Mellon won’t mellow until United are in tune with his philosophy

MICKY MELLON was up with the crows. He had no choice, given the noise they were making. Throw in an earlier summer sunrise than he has been accustomed to south of the border for the last 32 years and it was time to put his restless mind to good use.

Studying footage of Dundee United games at 5.30am, Mellon was prompted to conscript another to the early-bird ranks.

Tony Asghar’s phone rang. Repeatedly. Before recovering all its faculties, the United sporting director’s mind may have mistakenly asked itself if there was a time difference Mellon was adjusting to from Merseyside to Tayside.

‘Tony answered and said: “Are you alright?” I told him I was because he’d answered the phone,’ revealed Mellon.

‘I told him what I was after and he said: “Alright, give me a minute”. He better get used to that!

‘I wanted to ask him about this and that, I wanted to hit the ground running. I work hard. That’s one of the qualities I was given as a kid. Work hard to get what you deserve.’

Mellon started last week as he means to go on in his first job in Scotland since leaving, at the age of 16, the South Nitshill council estate in Glasgow where he was brought up.

The train was bound for Bristol and Joe Jordan (then City’s manager), a baptism in the professional English game that was life affirming.

Although he has played and managed in England for his entire career, there was no chance of Mellon forgetting his roots, nor how he felt on that journey south.

And that’s good news for the young hopefuls that the man described by many as ‘a real players’ manager’ has encountered in his first week at Dundee United.

‘To get on a train as a 16-year-old and go to England, with everything you own in the world in a bag, was an unbelievable thing for me to do when I think back about it now,’ said Mellon. ‘But at the time, it never fazed me. Get on a train and away you go.

‘I empathise a lot with young players. I have a good memory — and I know how they feel. I’ll give them time and make sure they know that I understand how they feel and the situations they go through.

‘All of that has helped me become a better person and, ultimately, a better manager.’

Mellon’s dad was raised in Govan, mum Margaret in Elderslie and the working-class grounding afforded to him and his sister in Greater Pollok determined an outlook on his career.

Dundee United’s team will now be honed in the same spirit. Hardworking, respectful to each other and utterly determined to make a success of their chance in life.

‘The environment you’re brought up in and the people you grow up with massively shape you,’ said Mellon. ‘They give you the qualities as a person that make you what you are.

‘I was brought up in an area where everybody who was older than me was Mr and Mrs — I still do that to this day — and you don’t talk to someone in a way you wouldn’t like to be talked to yourself.

‘All those qualities that were taught are the ones we pay the penalty for if we don’t stick to them. It made me realise very quickly you should stick to the rules that you’re taught by your elders. As I’ve grown up, all the managers I’ve worked with, from Joe Jordan to Ossie Ardiles, have shaped the way I am as a coach and person.

‘You get influenced by them all and, hopefully, I’ll give the Dundee United players those qualities and shape them in the way I was.’

Larger than life football figures like Jordan and Sam Allardyce helped Mellon make the most of his talents through a productive career which also took in West Brom and Burnley.

Two stints at Tranmere created a Prenton Park legend whose return as a manager spawned back-to-back promotions. He was in the process of a great escape from the League One drop zone when the Covid-19 pandemic stopped play and relegation by vote stood no chance of souring that relationship.

Fleetwood (twice) and Shrewsbury were the other benefactors of his knack of securing a promotion.

‘To go to Joe Jordan at 16 and see the standards he lived by, the preparation, lifestyle, how he played, trained and ran a football club was a massive eye-opener,’ recalled Mellon.

‘Allardyce was unbelievable, well ahead of his time. When I played for him (signing for Blackpool in 1994), we had training and eating habits that others are only starting to do now. Things like bringing in creatine, using sprint coaches, analysis — Sam was doing that long ago.

‘I learned from that and still speak to him once or twice a week. He is still pushing me to keep improving.

‘When you have a conversation with these guys, you might get into certain things that help you get better. But I wouldn’t say I’d lift the phone to anybody. I’d like to think I’ve got enough mileage under my belt now.’

Mellon is renowned for being adaptable with formations. How United play will be determined by what he discovers about his group over the next fortnight. Form a plan, then sprinkle some new personality on a squad that ‘doesn’t need a wrecking ball’ taken to it.

A renowned expert motivator, Mellon’s opening address to the team struck the right note.

‘I’ve got the champions — and I reminded the players of that the other day,’ he said. ‘Because of this pause, it’s been sad that they’ve not been able to revel in that.

‘I told them: “I’m delighted to be here, I can’t wait to get working with you and I’m so thrilled with the chance to work with the champions”.

‘You could see them all shuffling, and I thought: “I’ve just reminded them, because they haven’t been able to do it (celebrate)”.

‘We’ll be working on a transition because we’re coming from one league to another. There will be a step up in quality, intensity, mentality, physicality. But the boys will be able to adapt and get better.’

Mellon was a teenager gripped by TV viewing of United’s European adventures in the early to mid-Eighties, memories which came flooding back when walking through the Tannadice corridors.

The prints on the walls that highlight Jim McLean’s finest hours are an inspiration.

‘The football romantic in me is thinking of the wee guy watching them on Scotsport and Sportscene,’ he admitted. ‘Walking through Tannadice, I could name all of the players up there on the wall.

‘To now be the manager of the club that they operated with is romantic for me. You think of the Barcelona games, all the legends who have played here, of people like Jim McLean. It’s brilliant.

‘I am very aware and thrilled by the unbelievable history of Dundee United. I’m not overawed by it.

‘I now want to get our players on the walls here and try to be a part of it all.’

‘ALL THE MANAGERS THAT I’VE WORKED WITH, FROM JOE JORDAN TO OSSIE ARDILES TO SAM ALLARDYCE, HAVE SHAPED THE WAY I AM AS A COACH AND PERSON’