"I say this carefully" - Observation made on John Eustace after Derby County, Blackburn Rovers switch | OneFootball

Mark Kennedy has given his verdict on John Eustace's decision to switch Blackburn for Derby County

Former Swindon Town manager Mark Kennedy has claimed that John Eustace moved from Blackburn Rovers to Derby County due to the latter being a better project longer-term.

The 45-year-old has taken the reins at Pride Park following the dismissal of Paul Warne, with the Rams in danger of suffering relegation back to League One.

The decision to depart the Lancashire outfit came as a surprise given they are in the mix for a play-off place this season.

However, Eustace is also a former player at Derby, spending the last two years of his career there, and it has been reported that issues behind the scenes played a role in his exit from Ewood Park.

John Eustace long-term vision claim

Kennedy has claimed that Eustace won’t have taken the Derby game with just the end of this season in mind.

He believes the ex-Blackburn coach has taken a longer-term view on the position of where both clubs are right now, instead of focusing on just this campaign.

"He will have taken the Derby job with, I say this carefully because it doesn’t seem to happen in football, but with a long-term vision," said Kennedy, via EFL All Access.

"He will have taken the job under the provision of god forbid they go down, what it looks like next year and I know there is a long way to go and stuff like that, but he certainly would not take it, it is not that he has taken the job for 14 games [without considering that].

"So I think he has looked at the long-term impact of where the club are going and I think he has measured that against what Blackburn are, who they are and where can they go and the potential of both teams will be massive in his decision-making."

Blackburn are currently fifth in the Championship table, while Derby are 22nd and one point adrift of safety.

Eustace decision could pay off in the long run

If Eustace felt he wasn’t being properly backed at Blackburn, then it’s clear that he had no long-term future there.

This season worked out very positively while he was there, but it was always going to be difficult to sustain that if they were unable to financially compete with their rivals.

Keeping up Derby is going to be a difficult task given how poor they’ve been in recent weeks, but doing so would put him in a good position to build something more sustainable longer-term.

There is no doubt that he will be properly backed in the summer, regardless of what division they’ll be competing in, which will give him a greater peace of mind than at Ewood Park.