John Eustace swapping Blackburn Rovers for Derby County has been one of the stories of the Championship this season, with the 45-year-old running out of patience with the powers that be at Ewood Park.
Instead of pushing for the play-offs with the Lancashire outfit, the former Birmingham City boss has taken charge of a Rams side that is battling the drop in the second tier, with time running out to salvage something from the season.
After suffering three straight defeats in his first three matches in charge, Eustace finally got a first win at the fourth time of asking at the weekend, with his former side heading home from Pride Park having been beaten 2-1, and thus giving County a glimmer of hope in their travails at the bottom of the division.
With plenty to consider going forward, we asked Football League World’s Derby fan pundit Shaun Woodward about Eustace’s long-term future at the club, and what the future could hold over the next three years.
Derby County, John Eustace prediction made after Blackburn Rovers switch
Eustace walked into Pride Park knowing what the task at hand was last month, with the Rams needing to pick up points at a steady rate to give themselves any chance of avoiding dropping straight back down into League One this season.
Things didn’t start quite the way he would have wanted in his new position, but a valuable victory over Rovers last time out will have given him a foothold to build from for the remaining games of the season, as they lifted themselves off the foot of the table at the expense of Plymouth Argyle.
Despite that, Woodward isn’t holding out much hope of beating the drop this season, and believes Eustace would have known the brief expected of him when he joined, which would have seen relegation as the most likely possibility.
When asked on his club’s managerial position over the next three years, the County fan said: “I do believe John Eustace is in it for the long haul. I don’t think he would have come to us a day or so after the transfer window shut – given the position we are in in the league – if he wasn’t in it for the rebuild.
“He would have seen that the team wasn’t good enough for the Championship before he signed, the fact that he couldn’t bring in his own players, he would have known that as good as he is as a manager, he wouldn’t have been able to do too much.
John Eustace Blackburn Rovers Championship managerial record (Transfermarkt)
Matches
48
Wins
17
Draws
14
Defeats
17
Win %
35.4%
Points per game
1.35
“Even if we were to get that new manager bounce, and with him tweaking a few things, realistically this squad is nowhere near good enough for the Championship and he is going to have to dismantle that in the summer and rebuild. I think he would have known that before he signed.”
John Eustace backed to change Derby County’s long-term hopes
There will still be plenty that can’t fathom the fact that Eustace moved from a team chasing promotion to the Premier League to a side battling relegation to League One, but with frustration mounting with the Rovers’ ownership, it was more than just success on the pitch that made his decision for him.
If Derby do pull of a great escape this season, they will know significant investment is needed to avoid another season battling at the bottom of the division next time around, while a drop down into League One will likely see them head back to the drawing board ahead of a predicted promotion push.
Woodward has every faith that Eustace would be the man to lead them forward if it were to be the latter of those two scenarios, with no issues raised about the longevity of the man in the dugout at this moment in time.
He continued: “Quite a few players are out of contract this summer as well, so he will have quite a few spaces to fill. But I think after swapping Blackburn for Derby it was always going to be an uphill task to keep us in the league.
“I think he is probably preparing for League One next season, and he will have a hell of a job in the summer to rebuild and go again, especially with the fact that we will be wanting to come straight back up, but hopefully this time with a team that can actually survive in the Championship.
“We can’t just be a good team in League One, we have to be able to compete in the Championship as well. He has got his work cut out, but I do believe he will do it and I do believe he is in it for the long haul.”
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