Mel Morris had a grand vision but no reliable means of achieving it. Derby could pay with their existence. Wayne Rooney gives them a chance.
Mel Morris managed to convince everybody that he had Derby County’s best interests at heart, even himself. On paper, he seemed the perfect custodian when he took full ownership of the club in 2015: a local man and fan of the club, able and willing to bankroll the dream of Premier League promotion regardless of the cost. Only now that said cost has become clear, Morris has disappeared, leaving Derby on the brink of the abyss.
The Rams’ situation puts football in perspective. Not only are they the latest in a lengthening line of English Football League clubs facing financial ruin – proof that for all the discourse imploring lessons to be learnt from the extinction of Bury as we know it and the near death of Bolton Wanderers, nothing is actually changing – but they are arguably the biggest club to date to suffer such a fate. Not that it necessarily matters. All clubs mean everything to their respective communities. But this is a team who were twice crowned champions of England under Brian Clough, a one-club city known for packing their stadium every game despite humiliation on a historic scale in the Premier League 14 years ago. Under Billy Davies and latterly Paul Jewell, they were relegated with 11 points, just one victory and 89 goals conceded, categorically making them the worst team in the division’s history.
But what Derby fans would give to head to the match with Birmingham on Sunday – 30,000 are expected – and know that defeat was the worst thing they’d be confronted with. Until this week, there was a chance it could have been the last time Derby would ever play. Chasing the top flight became such an obsession for Morris that he hedged his bets and put the club on the line; now, with an extended deadline to prove they have the funds to see out the season, there is fear for the future. Football, on the pitch at least, doesn’t matter. It is about soaking up memories in case the worst happens, the sort of thing Sir Bobby Robson made patently clear in one of the most important but beautiful quotes the sport has ever heard. In the city of Derby, football gives meaning. What happens when it goes away?
Derby County vs the EFL is not the story of a vendetta
But nobody considered that when the Premier League was the Golden Ticket, least of all Morris. In 2018, Frank Lampard came through the door, a coaching novice but with legendary status as a player; he wasn’t going to stick around in the Championship for long either way. Ultimately, he didn’t, but Derby did not come up with him. His team was packed with quality, chiefly Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Harry Wilson. There was no long-term planning. The immediacy of Morris’ vision, ever since the play-off final defeat to Queens Park Rangers in 2015, was clear. Ultimately, it failed.
Defeat in 2019 to Aston Villa, who had also taken a similar gamble, again in the play-off final at Wembley, should have been enough to make Morris take stock of the situation and act with caution. But in came Phillip Cocu, a Dutch legend with Champions League pedigree as a player and a coach, and the cycle began again. To hell with the consequences. They won’t matter when this attempt to go up works – that seemed to be the attitude. Nobody quite embodies the perpetual delusion that success will simply appear one day if you keep pressing the same buttons like Morris’ Derby.
Wayne Rooney on Mel Morris @dcfcofficial: “Mel had a dream of getting Derby County to the Premier League and that is great. But there has to be a reality to what you can do. More often than not, if you chase things, it doesn’t end in a good way. Obviously that is where we are at”
— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) January 29, 2022
When England and Manchester United’s all-time top goalscorer Wayne Rooney arrived in January 2020, the tide began to turn. Cocu was not working out as hoped and the team was struggling. By the end of the following season, Rooney was in charge and Derby needed the last day to survive relegation to League One. Even then, there were murmurs that trouble was ahead. A total of 21 points were deducted this campaign, for administration and a breach of EFL rules, seemingly making that fate inevitable. In the grand scheme of things, that wouldn’t be a disaster.
But Rooney’s evolution has been something impressive to behold. His retirement was swift and met with little fanfare because, aged 35, he had a much bigger job on his hands. Someone with his standing in the game deserved a proper send-off, but he ignored it all. Initially seen as the last great vanity project of the Morris era, he has symbolised hope for the club and its fans in the darkest of times, riling against the former owner in press briefings and demanding the same answers as those who pay at the turnstiles. All of this against a backdrop of uncertainty, both in terms of whether games will be played and what team he’ll have to pick. Key players like Phil Jagielka and Graeme Shinnie have departed overnight and he had no say, yet he’s continued to get on with it, even lifting the club off the foot of the Championship.
As one of the most famous names in football, Rooney doesn’t need the stress the Derby thrusts upon him; certainly not now. Money is not his motivation, but rather his obligation to his staff, all those facing a more stark reality behind the scenes at the club, and the fans. He’s shown such honour that he could probably leave now with the blessing of everyone at Derby having gone above and beyond, but he continues to remain, “fighting” despite a recent call from boyhood club Everton.
Everybody got on board with Morris and his promises of greatness. Fans revelled in him having rivals – such as Middlesbrough and Wycombe , who are still pursuing cases of wrongdoing – “on strings”. But they believed he’d be there at the toughest moments and he isn’t. He has abandoned them and left them to the lions. The supporters may not have a club to build lives around for much longer, but people like Rooney, who arrived ironically as a symptom of the problem, are putting their careers on hold to help find a solution.
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