Bottom of the league at Christmas? Many a manager would be more likely to reach for the Prozac than ProZone, but Paul Jewell is intent on using the second half of this season to get Derby County up to speed and ready to fulfil their potential.

December may seem early to be talking about hitting the ground running next season, but as realistic as he is determined, the Derby manager is preparing to mount a promotion challenge even before he accepts relegation. If that is a paradox, this is a man who has reached his highs by avoiding the lows.

Jewell, after six months out of the game, was like a child at Christmas as he arrived for work at 8am yesterday. Since he succeeded Billy Davies three weeks ago, with Derby adrift at the foot of the Barclays Premier League, training has been brought forward by 90 minutes and he is introducing ProZone, the computerised tracking system, as he brings players in for one-on-one debriefing sessions after matches.

When he met Adam Pearson, his chairman, after training to plan their strategy for next month’s transfer window, there was no desire to mortgage the club’s future in a desperate bid to overhaul the eight-point deficit from safety. Intent on making six signings, to bolster a quiet dressing-room as much as anything, Jewell believes that the players are capable of achieving far more than they have shown since winning the Coca-Cola Championship play-offs in May.

That bittersweet Wembley triumph over West Bromwich Albion left Derby on the back foot in their belated attempted to compete in the elite transfer market and Davies, their own manager, wrote them off as Championship material. Jewell, who made his mark with late survival acts at Bradford City and Wigan Athletic, wants the club to get in early in the future. Imminent American investment may not save Derby from relegation this season, but it fuels Jewell’s conviction that a club regularly attracting 32,000 crowds can compete among the top eight of the Premier League.

“Of course it hurts me because I’m manager of a football club that’s going to be bottom of the league at Christmas and I don’t like that,” he said. “I had nothing to do with the first 14 [league] games, but I take responsibility now. To have six points in December, it’s going to take some massive turnaround. Am I going to get top- class internationals wanting to come here in January? No. I want five or six new faces, to freshen it up – I’m used to working amid a lot of noise and big characters at Wigan, I want it more vibrant – and to give this squad some help. Given the right backing, I believe we can attract top-quality players here. You only have to drive up to the gates here [at the palatial Moor Farm training headquarters] to see how impressive it is – I can’t wait to get to work every morning. My office is better than my house. The facilities are here, the history’s here, the support’s here; we just need to get it right on the pitch.

“I don’t want to be waving a white flag, but I’m also a realist. In the next two years, Derby County can be in the market for top-quality players. I’m not prone to outlandish predictions, but this club can establish itself in the top ten, the top eight of the Premier League.”

For all his achievements with Bradford and Wigan, Jewell’s previous experience at a historically big club ended in failure after only seven months in February 2001. “Sheffield Wednesday had just been relegated [from the top flight], but they were skint and most of the players didn’t want to be there,” Jewell said. “I’d just resigned from Bradford because Geoffrey Richmond [the chairman at the time] and I had come to the end of our tether and I thought beating Liverpool to stay up on the last day was a good time to leave. But the day I walked into Hillsborough, I knew I was up against it. Those seven months were absolute murder, but you need to go through difficult times to equip you for the good times.

“It’s a whole different ball game at Derby. I’m as excited as I have been in ages. I’ve given up the easy life – sitting on panels, making judgments on other people’s teams, maybe looking forward to Christmas with the family – and people outside the game said, ‘What are you doing?’ People in the game said, ‘Great move. Take the hits early on and in the long term, given the right backing, that could be a major club.”