Heard the football scores? Great result for Derby County . . . they didn’t play. How about the one where the manager picks his captain by lots? Or the one about the defender who sneaks off for a trial with Marseilles and gets a deal?

Paul Jewell has heard all the jokes and he’s not laughing. The Derby manager has seen all the stats and he’s stopped counting. Still, at least the international break provides a breather from “the worst year of my life, professionally and personally”, from the weekly misery of managing a team who have trumped finishing bottom of the Barclays Premier League by plunging to the floor of the Coca-Cola Championship.

And yet, after a week in which boardroom interference forced Kevin Keegan and Alan Curbishley out of clubs achieving reasonable top-flight results, Jewell is being allowed to get on with the job of managing a club who have had three chairmen in a year, but not a single league win.

The anniversary of Derby last winning three points looms next week but, as Jewell attempts to unite his new-look team and shed the negative publicity that surrounds their plight, at least he has the consolation of being in charge of his own destiny.

“We’re all under pressure, whatever job you’re in,” Jewell said as he surveyed the contrasting fates of Curbishley, Keegan and, at Manchester City, Mark Hughes. “We seem to live sport in a blame culture, with the phone-ins and internet chat-rooms.

“I look at Curbs and last season we beat West Ham – sorry, they beat us, like everyone else did – and they got booed off. What do people expect? Do West Ham believe they should finish in the top four? They’re a terrific club with great tradition, but so are Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United, Man City, Arsenal, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby.

“Darlington could win the Champions League if the Abu Dhabi royal family came in and gave their manager £200 million. Where’s Robinho going to go? He’ll go where the money is. No one gets the chance to build anything – and is the game any better for it? Of course, people should have ambition, but what happens if Man City don’t win the Premier League in two years? Do they sack Mark Hughes?”

Jewell has used 46 players since being appointed last November – he had suggested to Adam Pearson, who succeeded Peter Gadbsy as chairman, that he could leave it until March to take charge, once the team’s inevitable relegation had been confirmed – and he accepts that managers are ultimately judged on their acquisitions, which is why he understands those who walk away when players are foisted upon them. “If they’re someone else’s mistakes, why does the manager carry the can?” he asked. “I’ve always thought the director of football is the manager. I direct all football operations here.”

Pearson oversaw Derby’s takeover by an American consortium in January, but Andrew Appleby, who became chairman of the club, and Tom Glick, the chief executive, leave Pearson, who is now “chairman of football”, and Jewell to take charge of player-related matters.

As Derby have lost at home to Doncaster Rovers and Southampton, Jewell has realised how mired the club are in last season’s maulings. At Easter, when he was under a lot personal and professional pressure, his chairman would not consider discussing Jewell’s possible resignation. “A manager couldn’t have a better chairman than Adam Pearson. If he sacked me tomorrow, I’d say the same,” Jewell said. “We haven’t spoken about my future this season – we have such huge faith in each other’s ability – but we are realistic. Unless results improve, something changes.”

Would he resign now? “I’d want to do the best thing for Derby County, and the best thing for Derby County is for me to be the manager,” Jewell said. “It’s a new team and, given a period of time and a good run at it, I’m sure we’ll get it right, because my track record’s good. If you want to look back and say you never won a game last season, then look back to three promotions, tenth place in the Premiership, a major cup final, a survival.”

So is another promotion out of the question after this start? “It can be done,” Jewell said. “We started terribly at Bradford and went up. I’m a football person and my pride is hurting like crazy. I’ve got to be really strong and put on a bit of a front because, just occasionally, you can doubt yourself. The fans here have been brilliant to me, and they’re entitled to the odd moan and groan, and other managers help you, reminding you of your capabilities.”

One esteemed title-winner rang last week with touching words of reassurance. “You’re going through hell,” he said. “Keep going.” Jewell chuckled at that but not at accusations that he picked his captain out of a hat. Paul Connolly was told the day before last month’s 1-0 Carling Cup second-round victory over Preston North End that he would take the armband but, in the dressing-room, Jewell pivoted around with a pointed finger as if selecting his captain at random. The dressing-room mole thought that he was being serious, then publicised Tyrone Mears’s escape to France as some kind of war-time subterfuge. “If that was the case, I’d have had him for breaking and entering,” Jewell said.

Jewell took the opportunity to give football a miss at the weekend. “My family have been great to me,” he said. “My daughter’s passed her GCSEs with flying colours this summer and I’m going to take my wife out to dinner.”