Paul Warne

Paul Warne (born 8 May 1973) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is the current manager for club Derby County.

Warne started his playing career in his native Norfolk for Great Yarmouth Town, Diss Town and Wroxham. In the summer of 1997, Warne made the transition into full-time Football League football by joining Wigan Athletic, after a spell on loan at Kettering Town in November 1998, Warne would then join Rotherham United in January 1999, where he would spend five-and-a-half-years and help the club gain promotions from the Third Division to the First Division in three seasons. In 2004, Warne had a short loan spell at Mansfield Town. In June 2005, Warne left Rotherham after 257 appearances to join Oldham Athletic, where in two-years Warne would make 100 appearances, in August 2007 Warne joined Yeovil Town, until he left in 2009 to rejoin Rotherham United in 2009, he would retire for football in the summer of 2012.

After retirement from playing, Warne would join the coaching staff at Rotherham United, where he acted as fitness coach, in November 2016 after Kenny Jackett resigned, Warne was named interim manager of Rotherham United until the end of the 2016–17, despite relegation and difficult results during this interim spell, Warne was named full time manager in summer of 2017 and would regain promotion again by winning the 2018 EFL League One play-off final, Rotherham became a yo-yo club under Warne, with club being relegated from the Championship and in 2019 and 2021 and gaining promotion from League One in 2018, 2020 and 2022. Rotherham also won the 2022 EFL Trophy final in this third promotion season. In September 2022, Warne left Rotherham to takeover at League One Derby County as head coach, after falling short of the play-offs in 2023, Warne won promotion in 2023–24 as runners-up, to earn his fourth promotion from League One in his managerial career.

Playing career
Warne was born in Norwich, Norfolk and is a supporter of Norwich City. He started playing non-League football for Great Yarmouth Town, before moving onto Diss Town, with whom he won the FA Vase in 1994. After playing for Wroxham, he started his professional career at the age of 23 when he signed for Wigan Athletic, before moving to Rotherham where he played over 250 games in all competitions, then he moved to Oldham where he became a firm fans favourite in his time there, helping the club to the League One playoffs in the 2006/2007 season, eventually moving on free transfer to Yeovil, where he struggled to get amongst the goals regularly.

During the summer of 2009, after failing to agree a new deal with Yeovil, he joined his former club Rotherham United on trial and impressed pre-season. He subsequently signed a one-year contract with the Millers, scoring on his debut on the opening day against Accrington Stanley. On 11 August 2009, he scored the equalising goal as Rotherham surprisingly beat Championship side Derby County 2–1 in the first round of the League Cup. It was made all the more of an upset by the fact that Derby had reached the semifinals of the competition the previous season. He signed a one-year contract extension in June 2010.

Coaching career
He joined the coaching staff at Rotherham in May 2012 upon his retirement from professional football. During his time playing for Diss Town, Warne coached children at Diss Town FC through his former coaching business, Pass Soccer.

Rotherham United
In November 2012, Warne was granted a testimonial by Rotherham United for giving the club many years of service including as player, coach and joint caretaker-manager.

On 28 November 2016, after the resignation of Kenny Jackett, Warne was appointed caretaker manager of Rotherham United. On 13 January 2017, Warne was appointed Rotherham United manager until the end of the 2016–17 season. On 5 April 2017, with Rotherham's relegation from the Championship confirmed Warne was appointed permanent manager of the club on a one-year rolling contract. During his time as manager, Rotherham, were relegated from and won promotion to the Championship on three occasions each, with promotions in 2018, 2020 and 2022 following relegations in 2017, 2019, and 2021. He also won the 2022 EFL Trophy.

Warne's final game as Millers manager was a 0–0 away to Middlesbrough on 17 September 2022 which left Rotherham 8th in the Championship after 9 games; he left the club five days later and dropped down a division to manage League One Derby County.

Derby County
After interim manager Liam Rosenior was relieved of his duties, EFL League One side Derby County Football Club, recently saved by local businessman David Clowes, approached Rotherham United to request permission to speak to Warne. Paul Warne was officially announced by Derby County as their new head coach on a four-year deal on 22 September 2022, after The Rams agreed a compensation package with Rotherham for Warne, alongside Assistant Head Coach Richie Barker, First Team Coach Matt Hamshaw, and First Team Goalkeeper Coach Andy Warrington. Following a stellar January that saw Derby have a 100% record, rising to within touching distance of breaking into the automatic promotion picture, Warne was awarded the League One Manager of the Month award for the third time, his first time with Derby County. Form collapsed after this, however, and Warne oversaw just six wins in the final 18 games as Derby finished the season in 7th place, the joint lowest league finish in the club history, and missed out on a playoff place by one place and point. Warne called the season a "failure".

Warne rebuilt the Derby squad in summer 2023 ahead of the 2023–24 season with 12 players signed, with players such as Curtis Davies, David McGoldrick and Jason Knight departing. Derby suffered a bad start to the season, losing their first three games at Pride Park Stadium 2–1 in the league to Wigan Athletic and to Oxford United by the same score, as well as 2–0 loss to Blackpool in the EFL Cup in between, Warne after this defeat said that he felt like player heads were being turned by transfer speculation. Derby suffered a spate of injuries in first two months of the season and after the first 11 games of the League One season, found themselves in 9th place and 10 points behind leaders Portsmouth, Warne said the club were behind their target and demanded improvement from squad on 11 October 2023. The team subsequently lost 1–0 away to Shrewsbury Town leaving the pre-season promotion favourites 11th in the table and with questions starting to arise regarding Warne's future, though the club later came out in support of the manager. On 14 November 2023, Derby were knocked out of the first round of the FA Cup after a first round replay at home to Crewe Alexandra, the first time the club have been eliminated at this stage since the 1984–85 season, Warne found his team "unpredictable" as they impressed in a league win 3–0 at home to Barnsley three days earlier, Warne called his players for an extra days training on the Thursday after the cup tie. Warne ended 2023 with a nine-game unbeaten league run, winning eight of these matches which moved Derby up to 4th place in the table and two points off the automatic promotion places. This impressive end to the year saw him win the Manager of the Month award for December 2023. In early 2024 Derby found themselves in second place in the table but in February 2024, after Derby's first back-to-back league defeats at Barnsley and at home to Charlton Athletic, Warne warned his players that they needed to improve if they wanted to stay in the automatic promotion places. Derby responded well to this message, with Derby winning their first four league matches in March and after a 1–0 win to promotion rivals Bolton Wanderers, Warne was delighted with the result but told his players not get carried away with Derby being four points clear of third place with seven league games remaining. Having won five from six across the month, he was awarded the Manager of the Month award. Warne achieved his fourth promotion from League One to the Championship after a 2–0 win at home to Carlisle United on the last day of the season confirmed Derby would be promoted as runners-up with their highest ever points tally.

As a player
Diss Town
 * FA Vase: 1993–94

As a manager
Rotherham United
 * EFL League One second-place promotion: 2019–20, 2021–22; play-offs: 2018
 * EFL Trophy: 2021–22

Derby County
 * EFL League One second-place promotion: 2023–24

Individual
 * EFL League One Manager of the Month: December 2017, February 2022, January 2023, December 2023, March 2024