Derby Way article on thebootroom.com

[aberam]

Hi Rams. My Huddersfield town fan buddy is writing articles for the boot room football website, and has done one on "what is the Derby way". Wondered if you all had any thoughts?

 

http://tbrfootball.com/what-exactly-is-the-derby-way/

[Harrowram]

Good article. 

[richinspain]

So it's taken a Huddersfield fan to finally explain what is "the Derby way". Good article in my opinion.

[DRBee]

Oh dear.....collecting a lot of individually correct facts about B Clough's football and MacClaren's football and sticking them together to make an account of the 'Derby way'  doesn't  validate the 'Derby way' cobblers that Mel Morris came up with the to explain the unexplained departure of Clement.  It's like a building whose foundations are straw. How many of us on January 1st 2016 had any concept of the Derby way ? We didn't cos the term didn't have any collective meaning and still doesn't.

[61GT]

Very good article, well worth a read for anyone who hasn't clicked on the link.

[Alex W]

1 minute ago, DRBee said:

Oh dear.....collecting a lot of individually correct facts about B Clough's football and MacClaren's football and sticking them together to make an account of the 'Derby way'  doesn't  validate the 'Derby way' cobblers that Mel Morris came up with the to explain the unexplained departure of Clement.  It's like a building whose foundations are straw. How many of us on January 1st 2016 had any concept of the Derby way ? We didn't cos the term didn't have any collective meaning and still doesn't.

The Clement departure has been explained, the manager wanted promotion above all, Mel wants a system where a style of football is decided by the club (ala Swansea) and managers are then brought in to tweak that to their style with a squad of players, recruitment system and youth academy all built around that.

Clement did not adhere to that, and so he went. Easy.

[eddie]

9 minutes ago, DRBee said:

Oh dear.....collecting a lot of individually correct facts about B Clough's football and MacClaren's football and sticking them together to make an account of the 'Derby way'  doesn't  validate the 'Derby way' cobblers that Mel Morris came up with the to explain the unexplained departure of Clement.  It's like a building whose foundations are straw. How many of us on January 1st 2016 had any concept of the Derby way ? We didn't cos the term didn't have any collective meaning and still doesn't.

I asked Mel Morris for a definition of 'The Derby Way' and got an answer, which was published on here the day after the Breakfast Club. The fact that some people had already made up their own minds and chose to ignore it is not my fault.

My wife tells me that I don't suffer fools gladly - she's wrong.

I don't suffer them at all.

[RadioactiveWaste]

Good article, worth the read.

I think Derby way goes a bit beyond the team though, in that it's Mel's vision for the entire organisation from program sellers to playing staff to boardroom - sustainable, close ties to the community, strong youth development, harmonious throughout.

On the Clement thing, after much speculation on here and elsewhere, seems at least partly, that Clement had zero interest in building anything at all, simply wanted to go up then get a better job off the back of that. But it's all speculation.

The general feeling I would say is sacking Clement is debatable, but sacking Clement but giving it Wassall with so much season left seemed weird/wrong and may well cost us promotion this season. Although Mel is comfortable not going up this season, we're not mortgaged up on it or anything, his "not the priority" comments seemed "ill judged" (shall we say?).

 

[Uptherams]

It would be great if he didn't miss out an entire season. What happened to SM first season in this write up. He got appointed, we played good attacking football and next thing I know I am reading about the midway point of last season. Therefor the good attacking football the writer was referring to was actually last season. So what happened to SM first season where we lost at the Play Off final. The one which Mel Morris is mainly referring to as the Derby Way with good attacking entertaining football. 

[Uptherams]

20 minutes ago, eddie said:

I asked Mel Morris for a definition of 'The Derby Way' and got an answer, which was published on here the day after the Breakfast Club. The fact that some people had already made up their own minds and chose to ignore it is not my fault.

My wife tells me that I don't suffer fools gladly - she's wrong.

I don't suffer them at all.

When you say no answer, do you literally mean no answer. When you asked what happened next exactly? 

[Carnero]

41 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Good article, worth the read.

I think Derby way goes a bit beyond the team though, in that it's Mel's vision for the entire organisation from program sellers to playing staff to boardroom - sustainable, close ties to the community, strong youth development, harmonious throughout.

On the Clement thing, after much speculation on here and elsewhere, seems at least partly, that Clement had zero interest in building anything at all, simply wanted to go up then get a better job off the back of that. But it's all speculation.

The general feeling I would say is sacking Clement is debatable, but sacking Clement but giving it Wassall with so much season left seemed weird/wrong and may well cost us promotion this season. Although Mel is comfortable not going up this season, we're not mortgaged up on it or anything, his "not the priority" comments seemed "ill judged" (shall we say?).

 

There's no guarantees  that Clement would have managed more than 16 points in the 10 games since he left, we managed only 12 points in the 10 games prior to his sacking.

[Van der MoodHoover]

It's well written and quite comprehensively deals with the playing style aspects of the club . But to my mind - and I'm hoping someone like Eddie will correct any accidental misunderstanding - Mel Morris was setting out a vision of how the whole club should run.

The playing style is obviously central. But so is lining up all the teams in the same style, developing youth players in the style so they are able to step into the team, having a recruitment approach which complements the whole.

Any article attempting to write about the Derby way needs to cover all of these dimensions to my mind. Plus no doubt a few more I haven't thought of.

[Boycie]

2 hours ago, DRBee said:

Oh dear.....collecting a lot of individually correct facts about B Clough's football and MacClaren's football and sticking them together to make an account of the 'Derby way'  doesn't  validate the 'Derby way' cobblers that Mel Morris came up with the to explain the unexplained departure of Clement.  It's like a building whose foundations are straw. How many of us on January 1st 2016 had any concept of the Derby way ? We didn't cos the term didn't have any collective meaning and still doesn't.

No, but it's good click bait.

[Alph]

3 hours ago, DRBee said:

Oh dear.....collecting a lot of individually correct facts about B Clough's football and MacClaren's football and sticking them together to make an account of the 'Derby way'  doesn't  validate the 'Derby way' cobblers that Mel Morris came up with the to explain the unexplained departure of Clement.  It's like a building whose foundations are straw. How many of us on January 1st 2016 had any concept of the Derby way ? We didn't cos the term didn't have any collective meaning and still doesn't.

He spoke of the Derby way last summer. 

 

[cannable]

Firstly, to me, 'The Derby Way' is a philosophy that runs through the club. A part of this is a unique style of play that's implemented onto all youth teams. Many teams already do this; Swansea and Southampton do and it's those two who I believe is who we're trying to emulate in terms of how the whole club is run. 

The style of play is often attributed to McClaren, but in my mind, it was Clough that introduced us to it. I think people overlook the quality of some of the goals we scored under him. It evolved slowly but surely. In 11/12 we knocked the ball around nicely from back to front at times but didn't quite have the players to pull it off. A few goals that stick out in my mind from that season are Bryson's against Millwall, Ward's against Forest (obviously it's Ward's run that sticks in people's minds, but the way we worked the ball to him was lovely) and Roberts' against Doncaster.

The season after, a few tweaks to the first team were made. Shackell was swapped for Keogh and Hughes was blooded through. This took us up another level in terms of our football. We were much more comfortable with our defenders having it and we had a player who could boss the midfield. The sweeping team goals became more regular; Bryson against Forest, Theo against Cardiff, Bryson against Huddersfield, Bryson against Peterborough and Sammon against Millwall all stick out in my mind. 

The season after we added a technically-gifted and intelligent forward in Martin and we were set. These are all Clough goals. 

 

It was also Clough (and Wassall) who initially implemented the idea of the first team and the youth teams playing the same way. He stated this in March 2013;

"The academy should almost be ringfenced and whoever comes in next, I hope they have the sense to leave it alone and let it continue working. The problem will come if they change the philosophy totally and you have the first team playing one way and the academy playing another."

This isn't supposed to turn into a Clough debate. That's been done to death. I'm merely pointing out that we had an identity for a few years even before McClaren. It's why McClaren was such a good appointment for me - he suited what we were but had the skill-set to take things up a level. A lot of people say "Oh, the Derby way or McClaren's way? How arrogant are we to think we have a way?" but to me, 'The Derby Way' has existed for a few years now.

[Duracell]

10 minutes ago, cannable said:

This isn't supposed to turn into a Clough debate. That's been done to death. I'm merely pointing out that we had an identity for a few years even before McClaren. It's why McClaren was such a good appointment for me - he suited what we were but had the skill-set to take things up a level. A lot of people say "Oh, the Derby way or McClaren's way? How arrogant are we to think we have a way?" but to me, 'The Derby Way' has existed for a few years now.

Stop it, you!

Excellent post.

[PodgeyRam]

43 minutes ago, cannable said:

Firstly, to me, 'The Derby Way' is a philosophy that runs through the club. A part of this is a unique style of play that's implemented onto all youth teams. Many teams already do this; Swansea and Southampton do and it's those two who I believe is who we're trying to emulate in terms of how the whole club is run. 

The style of play is often attributed to McClaren, but in my mind, it was Clough that introduced us to it. I think people overlook the quality of some of the goals we scored under him. It evolved slowly but surely. In 11/12 we knocked the ball around nicely from back to front at times but didn't quite have the players to pull it off. A few goals that stick out in my mind from that season are Bryson's against Millwall, Ward's against Forest (obviously it's Ward's run that sticks in people's minds, but the way we worked the ball to him was lovely) and Roberts' against Doncaster.

The season after, a few tweaks to the first team were made. Shackell was swapped for Keogh and Hughes was blooded through. This took us up another level in terms of our football. We were much more comfortable with our defenders having it and we had a player who could boss the midfield. The sweeping team goals became more regular; Bryson against Forest, Theo against Cardiff, Bryson against Huddersfield, Bryson against Peterborough and Sammon against Millwall all stick out in my mind. 

The season after we added a technically-gifted and intelligent forward in Martin and we were set. These are all Clough goals. 

 

It was also Clough (and Wassall) who initially implemented the idea of the first team and the youth teams playing the same way. He stated this in March 2013;

"The academy should almost be ringfenced and whoever comes in next, I hope they have the sense to leave it alone and let it continue working. The problem will come if they change the philosophy totally and you have the first team playing one way and the academy playing another."

This isn't supposed to turn into a Clough debate. That's been done to death. I'm merely pointing out that we had an identity for a few years even before McClaren. It's why McClaren was such a good appointment for me - he suited what we were but had the skill-set to take things up a level. A lot of people say "Oh, the Derby way or McClaren's way? How arrogant are we to think we have a way?" but to me, 'The Derby Way' has existed for a few years now.

Get out of here with your facts and logic!

[cosmic]

Great watching those goals again @cannable, and an excellent post. I tend to forget over time (with the help of some regular Clough-bashing on here) we were actually in a pretty good state back then.

[irobinson]

6 hours ago, PodgeyRam said:

Get out of here with your facts and logic!

excellent postings - notice Mr Hughes instrumental in most of this....looking forward to him coming back

[DRBee]

13 hours ago, eddie said:

I asked Mel Morris for a definition of 'The Derby Way' and got an answer, which was published on here the day after the Breakfast Club. The fact that some people had already made up their own minds and chose to ignore it is not my fault.

My wife tells me that I don't suffer fools gladly - she's wrong.

I don't suffer them at all.

The 'Derby way' can't be something Mel just makes up - even if you are fool enough to accept it. It didn't exist before he said it and doesn't exist now. It might be Mel wants to create a Derby way but the way he described it IN PUBLIC made us a laughing stock.Though there may have been good reasons to get rid of Clement,after Morris's declaration that he would be given time because of his the  failure to deliver 'the Derby way' just seemed ( and still does) vacuous.