How Paul Warne was sacked by Derby County as reasons and speculation addressed
Latest Derby County news from DerbyshireLive brings you what Stephen Pearce, the club’s chief executive, said as he addressed questions about Warne’s exit
Derby County chief executive Stephen Pearce accepts the timing of the decision to sack Paul Warne was “not ideal” as he explained why he was axed just a day before they were due to face Norwich City.
Warne was told of his fate after he had taken training on the Friday when he was summoned to owner David Clowes’ house where he and assistant Richie Barker were told their services were no longer required.
Many questioned the timing of the departure given Derby were preparing for the trip to Carrow Road which ended with first-team coach Matt Hamshaw, who left the club yesterday, being placed in charge.
John Eustace has since been appointed as Warne’s replacement after Derby paid compensation to land the former Birmingham boss with his arrival being confirmed last Thursday.
In an interview with Rams TV, Pearce explained that results allied with the fact that Norwich are Warne’s hometown club, where his family had been due at the game, were taken into consideration.
“I get the timing was not ideal,” he said. “Results speak for themselves. But once the decision was made on that Friday morning, rightly or wrongly, David and I always have this view that we say to people that any person coming into the club, we want to make sure we treat people just as well on the way out as the way in.
“We’ve always been honest about that. For us, we take it on the chin in that the timing was not ideal. But the human side of it, once we made the decision, we felt that Norwich was away; given Paul’s affinity with Norwich as his home club, his hometown, and his family were due to be there, we wanted to make sure we did things the right way.
“We accept the timing was not ideal, but again, there are risks in terms of where you go at that point. You can’t make a move to look for a new manager when you have one in place. There are risks and rewards with that. Therefore, once we made that decision and made that move for John, we went all out for that, and it came off.”
