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Mel Morris to put the club up for sale SHOULD Derby fail to win promotion....


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21 minutes ago, McLovin said:

Someone in comments said this has been on the cards for a while as Mel is seriously ill. I hope that’s not true and someone is just coming up with a sick rumour

Yeah, he's sick of losing his cash.

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19 minutes ago, cheron85 said:

Okay cool - So - One example so far

I reckon we can give you more examples of poor owners than good ones - I reckon just using former Derby owners we can give you examples of more good owners than bad

I can give you many more, but I’m sure seeing as you’re currently on the internet you can pull many more than me whilst I sit here and have my coffee at work.

Southampton, Wolves, and yes I’ll include United, City and Lollerpool as well. Ask their fans if they are happy. I know there’s many who are not happy I get that, and you have the examples.

Is that cool enough or am I not patronising enough? ?

 

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Would be gutted to see him go. Wouldn't be surprised hearing and seeing the amount of money he's draining and the abuse he gets from fans. Very hard to win as an owner with fans. Either he gets chastised for not spending money, but then when he does put faith in managers to go and spend it, its his fault for allowing them to go to market? Surely as a manager it is on you the players you buy and what you spend not the Chairman. 

He's done a lot of good work for Derby and I want him to continue. Yes mistakes have been made along the way and thats the roll of the dice. Had we won at Wembley god knows what could have happened with Morris at the helm in the Prem. We were riding such a wave that season. 

Sadly he can maybe be at fault for putting too much faith in individuals in pursuit of the Prem such as Sam Rush, the managers who bought badly and at inflated prices but he'd be criticised for over-trusting individuals in that case. 

I would be keen to stick with it for at least another season with Frank as manager, get the clear out done and go from there. Norwich and Leeds have shown you don't need to go ballistic with transfers. Be savvy and have a recognised spine of quality, hard working passionate players and bed in around this. Leeds and Norwich have done this with youth around them mainly introduced to games when the older legs are tiring and in bursts from the bench. This is what we need. 

Very much be careful what you wish for. 

 

 

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To echo what @David said, I think speculating whether someone’s health is under severe question is wrong, remember we are basing this thread from a newspaper article, and whatever you think of the current ownership..... I will give that he’s pumped a lot into the club. You all know me well enough as to my stances over the years about my questioning of decisions etc.

What I will say, whoever comes in, needs to run us like a business, quite happy if owners are not a fan of the club..... as @Alpha points out, some mocked “slick” Tom Glick, look who he works for now.....

I said be careful what you wished for back in 2015..... I still do stand by that

 

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8 hours ago, Yojimbo said:

I think it's unfair to characterise those who are critical of Morris in such terms. Sure, he doesn't deserve any vitriol - in the way, say, "The Three Amigos" absolutely did - as every decision he has made seemed as though he genuinely thought it was the right thing to do, but he has certainly made enough poor decisions - and not decisions that were poor in hindsight but seemed poor at the time - to warrant criticism. For all his financial investment, it's very difficult to argue the club are in a better position  than they were when he assumed full control. In fact, it's very easy to argue Derby have gone backwards - at least on the pitch.

Hence the word 'few'. I've criticised Mel as I too think mistakes have been made. There are a small number who have gone too far though and it's those folk I was referring to not those who quite reasonably feel that some things could have been handled better. As such, I stand by my OP.

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35 minutes ago, Mafiabob said:

I can give you many more, but I’m sure seeing as you’re currently on the internet you can pull many more than me whilst I sit here and have my coffee at work.

Southampton, Wolves, and yes I’ll include United, City and Lollerpool as well. Ask their fans if they are happy. I know there’s many who are not happy I get that, and you have the examples.

Is that cool enough or am I not patronising enough? ?

 

I truly apologise if you felt patronised - I was trying to convey a feeling of contempt rather than condescension so not sure how that came out wrong... I find it quite impressive that you are able to post on an internet forum whilst not on the internet (judging by your statement above..) so that's a life skill ? good work fella! (and there's patronising for you - Stylist difference brought in specifically so you can gauge it)

Southampton and Wolves are good examples - But comparing us to Liverpool and Man Utd is a stretch because of their histories and City are in the same league as Chelsea in the "billionaire investor out of nowhere" category

However, there are plenty of average run clubs out there - "well run" in this day and age is "not going bust" - We're simply in that category now - They tried throwing money at Clement who was presumably Sam Rush's choice - That failed - Now the owner wants to be cautious and not send us into the grim realities of Bolton/Blackburn/Wigan territory where they fell apart and sank into league 1 because they had to make huge cuts all at once

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23 minutes ago, 86 points said:

Hence the word 'few'. I've criticised Mel as I too think mistakes have been made. There are a small number who have gone too far though and it's those folk I was referring to not those who quite reasonably feel that some things could have been handled better. As such, I stand by my OP.

Examples of too far?

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Kieran Maguire (who knows a thing or two about finances) reckons that we're losing closer to £2million a month rather than the reported £3million. That's going from last years accounts though.

I don't think that it's much of a secret that Mel has been looking for some sort of investment over the past 18 months or so but it feels quite significant that there's a report in the national press.

Matt Lawton is a good journalist, despite who he writes for, and I doubt he'd be putting that article out without being certain of what he was being told.

My query is over why it's been put out there. My initial feeling was that something is in the pipeline or consortiums / investors have been spoken to and this is to soften the shock when something concrete comes round.

I doubt it's a tactic to drum up interest. Why would they do that through the national press? Do smart businessmen / women communicate through that?

Either way, I think the club has started to become stale. The initial push (with the cash) hasn't fared well and we're a bit of a mess of a club. 

Mel has made mistakes but his heart was in the right place and I hope that his health is ok but it may be time for something new.

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3 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

What were the really bad decisions that were easy to see at the time?

I only ask because as I recall most were drooling during his early days and crowing about how rich we were and could afford to do what we wanted.

I don't want to turn this into a witch hunt because, as I said, I've been grateful to Morris for what he has offered (I certainly wouldn't spunk away anywhere near the amount of money he has on a football club - no matter how many times you chant my name).

- Buried in rumour so maybe not all true but his interference in the management, team, selection and (if true) that half time talk against Reading all served to give us the reputation of being unstable.

- The transfer deadline deals for Butterfield and Johnson plus you could argue Camara, Blackman and Olsson. I'm not saying he should be responsible for every signing but the scale of these and the last minute nature of many of them (again, only they know) should have caused more questions to be asked.

- The Sam Rush affair. When you look at the cold facts I find it amazing it was allowed to go on for as long as it did. I'd have thought a seasoned businessman like Morris should have connected the dots a little earlier.

- Trigger finger attitude to managers coupled with some poor hires. Again, hard to challenge in isolation whether Clement, Pearson, Rowett or even Wassall were the right choice at the time but it's hard to also look back and just say we were unlucky.

- The 'Derby Way' thing, it just resonated badly and hung like a millstone for ages.

I am sure anyone could protect any one of these points, or argue that it's all so easy with 20:20 hindsight but you did ask me what I thought were the bad decisions and here they are, not trying to say I could have done any better. Just that they were bad decisions.

That said, the free scarves were a nice touch.

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3 minutes ago, coneheadjohn said:

Hope not but he should do what’s best for him and his family.

2-3 million a month isn’t much,it’s only 3 or 4 players wages?

Yeah, if we're paying those players £190,000 a week. 

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There is a finite period of time that any owner can underwrite the kind of losses we've been making over the past 4/5 years but I'd still be very disappointed if Morris does sell up.

I'm even more alarmed by the mention of Morris continuing to own Pride Park should he sell - although I accept this is Daily Mail speculation & may not end up being the case. If this did happen though, the chances of a new buyer making money on their investment would be remote - as clearly any owner of PP is going to be charging rent so ramping up overall costs of running Derby County.

Therefore, we would likely attract 2 types of investors - a) speculators who knowing the only chance of making money is getting Premiership TV money, would throw as much short term money at the team to 'do a Wolves' & totally disregard FFP until transfer embargoes get issued or b) the kind of Three Amigos/SISU type fantasists with no actual money & who will stop at nothing to extract cash out of the club.

Either way, its a pretty terrifying prospect. To those who quote Leicester & Wolves as examples of benevolent owners - they are only seen as 'benevolent' now as their gamble paid off. If they'd have stayed down, they'd be facing the same issues well funded, foreign owned clubs still in this division are/have been facing - Villa, Birmingham, Sheffield Wednesday, Forest...

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16 minutes ago, Papahet said:

Why doesn't Gadbsy offer some sort of investment 

Based on logic rather than any real knowledge, I'd say that football finances have moved on so much that Gadsby's wealth is now not sufficient to provide anything close to the ongoing 'investment' needed.

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1 hour ago, McLovin said:

Someone in comments said this has been on the cards for a while as Mel is seriously ill. I hope that’s not true and someone is just coming up with a sick rumour

Would be horrible, if true! The article did mention this, although couldn't be anymore vague if they tried: 

Quote

it is understood, there is also a so-far confidential personal matter that is persuading him to consider finding a new owner for the club.

It could literally be anything, so hopefully the rumours about an illness and this entire article are wide of the mark. 

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9 minutes ago, LeedsCityRam said:

Either way, its a pretty terrifying prospect. To those who quote Leicester & Wolves as examples of benevolent owners - they are only seen as 'benevolent' now as their gamble paid off. If they'd have stayed down, they'd be facing the same issues well funded, foreign owned clubs still in this division are/have been facing - Villa, Birmingham, Sheffield Wednesday, Forest...

I think you can add Hull and Blackburn to that list - Owners who expected greatness but now refuse to put money in and are actively looking to sell - Bolton maybe too - Have Reading just sold up again? And haven't QPR been on the market for ages? And are Wigan being touted around again too?

12 minutes ago, LeedsCityRam said:

There is a finite period of time that any owner can underwrite the kind of losses we've been making over the past 4/5 years but I'd still be very disappointed if Morris does sell up.

I'm even more alarmed by the mention of Morris continuing to own Pride Park should he sell - although I accept this is Daily Mail speculation & may not end up being the case. If this did happen though, the chances of a new buyer making money on their investment would be remote - as clearly any owner of PP is going to be charging rent so ramping up overall costs of running Derby County.

I just don't buy into the idea that he wants to sell - He's talked on numerous occasions of wanting to put more of his own money in but not being able to due to FFP

I would imagine we're looking for investors though - trying to think this through logically so anyone with finance background please correct me - If Mel is 100% owner of the club he can't add in money because FFP rules - However if he were able to sell a portion of the club to an investor the money from the sale could be spent on players (one would assume?) - The new investors still wouldn't be able to add any more money in but the initial share-buying money could be I think? 

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