Derby County, Mel Morris verdict issued after fresh ownership claims - "He left us to rot" | OneFootball

Mel Morris' tenure at Derby County almost ended in oblivion for the club

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Derby County's recent history has been rather chaotic to say the least, despite the fact the club is, undoubtedly, one of the biggest to currently reside in the EFL.

The Rams have a rich tapestry of history which includes two top flight titles that came in a short period of time, just over 50 years ago, in 1971/72 and 1974/75 campaigns under the legendary figure that was Brian Clough OBE.

They have also spent seven seasons in the newly-formatted Premier League since the top flight underwent a major rebrand in the 1992/93 season, although the club have only threatened to end what is now almost a two-decade-long exile from the elite of English football, with their last campaign in the division seeing them suffer the embarrasment of an 11-point haul, which still stands as a record-low figure despite Southampton's near miss in 2024/25.

It wasn't too many moons ago that the club were among the dominant forces in the Championship either, albeit the East Midlands side would suffer play-off heartbreak in 2014, 2016 and 2019, with the former and latter of those campaigns ending in defeat to Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa at Wembley Stadium.

At present, Derby are hoping to reach such heights again in the near future, but in a much more sustainable way compared to how Mel Morris ran the club between September 2015 and July 2022, which almost ended in extinction.

Throughout his near seven-year tenure as custodian of the Rams, Morris wasn't afraid to splash the cash and back several managers and head coaches who looked to return the club to its former position as Premier League regulars.

This included a club-record fee paid for Czech international striker, Matej Vydra, from Watford in the summer of 2016 for £8m, as well as seeing seasoned Premier League names such as Curtis Davies, Ashley Cole, Tom Huddlestone, Bradley Johnson, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard all move to the club in either playing or managerial roles.

Following the defeat to Villa in North London in May 2019, Derby immediately began a downward spiral, which included a final-day escape from relegation in 2021.

Months later, the club were put into administration, as Morris admitted that he'd lost north of £200m throughout his reign in the boardroom, with approximately 10 percent of this down to the lack of gate receipts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

As such, Derby were hit with a 21-point deduction over the course of the season and were relegated, albeit a valiant effort would have seen them finish 17th if the penalty wasn't in place.

Morris has recently been speaking about the latter stages of his tumultuous spell as chairman, explaining to the Jimmy Jobs of the Future podcast that he still feels a genuine sense of sadness as to how it ended, as well as revealing his role in funding the administration process.

"Well, I said many times over that I'm sorry for how it ended. No question mark about that," Morris said.

"I know the fans felt that, but they probably felt more nervousness at the end, all right, not realising the fact that I was bankrolling a lot of what was happening during the administration.

"And I still say that the big part of this is the EFL's process of being able to sell a football club is broken, it's fatally broken," Morris explained.

Yet, despite his best efforts to explain the situation, FLW's Derby County fan pundit, Shaun Woodward, is still unable to forgive the businessman.

"I'm sorry, but we can't forgive Mel Morris for what he did," Woodward told FLW.

"We were literally days away from the club going out of existence, it was that serious.

"We went into administration and were almost liquidated because of his actions," he added.

"Yes, he might've funded the administration process, and he can claim it was to try and save us. But, ultimately, we shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.

"He walked away and left us to die when he could've paid all the debts off himself and walked away. I think he'd have been cut some slack from the fans if he'd done that. But, he just left us to rot.

"He called himself a 'fan'. He's got plenty of money. He could've paid all the creditors what he owed and walked away, but he didn't," Woodward stated.

"He left us in such a mess and David Clowes, thankfully, came in and picked up the pieces.

"But, I've got no time of day for Mel Morris for what he did at the club.

"I think we all got swept up in the early days when he was splashing the cash. But, we didn't know what was going on behind-the-scenes and how desperate the books were looking.

"You want to believe what a chairman is doing, and we all got caught up in that - myself included. But no, I've got no time of day for him now, and I don't want to listen to anything he's got to say, to be totally honest."

Derby County have progressed steadily under David Clowes' ownership

Whilst it may take a few years of progression, Derby supporters have been grateful to the steadiness shown in the boardroom by Clowes, who took control of the club for £33m, as well as parting with an extra £55m to take the club out of administration.

After undergoing a two-season rebuild in League One, the Rams gained automatic promotion in April 2024 and were able to narrowly preserve their Championship status last season after John Eustace replaced Paul Warne in February.

During his first transfer window in charge, the 45-year-old was extremely active, with a plethora of new signings made, including a £7.3m deal for USMNT forward, Patrick Agyemang.