Paul Warne fully opens up on a walk in Clumber Park calm after Derby County promotion storm

It is a few days after the euphoria of promotion, the champagne is back on ice, the hangovers have cleared and Paul Warne is in his sanctuary.

Clumber Park is this morning’s destination for Derby County’s head coach whose dog Chief trots along in adoration of his owner who throws him the odd bit of cheese as a reward during a six-and-a-half mile walk.

The deeper you trek into this monstrous 3,800-acre site, the mobile phone signal starts to flicker out of service amid a sea of enormous trees. But the silence does at least bring respite from the carousel of thoughts that are all-consuming in the pressure cooker environment of football management.

The serenity also provides an ideal opportunity to reflect on the previous nine months, Derby’s triumphant return to the Championship, and why the memories of their return to the second tier are more valuable than any medal.

“Pride and relief, really,” he says when asked to sum up his feelings. “I’d also say there’s some justification for what we’ve been saying about the league and not focusing too much on each game because the next one is in three days.

“But altogether, I am very pleased of the group, and what I will cherish forever – since I am not all about legacies, records, or trophies – are the memories. I did not receive a promotion medal because I am not that person, but it’s stuff like stepping into the dressing room with David Clowes (the owner) to try to bring the players back out onto the pitch and they had the music on so loud they couldn’t hear me shouting at them.

“When you see adult men who, as footballers, are often too cool for school, behaving like a six-year-old at a party with a piece of cake, it’s something else. That will be a memory I remember until the day I die. Those moments are priceless to me because few people get the ability to stroll into a changing room after a promotion and be surrounded by a group of men having a great time. Even discussing it now makes me grin.”

To support this claim, Warne pauses briefly to show a snapshot of himself during the festivities in the directors’ box. It was shared to him by a friend and shows him standing alone, apart from everyone else. He is watching the wonderful anarchy unfold, taking in all of the sights and noises.

He appears to be devastated, as one would expect from a manager who invests so much emotionally. But it’s difficult not to perceive him in this moment as the father who has just given his children the finest Christmas ever and is watching their exuberant and unrestrained excitement as the paper is peeled away.

“If I make it an analogy, I think it’s a little bit like being the best man or the father of a bride at a wedding where all week you’re building up to the big day,” he says. “They’re presumably the ones running around, being lively and playful, I assume. When it comes to the real speech, they are a little anxious, so they have a couple of drinks and deliver the speech.

“When you see him an hour later, sometimes the best man is slumped in a corner, pleased that the build-up is finished, or you see fathers of the bride or grooms sitting down for a moment while everyone else enjoys themselves. That’s how it feels for me emotionally. I watched my staff members and everyone else be so pleased, such as Davo the kitman, when all I did was go see my family upstairs, have a drink with a few people, and meet a few of the players’ parents.

“I loved it since all of my guys are sons.Conor Hourihane, for example, I met his parents, and you assume he is just a boy. He’s younger than me, so I can say it, but he’s still a boy in an older body. If I sat here with my mother now, I would be her son. I am not like a man, if that makes sense.

“I was in a bar in Sheffield celebrating with my staff on the Sunday after we were promoted, and the players were Facetiming me from the bar; I just get a buzz from things like that. So I enjoyed how the season ended, and how the fans felt a part of it.

“If you could bottle and store that, that would be fantastic. There will be times when I am not present, but I would want to return and say, “Look, the difference you make as a fan base contributes to this, and how being positive with the group is phenomenal.” I genuinely appreciated all of those lovely moments, but I hadn’t eaten since 9 a.m., and by 6 p.m., I was devastated. I just felt like I was the groom in that room.

“It seems arrogant, but I’d stroll past someone, greet them, and then start talking to someone else. I went to sit down with my mother and told her I was going to the loo, but I didn’t return for 45 minutes.

While Warne was delighted to take a backseat while one heck of a celebration got underway at Pride Park, and the city hailed a first promotion in 17 years, his achievements and those of his team deserve to be lit by fireworks.The club achieved a record-breaking season after being rescued from administration by owner David Clowes in June 2022, and has since recovered significantly.

Thirteen away victories were the most in Derby history, and 92 points were the highest in Rams history. They also had the best goal differential and defence record. This was also accomplished despite what appeared to be an endless injury list at one point in the season, when the club lacked a single fit striker. Derby defeated Bolton to finish second in the race to return to the Championship.

Warne received his fourth promotion from the third division, which explains why Clowes branded him the King of League One. He deserves the championship, and it’s not terrible for someone who is a hesitant boss.

But when did he believe Derby had a strong chance of ending their third-tier career? What was going through his thoughts following the season-defining win over Bolton? And why, looking back through the season’s calendar, didn’t he like himself for celebrating his victory over Oxford after falling behind 2-0?

“When did I believe we had a significant chance? It was a few games before Northampton. “I looked at the schedule and thought, I can’t see us losing another game,” he adds. “The irony was that we then lost to Northampton, which struck us as weird. Even Hammy (Matt Hamshaw’s first-team coach) had remarked before that time, “Look gaffer, we’ve got this figured out, it’s just downhill from here,” because we had some good momentum.

“We began to feel like we were regaining players, so if anyone faltered, it was a simple change, whereas we had no strikers in January and February.” Dwight Gayle then came in and suffered an injury in the encounter against Bolton.Everyone thought we had cracked it after that game since they were third and we were second, but I left thinking we were in serious trouble. Dwight had come off injured. Craig Forsyth returned for the game, but was hurt immediately afterwards.

“I simply remember we had three up front; Dwight came off injured in the first half, and Tom Barkhuizen came off at halftime. It was simply horrible. But I remember winning the game and thought it was a tremendous win. But what I find strange about football is that when there are six games remaining and someone has two games in hand on you, you always give the opposition three points.

“Both Bolton and Peterborough had games in hand on us, and I had to try to explain to people that throughout the season, only one team averaged more than two points per game, and that was Portsmouth.” So, with 10 games remaining, Bolton, for example, had their games, and everyone gave them 30 points. If they receive 20, they’ve done fantastically, and anything more than that is incredible.

“Anything less than 20 indicates that the pressure is rising. But the longer you do it, the more you look back and think, ‘Look, they’ll only catch us if we falter.’ After a draw against Portsmouth, who went on to win the title, I realised I no longer needed to attend work. We performed well that night, and I still believe we shouldn’t have drawn the game.

“But there was always a doubt about the team this year and how it would fare against the other top six teams. According to my perspective, we smoked the lower-level clubs last season. It was four or five-nil; get off our turf, yet we struggled against the best teams. Our record this season was excellent, and I still believe we should not have lost at Bolton and should have taken something from the Barnsley game.

“The actual turning point in my mind was Stevenage at home, where we won late. Bristol Rovers was a close encounter at Pride Park, and we came out on top in an extremely difficult game. The away game at Port Vale was exciting, but the moment Eiran Cashin scored at Oxford made me feel truly alive. If there was a film of me in the dugout, I don’t think I’d enjoy how I responded to that goal because I believe I crossed the line of respect. It was a little like ‘take that’.

“In saying that though, if it was the last day of the season and the scenario was that Bolton were going up and we needed just one goal and Max Bird scores in the last minute, even I might have done a full Mourinho, ran down the side of the pitch and slid on my knees.”

With League One in the rearview mirror, the Championship will be a much more serious task. It is a league within a league that is unjustly balanced by the relegation compensation made to top-flight clubs. Clubs promoted from League One typically struggle, but Ipswich broke the norm with their promotion to the Premier League.

However, Derby does have momentum from their victory. Plans for player recruitment are well underway, with the club looking to Europe as well as England for new talent. At the time of writing, about 20,000 season tickets had been sold, and the club is buzzing following a fantastic season. Warne has already compared data on the physical output required to those of League One. Being forewarned allows you to be forearmed.

It will be another all-consuming season, requiring a lot of thought from week to week. Warne plans to relax by going to the movies, with Alex Garland’s Civil War being his most recent recommendation. But it is at Clumber Park, where he is supported by his most loyal confidante Chief, that he receives the greatest reward. And as the interview comes to an end, it’s time for his partner to receive another piece of cheese.

“You either like dogs or you don’t, I suppose,” he replies. “But dogs live in the moment. They are constantly pleased. Whatever I say to him now, he’ll buzz as if to say, “What are we doing, Dad?”

“And throughout the season, when I’m thinking I’ve got to pick a team, I’ve got to change that, I need to talk to Richie (assistant head coach) about it, I need to talk to Hammy about it, and then it’s tomorrow I have to pull that player, your brain just gets entranced.

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