Thread by @azoafc86

A thread on some of Mellon's quotes from his book: 🧵👇 #oafc

MM: "I’d read these books on 90-day business plans and I understood what they were trying to say but I didn’t really feel it. I wanted to hear stories of the people who have lived it. Then I thought, there’s never been a book like this written about football managers."

MM: "We are masters of this 100 days, well, those of us still in a job. I want to see fewer managers get the sack. We watched new managers like hawks in their first 100 days. Some of them we’ve thought must be really clever."

MM: "Others we’ve seen make massive mistakes in the press or with the supporters and we’ve known that they just haven’t been prepared properly. I hope this book starts to help managers like me to have a better chance of winning hearts, minds and matches."

MM: "I told the players, the fans and everyone connected with the club that they were right to expect Tranmere to win games. I told them that the people of the Wirral and Birkenhead deserved to have their hometown team winning and making them proud."

MM: "People had lost hope and belief in what the club stood for. I told the players that this club stood for hard work, working class people, pride in endeavour and it has an incredible history."

MM: "I told them all this because I believe that is true and I told them it again, and again and again until we all started saying it and people started believing it. You bring people together and you can accomplish anything."

MM: "The important thing for me is you recognise why this club or business existed in the first place and bring people back to that when things have gone wrong."

MM: "I asked Mark (Palios) if he would like a presentation. I think he said ‘yes’ so I replied that was fine because I could get a marketing company to produce the finest presentation…"

MM: "...the video analysis could highlight the style of play I would love to play and I could blow his head off with false promises. So then he just asked me to come along and talk through what I thought I could do at the club."

MM: "This is a key point in the build-up to your first 100 days. You’ve got to negotiate what success is and how you’ll behave towards your boss from the first moment."

MM: "I was in a strong position because I knew I’d be okay for management offers but still, even for the new manager, you’ve got to make sure you get off on the right foot."

MM: "That doesn’t mean banging the table with ridiculous demands but you’ve got to say what you want things to be like. That goes for both sides of the boardroom table, the manager and the chairman or the employer and the employee."

MM: "You’re making sure that you get the ground rules sorted so that you’ve some shared and realistic understanding of what success if going to look like.
You can then remind your chairman of what you agreed when times get tough because, be assured, at some point they will."

MP: “So, what can you do for Tranmere Rovers?”
MM: “What do you want?”
MP: “Promotion”
(TR were 10th in the League with a side that were lacking in confidence, consistency and, arguably, the quality to mount a title challenge)
MM: “So, what will you do to allow me to do this?”

MM: "MP was taken aback at first I think but you've got the be honest, otherwise you'll both end up disappointed. We were 10th and the team wasn't good enough to achieve what the chairman wanted."

MM: "You get those tough conversations done early in a proper, professional way and you can both move forward for the good of everyone. I don't care what type of leader you are; you've got to have the right resources to do the job or you're struggling from the get-go."

MM: "We got all that old training kit and binned it. This was a new era now for me and for everybody connected with the club."

MM: "The door to my office creaked and it opened in a way that made it difficult for me to see the players arrive and for them to see me. The frame and door were replaced. It wasn't just the door, it was the people in the building seeing that things were changing for the better."

MM: "The training pitch had divots from the day before. I asked the groundsman if that was good enough. Now you've got him doing his job properly and the staff seeing what my standards are from my actions not just my words."

MM: "I know from the fans I spoke to that talking up the area and these people was something that hadn't happened in a long time. It was my mantra, we are Tranmere and we represent the hard-working people of Birkenhead properly. "

MM: "That kind of vision is not a glamorous one but it's a vision that will resonate with the people it needs to. You only hit the spot with a vision if you really understand the people and the place. It gave us our core purpose."

MM: "When arriving at a new club it is just like starting a relationship. You meet someone you like. You make a connection. Then, if you like each other, you might start seeing each other more regularly. At some point it's going so well you emotionally invest & commit yourself."

MM: "As the players arrived at the ground they had spent the week preparing without any input from me.
They thought I was just an observer, I was never an observer, in fact if I was an analysist, an inspector and a judge of all that I had seen."

MM: "The players were listening to music, laughing and joking. I didn't see that passion or fire you need on a derby day. I spoke for the first time to the entire group and I let them have it. This was a derby game and they were acting like they were about to go on holiday."

@threadreaderapp unroll