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Mel Morris on melSport with Jim White

Heisenberg

By Heisenberg
in Derby County Forum

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Sweetness34

Sweetness34

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, angieram said:

Or maybe you haven’t got the right attributes to judge who will make a good manager? 

Darren Wassall has been director of the whole academy for some time now, so less of a coach and more of a 'manager'.

The performance of the academy in this time has been nothing short of brilliant, especially given that we are competing with PL club academies with far more money than us.

Watching the academy teams is an absolute pleasure in terms of style of football too. 

We are openly stating that we want to be making more use of those academy players in future seasons.

All good reasons for at least considering Wassall for the job.

If we sign some unknown name from Germany or somewhere else abroad some fans will love it, but people like Wassall or Moore ( whose team actually finished above us last season, despite losing to us twice) are considered boring.

I am not particularly a champion for Wassall but I do dislike it when people are so negative about him. 

@Jourdan I think we were writing our posts at the same time. I agree! 

Reading this post and this post alone has opened my mind to Wassall. Not going to say it's enough to make him my first choice, but certainly wouldn't be the disaster some are predicting.

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Jourdan

Jourdan

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Andicis said:

It's a bit different manager's making signings to improve the squad, and someone being put in to guide you because you're doing poorly and out of your depth, I don't know how you can compare the two. 

Isn't a huge part of being a manager, dealing with egos? Isn't that a skill every good manager has? 

Because if Frank had chosen a different number 2, that would have been his choice at the beginning, not like Wassall who took the job, struggled, and got someone put in for him because he was taking our season down the toilet.

Of course it’s comparable. If there is a problem, you address it. A back room staff addition can be just as influential as a signing when you are looking to solve a problem.

Remember people who said Metgod was the brains behind it every time we went on a good run under Clough?

In Frank’s case, it’s quite conceivable that Frank looked at the squad, looked at the finances and realised the enormity of the job. Then he ran to Chelsea cap in hand to dig us out of a hole by giving us some top youngsters on a silver platter. The kind of players we wouldn’t be able to attract under normal circumstances, all in the hope it would have a positive effect.

When Wassall was in charge, we couldn’t transfer anyone in or out, so a decision was made to bring Redknapp in to advise Wassall (and probably add some presence to the dressing room), but there isn’t a manager out there who hasn’t had to lean on somebody for help at some point in their career.

If Redknapp was the main reason for keeping our season alive, why didn’t Mel move to appoint him in summer 2016? Surely Redknapp would have gone to Birmingham and been a rip roaring success, such is his influence?

I’ll agree at the time I didn’t rate Wassall and felt he wasn’t the right man for us and felt he struggled in some ways.

But just because he struggled then doesn’t mean it’d be the same now. People change and people grow and gain experience, confidence and authority, so what’s to say Wassall wouldn’t be a better fit now?

Think about the circumstances and think about the remit Mel has laid out, I am struggling to think of anyone else better placed...

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Tombo

Tombo

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Posted

On the subject of Lampard and Wassall being judged on totally different criteria, what makes anyone think that Redknapp hasn't had his nose in our business this season, being Frank's uncle and all.

If I really wanted to play devil's advocate, I'd point out that we started to go downhill when he went into the jungle...?

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May Contain Nuts

May Contain Nuts

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, SaintRam said:

Bringing on two out of form players to get some minutes less than 10 minutes before the end of a game that you're winning 3-0  (against a weaker team) is not odd. It happens all the time.
99.9% of the time it's considered good management, because the team doesn't somehow throw away the win. He got unlucky.

The Hull first leg was a shitshow though, I agree - but its the only moment of his brief tenure I consider a mistake. He did very well to right a ship that was flailing before he came in.

You've got to look at our specific circumstances at the time though, the mentality of the squad, the history of performances with set conditions.

We'd come off the back of the Wembley defeat one season and the Feb-April collapse / final day horror show at home to Reading the next. We'd got a reputation as "bottlers" and it was known that if a team put us under intense pressure and pumped balls into our box then we'd crumble.

We knew that without either Thorne (or a suitable replacement) in the middle and/or without Martin (or a suitable replacement) up top then our team simply wouldn't function properly, opposition teams would go through us like a hot knife through butter, we wouldn't hold the ball up front and we wouldn't keep possession in the middle of the park.

Subbing just any two players off at 3-0 up to give others match practice is one thing, and happens all the time. Subbing the 2 players off who are regarded as being absolutely essential in holding your entire team together, a minute apart and with no time for the players on the pitch to adjust, is not something that happens all the time.

It was like the rug had been pulled from under the team, it handed Rotherham a MASSIVE boost in confidence and momentum and allowed them free reign on our Achilles heel. To me that's not poor luck, it's piss poor judgement.

Just because there were only 10 minutes remaining and it was 3-0 at the time doesn't excuse it. The idea that you should be able to do absolutely anything to your team from that position and still win with ease is blanket argument lazily pulled out to cover up the error that was made. It'll just about do for some people who don't want to look underneath it, but for me it's got some pretty bare patches.

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RoyMac5

RoyMac5

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37 minutes ago, Abu Dhabi Ram said:

Hes done Ok...?? So disrespectful to a guy, who, I would imagine puts hours and hours into the club. Plus he is humble, no fuss after being manager and went back to the academy.

Since Wassall has been here the academy has gone from strength to strength. Are we not Cat A status now?? 

Respect is due for sure. But I don't think Derby is the club to restart his managerial career at, if that is what he wanted.

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Andicis

Andicis

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Posted
48 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

If Redknapp was the main reason for keeping our season alive, why didn’t Mel move to appoint him in summer 2016? Surely Redknapp would have gone to Birmingham and been a rip roaring success, such is his influence?

Because that's over simplifying, Redknapp covered the issue we had at the time but Mel didn't consider him right for the long term. The Birmingham job isn't hugely relevant to the point, since I'm purely covering the time from Redknapp coming in to the end, in which we did a lot better. 

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Ambitious

Ambitious

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4 minutes ago, curb said:

From reading through this thread tonight, the only thing I've learnt is that a large proportion of our fans are weirdly obsessed with Darren Moore and Darren Wassell.

Both good guys and have done well for our club in the past. You can argue the merits of their ability to be Derby manager, but indisputable that both should carry huge respect from Derby fans. 

I would back either of them; when I actually looked at what Moore had done with WBA I was more incline to give him a chance. Daz Waz did a very decent job with Derby considering the toxicity around the club at the time - he had the hardest job of any manager in the last 3/4 years and provided the best results. No idea how much impact Harry had, but it saw us into the play-offs despite losing to a very, very, very good Hull team with a squad that should have probably broke records at this level! 

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G-Ram

G-Ram

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On wassall being manager why? As a club or business wouldnt we want our best people working in their best positions in our club? 

The Academy is thriving under him. Not saying he wont make a good manager but why lose someone from the academy thats doing well to put him as manager where he could fail then have someone step into his place in the academy that could do a far worse job

Makes sense to leave him in the academy where he is doing a good job. 

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TuffLuff

TuffLuff

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Posted

I’m kinda staggered that no one wants to discuss the Mel interview over Darren Wassell.

Thought it was really enlightening, not just about the club but what it said about Mel as a business head.

From a point of where the club currently stands, it was telling that he doesnt consider Frank the be all and end all. From what he said, Frank essentially fell into our lap and shared a similar philosophy. Even if it’s just going to be a single season then it will be a smart appointment because the youth players, style of football and the clubs connection with fans should stay around for a much longer term. If Frank goes, we can be confident someone will build on it because that is what Mel is looking for.

Also the other things is he doesn’t want to burn that bridge with Chelsea, in fact he’s very diplomatic about everyone really. I get the sense that if he feels business can be done then there’s no point in closing that off. By being open to Lampard’s departure there will be a way it helps Derby. It came out about the EFL chairman and with spygate too. He might not see eye to eye in business but he respects them.

He has his own ideas, in terms of being a chairman and being a business man, but I think he respects that not everyone shares the same philosophy. The Mike Ashley exchange was a good example of that, it gives him a good rounded approach and that he’s not quite ‘my high or the highway’ you get with other chairmen.

Anyway it was a good listen overall, I’ve rambled a bit because I can’t remember everything that he said and how I wanted to make it into simple enough points. Essentially I like him, I wouldn’t say I agree with every part of his business approach but he’s exactly the type of person we need at the club right now. 

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