Mel Morris fan club

[Jayram]

9 hours ago, oldtimeram said:

He gets no sympathy from me.  He is a disgrace

We’ll said. He’s left the club in an even worse state than the three amigos did, and they were criminals. Shake his hand? Some people need to give their heads a wobble.

[Tamworthram]

9 hours ago, Gritstone Tup said:

“Malice intended,” let’s see what happens with the stadium.

Indeed, but do really think Mel’s motive is likely to have been “let me see how I can “do” Derby County Football Club”?
 

He might to want to try and protect or recover some of his investment, which may end up harming the club, but I don’t believe for one moment his actions or decisions have been driven by malicious intent.

Lots of people do terrible things and make awful decisions that end up hurting others and they need to be held accountable. But, I suspect, harming others usually isn’t usually the motivation for what they did. Probably poor analogies but, when a drink driver causes a serious accident I doubt they ever set off with the intention of injuring another person. When an individual embarks on an extra marital relationship that ends up hurting their partner and children, I suspect if that outcome is ever what drove them to do it. Both terrible outcomes that the perpetrator should have foreseen but was not their original intent.

Edited October 18, 2021 by Tamworthram

[TheresOnlyWanChope]

9 hours ago, Rampage said:

When you are a lifelong Derby County fan and have invested more in the club than anyone else and have lost more than anyone else in the club and you are ill, you generally do not like losing another £1.5 million per month with no improvement in sight. If you have lost money because of COVID it tends to make matters worse. The vast majority of people in this situation would wish to bail out. Certainly I would bail out. I believe that a few on here would also have had to bail out. Mistakes have been made and we are counting the cost. I supported all of the managerial appointments and most of the signings. We may well be on an even footing by January. We may not. We will see.

I think a big issue is he/ Derby was losing this sort of money back in 2017. Why? The club wasn’t being run in a sustainable way. Kamikaze spending on wages. 

[Rampage]

29 minutes ago, TheresOnlyWanChope said:

I think a big issue is he/ Derby was losing this sort of money back in 2017. Why? The club wasn’t being run in a sustainable way. Kamikaze spending on wages. 

Big shot at promotion did not work. It did for some clubs.

[kevinhectoring]

8 hours ago, RAM1966 said:

The Administrators are assuming what will happen to the stadium, ultimately Mel is still very much in the driving seat.  If the ground is not included as part of the deal the club is insolvent and will fold.....   They are assuming that Mel will do the right thing, he hasn't exactly got a great track record of being honest with us........

No. The admins were asked what would happen to the stadium and their answer was short and sweet. They know what is and is not in their/MSD’s power. I’d love someone to explain exactly what it is MM can do with the stadium. 

It would also be interesting to hear why someone who has committed to waive £tens of millions of loans would then try to spoil a sale. Makes no sense to me 

[Tamworthram]

8 hours ago, RAM1966 said:

The Administrators are assuming what will happen to the stadium, ultimately Mel is still very much in the driving seat.  If the ground is not included as part of the deal the club is insolvent and will fold.....   They are assuming that Mel will do the right thing, he hasn't exactly got a great track record of being honest with us........

I seriously doubt a professional firm of administrators are entering into serious conversations with potential multi-million pound bidders based on such an “assumptions”. I would imagine what will happen with the stadium would be one of the first questions they will be faced with.

[Rampage]

8 hours ago, RAM1966 said:

He may have had the best interests of the club at heart, but, he has gambled and gambled and run up debts that could send us out of business......

How would you feel if you were one of the small unsecured creditors?  Some of which will most likely go bust, down to this mans actions.  How can he sit on £26M of Income Tax and NI contributions from the employees and not pay them to the inland revenue?  If your stamp is not paid, you have a gap in your NI contributions towards you state pension.  For the players that might not be so important, but the low paid at the club it will be devastating news....

You need to wake up and realise the extend of the damage that this man has done.  He's not personally lost the £200M+ that he claims, if he writes of the soft loans and includes the ground when the sale is done, that could be a possibility.

How did we get in this mess?  Mel was the man he decided to pay too much for average players and tripled the wage bill, at one point the 'players' wage bill was 161% of the total turnover at the club, that is nothing short of reckless......

It seems unlikely that Mel picked the players, decided the wages, did the solicitor work, wrote the accounts or fully understood all the ramifications of how the EFL operate. So many genuinely well informed opinions on here do not coincide. Seems like a morass to me. I am not defending Mel. I am waiting till all is made clear if it ever is made clear. Shooting for the Premiership is a high risk business. Some clubs got it right, some did not. We did not.

[kevinhectoring]

6 minutes ago, Tamworthram said:

I seriously doubt a professional firm of administrators are entering into serious conversations with potential multi-million pound bidders based on such an “assumptions”. I would imagine what will happen with the stadium would be one of the first questions they will be faced with.

And a similar point: they are marketing the deal on the assumption MM’s ‘soft loans’ will be waived. I think it’s likely that before doing that the admins would have required MM to put that in writing. 

[DarkFruitsRam7]

8 hours ago, RAM1966 said:

He may have had the best interests of the club at heart, but, he has gambled and gambled and run up debts that could send us out of business......

How would you feel if you were one of the small unsecured creditors?  Some of which will most likely go bust, down to this mans actions.  How can he sit on £26M of Income Tax and NI contributions from the employees and not pay them to the inland revenue?  If your stamp is not paid, you have a gap in your NI contributions towards you state pension.  For the players that might not be so important, but the low paid at the club it will be devastating news....

You need to wake up and realise the extend of the damage that this man has done.  He's not personally lost the £200M+ that he claims, if he writes of the soft loans and includes the ground when the sale is done, that could be a possibility.

How did we get in this mess?  Mel was the man he decided to pay too much for average players and tripled the wage bill, at one point the 'players' wage bill was 161% of the total turnover at the club, that is nothing short of reckless......

For me, all of that would be just about forgivable if he had the cojones to hold his hands up, take the blame and admit he'd messed up.

Instead, while ordinary people have lost their jobs he's cowered away and blamed the situation on everything but himself.

Coward.

[cheron85]

7 minutes ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

For me, all of that would be just about forgivable if he had the cojones to hold his hands up, take the blame and admit he'd messed up.

Instead, while ordinary people have lost their jobs he's cowered away and blamed the situation on everything but himself.

Coward.

We don't entirely know the motivations there - I'm not defending him but it's been suggested before that if Morris had come out publicly and claimed full responsibility then the administrators may not now be able to appeal against administration ?‍♂️

[cheron85]

49 minutes ago, cheron85 said:

We don't entirely know the motivations there - I'm not defending him but it's been suggested before that if Morris had come out publicly and claimed full responsibility then the administrators may not now be able to appeal against administration ?‍♂️

*administration deductions

[angieram]

Yes, and before everyone piles in with yet more libellous comments or personal insults, it might be worth remembering that a successful outcome to the current situation is at least partly dependent on our former owner's continued cooperation. 

[TheresOnlyWanChope]

1 hour ago, Rampage said:

Big shot at promotion did not work. It did for some clubs.

Can have a big shot at promotion that’s fine but don’t put yourself in a position where you have a shortfall of a million a month unless there is a plan B and you can survive down the line In Spite of it 

[PistoldPete]

14 minutes ago, angieram said:

Yes, and before everyone piles in with yet more libellous comments or personal insults, it might be worth remembering that a successful outcome to the current situation is at least partly dependent on our former owner's continued cooperation. 

Tell that to Wayne Rooney . Wazza should not have slagged Mel Morris off.

[PistoldPete]

1 hour ago, cheron85 said:

We don't entirely know the motivations there - I'm not defending him but it's been suggested before that if Morris had come out publicly and claimed full responsibility then the administrators may not now be able to appeal against administration ?‍♂️

Exactly. However badly Mel Morris spent his money he knew what his budget was. Until COVID blew his  budgeting plans out of the water.

[angieram]

2 minutes ago, PistoldPete said:

Tell that to Wayne Rooney . Wazza should not have slagged Mel Morris off.

I hardly think he "slagged him off." 

Criticism is valid, but some of the stuff goes completely over the top.

[PistoldPete]

26 minutes ago, angieram said:

I hardly think he "slagged him off." 

Criticism is valid, but some of the stuff goes completely over the top.

Yes I think Mel deserves criticism and plenty of it for his poor judgements . But questioning his honesty is over the top in my view.

[Leeds Ram]

8 hours ago, angieram said:

I hardly think he "slagged him off." 

Criticism is valid, but some of the stuff goes completely over the top.

like what? If major criticism for complete silence to the manager, staff, players, fans and the public about our absolutely horrendous predicament is over the top then what on earth does warrant it? The man has behaved cowardly, more than happy to be in the limelight when things were going well but absolutely nowhere to be seen once things headed south.  

[hintonsboots]

There is still a massive amount of information not in the public domain. I think a post mortem of Mel’s tenure should not be started until the new owners are in place. Perhaps then we will have the full story, and be able to comment factually on how he has performed.

[PistoldPete]

6 minutes ago, Leeds Ram said:

like what? If major criticism for complete silence to the manager, staff, players, fans and the public about our absolutely horrendous predicament is over the top then what on earth does warrant it? The man has behaved cowardly, more than happy to be in the limelight when things were going well but absolutely nowhere to be seen once things headed south.  

He did a one hour interview with local jouranlists straight after the administration. Met with manager and players.

If he was involved in confidential discussions with EFL and with potential buyers there is very little he could have said.

Yes there has been a lot of over the top criticisms from many sources... some of it quite libellous.  Derby are in a mess for many many reasons, and Mel Morris is only one of those many reasons.