David Clowes must weigh up brutal Derby County decision involving John Eustace | OneFootball

Derby have had a tough start to 2026-27, and this leaves the owner with a potentially difficult decision to make with an international break looming.

Derby County spent £12.75 million on new players in the summer, yet their start to 2026-27 has seen a deterioration in their fortunes on the pitch, and this leaves the club's owner with a potentially difficult decision to have to make.

Another midweek round of Championship matches this week brought another round of disappointment for Derby County. It wasn't only that they were beaten 1-0 at home by West Bromwich Albion that was the issue, it was also the nature of their defeat.

West Brom snatched a 16th-minute lead through Aune Heggebø, and held on for the win without too many issues even though they had Brayann Pereira sent off 34 minutes into his debut after accumulating two yellow cards. The result left the Rams in 22nd place in the table, a relegation position, and they've failed to score in three of their last four games.

Given that Derby finished their 2025-26 season in 8th place in the Championship and just four points short of a play-off spot, this extremely slow start to the new season has been an unpleasant surprise for most at Pride Park, and it all leaves the club's owner David Clowes with a potentially brutal decision to have to make if things don't start to improve soon.

West Brom loss was just the latest in a string of poor Derby County results

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The West Bromwich Albion defeat was the latest in a string of poor defeats that Derby County have suffered since the start of the 2026-27 season. The first potential tremor could be seen before they even kicked their League season off, when they were beaten 2-1 at home by Lincoln City in the First Round of the EFL.

Things haven't improved much since then. They took just one point from their first three games, with a 2-2 home draw against another newly-promoted side, Cardiff City, sandwiched between a 2-1 opening weekend loss at Charlton Athletic and a 3-0 home defeat to early-season pace-setters Swansea City.

There was a little respite in the form of a 2-0 win away to Portsmouth, with their goals scored by Sammie Szmodics and Lars-Jørgen Salvesen, but Derby fans hoping that their team had just suffered an early season and had turned a corner were in for a disappointment.

They were comfortably beaten at West Ham United in their next match by three goals to nil, and the West Bromwich Albion defeat dropped them back into the relegation places, below Bolton Wanderers and Cardiff City on goal difference.

Injuries of course are part and parcel of football, but with both Patrick Agyemang and Carlton Morris sidelined right now, much of Eustace's goal threat isn't available for selection - but he needs to find a way around that sooner rather than later.

What Derby County fans have been saying about John Eustace

Derby County's poor start to the season has provoked a lot of comment online, so here's a selection of what's being said about their head coach John Eustace.

This fan feels that the Rams' start to the season leaves Eustace on thin ice, even though there may be calls for patience in the name of stability at the club.

This fan sees Eustace as a "nearly man" and can't imagine him getting them promoted.

This fan feels that Derby County need to make that change now.

But this Derby fan who considers those calling for Eustace's head are "fickle", and still expects to see them challenging nearer the top end of the table by the end of the season.

David Clowes may have a difficult decision to make at Derby County sooner rather than later

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It can hardly be said that the Derby County owner David Clowes hasn't supported the club over the course of the summer. £12.75 million was spent on bringing four new players in - Bobby Clark, David Ozoh, Henrik Meister and Alex Mowatt - as well as other loans and freebies that will cost a pretty penny in wages, while the club didn't recoup a penny in player sales all summer.

That Clowes should have done so is unsurprising. Derby had a good 2025-26 season, though patchy form from the end of January on hit them hard. Their final 16 games of the season resulted in eight wins and eight defeats. Had two of those eight defeats been won, they'd have found themselves in the play-offs, playing for a place in the Premier League.

But for all the rising concerns about the team's slow start to the season, changing the head coach in September comes with a clear element of risk attached. Because of the time of year that it is, there may be slim pickings in the managerial market as they look for a replacement, and bringing in a new head coach certainly doesn't guarantee improvement.

In 2013, the BBC reported on whether changing manager makes statistical sense, and their findings were mixed, but concluded that sticking with one through a bad run of form isn't much different to making that change. Eustace is under contract at Pride Park until the summer of 2028 as well, and that contract would need to be paid up if they do sack him, as well as having to pay the costs associated with bringing in a replacement.

Derby's two remaining matches before the upcoming international break are both against teams where the manager is also under pressure. Birmingham City come next, and they've won one of their first six games, and they're followed by Burnley, who haven't won any of their opening six matches under Nicky Hayen following relegation from the Premier League. If Derby County don't show real improvement in those two matches, it's difficult to see John Eustace surviving the international break.