Ex-QPR and Crystal Palace man Shaun Derry: Why I turned down a coaching return to Portsmouth

The midfielder had been lined up by Michael Appleton to join his Pompey backroom staff in the summer of 2012.

However, following talks at a Chichester hotel, a tempted Derry eventually rejected the offer in favour of remaining with Premier League QPR.

Instead, Appleton appointed Ashley Westwood as his first-team coach in July 2012 – before both walked out on Pompey to join Blackpool five months later.

And while Derry would love a Fratton Park reunion in the future, he felt that represented the wrong moment to return to a club in administration.

He told The News: ‘I nearly returned to Pompey.

‘When Michael Appleton was a manager, he wanted me to come back as player-coach. I met him at a hotel in Chichester and had a brilliant four or five hours, I was really keen.

‘That would have been a good opportunity, but financially Pompey were in a terrible position and I just thought perhaps it wasn’t the right time.

‘I was playing for QPR and aged 30. That age to be a player-coach would have been very young, but he sold a brilliant little package to me in terms of what my impact could be like. Not just as a player, but to help him out as well.

‘You take stock don’t you. I went home and, after those four or five hours of speaking to Michael, I quickly realised that I was too young for that to be an option for me.

‘I needed to continue my career, which at that point was going pretty well.

‘You weigh it all up and are caught in between that reluctance to leave where you are because things are going well – then you’re thinking about the bigger picture and a coaching opportunity.

‘However, he was dropping some little nuggets in and I thought “Hang on a minute, this could be a terrible move”.’

In August 2019, Derry was appointed as professional development coach with Crystal Palace’s Academy, after spending the 2018-19 campaign as Oxford United’s first-team coach.

He has also enjoyed managerial spells with Notts County and Cambridge United.

He added: ‘I brought Cambridge back to Fratton Park twice, which we lost 2-1 on both occasions.

‘The clubs I played for were proper football clubs, with tradition and history. I encountered spit and sawdust fan bases which actually reminded me of what football has always been like.

‘Pompey, Sheffield United, Leeds, Palace, they are similar. All the clubs I played for had strong identities.

‘It was a privilege playing at Fratton in front of those fans.’

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