“My mind was blown,” Curtis Davies says as he remembers sitting in meetings with accountants and realising that Derby County were sliding towards oblivion. Davies, who has seen it all during his long and distinguished career, could not believe what he was hearing.
Derby had lost their way under Mel Morris. He wanted a sale but potential buyers were all talk and no action. Derby had become a cautionary tale: just another Championship club paying the price for overspending. Relegation was on the cards when they were docked 12 points after entering administration at the start of last season. It was inevitable when a further nine points were deducted for a breach of English Football League accounting rules.
“It’s been a bit of a shambles,” Davies says, but the 38-year-old is grateful that he stuck around. The defender, who joined Derby when Hull dropped into the Championship in 2017, was unsure last summer. “I was going to stay away for a little bit,” Davies says. “I didn’t want to be in the building and be told: ‘There’s nothing for you.’
“If I was younger I probably would have been looking out for myself. Football is a selfish world. What’s your loyalty: your club or your family? But it wasn’t so much my age. It was my standing at the club. I felt that I owed something.”
Davies chose to go back in to train when a prospective takeover by Chris Kirchner fell apart. He felt that Liam Rosenior, who stepped in as interim manager after Wayne Rooney left, needed his help. “Just by being a political face that people could look at in times of worry,” the captain says.
“We were lucky that David Clowes came in. He went under the radar. He didn’t do all the: ‘I’m going to buy the club, we’re going to be in the Premier League.’ He bought the stadium first, without anyone knowing, so when it came to buying the club it was done in three days. He gave Liam and [his assistant] Justin Walker a budget. They recruited unbelievably.”
Derby still have work to do. Rosenior left for Hull in November and his replacement, Paul Warne, has done an impressive job. Going into the final day, Derby need to win at third-placed Sheffield Wednesday to be sure of sealing the final playoff spot ahead of Peterborough, who visit fourth-placed Barnsley.
After the nightmare, though, why not dream? Davies remembers his first season at Derby, 2017-18, and going close to promotion to the Premier League under Gary Rowett. There was a year under Frank Lampard, who left for Chelsea after losing the playoff final to Aston Villa in 2019. There was the disastrous appointment of Phillip Cocu. There was surprise at Derby continuing to spend even when they were meant to be cutting the budget.
But Davies felt a connection to the club. He arranged for the players to take wage deferrals during the pandemic. He looked out for people behind the scenes. He remained loyal last season.
“It’s mad to say it but other than my first season in football, where I was a giddy kid and we end up winning the league with Luton Town, it’s the most I’ve enjoyed a season,” Davies says. “We were rock bottom. But the togetherness, you couldn’t not enjoy it. It was us against the world.”
Did it make relegation bittersweet? “I’ve had five and it will be one on my CV that doesn’t count,” Davies says. “But when you’re standing on the pitch clapping the fans at QPR after getting relegated you were still part of that. The thing we weren’t part of was the owner making bad decisions. But it was the best thing for the club because of the reset. David is a businessman. He wants to do everything by the book.”
Davies was impressed that Rooney stayed put last season. “Wayne didn’t need it,” he says. “He was hungry. Him staying meant people thought: ‘Hang on, there might be something there.’ We had people coming on trial because they wanted to work with Wayne. The only unfortunate thing is when it came to doing the deals we could only sign five players on a capped wage because of the restrictions.”
Davies was disappointed when Rooney left for DC United in Major League Soccer but he did not try to change his mind. “During that summer I was more campaigning to save the club,” he says. Would that make going up this season the biggest achievement of Davies’s career? “It would be massive emotionally because of my ties to the club,” he says. “On a personal level I haven’t played enough. I almost feel a bit of imposter syndrome. I could potentially come in at the last act but over the 46 games I haven’t had much of a say.”
Davies, who has had injuries this season, says this could be his final act at Derby. But should he really be feeling like a fraud? “It’s the way I’m wired. I’ve still been doing my bits off the pitch. But I judge myself on playing. I address the elephant in the room. If I’ve done something wrong I put it out there. That’s a problem in football. Not enough people are honest in their own performance.
“Whenever we have a bad result I’ll always address me before the we. The best piece of advice I had as a kid was from my youth team coach at Luton, John Moore. He said: ‘When you think you’re doing well, try harder.’”
Davies wants to play on for another year. He wants to prepare himself for retirement. He has a first-class honours degree from Staffordshire University in professional sports writing and broadcasting. A career in the media appeals. He remains unsure about management. “It’s not in me so much right now,” he says. “It’s in the back of my mind. A lot of managers have said to me I’ll be a manager. But it’s a stressful life. You have very little time to make your stamp on something.
“Derby has opened my eyes to lots of things. It’s opened my eyes to the boardroom and the types of people who should be involved. Would I ever want to go on the executive side? But when you’re in football you realise how much politics there is in general.”
It will be fascinating to see which path Davies chooses. He reached an FA Cup final with Hull and played in Europe for Birmingham and Villa. He has experienced the highs and the lows. He demands a lot from himself, but he has a lot to give.
