Mel Morris Speaks

[davenportram]

My final post for tonight. Is it trigger happy when the trend is for lowering performances. I knw this is just a snapshot smallsample, with a few errand jokers voting, but it shows a consistently downward trend in fans ratings of performances

 

[Curtains]

4 minutes ago, davenportram said:

Its not impatience, and you can hardly call it build up play when we hardly created chances. The build up was slower than M1 roadworkers at the start of project while theyare building up the case for "gents if you work faster and finish on time well pay you more"

 

The grumbles were at the lack of any decent performances and the general downward trend in performances

You have been consistent in your view .

i would have liked Paul to stay until the end of the season as I voted in Mostyns poll. 

Goodnight  m8 

[davenportram]

14 minutes ago, curtains said:

You have been consistent in your view .

i would have liked Paul to stay until the end of the season as I voted in Mostyns poll. 

Goodnight  m8 

I hvaent actually given my views on whether I agree or not. But I will - I think change was needed but dont think Wassall till the end of the season is sensible

[HKRam]

Suddenly it's all PC's fault -- keep spending money, not offloading players, and thus the squad becomes too big and prone to dissatisfaction and unrest -- but then what role did Sam Rush play? Wasnt he supposed to control the head coach, like all director of football do? 

Or is it just an attempt to shift the blame -- I am the good guy, and he's the bad guy?

[Rams1884]

So looks like Clement was fired for trying to get us promoted according to Mel" short- termism aiming for the number two spot" whilst he seems satisfied that promotion is not the final objective. Go figure.

he seemed to be concerned with PCs performance as per plan and yet he allowed 25 million of investment in seemingly scatter gun approach that detracted from one of the aims of the plan to bring academy players into first team. Go figure

Have to say on reflection I'm not that bothered about Clement going just think the way MM has communicated on it and basically deflected any blame is not right

there is something about MM I can't quite pinpoint but do not like  too smug,  too ruthless, too unaccountable,  too sure he is right , too autocratic. I would not want him as my boss and certainly not stuck on a deserted island with him with no food around ! 

 

 

[WamRam]

Apologies if someone's already made this point but I really cba to flick through 17 pages.

Is it such a big problem that PC wanted to get promoted this year? We were top at Christmas & I'd like to think my manager would want to go up having been in that position. I can understand MM point of view but ultimately what he's saying is that he got rid of PC for being 'too' ambitious?

Still a baffling decision for me.

[eddie]

9 minutes ago, WamRam said:

Apologies if someone's already made this point but I really cba to flick through 17 pages.

Is it such a big problem that PC wanted to get promoted this year? We were top at Christmas & I'd like to think my manager would want to go up having been in that position. I can understand MM point of view but ultimately what he's saying is that he got rid of PC for being 'too' ambitious?

Still a baffling decision for me.

I don't think 'too ambitious' sums it up completely. Perhaps, and I stand to be corrected on this, it was a 'clash of cultures' between short-termism and sustainability.

To a certain extent I can understand the criticism of Mel for financing the expensive purchases, right up to January, because it's almost hypocritical to back the manager by financing the purchase of players, then immediately sack the manager when said players fail to perform.

Why are they failing to perform though? Is it because they are being asked to carry out tasks for which they are not equipped, i.e. we are back to square pegs again? Perhaps each purchase was justified as "...the final piece that links everything together" - only once inserted into the vacant round hole, Paul Clement has immediately asked for a sledgehammer to make the square peg fit.

I dunno. Your guess is as good as mine.

[Curtains]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03j1pdk

[LazloW]

I'm still genuinely flummoxed by people complaining about our owner investing heavily in the club. How times have changed.. Not happy when we weren't spending, now we're spending too much! Goes to show that, as an owner of a football club, you really can't win.  I know that I definitely prefer a situation where we are prepared to spend cash and live with the fact that not every signing will work (they never do) than never buying anybody or having a long term approach to the club.  Will every decision be golden? Of course not.  

I also find it odd that the owner of the club should be criticised for having an opinion on the 'product' that his business is producing and having a view on how it can be made better.  PC was MM's employee. If the boss says 'I want you to produce this' then you do as you're told.  PC's job was to put the owner's vision into practice and he wasn't doing it. MM backed him with the resources to do the job and he still wasn't doing it.  Now, I don't agree with the owner getting involved in team selection (though having an opinion that Hanson might be a decent player and wanting to see more of him doesn't in my view constitute interference in team selection... particularly as he didn't play) or who to buy - that's for the 'football' people - BUT the football people need to be coming up with the tactics, the purchases and the style of play that satisfies the owner 's (and let's face it, the fans') desire to see high tempo, attractive, attacking football.  If in his view style is currently more important than results then the 'employee' should be doing as he was told.  I think the problem here might be that the owner's vision and  a lot of fan's vision are not the same. FWIW I agree with Mel in terms of the big picture.

I stil think PC should've been given more time to get it right. But, I don't think there is any need to be throwing blame around and arguing that loads of mistakes have been made.  A genuine mistake would have been employing an axe murderer with a history of cleptomania and bad references. We employed a respected #2 with a good reputation in the game and high expectations. We invested (and the investment has been nowhere as bad as many suggest, and some haven't had a chance yet) and it was all done in good faith and with the best intentions.  It didn't work out as expected. Sad but not really necessary for recriminations and inquests.  Its just (modern) football.

Sorry for the lengthy, tedious treaty 

 

[Curtains]

19 minutes ago, curtains said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03j1pdk

 

BBC Radio Derby Interview with Owen Bradley Radio Derby  

 

 

[SSD]

I understand where Mel is coming from in terms of his vision long term for the club. He wants us to play attractive free flowing footy and wants the manager to use the academy players. All well and good. However what is annoying me at the moment is the comments on Jamie Hanson. He wanted Jamie to play more games which I agree with, he's a solid up and coming player. Why did he green light the signings Johnson, Butterfield and Baird??? Spent ten million quid?? Ridiculous Mr Morris.   

[G STAR RAM]

13 hours ago, CBE said:

MM was quite firm in saying PC had the only say in signings this season. Most of the 25 million was spent pre season buy the procurement team. I don't think we should label PC with anything re signings , the football wasn't great yet top 6

 

Not quite sure how you work that out.

Johnson, Butterfield, Blackman, Camera, Olsson all signed during the season.

[Curtains]

1 minute ago, G STAR RAM said:

Not quite sure how you work that out.

Johnson, Butterfield, Blackman, Camera, Olsson all signed during the season.

will prove to be good players for us but 8 months was not enough time to work on it all. 

[G STAR RAM]

2 hours ago, Rams1884 said:

So looks like Clement was fired for trying to get us promoted according to Mel" short- termism aiming for the number two spot" whilst he seems satisfied that promotion is not the final objective. Go figure.

he seemed to be concerned with PCs performance as per plan and yet he allowed 25 million of investment in seemingly scatter gun approach that detracted from one of the aims of the plan to bring academy players into first team. Go figure

Have to say on reflection I'm not that bothered about Clement going just think the way MM has communicated on it and basically deflected any blame is not right

there is something about MM I can't quite pinpoint but do not like  too smug,  too ruthless, too unaccountable,  too sure he is right , too autocratic. I would not want him as my boss and certainly not stuck on a deserted island with him with no food around ! 

 

 

I keep seeing people saying 'why did he let Clement spend £25m if he wasn't happy with him' etc arc

Let's not forget that about £20m of that had been spent by mid August.

The only signings that should be questioned are Blackman and Camara.

 

[G STAR RAM]

3 minutes ago, curtains said:

will prove to be good players for us but 8 months was not enough time to work on it all. 

Just is out on 4 of them signings.

Butterfield the best signing, you know the the one that always kept getting dropped. Too many forward passes probably.

[WilkoRam]

I'm not sure people are complaining that he's invested rather that he's invested into a person who he see's as not adhering to his plan for the club. I doubt he woke with a jolt Sunday night and thought "oh my god the football has been stale and the youth have been overlooked" he would have seen that for a while. I also think the sheer volume of players who have come in being a problem. It's a problem for a manager to know who to play and it's a problem for the players who won't get the game time. A healthy level of competition is needed but we're too far the other way and it prevents the likes of Hanson, Bennett, etc from getting near the first team. 

 

I'm puzzled that MM would mention youth development yet sanctioned the signings to make the first team squad bloated. I'm puzzled he would keep spending in Jan when surely he must have already seen the style being implemented by PC. 

 

I still don't know what side the fence I'm on with this. On the one hand we had a young manager, in his first managerial role who had us 5th, 5 points off the top and we were top on Boxing Day. To remove him in that respect is hugely harsh. We looked solid at the back, which was the major problem previously and despite the 'boring football' only Fulham had scored more goals than us at Boxing Day (I believe). That said I kept hoping and hoping that it was about making us solid and eventually the attacking flair would come but it didn't and didn't look like it would. Martin was isolated, the wide players ineffective and the midfield weren't getting forward. The play I would liken to Utd under Van Gaal and Spurs under AVB, slow possession based where it takes so long to move the ball forward that the oppo have got back and are harder to break down. With LVG and AVB the fans were concerned about the style AVB got Spurs highest points total in a season but they hated the football. Utd fans biggest complaint is that they don't see where they're going, they wouldn't mind their league position if they could see signs of progression and maybe we were in the same boat?

[G STAR RAM]

5 hours ago, WilkoRam said:

I'm not sure people are complaining that he's invested rather that he's invested into a person who he see's as not adhering to his plan for the club. I doubt he woke with a jolt Sunday night and thought "oh my god the football has been stale and the youth have been overlooked" he would have seen that for a while. I also think the sheer volume of players who have come in being a problem. It's a problem for a manager to know who to play and it's a problem for the players who won't get the game time. A healthy level of competition is needed but we're too far the other way and it prevents the likes of Hanson, Bennett, etc from getting near the first team. 

 

I'm puzzled that MM would mention youth development yet sanctioned the signings to make the first team squad bloated. I'm puzzled he would keep spending in Jan when surely he must have already seen the style being implemented by PC. 

 

I still don't know what side the fence I'm on with this. On the one hand we had a young manager, in his first managerial role who had us 5th, 5 points off the top and we were top on Boxing Day. To remove him in that respect is hugely harsh. We looked solid at the back, which was the major problem previously and despite the 'boring football' only Fulham had scored more goals than us at Boxing Day (I believe). That said I kept hoping and hoping that it was about making us solid and eventually the attacking flair would come but it didn't and didn't look like it would. Martin was isolated, the wide players ineffective and the midfield weren't getting forward. The play I would liken to Utd under Van Gaal and Spurs under AVB, slow possession based where it takes so long to move the ball forward that the oppo have got back and are harder to break down. With LVG and AVB the fans were concerned about the style AVB got Spurs highest points total in a season but they hated the football. Utd fans biggest complaint is that they don't see where they're going, they wouldn't mind their league position if they could see signs of progression and maybe we were in the same boat?

Great post and pretty much sums up where I am at on the whole thing.

The only thing I can think re the January signings is that were sectioned in December when we were flying (in terms of league position), the fans were not creating a fuss and Mels judgement may have been clouded.