I was talking to an outside contractor at work today from Derby, i asked him if he was a fan, he said yes but had only been 3 times this season, one of the first things he said was 'he's not as good as his dad is he'
I didn't even know Theo's dad played Kop
Seriously, Theo is a hundred times better player than he was when he first came on the scene - and now he's shit, which shows you how garbage he used to be. Plenty of pace, no fucking brain. He's a decent League1 player.
Non league Nigel's philosophy is to bring players from lower division clubs with the view to making them into a team. A bit like his dad used to do with players who others considered over the hill but he's looking for players early in their career who he thinks may be able to handle a step up. Times have changed though and they currently have a team which will bounce between the bottom six and the top six until they either sneak into the play-offs (which is the best the fans can hope for) or drop into a relegation battle and Nigel gets the push. He knows he hasn't got pots of money to spend so he's trying to build a team ethic to compensate for that.
Young Will Hughes is the rising star at the moment but, as I said in another thread, he'll be gone by next summer if not before to warm the bench of some Premiership club for a season or two. He will make a player though.
Financially, they seem to be doing OK. They are still in debt I believe but it's massively reduced from what it was and they now own Pride Park which they had to sell off at one stage due to the level of debt. In fact, the bloke who's done a lot towards getting them out of the shit financially was so good that Man City nicked the fucking bloke earlier this year
As I said before, if anyone but Nigel had been put in charge during the last years when they've steadied the finances, the fans would have kicked off. Appointing him was nothing short of genius. It's not all great and the football can be shite at times but, as Chelsea fans would do well to ponder, these days are preferable to the dark days when both clubs were (more than once) a whisker away from financial ruin. All in all, I reckon the fans will have a moan every now and again but massive majority of them are still behind NC so he could be there for the long haul as long as they see the possible potential of a play off place dangled in front of their noses. Of course, he might get a job offer in the big league at some stage and that would be interesting. I wouldn't even rule him out of moving over to manage Forest at some point if the new owners decide to tempt him with promises of money for his transfer targets.