There are as many executive goldfish in Adam Pearson’s office at Pride Park as there are vainglorious promises of what Derby County can achieve this season.

But the new chairman of the Barclays Premier League’s bottom side is adamant that he has joined a club fully equipped to compete in the top ten of English football within three years; indeed, that it takes “mismanagement” to fall back into the Coca-Cola Championship once a club have sustained two seasons of Premier League existence.

There may be no overt criticism of Leeds United, where Pearson, as commercial director, helped to raise the club’s turnover from £16 million to £80 million before they crashed and burnt via a Champions League semi-final and an outlandish bill for boardroom pond life, but the former Hull City chairman has seen the books at both ends of football’s financial spectrum and understands fiscal prudence.

He has bought into Derby, succeeding Peter Gadsby as chairman for a reported £3.5 million investment, not so much for his money as his ability to attract it. He is surprised that Peter Ridsdale, the former Leeds chairman, is bringing out a book on the trials and tribulations from their time in charge at Elland Road but has lessons enough of his own from that era to be able to offer wisdom as well as finance in Derby’s mid-season attempt to secure Premier League stability. Rebuilding Hull from top to bottom suggests he knows what he’s doing.

“This club can sustain a top-ten place in the Premier League,” he said. “It has the fan-base, the traditions, the facilities, the stadium, the training ground - everything is in place and with the right manager and the right board, I would back myself to deliver a team that sustains that kind of performance.”

Play-offs winners often have to go back down before they return strong enough to compete, but, while the issue of whether Derby are as good as relegated before the first fireworks is deferred, Pearson looks beyond that horizon. “I do not believe [the gap between the top divisions] is insurmountable,” he said. “There are lessons that can be learnt in a first [Premier League] season that, if implemented successfully in a second season at the top level, mean there is every reason you can survive. That two-year period in the Premier League is crucial because after that it does become rather a straightforward task.

“It requires mismanagement to fall out of the Premier League. Everything is set – the wage structures, the revenues, the playing squad needs tweaking rather than overhauling. You’d have to be doing your job poorly not to ensure that the two or three players you are targeting are not significantly better than those in your team. So, unless you have an unbelievable injury crisis or encounter unprecedented off-field problems, you will survive in the Premier League, if you’ve been in there for two years, by doing your job adequately.”

“Unprecedented off-field problems” sounds like a natural link to talk about Leeds. Pearson, who still lives in the city, recalls flying Lee Bowyer in by helicopter from the courtroom to the pitch to score twice at Goodison Park, but it was a more wholesale change of strategy that made him leave Leeds in the spring of 2001, the time in which they played Valencia in the last four of the Champions League. An ephemeral chase for glory supplanted sustainability. “Why did I get out?” Pearson said, laughter preceding pause for thought. “The culture of the club had changed.

“We had enormous plans with regards to stadium redevelopment, a conference centre, a Leeds sporting village. When that model changed and investment was aimed purely on the football side, at players and their requirements, I thought my time there was up.

“The European adventures were great. As Peter [Ridsdale] says, he didn’t hear many Leeds supporters complaining when we were in the San Siro or the Nou Camp. But supporters automatically expect the board are looking after their football club. Fiscal prudence may be tedious to fans but, unfortunately, it’s an important part of the game. Of course it’s fair to say Leeds overreached themselves.”

So instead of a £16 million redevelopment of Elland Road’s West Stand, David O’Leary bought Rio Ferdinand. Why plan for tomorrow when today is so exciting?

“You learn lessons all the time, from every aspect of your life,” Pearson added diplomatically. “I must have picked things up from my mistakes in 12 years in football and that’s why I think industry specialists in football are key because they’ve been through the mill.

“There are key ratios, as in any business, that you have to follow. A lot of wealthy, successful businessmen coming into football suddenly lose their business acumen because they get seduced by the excitement of the game. Then you’re in trouble.”

Pearson, who has a doctorate in business administration that he deems “irrelevant” compared with “common football sense”, got laughed at for leaving Leeds for Hull. “Hull had enormous potential and, at rock bottom, it was a cheap option,” he said. “So when Peter Taylor lifted us from the bottom division into the Championship, as we left a ramshackle old ground for a spanking new stadium, it was quite a breakthrough.”

Hull, their turnover increasing from £2 million to £13 million, also made a profit for four consecutive seasons – as Leeds slid down past them.

Pearson, 42, sold the debt-free club for £12 million in March and, linked with Notts County, Huddersfield Town and even Leeds, has been negotiating with “significant investors” in advance of his arrival at Pride Park. He has watched with fascination as Thaksin Shinawatra has taken over Manchester City; Birmingham City are within a missed handshake of a Chinese buyout. “We’re in a very sexy period where international investors are attracted to the Premier League, with the media values coming into the game getting ever higher, but that will disappear as well,” he said.

So prudence will determine how Derby approach the January transfer window. “It’s my job to ensure the club can compete on a level footing,” he said. “I intend to bring significant investment in by Christmas to give us the option of deciding whether to spend big in January or June. If we’re in touch of retaining our Premier League status as the window opens, we will back Billy Davies significantly. If we’re in a difficult position, we may decide to wait until June, when it could make a massive difference to another promotion bid. Billy needs an environment where he is supported financially and emotionally. I’m going to give him both.” And there will not be a penny wasted on goldfish.