What do you really think of Morris?

[Duracell]

1 minute ago, rynny said:

I think last summer highlighted how difficult it is to please the fans with the surveys of who we want as manager, I know Pearson came out on top in quite a few polls, but it was never much more than a third of fans wanting him, that was 2/3s of fans that he wasn't first choice for. I know there was a poll if you was happy or not with Pearson and the majority were but how many are always happy with everything the club does? Some it is a blind allegiance, others will always back the club as it feels wrong to disagree (not calling anyone who does this, I used to back the club at every decision)

Without a conclusive majority, maybe we should have gone with a Pearson-DUP alliance?

Pearson's aggressive style, stubborn nature and inflexibility with 4-4-2 could have benefited from being tampered with some fundamentalist Protestantism. 

[G STAR RAM]

3 hours ago, oldtimeram said:

I asked for views on his tenure since he took over, nothing more, nothing less.

Ok, well in summary since MM has been here:-

Our league position has stayed pretty much the same

We've spent a lot of money on players which MM has covered 

The wage bill has gone up, leading to increased losses which once again MM has covered 

The facilities at the club have been heavily invested in, laying the foundations for years to come

External debt has virtually been wiped out

Mainly positive stuff

On the negative side, the football has deteriorated, however, by re-appointing McClaren he basically put us back to where we were at when he took over, it didn't really seem to be working out

His managerial appointments seem to have taken a scattergun approach and at times he appears to have backed managers deviating from the mission statement

The public perception of the club has changed dramatically (mainly due to MMs financial input and hire/fire approach). We are no longer the attractive team on a shoestring budget

Overall it's a mixed bag but we are really no worse off then when he took over

[RoyMac5]

1 minute ago, G STAR RAM said:

Ok, well in summary since MM has been here:-

Our league position has stayed pretty much the same

We've spent a lot of money on players which MM has covered 

The wage bill has gone up, leading to increased losses which once again MM has covered 

The facilities at the club have been heavily invested in, laying the foundations for years to come

External debt has virtually been wiped out

The public perception of the club has changed dramatically (mainly due to MMs financial input and hire/fire approach). We are no longer the attractive team on a shoestring budget

Budget doesn't matter does it?

[Angry Ram]

4 hours ago, Ewe Ram said:

Ok so how many fans were shouting for some backbone? They wanted a stronger work ethic and a 'strong manager'. Enter Mr knucklehead. Mel did what the fans wanted. 

And there in a nutshell is his problem. 

[1of4]

His football club, his company, his business. All we as fans/customers can hope for is that he is successful in running his business and produces a product we want to carry on buying. That he will not ruin the club we all love, as we have all seen happen with chairman/owners of other clubs and which nearly happened here under previous owners.

[Angry Ram]

4 hours ago, TommyPowel said:

So I assume you would prefer to go back to the days of clough and the yanks or mayber the three amigos or even robert maxwell shall i continue

Morris seems to want to go backwards. Managers, players. Maybe we are going backwards to a Maxwell scenario. 

 

[Angry Ram]

1 hour ago, Gypsy Ram said:

Had a dodgy recruitment policy that I am not sure the managers are to blame for. Gave Rush free reign to assign dubious contracts out. An absolute disaster with management hiring and firing.  Talks in PR mode constantly. However, done well with the academy and the online aspects of the club.

Agree with this but my only question is, has he done well with the academy? Infrastructure sure, pathway no. To be honest I don't blame him so much on this front as the whole system is still flawed.  However I always believed The Derby Way was always about this very pathway. Then either him or the manager seem to shut the gate. That's modern football though not just us. 

[Day]

8 minutes ago, Angry Ram said:

Agree with this but my only question is, has he done well with the academy? Infrastructure sure, pathway no. To be honest I don't blame him so much on this front as the whole system is still flawed.  However I always believed The Derby Way was always about this very pathway. Then either him or the manager seem to shut the gate. That's modern football though not just us. 

Can't deny the facilities have been improved but if no players are ready to make the step up, not a lot you can do.

The U21's only just avoided relegation last season themselves.

This pathway sounds more like a long term goal than something we will see overnight. Saying that Max Lowe has started to come through, had it not been for injuries probably would have seen a lot more from him.

[PodgeyRam]

If he was a smart man, he wouldn't have bought a football club. No quicker way to lose money than buying a football club.

I have no doubt his heart is in the right place, but if I'm being brutally honest, his reign so far has been one long slide backwards. 

All that good work Clough did reducing the wage bill and making us a youth orientated passing side, gone.

All the good work McClaren did, making us an attractive side, who weren't afraid to attack, gone.

Here we are, three years later and we need another rebuild. Three years. That's all it took to undo Clough and McClaren's seven years of good work. 

He can say he was poorly advised, but as the owner and the man who ultimately makes the decisions, he has to take some flack for that. 

Now that Rush has gone, he'll have run out of people to blame if Rowett messes up. 

I fully agree with the people on here saying that if he was a foreign owner he would've been run out of town by now. 

You can talk about the academy and infrastructure till the cows come home, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is what happens on the pitch. Ask Burnley or Bournemouth. And the sad fact of the matter is, under MM we have regressed on the pitch, as a result of the decisions he has taken.

I hope he's finally made the right appointment this time round.

[Ninos]

There isn't really a debate here. @Angry Ram is right. The goal was to play entertaining attacking football, infuse academy youth, and get us promoted increasing the value of our playing staff. Mel has failed in his own objective. He's pretty much openly admitted it.  The worst part is that he's deviated from his original plan or at least he doesn't talk about it openly anymore. 

Saying Rowett is great, and that he's giving him full reign etc etc doesn't redeem him. Rowett has proven zero so far. Clement Mac Pearson got the same initial endorsement and free reign too, and all touted as the answer, as something that was needed. No they weren't. They were awful.

Until the squad is trimmed and we see the pathway to the first team for the youth, until the squad is culled of the journeymen paycheque collectors, and until the likes of Rawson Lowe Elsnik Zanzala Bennett are playing week in week out and thus attracting big money interest, and until Pride Park is a thrilling place to watch football, he's failing by his own measures. Of course I'm disappointed. Plus sadly, not a single player we've bought has moved on for bigger money, ouch, and the only two who have moved on for a hefty gain, yes, academy players who've got to play in the first side. That speaks to bad player recruitment and or bad player development, an additional failing.

What do I think of Morris personally? 

I love him, he cares, I feel that a good man and a friend is in charge, and I love that he's a Derby man but I'd love it more if football wise, he took a close look at the Bournemouth model: get a good manager, keep the squad very small, hungry, and motivated, infuse youth, and deliver on a winning brand of football built on graft and smarts. 

[oldtimeram]

2 hours ago, TommyPowel said:

So sorry but i have yet to see any post where you have given him the slightest hint of praise

Apart from improving the infrastructure I am afraid I do not see a great deal to praise him for at the moment. I hope his ownership/management skills improve and if things start to look up, he will get my praise, but until then, the jury is still out with MM.

[Angry Ram]

6 hours ago, Ewe Ram said:

Yes I did. I get that you market yourself as an angry fan with a big grudge and I also get that I'm a dying breed. I prefer football to be a local community thing, you support your local or hometown club, it's got its presence and local identity. Ours has a fan at the helm and I'm glad. He may make decisions based on fandom sometimes but so what? I'd watch Derby in any division because I'm a fan too. i agree that it would be a whole lot less forgivable in foreign or faceless ownership and that's my point. He's local, he's a fan, get off his back. 

He's not in charge of the Dog and bloody Duck. We are a professional organisation generating millions of pounds.  And all you have got is he is a fan and he's local. 

@curtainsgets a lot of stick on here. Many would not want him running our club. I think he is local, he certainly is a fan.  So he is qualified then?

i like Curtains he talks a lot of sense, more than Morris.  

Why get off his back? Would you get of Fawaz back if he had picked DCFC ?

[Ninos]

31 minutes ago, Angry Ram said:

He's not in charge of the Dog and bloody Duck. We are a professional organisation generating millions of pounds.  And all you have got is he is a fan and he's local. 

@curtainsgets a lot of stick on here. Many would not want him running our club. I think he is local, he certainly is a fan.  So he is qualified then?

i like Curtains he talks a lot of sense, more than Morris.  

Why get off his back? Would you get of Fawaz back if he had picked DCFC ?

The dog and bloody duck ... lol ... a classic from the anger meister! 

[McRamFan]

Never met the bloke, try to avoid making judgements about people via media reports, seems like a switch on guy.  I'll let you know more when he invites me to share a bottle of red wine and a chat.

[Kernow]

I've had a busy couple of days so missed most of this thread, will catch up at a later time but here are my brief thoughts on Mel. Apologies is this is identical to another post in the thread.

He has good intentions but has made a lot of mistakes through inexperience of running a football club. I think he's learnt that throwing money at it doesn't guarantee success, and he values the importance of having a manager he can trust and get along with on a personal level. He's happy to back his managers in the transfer market with whatever incomings or outgoings they feel are necessary, even if that might not be his own opinion on what's best.

I've still got doubts about him regards to stability. He is the perfect owner for any club on paper. A local fan who has tons of money and adores the club he owns, and will give anything to see it succeed. What he hopefully realises now is that trying to do it too quickly has actually pushed us further away from our goal of PL football. If he gives GR time I genuinely think we will get there within 2-3 seasons. It's just a question now of whether Morris will be patient enough to wait that long with a single manager. We've hired different managers with different outlooks on football and the squad. They've all looked to reshape the squad in their own way, but none have been given the time to get to a position where they want to be with regards to the squad. If we don't give GR time, we will continue to falter, and the next manager won't have better luck either.

[Ambitious]

Morris has been unfortunate with his trust in certain people and some unforeseen issues arising. It's not to say that he couldn't of done better and the whole world is against him, but I genuinely see him as a bit unfortunate. 

I think he has the right character in Rowett, who is someone I can see him having a success working relationship, if at times not entirely harmonious. It all depends on how Rowett does here, because there's absolutely nothing to suggest he will be a guaranteed success - certainly no more than Pearson, who had achieved much greater things and promised a similar playing style. 

I guess we will have to ride out the summer, assess what we have prior to the season starting and evaluate whether we are a better or worse team on paper and a better or worse team on the pitch. I imagine the answer will be worse & better in that order. 

[Ewe Ram]

2 hours ago, Angry Ram said:

He's not in charge of the Dog and bloody Duck. We are a professional organisation generating millions of pounds.  And all you have got is he is a fan and he's local. 

@curtainsgets a lot of stick on here. Many would not want him running our club. I think he is local, he certainly is a fan.  So he is qualified then?

i like Curtains he talks a lot of sense, more than Morris.  

Why get off his back? Would you get of Fawaz back if he had picked DCFC ?

Ah ok so I'm so dim that I have overlooked his enormous business acumen and his vast investment? Fine. 

Are you seriously comparing his mistakes to Fawaz? It seems you're taking your pantomime angry character a bit far. 

Next you'll be saying I'm supporting him because I'm a Tory. Have a go at that one for a laugh. 

[Posh Ram]

I'm pretty concerned about how he runs the club. He has invested a lot, but not much of it in a positive direction. I think the fact he's a fan actually clouds his judgement somewhat. Sacking managers on a whim has killed any chance of stability.

DCFC is a sophisticated business at the end of the day, he hasn't behaved like that so far. In my opinion he's as much of a joke as Fawaz was.

 

[Angry Ram]

27 minutes ago, Ewe Ram said:

Ah ok so I'm so dim that I have overlooked his enormous business acumen and his vast investment? Fine. 

Are you seriously comparing his mistakes to Fawaz? It seems you're taking your pantomime angry character a bit far. 

Next you'll be saying I'm supporting him because I'm a Tory. Have a go at that one for a laugh. 

Come on winkle, ewe have embarrassed yourself with that post. Was not going to even bother to reply as it was so weak but the temptation got the better of me and the fact that this poxy tube train is taking way too long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tory mug.. Everything is your fault.

[Ewe Ram]

17 minutes ago, Angry Ram said:

Come on winkle, ewe have embarrassed yourself with that post. Was not going to even bother to reply as it was so weak but the temptation got the better of me and the fact that this poxy tube train is taking way too long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tory mug.. Everything is your fault.

See. You're not even mildly annoyed are you? Be an ugly sister next year.