice thing to say."
Warne's three seasons managing in England's third division have all ended with him taking Rotherham to the Championship.
While he never managed to keep the Millers up in the second tier - operating with a modest budget in a league of more liberal spenders chasing Premier League riches - his achievements with the South Yorkshire club made him a sought-after manager, one who turned down approaches from rival Championship clubs to drop a division again and take the Derby job.
In an almost hour-long session with the media on Tuesday, Warne laughed about superstitions, talked about Premier League ambitions for the club, spoke of tactics and philosophies and shed tears about how proud his late father would be of him taking the Derby job - following in the footsteps of the late, great Brian Clough.
Deciding to leave Rotherham, where he was in charge for nearly six years, was a "tough" and "difficult" decision for the 49-year-old.
"I left a club that I gave my heart and soul to for six years," he told BBC Radio Derby.
"It had to be something right for me and my staff to come to - a progressive club, something we could have a real impact on, on the pitch and off it - something we could culturally build.
"It seemed like a good opportunity and one we couldn't miss."
Warne said the coaching team around him - Richie Barker, Matt Hamshaw and Andy Warrington - all had a say on the move. A call from any one of them not to leave the Millers for Derby would have been enough to turn down the job, Warne said.
"They are my best friends," Warne said of the trio. "I had an office, it wasn't a manager's office, it was a coaches' office. I had the same seat as everyone else around the table.
"I'm a pretty passive leader, I take everyone's opinion to heart so it was essential we all came or we didn't all come. I don't want to waste a day of my life on making a bad decision. Everyone was really keen for the new challenge."
It's at Pride Park - with a Derby side rebuilding under new owner David Clowes, after it spent more than nine months in administration and suffered relegation to the third tier for the first time since the 1980s - that Warne says he and his coaches "have the most realistic" chance of getting to the Premier League.
"I feel like that, not as a dreamer but as an optimistic person," Warne told BBC East Midlands Today. "It ticked all the boxes."
'I haven't got to change a lot'
Clowes, the Derbyshire property developer and lifelong Rams fan that brought the club out of administration, is the one who convinced Warne to leave a Millers side that was eighth in the Championship for a hastily put together team that is getting to grips with League One football.
Derby had just five first-team players on the books when Clowes took over less than a month before the start of the season.
"I haven't got to change a lot," Warne said of 11th-placed Derby, whose rebuild was overseen by interim boss Liam Rosenior.
"I'm not going in and the team is 10 points adrift and 24th, they are in a good position. I'm very fortunate that Liam and the club did a great job in the summer, recruiting really good people - people that I want to work with.
"What made him [Clowes] sell the club to me is that he wanted the fact we [Warne and staff] have been pretty good in League One and he liked my moral compass and integrity, which means more to me than anything," Warne said.
"The relationship between owner and manager is essential. The whole morality and integrity that David has, and that he sees in me, did scratch the right itch in my brain."
And it proved enough to bring him to a club that he previously said he was "disappointed" not to see relegated last year, with the club surviving in the Championship on the final day of the 2020-21 season - an escape that prompted rivals to take action against the Rams for loss of income because of financial rule breaches at Pride Park.
When asked about that post-match comment, which continues to circulate on social media, he said seeing Sheffield Wednesday relegated, with friend Darren Moore at the helm, prompted the reaction.
"I was disappointed that Derby didn't [go down]," he said again on Tuesday. "They were a little bit unpopular, that is true.
"It was more the fact - you can see in all my interviews, I'm really honest and I don't try sugar-coating anything - and when I was told Derby survived and Sheffield Wednesday went down I was like 'oh gosh'.
"That was my honest emotion at the time. It's not a Derby hatred, obviously if that was the case I wouldn't have left a very secure job in the Championship - eighth with a game in hand - to come here."
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