Nigel Pearson’s decision to send Chris Martin to Fulham meant McClaren always faced an uphill struggle at Derby County.
David Nugent arrived at Derby County in January with The Rams still very much in contention for the play-offs. In fact, the experienced striker, who had earned promotion twice in three years with Leicester City and Middlesbrough, appeared to be the goalscorer Steve McClaren needed to exercise the ghosts of previous play-off heartbreaks.
Two months on, however, McClaren has been given the boot by chairman Mel Morris for the second time in 22 months while Nugent has netted just two goals in ten appearances, the Derby Telegraph reports.
Granted, only five of those games were starts and he did find the target in the weekend’s 2-2 draw with rivals Nottingham Forest, but it’s fair to say Derby expected more when they paid £2.5 million for his services, the Daily Mail report.
However, while many supporters will question McClaren’s recruitment, describe the club’s inability to secure a prolific striker as the major factor in yet another spring-time collapse, the recently departed manager insists that Nugent was not his first choice.
“We didn’t recruit in January. We bought Nugent as a striker because we couldn’t get Chris Martin back from Fulham,” the 55-year-old said in quotes reported by the Derby Telegraph.
“And we said then we would go with this until the end of the season and then have a real plan for the summer.”
Derby’s top scorer in each of the last three seasons, Martin was bafflingly loaned to Fulham during the last few minutes of the summer window by Nigel Pearson, the first of the club’s three managers this season.
The 28-year-old has since scored ten goals this season, helping Fulham climb to four places and eight points clear of Derby and on the verge of the final play-off position.
To McClaren’s credit, the Derby Telegraph report that he did attempt to bring Martin back to the iPro in January, only then settling on Nugent once Fulham refused to play ball.
Perhaps if Pearson didn’t make the transfer blunder of the season, McClaren would still be in a job.
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