Mellon willing to let youth flourish
ALAN HANSEN first uttered the phrase “You can’t win anything with kids” on an episode of Match Of The Day in 1995. Fastforward 25 years and new Dundee United manager Micky Mellon is hoping to debunk that myth entirely.
In fact, it’s a quote from another high-profile English football legend that Mellon hopes to try and link to his own stars at Tannadice this season. Manchester United icon Sir Matt Busby famously said,
“If you’re good enough, you’re old enough”. And the former Tranmere Rovers boss agrees.
Mellon plans to give his youngsters an opportunity to prove themselves worthy of a place in his first team. Everyone on the training pitch this week is being handed their crack at it.
That’s because, Mellon says, the kids are soaking up his tactical advice like sponges, and there is already plenty of technically gifted teenagers in the United ranks. It’s a clean slate.
“As a schoolboy, I came to Dundee United,” Mellon said. “As anybody would tell you round about that time, Dundee United’s youth policy was probably the best in Scotland. It produced some unbelievable players.
“I always, when I go into a football club, find out as much about the group as I can. I’ve watched loads of games now of Dundee United and seen all the different styles of play and the personnel that have been in there. I’ll spend my time wisely trying to do that. Then I’ve watched them in training and watched them doing certain things that experienced managers are able to watch, see and find out about people as quickly as they can.
“That’s how we’ll grow it. I’ll look with my own eyes. I’ve been brilliantly impressed by the enthusiasm of some of these young players, there’s some unbelievable talent here. We’re going to have to be careful as to how we nurture that and give it space to grow because there’s so much talent here.
“Lawrence [Shankland], he has done terrifically here and is going to get better and better but there’s a lot of talent here, players who I will give opportunities here and time to grow and when, if they get good enough, which we’ll work very hard to make sure they can achieve, we’ll make sure there’s room for them to blossom into the team.”
Should Mellon need improvements to his squad, he believes he’ll be backed in the transfer market moving forward. Again, though, it’s not like he’s champing at the bit to go on a spending spree.
But the 28-year-old does have a decent track record with signing players who have gone on to play at some big clubs. On budget assurances, he said: “It’s a bit early and a bit unfair on the champions of the Championship. They deserve great respect. It’s been a great shame they haven’t been able to celebrate that.
“In terms of recruitment and bringing players in, I’ll give the players here the opportunity. I’ll take my time with that. Assurances is a strong word but certainly Dundee United as a club would have the ability to go out and if I can bring players that would make Dundee United a better team then Dundee United would have the ability to go and do that. The owner has told me he’d back me as has [sporting direcotr] Tony Asghar and I’m happy with that.
“I had Connor Goldson. We had him [at Shrewsbury] and developed him into a fantastic centre-back and sold him to Brighton for millions.
“You take your time with them and see what they need to get better at. It was the same with [Jamie] Vardy, [John] Stones and these kind of guys.”