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Calvin’s new book Living on the Volcano: The Secrets of Surviving as a Football Manager, Derry tells a story about his playing days at QPR.
A stickler for being on time, one day the traffic into training from Kent got the better of him.
Brazilian keeper Julio Cesar proffered the idea of getting a helicopter.
Derry jokingly asked Luke Young how much a chopper would set him back. “You can get one for £150,000,” Cesar replied, misreading the seriousness of Derry’s enquiry.
“One hundred and fifty grand!” Derry says in the book.“I drove to training in a VW Golf! It was ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.”
For Derry it was a sign of the club losing its identity after all the hard work to get to the top. Derry himself had fought for every inch and success of his career – he won promotion to the Premier League twice – and it translates into the former Crystal Palace and Leeds United midfielder’s management beliefs.
“Organised, enthusiastic, professional, actually make sacrifices for not just myself but for my teammates,” he says about his approach to playing.“That’s what I’m asking these players to do. I’m asking them to make sacrifices to achieve.
Embrace
“To not be a Non-League player. To not be a League Two player. Think outside the box a little bit. I want us to be, not arrogant – there will be absolutely no arrogance – but that level of confidence where they believe they can go and achieve.”
His enthusiasm for the role shines through at his first Press conference, held in a brand new development built into the back of the club’s main stand.
On the walls are pictures of former glories of a club looking to make the next step and keep pulling in the support of a city Derry promises to represent.
“It’s so important, I need to make sure I embrace the city and hopefully the city will embrace me,” he says. “I’m very loyal towards my background, but I’ve lived away from Nottingham since I was 20. I’ve been fortunate enough to live on the south-coast, in London,Yorkshire and back in Nottingham for a short time.
“Now I’ve got the chance to see something very different and I can’t wait. I live in London so it’s commutable but I’ll be spending time in Cambridge, that’s for sure.
“And I’d love one day for one of my pictures to be up on the wall so they say, ‘That person developed the club and helped us grow’.”