 Thursday, 3rd Mar 2011 11:52 by Daniel J Sewart ‘The Guardian’ has reported that the DCFC board has once again confirmed to them that Nigel Clough’s job is safe while Nigel has made his intentions to spend next season clear. As has been the case in recent times it seems these statements have been made behind closed doors through a third party. No official statement was released but the national media has been told the Derby board remains supportive of Clough despite the team's poor run. Their stance has not changed after the dire performance against Doncaster. The board insists Clough will be in charge until the end of the season and also expect him to be in the post at the start of the next campaign. Also despite persistent rumours Clough is not even thinking about walking out, rather he intends to stand and fight. Unlike his employers Nigel still fronts the media and is brave enough to admit the failings of himself and his team. The fact he said the fans should have booed louder really says it all. This is not a man in denial or unaware of what is happening. It also seems that Nigel is beginning to take aim at his employers with more and more comments in regards to it being time to spend money on players with pedigree and in turn carrying a higher price tag. "I think we need more than one (striker), I think we need about half a dozen good, established Championship players to take us forward. I don't want to sound like somebody else down the road (Billy Davies) going on about 'we need this and we need that', but I certainly think we're at the stage now where we need a few players to move forward.” "That's more thinking into the summer, which might be a bit presumptuous. We've shown a little bit of potential this season but we've also shown how fragile we are at times as well. We need players that don't show that as much. We have experienced players at the moment who I don't think are helping us out as much as they could be." This type of talk in my opinion shows Clough is fast getting fed up with being the board’s whipping boy. At the moment the fire and brimstone is being aimed at him, when it is he who has fulfilled his brief of drastically slashing the wage bill and reducing debt. GSE in comparison may have reduced debt but are yet to produce the player investment and success they have long promised. It seems to me that it is easier to bash Nigel, negative chants slating your team and manager is much easier than being pro-active and confronting the bigger picture. Fact is – if Nigel goes, who are the Rams going to get in his place? You would have to be mad to think GSE will spring for a manager with a proven pedigree. We are more likely to get a well – journeyed, quick talking manager who says all the right things, in the beginning at least. GSE will need that type of manager because no manager worth his salt is going to manage a club with no money to spend on players. They will either not come to Derby in the first place or leave frustrated in a shower of broken promises. Fact is Todd, Gregory, Brown, Davies and Jewell all spent quite a large sum of money and ultimately was proven to come up short when it counted. Clough may be struggling tactically at times but so did the others on this list and they had one thing Nigel never has, money to spend. Why is Nigel being whipped with the same fury when he has told it how it is all along? He has never promised anything like Paul Jewell who promised promotion and that we would come straight back up and given money by GSE to prepare for the campaign and do just that. The fact is he didn’t. Yet the board and Nigel told us, not much money, mid table at best and yet everyone is melting down when that is what we are getting. The problem is that little or no money is not good enough for a club with such a large supporter base and frankly neither is shooting the messenger. Nigel is only delivering the letter that GSE wrote, folded and addressed. Perhaps in our emotional response to losses some are forgetting that. Nigel must wear some of the blame and frustration but he is under orders. If a war is lost do you blame the tactics of the soldier or the General? Glick and co. are our Napoleon and for me this is fast becoming their Waterloo. Clough is their Captain fighting with a rag tag bunch of soldiers of whom some barely have a bullet left to fire. Reading between the lines after Tuesday night’s match was easy when Clough was asked about Billy Sharp who Nigel targeted early in the season, that was until his price tag proved to be too much for GSE: "He's a £1million striker, I believe. That is what you get from a £1million striker; he puts the ball in the back of the net." A remark specifically targeting the fact that they spent £1million (notice he says it twice), when as we all know, Nigel couldn’t. If he could have spent that kind of money, the list of players we currently support could have been vastly different as could have Clough’s popularity. Fans are on his back and in some regards rightly so as some of his tactical decisions have been dubious. But that still does not hide the fact that if Nigel was able to spend a few quid then some quality names either permanent or loans could currently reside in Derbyshire, entertaining us all on match day. Yes the Doncaster result was very poor. Yes the team was not good enough. And yes I too doubted Clough immediately after the match. But against the growing tide I have levelled out and am more upset at those who are making him implement bottom of the barrel management. Tactical errors are always going to look much worse when you turn to your bench and it is littered with average players. Perhaps we should be thanking him for getting so much out of not much early in the season as that seemingly will save us from the drop. Common sense is being thrown out the window as passion and emotion are ruling the argument. We all hate losing and I doubt anyone hates it more than Nigel. The club need to back the manager they have in place with more than words and the fans should be making their voices heard that they want their money spent on quality players. If we concentrate on tearing managers down, destroying our team’s confidence and ripping apart people who genuinely care about the club, what have we become? I genuinely believe that Nigel is one of us, cares deeply for the club, its history and its fans, why would he have ever put himself in a position like this if he didn’t? That would have been insanity for someone sporting his surname! There are others involved in this mess who are not one of us, have never been and never will. Nigel has been doing their bidding and it is up to all of us to ensure, if nothing else, that they return the favour and do his bidding next season. If he falls then let it be after having been given the tools with which to succeed. If divided we will fall and if the Rams fall who will be the first to leave? It won’t be you or I and I doubt Nigel will walk away. Perhaps I’ll just leave it to you to answer to that question.
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