Mel Morris Takes Control

I woke up the other morning to shocking news;  a lifelong Derby County fan had bought the entire club. I must admit that my first thoughts were 'What type of rich are we now? Are we Arab oil money rich, American Corporation money rich or Asian entrepreneur rich?' These are the stereotypes that tend to apply to incoming owners these days. Then I read the name and I wasn't particularly shocked at all. It's a long line of events that have led to this situation, so I hope you indulge me as I tell you all a story.

In January 2008 Derby County was sold by local businessman Peter Gadsby and his consortium to holding firm General Sports & Entertainment (GSE). These two excellent articles by David Conn in the Guardian provide background information as to the state of the club before GSE arrived and the understandable scepticism of some fans when Gadsby sold the club. For those short on time, the articles can be summed up in 3 main points:

1. The owners before Peter Gadsby and his consortium used the club as a cover for money laundering and subsequently defrauded the club over the course of their ownership. I'm sure many fans who were around at the time need no introduction to 'The Three Amigos', Andrew Mackenzie, Jeremy Keith and Murdo Mackay. The club was in £54 Million of debt when Gadsby bought the club.
2. Although he cleared some of the debt, Gadsby did not have the cash flow to maintain keep a lid on the clubs finances. He promptly sold the club to GSE in January 2008 for a fee in the region of £20 Million - the same amount he bought the club for. At this point Derby were bottom of the Premier League under the stewardship of Paul Jewell, having already won the only game they would win in that catastrophic season.
3. GSE was primarily an operating firm that basically ran the club, allowing most of the investors to remain anonymous. Andy Appleby, the founder of GSE became chairman of the club with Tom Glick becoming the new CEO. 

 

Tom Glick

 In their first full season owning the club GSE gave Paul Jewell a substantial war chest for transfers and wages, some of which was their own money but most of which came from parachute payments after relegation from the Premier League. It seemed the club were backing up their promise to make Derby County 'a global brand'. However, even after a massive influx of signing which took the total number of players in the squad up to and beyond 40, the team struggled. In December 2008, just under a year after the GSE takeover Jewell resigned, leaving the club precariously placed just above the relegation places and saddled with a huge squad of players on big money contracts.

Paul Jewell resigned less than a season after GSE bought the club

This was a recipe for disaster so GSE made the smartest move possible - they recruited Nigel Clough to be manager from Burton Albion, who at the time were romping towards the title in the conference and were about to get promoted to the Football League for the first time in their history. This signified a big change in the clubs strategy and it was speared by CEO Tom Glick. Having been burned by Paul Jewell the new order of the day was to cut costs, an unpopular move amongst some fans but a necessary one. By hiring ' Our Nige', the son of legendary manager Brian Clough, the club brought in a man who would be given time by the fanbase to enact the recovery operation that would take years.

Years went by with Clough cutting costs and improving on league finishes. However, at the same time, attendances fell season on season with fans concerned at the lack of ambition by the owners and the Cloughs seeming refusal to be more attacking on the pitch - going in depth on Clough's tactics is another discussion for another day. A ritual developed of Clough buying young, unheard of players and players with a point to prove and then selling them on for a profit, whilst at the same time paying off the more expensive signings that predated his tenure.

Things changed when Glick, was headhunted by Manchester City to become their new Chief Commercial & Operating Officer. The club spent months searching for a replacement and found him in Sam Rush, International COO of Wasserman Media Group. I think it's fair to say that nobody had heard of Rush before he was appointed CEO. As a side note, a look at the comments section for the article linked shows the disillusionment of some fans towards the ownership group. Well if nobody knew who Rush was before we all do now.

Sam Rush (pictured) replaced Tom Glick as CEO

After a mixed summer transfer window, with the likes of Chris Martin arriving on a free from Norwich balancing the loss of the ever-dependable John Brayford to Cardiff, Rush made his mark in style. After a very average start to the season and a 1-0 loss to arch rivals Nottingham Forest, Clough was sacked. This decision caused uproar amongst sections of the fanbase and even those who wanted Clough gone admitted that the timing of it was poorly done. Before the season Clough had said that for the first time in his reign he had a side capable of reaching the play offs and it seemed that the majority of fans had been willing to give him the season to prove it.

The club then appointed Steve McClaren as manager resulting in an upturn in results while on an increased budget. At the same time £22.5 Million of loans was converted into equity essentially leaving the mortgage on the iPro stadium as the only debt. In the same source it states that in the financial year before £6 Million of loans were converted to equity, which would coincide with the arrival of Sam Rush. This suggests that either Mr Rush was the one to drive a policy of debt removal and increased investment from the shareholders or the investors themselves had grown restless with the stagnation of the club, and were eager to see a return on their money.

During the McClaren's first season as manager there were a couple of major changes behind the scenes; the arrival of Chris Evans as Director of Football to oversee player recruitment and tellingly, McClaren was brought in as Head Coach and not Manager.

New Derby County owner, Mel Morris

 Who is Mel Morris?
Mel Morris or Mr Melvyn Morris to use his full title is best known for making his money from the mobile game Candy Crush Saga. The game is produced by King Digital Entertainment, a company in which Morris holds a 12% stake which is valued at £400 Million. A life long Derby fan having being born and raised in Littleover, there's no question the club is close to his heart. To say he made all his  money from Candy Crush would be to belittle a long, varied  business career; he founded internet dating website uDate which he would later sell for £100 Million and currently has shares in an internet security company called Prevx. Morris had also been part of the consortium of local investors led by Peter Gadsby and was a director at the club from 2006-2007.

The day before the play off final Mel Morris was appointed as a director of the club having bought a 22% stake in the club, while at the same time becoming co-lead investor. This lead to an injection of funds as well as more visibility amongst the investment group who up until now had remained mainly anonymous, apart from Andy Appleby and the effervescent Brett Wilson. Following the 2014-2015 season Morris was appointed Chairman, replacing Appleby who remained a director. This move fuelled rumours that had been swirling for a while that Morris was preparing to buy the club outright. At the same time McClaren was sacked with club failing to reach the play offs and Paul Clement was brought in as Head Coach.

At around the same time Morris invited a group of fans to the club to explain his long term plans and the clubs long term plans. The response of the fans who went can be read on this link, but the overall consensus seems to be that the future is bright. Following a summer of huge investment, Morris bought the club outright from the American investment group on the 3rd of September 2015.

Former Nottingham Forest owner Nigel Doughty

My reaction to this news was mixed. A lot of fans are excited to have a fan as the owner of their club, someone who knows the area, what the fans are like and the history of the club. I agree that it's important to have some local input on matters I worry when fans of clubs buy them outright. Actually I will change that to when individuals buy clubs. History shows that sometimes people can have more money than sense hen it comes to running clubs they grew up supporting, especially when they run them with no opposition. One example of this is that of Nigel Doughty at Nottingham Forest who during the duration of his reign spent millions upon millions trying to get Forest to the Premier League with little apparent strategy. I'm sure I could have used a less emotionally charged example than that one, but it was the first that came to mind. With no people looking at the club like a business then there is always the potential for things to go wrong. However, I'd give Mr Morris the benefit of the doubt before assuming the worst; there's every chance this could go wonderfully well, like at Crystal Palace.

It should be noted that Brett Wilson has tweeted that he is still a lender of the club and fully engaged and indeed so are the former owners. So it might actually be the case that although Morris owners the club outright, he's still in contact and taking on board the thoughts of the previous owners.

Morris has spoken of developing something he's called 'The Derby Way'. This is a catch-all term basically meaning that everyone in the club is on the same page and pulling in the same direction. In terms of how this affects on the pitch performances, the idea is that every age group from the under-7's up to the first team plays the same way. Also, should a head coach leave, the new coach would be expected to make the team play the same/in a similar way; similar to how Swansea pick their managers. As the coach is just in charge of on the pitch affairs, they don't have total control of the club, so if a coach were to leave the stability of the club would not be in question - this is why McClaren and Clement are referred to as Head Coach and not Manager.

What I will say is that my concerns outlined above aren't backed by evidence. Going based on what has been said in the press about Morris and by Morris, the clubs looks to have a sensible, long term plan for the future. Morris says he wants to built a Derby County that can stay in the Premier League, whilst at the same time have 50% of players home grown - this suggests burning ambition. However, statements like "you don't employ a first timer and give him only 5-10 games" show he has a sensible head screwed on his shoulders. All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic about the direction the club is going behind the scenes.

All figures have been checked using the accounts filed to Companies House. The page for Derby County can be found here, they make for fascinating reading if you're into that sort of thing or if you've got an afternoon to kill.