Derby sack boss Warne after dire losing run
Derby County have sacked head coach Paul Warne with the Rams in the Championship relegation places and on a seven-match losing run in the league.
Defeat by Sheffield United on Saturday left County 22nd in the table and two points from safety with 16 matches remaining.
They have lost eight successive matches across all competitions dating back to late December, with their sequence of seven Championship losses their worst run in the league for 17 years.
Warne took the Rams' reins in September 2022 and, in his first and only full season in charge at Pride Park, he guided them to promotion from League One last term.
Derby owner David Clowes said "no fan should ever forget his contribution".
"Results in football dictate decisions and we felt that to give us the best chance of retaining our Championship status, the time was right to make a change," Clowes told the club website.
Derby had been brought out of administration by owner Clowes less than three months before Warne was appointed head coach.
He took charge of a side hastily rebuilt for their first season back in the third tier for more than three decades with loan signings and free transfers.
Having successfully guided Rotherham to promotion from the division in each of the three seasons he managed at that level, Warne was ushered into Pride Park as the 'King of League One'.
And while Warne's side failed to even reach the play-offs in the 2022-23 campaign, he oversaw automatic promotion 12 months later.
For Warne, a fourth promotion from League One was not a coronation but vindication.
For all the success he had at Rotherham, he also never managed to keep the Millers in the Championship in his three attempts to do so.
A solid start to the current campaign had the Rams 11th in late November, but their wretched form since - which includes an FA Cup exit against League One side Leyton Orient - has them in danger of making an immediate return to the third tier.
Their losing run, Warne's record in the second tier, and his comments in December about his Derby side being a "League One team with a bit of sugar on top" have made him the subject of derision from the terraces in recent months.
If Derby lose at Norwich on Saturday, it would be only the third time in their 141-year history they have lost eight league matches in succession during a single season - with the record first set in 1888 when league football came into existence.
Expect a quick appointment - analysis
BBC Radio Derby's senior journalist Dominic Dietrich
So Derby County have made the decision to sack head coach Paul Warne after seven league defeats in a row and calls from the stands to make a change.
I understand the news was given to Warne and his coaches after their usual training session this morning before the trip to Norwich, so this news has come as a surprise to those internally and would point towards an imminent replacement before tomorrow's match, maybe even as early as tonight.
Paul Warne took on the job to elevate his prospects of Championship management and has been dealt a tough hand in his time at Derby.
Embargoes, restrictions and a series of frustrating transfer windows in which he wasn't able to get what he'd publicly told us he needed.
He can look back on his time at Derby with his head held high - promotion back to the Championship was always the main aim and now the club have made a big call to hold on to that status in the second tier.
They have 16 games to try to make that happen.
