Derby County Head Coach Paul Warne says he always had full belief that his side would win promotion from Sky Bet League One in the 2023/24 season - stretching way back to the Rams' Training Camp in Spain last July.
It may have gone down to the final day of the campaign, with Derby defeating Carlisle United 2-0 on home turf to seal automatic promotion back to the second tier, but the faith Warne had in his team never faltered and now that the dust has settled, the Head Coach is left beaming with pride following the achievement.
Speaking to RamsTV following the conclusion of a memorable season a week ago, Warne looked back on his fourth promotion from League One, the campaign as a whole and also revealed that planning has already began for the Rams' first year back in the Championship.
On whether there was a moment he felt the group had what it takes to earn promotion...
My honest answer is, I thought that in Spain last summer. I felt like the group really gelled, they were honest with each other and they felt a lot closer than the group I inherited. We had the disappointment of not getting into the play-offs at the end of the previous season and virtually every week I'd tell them they were the best team in the league. We wanted to win the league but the start Portsmouth had always made that difficult. I always thought we'd go up, I never thought it wouldn't happen, but there's just moments within it like when you've lost or played badly that you can doubt things. More often than not, though, whenever we had those performances, we bounced back quickly. I always felt confident, without being arrogant. Reality really struck at Portsmouth in April. I was raging we drew 2-2, because I didn't think we should have conceded. I remember thinking we were a really good team, we had players coming back to fitness and I thought whatever got thrown at us from then on we'd cope with and the lads did.
On never going on a run of bad form throughout the campaign...
In fairness, I didn't think we were 10/10 in many games either! In our first year here we smoked all the bottom teams and struggled against the top sides. This season, however, we were always very good against the top teams and I still think we should have picked up more points against them. I always felt like this season was different and we never really hit a sticky wicket. It was only Portsmouth, as well as us, that didn't.
On if there's anything in particular that stands out for him from the season...
Just going up, really. I have pride in that. I didn't even get a medal because I'm not that guy. All I like is things that are personal to me. So the things that are personal to me are going into the dressing room after the final whistle with David Clowes to try and get the lads to come out for the trophy lift. None of them could hear me shouting at them because they were bouncing around like eight-year-old children! That was an absolute joy and that's what I'll remember. That makes all the work worth it for me.
On his first conversation with David Clowes after the final whistle on last Saturday...
It was quite humbling, to be honest. He just thanked me and I've never had that before, so that was nice. He just loved the day. The joy in his face was a real gift and he was so proud to see Pride Park like that. It was a bit like Glastonbury! David had photos in the dressing room with all the players, which is great, and that's how football should be. The fact that I saw him later on with a 'Promotion 24' shirt on too was brilliant.
On how quickly planning will start for next season...
Planning is a word that covers a lot of stuff, really. We've had recruitment meetings since January and for the last few weeks, we've been trying to recruit for the Championship although you have to prepare for everything. The conversations with agents and the watching of games has all been taking place already. We're going to watch matches and see certain players so, in that respect, everything is going ahead already. You have a day to enjoy it and you're already starting the process. Once we've had our meetings, we'll do the retained list. We're well onto it, but realistically not a great deal happens in May or June. There is loads of work going on, loads of conversations which take forever but because the window now shuts in September, May is virtually a write off. It feels like everything has shifted around but it doesn't mean every club isn't trying to make things happen, it's just harder to do so.