“I was also too stretched” – Mel Morris drops new Derby County claim | OneFootball

Mel Morris has given an interview whereby he explains the mistakes he made and what he learned from his time at Derby County.

Former Derby County owner Mel Morris has attempted to explain his further understanding of what went wrong during his tenure in charge of the Rams.

A few days after Derby’s 1-0 defeat to Queens Park Rangers in the 2013/14 Championship play-off final, Morris bought a 22% stake in the club before assuming ownership in the following season.

The timing of his investment is something that he has bemoaned, explaining In a recent interview with TechInformed,: “We bought in just before the new Premier League rights kicked in, which gave relegated clubs huge financial advantages.”

"We tried to push for promotion, but it didn’t work. I was also too stretched, trying to manage seven other businesses at the same time.

The Derbyshire-born businessman, who was awarded a CBE in 2017, eventually oversaw spending to try and get into the Premier League but nearly a decade of failure to achieve promotion that would eventually see the club spiral financially.

In September 2021, the Rams entered into administration and endured 21 points being deducted, thus leading to their relegation down into League One at the end of that season.

The present at Derby

Derby’s rebuild began in July 2022 following the completion of the takeover by still now current owner and chairman, David Clowes, who is the founder of British Construction and real estate development company Clowes Developments.

It took just two seasons for the fallen giant to spring back up to the Championship, gaining automatic promotion from League One as runners’ up behind Portsmouth last season under the management of former Rotherham United boss Paul Warne.

Warne has since been sacked by County this season with former player John Eustace brought in to try and keep the club in the division, which is a precarious job as they hover just above the bottom three and the danger zone despite major improvement since the appointment of Eustace, who finished his career at Derby at the end of the first full season of Morris’ ownership.

Whilst Derby still have a fight on their hands to maintain second-tier status, there appears to be a much more stable running of the club as they seek to avoid errors of the past.

Mel Morris’ warning

Those errors of the past are something that Morris has perhaps acknowledged, well at least he has acknowledged the fact he learned something from what happened and has admitted to mistakes being made.

He said his biggest lesson from those years and what eventually happened was “don’t do it part-time.”

Morris explained: “In football, your mistakes cost you dearly, like managers fired a month into a three-year contract. That wouldn’t fly in tech.”

Essentially admitting that he didn’t have time for the role and also made mistakes that he eventually regretted is, in some ways, admirable, but it will leave an even sourer taste for a lot of Derby supporters that they are aware of just how little a grip on things Morris appeared to have had during his time as owner at Pride Park.