Derby boss Warne finds 'vindication' in promotion

Derby owner David Clowes was among the celebrations on the pitch after the Rams' promotion was secured

Paul Warne was parachuted in at Derby County as the 'King of League One' when the Rams were looking for a hasty return to the Championship last season.

Their promotion back to the second division on Saturday, however, was less a coronation, and more about vindication.

Warne, 50, had previously won promotion from the third tier in each of the first three seasons he managed in the division.

All of them were at Rotherham, the club that gave him his first shot at management and where he spent a majority of his 16-year playing career.

"I was the manager at Rotherham not because I had super skills, I had just been a player there for so long and they probably ran out of people they thought could take the heat at the time because the team was really struggling," Warne told BBC Sport, when reflecting on how he was initially appointed interim boss of the Millers in 2016.

"Whereas with this one, I haven’t got the job because I had a brilliant Derby career and I scored 200 goals, I got it because of what my staff achieved at Rotherham and I’m always grateful for that.

"But it [promotion] is a bit more of a vindication and says we are not bad at what we do, without sounding arrogant."

Expectations from the outset were that Warne would take the rebuilding Rams - who had only emerged from administration three months before his arrival in September 2022 - straight back up.

Derby owner David Clowes turned to Warne because he saw the head coach as League One royalty.

What followed was 19 months of toil before they finally got over the promotion line on the final day of the 2023-24 season.

"It's been tough, and, yeah, maybe the hardest," Warne said.

His first season at Pride Park, having left Rotherham to drop a division to take charge of the Rams, ended with Derby failing to even reach the play-offs.

And while they made a slow start this season, taking six months to climb up to second for the first time, Warne has delivered Derby back to the Championship.

"It has been hard, but in fairness I've had really good support," Warne said.

"The owner has been amazing. If we have had a bad result or performance, the owner has put his arm around me."

The Championship is a 'huge step up'

Warne was handed a four-year deal to replace interim boss Liam Rosenior - who had overseen an initial rebuild of the squad following Clowes' takeover.

The club had just five players on their books when coming out of administration, and it was then rookie boss Rosenior - who has gone on to manage Hull in the Championship - who signed promotion-winning captain Conor Hourihane, this season's leading scorer James Collins and the influential Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.

Former Derby and Manchester United goalkeeping coach Eric Steele, who was a Rams player the last time they won promotion from the third tier in 1986, says "a lot of faith" was put in Warne by lifelong fan Clowes.

They have gone up this season with a record points tally, but now move into a division where Warne has overseen three relegations.

"Promotion is the judgement of this side," Steele said.

"It will now be a tough challenge and the step up is huge, even compared to when he has done it with Rotherham.

"You live and die by recruitment. Look at Ipswich, they were the best team we saw in League One last season - they got up, then got their recruitment right, did it quickly and now they are two wins away from the Premier League.

"I'm not saying Derby are going to do the same, but it shows the value of the plan being there."

Warne himself spoke immediately after promotion about the "sad" reality that the euphoric celebrations on the pitch at Pride Park would "be where the path ends" for some of the squad that have got them back to the Championship.

But he said it would not diminish the role anyone has played in the resurrection of the club.

"They will always have this," he said.

"Hopefully in 10 years' time Derby are back in the Premier League, but even then this League One promotion team will have a special place in the hearts."

Steele sees the passion and emotion that streamed out of the stands, and on to the pitch to engulf the players when promotion was confirmed, as a vital ingredient for future success.

"There are a lot of good things in place for Derby to push on with from here," he said.

"That emotion has to be grabbed, bottled and taken on in a very calm way in the next few weeks."