Dundee United: Manager Micky Mellon's managerial vision coming to life at Tannadice

Micky Mellon's United are sixth in the Scottish Premiership having played every team once

American presidents. Arctic explorers. Strangers in hotel gyms. Toyota. Boats with holes. Running schools like football teams. Paul Hegarty. Billy Connolly. Sportscene. Motor Neurone Disease. Ayatollahs.

A 75-minute conversation with Micky Mellon touches on them all, which is apt for a man who readily describes himself as a "stealer of ideas". The Dundee United manager also labels himself "a teacher and a salesman", even if he is acutely wary of "sounding like a smart-arse".

If those concepts sound more like they belong on a page rather than in the Scottish Premiership, it may be because Mellon will soon be a published author of a book about leadership called The First 100 Days: Lessons in Leadership from the Football Bosses.

It all started with a conversation about Ernest Shackleton in a hotel gym in Stevenage one Saturday. Mellon was training alone before his Tranmere Rovers side played later that day and struck up a conversation with head teacher Phil Denton, who was the only other person in the room. The two hit it off immediately.

"It would have been awkward if we ignored each other," Mellon says. "But it turned out he was a Tranmere fan, so we talked about that, then about what he did, and what we were reading, and what leaders we admired and I mentioned Shackleton.

"He said he was looking at writing a book, so I told him about this idea I'd had and he loved it."

'Football managers underestimate themselves'

So, the book. When most people start a new job, the first 100 days is a settling-in period. But not for football managers. Three months after taking charge, they might already be under significant pressure.

Established bosses know how to try and mitigate against it, but that wisdom has never been gathered - something Mellon had long been minded to address. So he and the enthusiastic Denton set about interviewing managers throughout the UK to try and learn their methods.

Walter Smith, Gordon Strachan, Mauricio Pochettino, Pep Guardiola, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Sam Allardyce, Davie Moyes, Sean Dyche and Shelley Kerr are among those from whose work has informed the book, the proceeds of which will go to raise money for Mellon's former Burnley team-mate Lenny Johnrose, who has MND.

"See the American president, they think they can accurately point-score how successfully he will be based on how he acts in the first 100 days," Mellon explains. "We've never had that done for football. It's never been written down.

"I had all these things I do but didn't know how to describe them, but Phil was able to put labels on them like culture, environment, teamwork. The managers we met were the same. They didn't realise the level they were operating at because football managers underestimate what it is they actually do and do under massive pressure.

"A lot of these guys will have met surgeons, barristers, pilots and applied what they've picked up in conversations with them to football. But I wanted to flip around so people could learn from them instead."

How Toyota is influencing United

Denton certainly has, and describes the two-year process of writing the book as 'a doctorate'. At one stage, the University of Stirling graduate even took to running his school - St Bede's in Ormskirk - like these managers would football clubs, but didn't tell anyone.

Mellon, meanwhile, has applied his learning to United. His own 100-day milestone passed last week, with the promoted side in mid-table after an erratic opening quarter of the campaign that included an impressively resolute win at Motherwell but an abject home defeat by Peterhead.

That inconsistency has not surprised the 48-year-old, given his due diligence identified the project as a "transition". He points to a squad unproven in the top flight who deserve the chance to prove they can play at that level, and the challenge of squaring that with expectations.

"I studied Toyota for my pro licence and they were all about continuous improvement. And that's what I'm doing at United," explains a man with eight promotions to his name.

"We are one of the biggest clubs in Scotland, but we are trying to catch up on the playing side because we've had four years in the Championship. It's not going to happen overnight. I'm finding out who can handle being a Dundee United player. And who can take us where I want to go.

"Fans want their team to win leagues and cups but gie's a chance. Don't put a hole in my boat. Be disappointed when we lose, of course, but when you calm down, remember where we are at and remember the plan. We are winning here but it's a transition."

'I'm a 15-year-old boy again'

That plan was upholstered in Mellon's opening days and weeks at United. Arriving with pre-season already underway, it would have been easy to run around trying to make his mark - as he would have done earlier in his career - but instead he watched, listened, and absorbed.

His mantra was only make decisions when you absolutely have to. Avoid unnecessary disturbance and confrontation. Looks for little wins every day. Try and fit in with the culture where you can, such as the practice of having Sunday and Monday off.

One of his few non-negotiables? Time-keeping. Training starts at 10:50. If you're not on the pitch when the staff arrive, you're too late.

"Apart from that, I sat back and only got involved when I thought I could add something," Mellon says. "If you make a decision, you'll be judged on it. And the more you get wrong, the worst your first 100 days will be.

"Sometimes you're the hardest person to manage because you think you need to get stuck in. People believe they have to be an Ayatollah but its not about you. It's about slotting in and making things better."

That wider view is perhaps informed by his knowledge of United's past. Mellon grew up watching Jim McLean's side of the early 80s and wants the club to embrace that legacy rather than be cowed by it. League-winning captain Paul Hegarty has been in to address the squad, and some of his storied contemporaries are now helping monitor loan players.

Further reconnections with Mellon's youth come thought being able to have Sunday lunch with his mother and watch Sportscene. "I'm loving every minute of it," he says. "I'm a 15-year-old boy again in my head.

"I think Billy Connolly said people who don't live here love it more but I've realised that I forgot just how much brilliant stuff there is in Scotland and in Scottish football."