WHY

[Chester40]

24 minutes ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

It can all be summed up as "the road to hell is paved with good intentions".

In a nutshell. Excellent! 

Personally - at no point did I think 'what the hell is he doing...'.. Usually I supported him, occasionally I was unsure but I got his reasoning. He has tried over and over to correct his mistakes but seems to have just made things worse and the decisions have become more desperate, until he has become a bit like a gambler trying to manage his losses before he can cut and run. 

I feel gutted and really sorry for him...and all of us fans. I loved it when he was swinging his cheque book about but in hindsight it was a bit daft wasn't it. 

[EdinRam]

15 minutes ago, enachops said:

Where to begin...

Not appointed a rookie manager in Clement and then give him about 20 million to waste.

Not walk in the changing rooms undermining said rookie manager.

Not sacking managers on a regular basis.

After sacking managers, appointing their replacement who has a completely different playing style.

Not mentioning the ‘Derby way’

Not spending millions of pounds on guff which means having to sell/get loans for the training ground and stadium.

Appointing Stephen Pearce as chief exec despite him messing up countless contracts and not keeping finances in check in his previous job as finance officer.

Basically, pretty much everything has gone tits up under his stewardship. Great intentions, heart in the right place, but it’s been a disaster. 

Nailed it 

[CBRammette]

Hindsight is wonderful. However going forwards our recruitment (of everyone) whether its under Mel or someone else needs ripping up and a huge overhaul. 

[OoooMarkWright]

2 minutes ago, IslandExile said:

Backing them financially in the transfer market?

With Clement, who chose those players. Ince, Bent, Shackell etc. all signed quite quickly after his appointment. Some weren’t a great fit. Makes me question whether the manager had a say. Clement was too weak and inexperienced to get what he wanted.

I also think Mel would have benefited from having a larger board. He hasn’t surrounded himself with great people. Who does he have to bounce ideas off or to tell him you’re wrong or maybe consider this... He has had plenty of advisors in e.g Redknapp but it's easy to advise if you don’t have to deal with  the consequences.

[Tyler Durden]

3 minutes ago, CBRammette said:

Hindsight is wonderful. However going forwards our recruitment (of everyone) whether its under Mel or someone else needs ripping up and a huge overhaul. 

It's ironic really that our recruitment has been appalling from the very top downwards, including Morris. 

I also find it ironic about the aspersions being passed about the potential new owners not being fit and proper yet obviously Morris has done a sterling job in ruining I mean running the club. Pot and kettle. 

[CBRammette]

2 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

It's ironic really that our recruitment has been appalling from the very top downwards, including Morris. 

I also find it ironic about the aspersions being passed about the potential new owners not being fit and proper yet obviously Morris has done a sterling job in ruining I mean running the club. Pot and kettle. 

Appalling indeed

[cannable]

11 minutes ago, enachops said:

With Clement, who chose those players. Ince, Bent, Shackell etc. all signed quite quickly after his appointment. Some weren’t a great fit. Makes me question whether the manager had a say. Clement was too weak and inexperienced to get what he wanted.

I also think Mel would have benefited from having a larger board. He hasn’t surrounded himself with great people. Who does he have to bounce ideas off or to tell him you’re wrong or maybe consider this... He has had plenty of advisors in e.g Redknapp but it's easy to advise if you don’t have to deal with  the consequences.

I’m 90% certain that in ‘Pride’ it stated came in with a list of targets and was given a different list he was to pick from. 

[GboroRam]

1 hour ago, Derby blood said:

Why has Derby fan Mel, made such a mess of running OUR great club, he has made more mistakes than any chairmen in a very long time, he took us over as a top championship team, good players, great stadium, and ran well from top to bottom, Mel in his time as owner has ruined us, Mods please do not delete, we have freedom of speech in this our great country, not up to you to delete this post, as its a fair opinion and not personnel in any way. 

You don't have freedom of speech here. You agreed to the terms of use of the forum when you signed up. 

It is up to the mods to delete libellous posts. 

[Chester40]

3 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

You don't have freedom of speech here. You agreed to the terms of use of the forum when you signed up. 

It is up to the mods to delete libellous posts. 

I don't see anything libellous? Whether it has any new points /perspective to a lot of other posts is possibly debatable though. 

[angieram]

7 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

I don't see anything libellous? Whether it has any new points /perspective to a lot of other posts is possibly debatable though. 

That's why you can see the post! 

[Van der MoodHoover]

31 minutes ago, Tyler Durden said:

It's easy to say what you would have done differently as you can just run down the catalogue of errors and misjudgements he's made and do the opposite.

It's all hypothetical and hence an easy cop out to say what "would" have been right. 

I'm struggling to think of any decision that was convincingly argued against at the time by the majority. 

Maybe piling into the dressing room under Clement comes closest. 

[Yani P]

With a lot of well run clubs people would struggle to name the Chairman..they just do their job really well to aid their club fulfilling its potential within whatever constraints they have..

Edited May 12, 2021 by Yani P

[Tyler Durden]

1 minute ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

It's all hypothetical and hence an easy cop out to say what "would" have been right. 

I'm struggling to think of any decision that was convincingly argued against at the time by the majority. 

Maybe piling into the dressing room under Clement comes closest. 

My point was that he's made so many mistakes it's easy to choose from the comprehensive list of.

[MackworthRamIsGod]

46 minutes ago, The Scarlet Pimpernel said:

Looking back with a critical eye is easy. Let's hear what you would do going forward from now? 

It really is a tough one; and for all of Mels mistakes to get us to this point I really dont envy the position he is in now.

It seems whichever way we choose to turn we will end up in the mud.

I know going into admin would be a disaster and isnt as simple as I am about to make it sound (i dont really understand how admin works), but I honestly think our only solution is to somehow be put into admin, clear all debts, sell literally everyone and anyone, take the points deduction on the chin, hopefully someone with a bit of money sees us as a decent challenge and buys cheap from the bank and we start all over again.

[B4ev6is]

Well I think mel meant well and tried his best to get back to were we belong but it came clear to me last season that maybe he took as far as he could and need fresh pair of eyes what to do next.

[CornwallRam]

Because Mel has attempted to make Derby County successful at a time when FFP/P&S and parachute payments combine to make it incredibly difficult to achieve promotion. The reality of this division means that it drains the finances of ambitious clubs who get stuck in it.

Mel selected a strategy that he thought would work and went for it. I, and others,  have always been critical of that strategy, but that neither means I was right nor Mel was wrong. My ideas were never tested and Mels were within a whisker of working.

The problem now is that too many seasons in this division have drained Mel and the club and our attempts to overcome the ridiculous handicap of FFP have caught up with us, as they would have with Norwich, Leeds, Leicester, Watford and Wolves if they hadn't been promoted.

Let's not be too hard on Mel. He tried, he failed and now walks away 10s or maybe 100s of millions poorer. I believe that the same would have happened with any other owner had they failed to get promoted...and promotion requires lots of luck or parachute payments.

Edited May 12, 2021 by CornwallRam

[The Scarlet Pimpernel]

3 minutes ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

It really is a tough one; and for all of Mels mistakes to get us to this point I really dont envy the position he is in now.

It seems whichever way we choose to turn we will end up in the mud.

I know going into admin would be a disaster and isnt as simple as I am about to make it sound (i dont really understand how admin works), but I honestly think our only solution is to somehow be put into admin, clear all debts, sell literally everyone and anyone, take the points deduction on the chin, hopefully someone with a bit of money sees us as a decent challenge and buys cheap from the bank and we start all over again.

I understand your view but don't forget @dmin that clears debt means lots of little businesses in Derby, people's lively hoods are lost. Its not a nice process. 

[therams69]

35 minutes ago, CBRammette said:

Hindsight is wonderful. However going forwards our recruitment (of everyone) whether its under Mel or someone else needs ripping up and a huge overhaul. 

Is everything hindsight though? I raised the recruitment department issue years ago and on various occasions. Asked about how many players were signed via our scout reports? No answer given and clear swerve. I had a good discussion with him about 4 players at the time (Thorne, Anya, Butterfield & Martin) I think it was. We were paying them collectively around 100k per week. 400k per month so just under 5m per year. These players were not even offering us anything on the pitch and were either on loan or not being used in the case of Anya. His answer was that these players can still offer us something in terms of other value with youngsters etc - I mean come on!  Lets not even go with his signing of Rooney (under mining Cocu) & Jordan Ibe. Actually starting to think he signed Ibe because he offers value in the way we account - 7m maybe eh.

The issue has and will always be that Mel Morris does not listen to anyone else but himself. Pretty much like the managers issue, Sam Rush saga (proven in court he was wrong) and now Richard Keogh who again has proven he was wrong in court - no apology or hands up to say look I got this wrong. 

Then you have the fact that he got rid of anyone that would question him. Where are all the high profile local people - Don Amott, why is he not welcome anymore? 

So what you are left with is a yes man in Pearce and his step son in the recruitment department, jobs for the boys an all that...

So if anyone is wondering why its gone wrong its because of Mel Morris and how he is as a person. Ask the local media who deal with him, when he is not banning them for having the audacity to ask a question mind! 

[B4ev6is]

I think at the time we lost will Hughes to injury and someone else at the game against Bolton and near to deadline day and had to act fast.

I think maybe he regrets at having pull finger so many times now I do think if lampard had stayed we gone up following season.

[Rev]

8 minutes ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

It really is a tough one; and for all of Mels mistakes to get us to this point I really dont envy the position he is in now.

It seems whichever way we choose to turn we will end up in the mud.

I know going into admin would be a disaster and isnt as simple as I am about to make it sound (i dont really understand how admin works), but I honestly think our only solution is to somehow be put into admin, clear all debts, sell literally everyone and anyone, take the points deduction on the chin, hopefully someone with a bit of money sees us as a decent challenge and buys cheap from the bank and we start all over again.

Admin could only work if we owed a lot of money to a lot of unsecured creditors.

As far as we know, we owe a secured debt on the ground, so admin would mean they own it, not Mel.

The rest of the debt is probably due to Mel Morris, if he's been funding us lately through loans rather than equity, we don't know without the latest accounts.

Putting us into administration therefore would only reduce the debt we own to the owner, and he can do that anyway as part of any takeover, so would be pointless.

That's my understanding anyway, happy to be corrected.