STARTING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT
Mellon has inherited a team on the rise... but retaining star striker Shankland will be crucial to making impact on the top flight
HAVING waited over 30 years to sample Scottish football, Paisley-born Micky Mellon now has just over three weeks to get Dundee United ready for life back in the Premiership.
The 48-year-old takes over a club that’s finally on the rise again after four years in the doldrums.
Here Sportsmail’s John McGarry looks at his priorities as he settles into life on Tayside this week.
TARGET PRACTICE
As a newly-promoted club, remaining in the Premiership come May is evidently the first aim. But, if you set out with tenth place in mind, there is every danger of returning to the Championship at the first time of asking.
Similarly, there is no point in targeting something which simply isn’t going to happen at this juncture — such as splitting the Old Firm. Ambition must be tempered with realism.
Finishing in the top six would seem like a fair middle ground and in Lawrence Shankland they have a player who can provide them with goals. Holding onto him will be key.
Recent history suggests United should have little to fear upon their return after a four-year absence.
Not since Dundee in 2012-13 has a newly-promoted side gone straight back down. In five of the seven subsequent seasons, the Championship winners have actually finished in the top six and none has been involved in a play-off. As Mellon will remind his players, fortune tends to favour the brave.
SORT THE BACKROOM STAFF
Mellon has arrived on Tayside without Mike Jackson — the man who assisted him at Tranmere — and the word is the Englishman won’t be joining him in his new post. So who does help him out?
A large question mark hangs over the heads of Lee McCulloch and Gordon Forrest. Both coaches were brought to Tannadice under Robbie Neilson and the expectation is that he will attempt to take them with him to Hearts.
Although Mellon (below) will only know the pair by reputation, it makes sense for him to at least explore the possibility of working with them.
They both know the players inside out. Of equal importance is the fact that they know the Scottish scene. Retaining them would allow for a high degree of continuity.
But if they are to move back to Hearts or Mellon just feels they are incompatible, he will need to move swiftly to replace them.
RECRUITMENT
United ran away with the Championship last season. They have experience in the likes of Mark Reynolds and Nicky Clark, youth in players like Louis Appere and Declan Glass and a true star turn in Shankland. There is absolutely no requirement for wholesale changes.
But any side that stands still will eventually go backwards. The addition of two or three quality players might well be the difference in two or three league places come May.
Does the club continue in its pursuit of Dunfermline striker Kevin Nisbet? Given the structure which sees Mellon work under sporting director Tony Asghar, you would expect so.
Mellon’s intimate knowledge of Leagues One and Two in England might well be the ace card in the coming seasons.
As has often been pointed out over the past week, he was the man who signed Jamie Vardy for Fleetwood from Halifax.
Gems like that probably aren’t even one in a million. But there are still underrated talents out there.
CULTURE CLUB
Upon Mellon’s confirmation in the post, Asghar said that he was an ‘ideal fit for the culture at Dundee United’ — a nod towards the new manager’s belief in the team ethic and the club’s wider responsibility towards the community it represents. In the bitter final days of the Thompson family’s rule, there was a real disconnect between the supporters and the boardroom with the playing staff caught in the crossfire. Although based in America, this is something the Ogren family have been determined to put right. United’s players are now far more visible in the community, not least because they are now required to live within 25 miles of the city.
Mellon will move his wife and young family up to the area from Merseyside. He plans to live and breathe the club and he’ll expect his players to.
At Shrewsbury, he sent striker Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro into a local school to teach French. It went down a storm.
There will be much more of that kind of thing. Sure, it’s good for the club’s image. But players engaging with the very people who pay their wages creates a bond which manifests itself on the park.
SET THE RIGHT TONE
Mellon started at Tannadice yesterday and by the close of play today will have met everyone from the players to the physios to the tea ladies.
In a fully functioning football club, each and every member of staff will feel essential to the operation.
From Shankland to the staff in the laundry room, there is only ever one chance for the new man to make that positive first impression.
Speak to anyone at his former clubs about Mellon and the one thing that comes across, aside from his football knowledge, is his ability to make people feel good about themselves and enjoy coming to their work.
This ability to get people performing to their optimum level is a basic tenet of leadership.
Over the past decade, with five promotions to his name, he has shown he has that certain quality which sees men willingly run through brick walls for him.
Throughout his managerial career, his players always had his back because he had theirs. Ensuring the United players feel exactly the same way is the main purpose of this week.