The Mel Morris Interview

[CBRammette]

5 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

I agree but do you not think a simple statement from MM at an earlier stage would have stopped all of the vitriol?

On here no chance

[Rampage]

Mel...what a guy. Genuine Derby County fan. One of us. Get well soon, Mel. So unlucky not to get promoted so far. Wayne will get us promoted.

[Tyler Durden]

7 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

I agree but do you not think a simple statement from MM at an earlier stage would have stopped all of the vitriol?

Precisely this so why the "vitriol" from other posters when my thoughts have been repeated by others

[Rampage]

3 minutes ago, CBRammette said:

On here no chance

Strict non disclosure means exactly that. Legally binding, surely.

[CBRammette]

2 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

Was making the point that there was a lot of speculation that the club couldn't make any announcements or give any updates about the takeover as it was governed by an NDA.

But seeing as Morris has divulged information in the Mail then this can't be the case.

So was querying then why it's taken this long for comms to appear as it can't be due to an existing NDA.

And furthered this by saying understand Morris has been ill but the sharing of these updates could have been delegated to another person within the  Derby hierarchy.

 

Perhaps what he has said was agreed by the other party. it tempers expectations that they would pump in £billions also. Updates could have been delegated only if the NDA allowed as I am sure you would know. However as most other people on this thread seem to interpret it, if you are very ill your business can take a back seat and it shows respect to be considerate of that as I am sure you have found over the years in your business dealings. 

[Tyler Durden]

3 minutes ago, CBRammette said:

Perhaps what he has said was agreed by the other party. it tempers expectations that they would pump in £billions also. Updates could have been delegated only if the NDA allowed as I am sure you would know. However as most other people on this thread seem to interpret it, if you are very ill your business can take a back seat and it shows respect to be considerate of that as I am sure you have found over the years in your business dealings. 

That's not the point I was making let's depersonalise this for a moment for fear of getting jumped on for having the temerity to point anything remotely critical in MMs direction - in any large business there would be a reasonable expectation that if a key member of that business were absent for a prolonged period then their duties would be delegated to other people within that organisation - quite simply put the world would not stop if a person was away from work.

This would be the status quo in any corporate organisation and if the world did stop because a key person was absent then this would be a damning indictment of the running of said organisation.

[CBRammette]

8 minutes ago, Rampage said:

Strict non disclosure means exactly that. Legally binding, surely.

Yes I know but I meant no chance of stopping the vitriol as then he wouldnt have said enough, or made enough statements, or the statement didnt include this or that, or one word in the statement would have been latched onto, etc, etc, etc. As we have seen from this statement. Angie's first post on this thread sums it up exactly for me. Best wishes to Mel

[Tyler Durden]

6 minutes ago, CBRammette said:

Yes I know but I meant no chance of stopping the vitriol as then he wouldnt have said enough, or made enough statements, or the statement didnt include this or that, or one word in the statement would have been latched onto, etc, etc, etc. As we have seen from this statement. Angie's first post on this thread sums it up exactly for me. Best wishes to Mel

How do you know that? Maybe it would been curtailed but seeing as information was never shared in a timely manner then we'll never know and what you've said is pure speculation and heresay. 

[Day]

Tough read that was, a reminder that there is more to life than football. 

All the best Mel, look after yourself and your family, that’s the most important thing. 

[i-Ram]

No vitriol on my part. But to lose £200m on a Championship football club over 6 years, much of it pre-Covid, smacks of major stupidity let alone financial incompetence.  As for finding the right next owner, selecting someone who needs others to commit to cover wages for only the next two years is a desperately low bar. 

Really sorry to learn of his ill health. Hope you are feeling much better Mel, and things go well for you in the months and years ahead.

 

[IronRam 140.6]

Maybe £200m over 6 years(without Parachute) is the cost of the dream?

Seem to think several clubs, had they not got promoted the season they did, would he been in serious trouble. Villa, Leeds, QPR, Bournemouth. 

[Tyler Durden]

3 minutes ago, IronRam 140.6 said:

Maybe £200m over 6 years(without Parachute) is the cost of the dream?

Seem to think several clubs, had they not got promoted the season they did, would he been in serious trouble. Villa, Leeds, QPR, Bournemouth. 

Leeds are quite an apt comparison with Peter Ridsdale living his dream and gambling on future incomes being received to cover existing expenditure.

[RoyMac5]

A few bits from the long 'article' in speech quotes:

‘It’s not finished,’ says Morris. ‘I can’t really talk about it because it’s under a very strict non-disclosure agreement so I can’t give you details on it. But it’s not finished…

‘I don’t like to put percentages on it. There’s a contract between the two of us. That’s in the public domain. There’s a contractual obligation to sell and a contractual obligation to buy. You continue to have dialogue as much as you need to.’

‘I don’t believe in having regrets. You do something and you get on with it. Looking backwards never does anyone any good. My focus every single day is to get this club into the best possible position going forward, as it always has been.’

[CornwallRam]

30 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

That's not the point I was making let's depersonalise this for a moment for fear of getting jumped on for having the temerity to point anything remotely critical in MMs direction - in any large business there would be a reasonable expectation that if a key member of that business were absent for a prolonged period then their duties would be delegated to other people within that organisation - quite simply put the world would not stop if a person was away from work.

This would be the status quo in any corporate organisation and if the world did stop because a key person was absent then this would be a damning indictment of the running of said organisation.

I don't think you can use standard practice as a model here. A Championship club with a single owner who is also the Chairman is a very peculiar situation.

Mel does seem to have delegated day to day stuff to Stephen Pearce, but he can't delegate the putting in £20m plus per season or the big decisions involved in a takeover. 

I think Mel's health also explains the question of why such a wealthy man needed to borrow from Gabay or MSD. If, God forbid, the worst were to happen, the debts are within a limited company, rather than missing from Mel's estate. It looks like sensible planning from a man reminded of his own mortality to me.

[eccles the ram]

Despite some dispicable comments about Mel on here, this article allays a lot of our fears about where he is currently at. His heart is always going to be with Derby County. He is a fan like all of us on here. He has made mistakes and flew close to the wind but i believe it was to try and get the best for Derby. What premiership chairman would spend £200 million of his own money? Mel, from someone who is the same age as you and has supported this club through thick and thin, get your health back on track, try to enjoy life a bit more, and remember we will be taken over, eventually, we will be going for promotion (in the Championship) next year, and your fruits of labour will be seen in the Premiership in a couple of years time.COYR

[G STAR RAM]

25 minutes ago, i-Ram said:

No vitriol on my part. But to lose £200m on a Championship football club over 6 years, much of it pre-Covid, smacks of major stupidity let alone financial incompetence.  As for finding the right next owner, selecting someone who needs others to commit to cover wages for only the next two years is a desperately low bar. 

Really sorry to learn of his ill health. Hope you are feeling much better Mel, and things go well for you in the months and years ahead.

 

When MM took over we were losing circa £9m a year from memory (how much of this was cash losses I can't recall without looking back through the accounts).

Included in his £200m will be the purchase price which I believe was £50m.

Is the £80m for the ground in the £200m? I doubt it as I think he will retain that asset.

Then there is the investment in the ground and the training ground.

Long story short, £200m doesnt go very far when trying to take a Championship club to the next level and preparing it ready for that step.

You may call him stupid for it but Im sure he still has enough money left in his bank to live the sort of life most people dream of. Me personally, I'm grateful that we had a local businessman that was willing to risk them sort of funds to try and make us a force in the Premier League and think it is a shame he didn't surround himself with the right sort of people to make it happen.

[Orphanram]

I think its a good article and like everybody else truly wish Mel the very best of health.

I don’t understand why people are getting so worked up about it being in the Daily Mail. I know they’ve run some articles on us that have been poorly researched but always think it’s a bit far fetched that there is an agenda against Derby at the any newspaper. If people don’t like it because they’re  conflating their political views with the editorial stance of newspapers then I guess that’s fair enough but funnily enough out of all of the mainstream newspapers none have shifted their editorial stance than the mail in the last 5years. This isn’t my personal view but widely acknowledged in media circles and there has been a lot of infighting at the mail and criticism from previous editors of its editorial shift. It will of course still run sensationalist stories as, will the Mirror and the Sun. I have quite an objective view on print media and tend to read different journalists stories and column across the spectrum of left/right bias and personally don’t see that Mel or the Club have done anything wrong in running this the Mail, the Sun, the Mirror or any other mainstream outlet. 

[Van der MoodHoover]

16 minutes ago, CornwallRam said:

I don't think you can use standard practice as a model here. A Championship club with a single owner who is also the Chairman is a very peculiar situation.

Mel does seem to have delegated day to day stuff to Stephen Pearce, but he can't delegate the putting in £20m plus per season or the big decisions involved in a takeover. 

I think Mel's health also explains the question of why such a wealthy man needed to borrow from Gabay or MSD. If, God forbid, the worst were to happen, the debts are within a limited company, rather than missing from Mel's estate. It looks like sensible planning from a man reminded of his own mortality to me.

He's the executive chairman at that, which suggests that he has a triple role. 

Board meetings must be potentially confusing every time he opens his mouth..... Is he speaking as the owner, the chairman or executive management? 

[Ellafella]

2 hours ago, angieram said:

I sincerely hope Mel gets well, he has obviously been through a personal hell over the last year.

I also hope those posters who have been spouting their vitriol about him and demanding this and that over the same length of time take pause and try to learn to be kinder to people.

Absolutely @angieramHear! Hear! You are spot on as always. Those people really need a lesson in basic decency. 

[Ted McMinn Football Genius]

1 hour ago, Mucker1884 said:

Disregarding how we, as individuals, perceive his tenure in charge of DCFC, I still find it difficult to comprehend some of the negativity... and vitriol, in some cases... that has been spouted on here over recent months.

Those rumours about his health were out there, and they were strong.  Those rumours alone should have been enough for certain posters to have taken a step back, and shown some respect.  Say little.  Say nothing, even!  

 

I wish you all the best, Mr Morris.  From a personal perspective, a business perspective, and most of all, from a health perspective.
I also send my best wishes for a happy birthday for next week.
And a massive thanks for all you have done... and continue to do... for our beloved football club.

All the best, sir.

?

Brilliant post, my favourite to date. Very respectful and eloquently put ?????? @Mucker1884 well done