Steve McClaren looking ahead to next season with Derby County

By Pascal Lemesre, Football League Editor | 05 May 2015

Derby County head coach Steve McClaren insists he is getting ready for next season with the Rams after it was reported that he had turned down the Newcastle United job.

Steve McClaren has suggested that he will still be Derby County head coach next season, despite several approaches from Newcastle United.

It is believed that the 54-year-old has turned down the opportunity to manage relegation-threatened Newcastle's final three games of the Premier League season after failing to guide Derby to the Championship playoffs.

The Rams started the final day of the season in the top six, but suffered a surprise 3-0 home defeat to Reading, who had won none of their previous nine games, to drop to eighth in the table.

"Nothing looks rosy at the present moment and we understand that," former England manager McClaren told the Rams' website.

"We went right down to the wire and we have failed. We need to use this anger next season. I will sit down with Sam Rush, Chris Evans, the owners and Mel Morris because the ambition is to get into the Premier League."

He added: "This [season] is a huge disappointment and we need to recover from it – mentally and physically – so I am determined to sit down with the necessary people and find out the reasons this happened. From that we can formulate a plan to put it right and get ready for next season."

Derby were two points clear at the top after 33 games of the season, but won just two of their last 13 games to miss out on the playoffs.