Paul Jewell breezed into Derby County’s Pride Park stadium yesterday with survival rather than money uppermost in his mind, but said that fighting relegation makes him neither Red Adair nor a mental case.

Billy Davies left the club “by mutual consent” on Monday after a verbal assault on successive Derby chairmen for what he perceived as a failure to back him sufficiently in the transfer market. He spent £16 million in 2007 either side of gaining promotion from the Coca-Cola Championship.

With his club bottom of the Barclays Premier League, Adam Pearson, the Derby chairman, has gone for the man with the track record. On the final day of last season Jewell kept Wigan Athletic in the top flight, repeating a feat that he achieved with Bradford City in 2000, when his team beat Liverpool in their last match.

Jewell rejected a £2 million signing-on fee and a £2 million-a-year deal to return to Wigan this month and it is thought that he has turned down opportunities to manage Ireland and Leicester City. In signing a 3½half year contract at Derby, he will earn £1.5 million a year, a salary that would halve in the Championship.

With Derby facing Sunderland and Middlesbrough within the next three matches, Jewell, 43, is not accepting relegation as a fait accompli. Indeed, he believes that he can defy the odds and keep another club up.

“If I don’t believe it, if the players don’t believe it, if the fans don’t believe it, we have no chance,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult, but I’m not here to wave the white flag. We’re not adrift.

“We’re in a struggling situation but all is not lost and I’m here for the long term to try and get the club strong and upward and in the right direction. Every challenge is a big challenge – be it Bradford, Sheffield Wednesday or Wigan, but this one really excites me. There is a lot of history in this football club but the history doesn’t count for a lot these days.”

Jewell said that he would give the present players every chance to prove themselves and, in contrast to his predecessor, preferred to concentrate on the here and now rather than focusing on the “significant funds” that Pearson plans to supply in the January transfer window, when attracting players will be a difficult task.

“People always ask about money, but we want to move forward,” Jewell said. “There will be money available if we want to strengthen. But you have to be careful about who you bring in. Let January look after itself, we’re looking to Sunderland [on Saturday].”