I was talking to the chief steward of Derby today and these are his thoughts:
Overall sad to see McClaren go as on the whole he improved the team, although he is optimistic for Clement, who he sees as someone that will build on McClaren's work.
They played some nice, attacking football and were clearly well coached.
Weakest area he felt were defense as the coaching time was made up of midfield coaches and a keeper coach, no defensive specialist.
Nigel Clough helped stop the rot and steadied the team, however it was McClaren that pushed the team on. He has very good contacts in the game and this was hugely beneficial in the transfer market and with scouting.
The players had respect for McClaren due to his experience and knowledge of the game.
Generally fairly positive stuff, but like everyone has said, it's just such an uninspiring appointment compared to who we could get. He'll be better than Pardew in my opinion, but I'm only basing that off his successes. Looking at his career there's a hell of a lot of failure in there too.