The Derry Good Appointment

Notts County have appointed Queens Park Rangers midfielder Shaun Derry as their player-manager. The 35-year-old, who was on loan with Millwall, returns to the club with whom he began his career with, but the length of his contract has not yet been disclosed by the club. Former Carlisle boss Greg Abbott has been named as his assistant at the League One side, as the duo succeed Chris Kiwomya and Mick Jones, who parted company with the struggling outfit last month. The Magpies had also been linked with a number of experienced managers, including Dean Saunders, Danny Wilson, Brian Kerr and Burton Albion boss Gary Rowett, but have decided upon appointing a man who is tasked in his first Managerial employment with changing Notts Countys fortunes in League One, with the side languishing at the foot of the table after 15 games into the season.

Nottingham-born Derry is no stranger to appearing at Meadow Lane, having joined the club as a 10-year old, where he spent three years with the Magpies at the start of his professional career between 1995 and 1998. Derry has played a pivotal role in promotions to the top-flight with Crystal Palace and QPR and is now looking to transfer his successful playing career into one in management.  Having worked with a variety of top bosses, including Tony Pulis, Harry Redknapp and former County boss Neil Warnock, Derry has seemingly developed all of the credentials to take the club forward onto bigger and better things. Notts County Chairman Ray Trew acknowledged that there were going to be big "question marks" over Derry's credentials because it is his first managerial role at a club. 

“There are question marks over his credentials, simply because this will be his first managerial role, I know that, but there are doubts with every managerial appointment and we, as a Board, have to put our faith in who we think is the right man for the job. When we, as a Board, sat down to identify the credentials that we were looking for in our next manager, we were agreed that we needed someone who understood this club and what it means to our fans. Shaun is someone who can relate to the players and, perhaps more importantly, relate to this club. What he has achieved as a player, coupled with the leadership that he has shown throughout his career, make him the ideal candidate for a managerial role and he made it clear that he wanted that role to be with his hometown club, but he is not naïve enough to think that he could take this step alone. That is why he has turned to Greg Abbott, a man with a wealth of experience in the Football League, as a coach and manager, and someone that he has worked with in the past, to assist him in his new role. Having met with them both at length I am confident that they have what it takes to not only turn our fortunes around this season, but to go on and deliver the success and stability that we are craving here at Meadow Lane.”

Derry will take up the managerial role with immediate effect, meaning his first game in charge will come in the form of an FA Cup sponsored by Budweiser First Round trip to Hartlepool United this weekend.

Personal Thoughts: After reading in the Nottingham Evening Post that we had appointed Shaun Derry as our successor to Chris Kiwomya, I must be honest with everyone who reads this, I was shocked and very much frustrated and annoyed when the news came through. Don’t get me wrong, my opinion has changed a lot since ive sat down and thought long and hard about the future and what Shaun can bring to the table. I was just really angry that Jim Rodwell, our chief executive, would again; go for the cheapest option that was available to him, instead of going for a manager who is ambitious like Dean Saunders or Paulo Di Canio. That is in no way intended to be disrespectful towards Shaun Derry, because, after watching his first press conference as Notts County Manager, and reading the email that he sent to all Magpie Player subscribers, I was swayed and impressed by his ambition, drive, and determination to succeed and bring stability and good times back to the club. He may not be as qualified as other available managers out there, and he may not have the required UEFA Pro Coaching Badges, yet, but, as a player, Shaun demonstrates the desire, the talent and the personality which would be benefiting a Manager, so I feel that he will have no problem in his transition into football management. It is a risk appointing someone with no experience, and quite rightly they’ll be fingers pointed at him and the board for making this particular decision, but, I feel that it will pay off in my opinion. He is also a local lad, born and bred from Nottingham, so, as he stated in his email, he will strive for nothing more than total commitment from all of our squad, and give them the freedom where possible to play on the pitch. He will bark out orders where needed to, something Kiwomya didn’t do too much of, and he will grow naturally, given his intake of football wisdom, in the form of tactical knowledge, thanks to his assistant (Who, I am very impressed we have been able to attract to the club), former Carlisle United Manager Gary Abbott. I feel that we may, just have the perfect combination in place to help us drive up the table, because as I posted in my previous Pitchtalk blog, I feel that we are a much better side that our league position shows. We are too good for League Two but not quite there to make it as a competitive Championship side, yet. I hope in my lifetime, we will be able to be a regular team in that League someday soon. Maybe with Derry and Abbott at the helm? We will see. On a random side note, I feel that with the appointment of Gary Abbott as assistant manager will help improve our chances greatly in the Johnstones Paint Trophy this season, as Gary has won the competition previously with Carlisle United, so he knows what it takes to win that trophy. A nice run to the final at Wembley, a trophy in the cabinet, and some money would do nicely at the end of that thank you very much!

At the end of the day, getting back to the point in hand, even though Shaun Derry has no experience of managing a football team whatsoever, and yes, the Chairman Ray Trew did say that we were taking a risk appointing him in charge, I feel that with someone who knows the club and city inside in charge, and with an assistant who has experience in keeping teams in this division, which is surely the main objective for this season now, we will flourish for the remainder of the season, and hopefully, stay in SkyBet League One. Time will tell if this an appointment that will indeed prove to be a genius masterstroke, or, become one of the biggest mistakes the board have ever made.

I would like to wish Shaun and Gary the very best of luck in charge of Notts County and hope that they can both bring some stability and success that we are all craving, but most importantly, deserve to the club.

Lets start off the Derry era with an FA Cup First Round win at Hartlepool this weekend. Would love to get to the latter rounds and draw either Arsenal (@DaGman84) or Manchester United (@Apparentlyrich) home or away and play one of the 3 Pitchtalk co-hosts again after going out unfortunately to @SSLJA s Liverpool in the Capital One Cup 2^nd Roundat Anfield earlier this season.