Never mind teaching players a thing or two, Dundee United manager Micky Mellon has what it takes to be a professor.
That is the educated opinion of head teacher Phil Denton, with whom Mellon has collaborated on their new book The First 100 Days: Lessons in Leadership From The Football Bosses.
After a remarkable sliding doors moment when they first met to the starry-eyed interviews with Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Sean Dyche, Davie Moyes, Gordon Strachan, Walter Smith, Mauricio Pochettino, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and more, Phil – or Mr Denton to the pupils of St Bede’s Catholic High School in Ormskirk, Lancashire – has been with Mellon all the way.
He has been the one typing most of the words but Mellon has opened all the doors, provided the football expertise and also written a chapter on his own first 100 days at Tannadice.
United fans will be keen to see what that entails when the work – proceeds of which will go to fight Motor Neurone Disease in honour of Mellon’s ex-Burnley teammate Lenny Johnrose – is published next March.
It all adds up to Phil being the ideal person to judge if Mellon would be able to cope with life at the chalkface.
Great in classroom
He said: “Yes, he would make a good teacher and would be great in the classroom. There would be no messing about because he would be on top of the behaviour!
“Seriously, though, he already strikes me as a bit like a professor in that he listens to every single word that is said to him and can pick you up on the slightest thing.
“I can see his team talks and analysis at United being forensic at times.
“I would also class him as being emotionally intelligent.
“By that I mean that he can assess and read both people and situations. I think that maybe goes back to his upbringing in Glasgow, which he addresses in the book, because he had to be quick-witted and smart to deal with things growing up in that environment.”
Phil revealed that the pair met only thanks to his being economical with the truth when it came to a trip to see his beloved Tranmere Rovers, the team managed by Mellon at the time.
Stevenage subterfuge
He explained: “I am a big Tranmere fan but it was difficult to get to away games and I hadn’t managed to see many.
“I knew my wife would be keen on a spa weekend and I mentioned that there was a nice hotel in Stevenage that we could visit.
“I didn’t reveal that Rovers were playing Stevenage at the same time. I tricked her, really!
“Anyway, off we went for the weekend and, by a stroke of luck, Tranmere were staying in the same hotel as us – I didn’t plan that bit!
“I went down to the gym one morning and bumped into Micky. We were the only ones there.
“It was good timing because we both had a couple of hours to kill, time that we filled with a long chat about Tranmere and football in general.
“Micky is an excellent listener and he asked what I did and I told him that I was a head teacher.
“That got us on to the topic of leadership, Ernest Shackleton and a few other things, most of which have ended up in the book.”
Lifted Tranmere
Phil had previously admired Mellon from afar as the gaffer of his favourite team but the pair have now become firm friends as well as co-authors.
He added: “As a Rovers fan, I had been impressed already by Micky.
“He had come into a club that had seemed to be on a consistent downer and raised everything up.
“He used psychology and dealt with things like the culture and history of the club.
“The great thing was that it was all authentic. He really did care.
“It was almost overnight that he managed to change the whole atmosphere at Tranmere. From a side that had been on the slide, there was now so much optimism.
“I don’t think you will meet a Tranmere supporter who has a bad word to say about Micky and I’m not just saying that as someone who regards him as a friend.”
Mellon was the one who had the football contacts, of course. And what a contact book.
Phil admits to being star-struck at times as the pair conducted interviews, understandably so, but he was treated only with respect and courtesy by the managers.
Gentleman Ole
One day at Manchester United’s training complex stands out in particular.
He recalled: “Micky actually used to laugh at me a bit because of how nervous I was feeling going into interviews but I was just an ordinary football fan remember.
“There was one particular time when we were sitting at Carrington waiting on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer coming down to chat to the two of us.
“Micky knew them all so was nice and relaxed but I was sitting there thinking: ‘I’m a Tranmere fan sitting with my team’s manager waiting on the boss of Manchester United. How is this even happening to me?’
“I will be eternally grateful to Micky for giving me an opportunity like that.
“When Solskjaer did come down he was a total gentleman. He even made us a cup of coffee and was so generous with his time, as were all the other managers.
“Here was someone who had scored the winning goal in a Champions League final (for Man United in the famous 1999 injury-time victory over Bayern Munich) and played with so many great players yet he couldn’t have been nicer to me.
“In the end, I realised that all these people knew about leadership but I needed those skills too in my role. In a way, we were the same when it came to doing our own particular jobs.”
Ran school as club
To say Phil threw himself into the book project would be an understatement.
In an ingenious experiment, he actually began to run his school like you would a football club, without telling anyone else what he was up to.
He explained: “I did keep it quiet and no one knew what I had put in place.
“The plan was to run the school as you would a successful football team.
“For example, Micky once asked me who my captains were at the school.
“He had to appoint captains as leaders for his teams and wondered what our equivalent was in education. He said you need people you could rely on to run things in your absence and he was right.
“What you don’t want is superficial compliance. You want people to genuinely buy in to what you want to do, whether that is as a head teacher or a football manager.
“It was also all about creating an environment where people want to work for you and your ‘team.’ You want to feel valued and part of the bigger project, feeling that people care about you and your well-being.
“It was a success.”
New United fan
Phil is a self-confessed diehard Tranmere supporter but he admitted he may also have a new team north of the border thanks to Mellon.
He already had a strong Scots link, having studied at the University of Stirling and done some player scouting for Hearts.
Asked if we could now consider him to be a wee bit of United fan, he replied: “Yes, you can!
“I think there will be a few of us Tranmere supporters looking for their results on a Saturday now.
“Micky was very well thought of down here and we miss him at the club.
“I am just lucky to still have this connection to him and I sincerely hope Dundee United can have a successful season.”