Neil Clement of Derby County
Derby County are a second tier football club in England. They currently sit in 5th place and are just 5 points off the top place. There are still 16 games left with 48 points to fight for.
Sounds quite rosy doesn’t it? The team in a strong position to fight for promotion to the Premier League and the riches that brings. So why did Derby sack manager Neil Clement after just 8 months in charge?
The club owners say that Clement ‘s view was too short term and he was only interested in promotion. They, the owners, had a longer term view and couldn’t get the manager to embrace their views.
Didn’t they interview him before offering him the job? Didn’t they set him clear objectives?
After just 8 months in the job how was Clement expected to do anything ‘long term’?
When moving into a new job the incumbent always starts by taking over existing teams and objectives. This means that there is some ‘grace’ from management in the first year.
Year 2 belongs to the incumbent. It’s now his or her team, they’ve set the annual objectives and have time to develop their team. Game on! Year 3 the manager is fully in control and on top of the role. Expect great things.
If the owners of Derby County have the long term view they claim why isn’t Clement still their manager and why aren’t they working with him to jointly deliver the agreed objectives?
