Bombshell as King Derek Abdicates
The news that most Morecambe supporters feared was inevitable sooner or later was announced by the club on Monday. November 20th 2023: Derek Adams has left the club for the second time. This move seemed to come out of a clear blue sky as all the signs had been recently that Derek intended to be at Morecambe for the long haul, with talk of new owners; a new stand and an ambitious programme aimed at taking the Shrimps to the Championship.
But all that went out of the window when he was approached by the club with which he established his reputation as a football manager: Ross County. They have offered him a third go at managing the club. Derek took County – set in the tiny Highland town of Dingwall – from the lower echelons of the Scottish Football League to the Scottish Premiership during two separate stints in charge. I watched an old Saint & Greavsie clip the other day from the 1980s in which the club and its tiny Victoria ground were portrayed as a joke. It’s not a joke now – and Derek Adams is largely the reason. He left to pursue a new challenge at Plymouth Argyle nine years ago – and we all know what happened after that.
Only Derek could tell you why he has chosen this of all moments to return to Scotland. He could have personal or family reasons for making the change; he may be finally heartily sick of the lack of support he has received from the owner of Morecambe Football Club; he may welcome a new challenge; he may just want a return to his Scottish roots – speculating about his decision to move on is fairly pointless. All that matters is that he has gone.
Personally, I see this as a body-blow for the club. Derek has been the best thing to happen to Morecambe Football club, bar none. In his first stint, he guided the club to League One for the only time in its history. In his second stint, he performed another miracle to keep a team seemingly heading unswervingly towards relegation with another man’s weak squad in the Division. But when he tried to perform the same miracle for a second time, he was not provided with the funds he needed to improve the squad by the owner who reneged on an agreement to do so and the club was duly relegated for the first time in its one hundred and three year history. But even so, they went down fighting and lost the battle to stay up only on the last day at literally the last minute. Derek was unable to keep many of the players he signed last season – goalkeeper Connor Ripley and outstanding midfielder Dan Crowley being just two of these – because of a further failing of financial backing from the top. But Mr Adams managed to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear yet again and when he chose to abandon the project, his young team occupied ninth position in the League Two table, just two points adrift of the Play-Offs but with two games in hand on almost all the teams above them. They had also won at League One Lincoln City to progress to the second round of the FA Cup. Nobody can deny what an achievement this has been and my own greatest regret about Derek jumping ship is that he was showing every sign of being able to get the club back into League One at the first time of asking.
Many Morecambe fans have never forgiven King Derek for taking the reins at Bradford City two years ago. But we have to remember that Derek is a professional, not a fan. He must do what is best for his own career in his own opinion. Returning to Ross County will not be an easy option for the Scotsman, though. Under the leadership of Malky MacKay, the Staggies have only won two of twelve Scottish Premiership games so far this season – and lost six of the rest. Only Livingston are below them in the table and that only on goal difference. So Derek is going to have to perform yet another minor miracle to keep them in the division. Good luck to him. Strangely, his second game in charge will be a week on Tuesday, when Ross will be hosts to St Mirren. And who is in charge of the Paisley club? Morecambe’s last Manager to walk out of the door – Stephen Robinson – is. Robbo has steered the Saints to third place in the Premiership – hopelessly adrift of perennial champions Celtic and Rangers but in third place nevertheless. The manner of Mr Robinson’s departure North of the Border did not cover him in glory – at least Derek has left Morecambe in a far better position than that in which he found it. As I say, Derek Adams is by far the best thing to have ever happened to Morecambe Football Club. I personally wish he hadn’t gone but I nevertheless wish him all the best, for what it’s worth.
So now the search is on for a replacement. There are a lot of Managers out of work who would certainly welcome a crack at being at the helm of the Shrimps. There are a lot of bad ones among these who would not improve the position of our club: Joey Barton being probably at the top of that list. The Board chose badly last time Derek went elsewhere. Let’s hope they do better this time. Many fans are already talking about former Morecambe legend John Coleman. Not for me – the football he has played at Accrington over the years has been brutal and appalling to watch. Plus – with a far bigger budget than Derek’s – he took them down last season in a position even lower than ours. How about Dave Artell? He’s a bright guy who played some excellent football at Crewe and kept them afloat in sometimes dire situations until he finally got the boot. He understands Morecambe and knows some of the key backroom staff such as Barry Roche. I, at least, would welcome him back. But time will tell who the new man in the hotseat – for a man it will almost certainly be – will be…
