Andrew and Rowe

[steve@dcfd]

Looks like an agreement has been reached with  Danny’s representatives over a new contract. But not with Tommy he appears to be leaving the club.

https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/sport/football/doncaster-rovers-latest-on-danny-andrew-talks-as-negotiations-with-tommy-rowe-end-1-9792506/amp?__twitter_impression=true

[Padge_DRFC]

Looks like an agreement has been reached with  Danny’s representatives over a new contract. But not with Tommy he appears to be leaving the club.

https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/sport/football/doncaster-rovers-latest-on-danny-andrew-talks-as-negotiations-with-tommy-rowe-end-1-9792506/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Not sounding better we've had the best from Rowe. Probably get injured more has gets on as well.

[steve@dcfd]

It’s not that Butler or Tommy are leaving but who we get to replace them will they be better or work in progress.

[Jonathan]

It’s not that Butler or Tommy are leaving but who we get to replace them will they be better or work in progress.

Are they mutually exclusive? Kane was better than Rowe and also a work in progress.

[steve@dcfd]

It’s not that Butler or Tommy are leaving but who we get to replace them will they be better or work in progress.

Are they mutually exclusive? Kane was better than Rowe and also a work in progress.

Yet minutes per goal Tommy was better. Having Kane and Rowe made our midfield better. So next season we have to replace Kane and Rowe to make our midfield stronger

[dickos1]

Neither were in the side to score goals, kanes season was on a different planet altogether to rowes.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Our kid got it right a few weeks from the end of the season.

Said Rowe is a very able player but he looked like he didn't know how to play in McCann's fast-break/fast-reorganise side.

There were games where he looked lost and the play was going on around him.

To be fair, in the play-off second leg, where structure fell apart and it was a question of who were the better and more wanting it players, he was head and shoulders above most on the pitch.

But in a successful season, most games aren't like that. They are about fitting in and doing a job.

I've really liked Tommy Rowe, but I think we can do better in a McCann side.

[Alan Southstand]

Marquis is not the only player, though, Rigo - Ben Whiteman is also becoming irreplaceable in that centre midfield berth. These 2 are the lads who we should be building a new team around, but I fear money may well talk this summer. I sincerely hope not, but they are the stand-out 2 now in our squad.

Imho, Priorities, in no particular order, are:

Left sided midfielder (TR replacement)
Midfielder (to give us 6 in squad)
Goalkeeper (with some experience)
Centre back (left sided preferably)
Forward x 2

[sedwardsdrfc]

Marquis is not the only player, though, Rigo - Ben Whiteman is also becoming irreplaceable in that centre midfield berth. These 2 are the lads who we should be building a new team around, but I fear money may well talk this summer. I sincerely hope not, but they are the stand-out 2 now in our squad.

Imho, Priorities, in no particular order, are:

Left sided midfielder (TR replacement)
Midfielder (to give us 6 in squad)
Goalkeeper (with some experience)
Centre back (left sided preferably)
Forward x 2

Money will talk every summer not sure why it's a worry. Personally if a player wants to go and we get an acceptable bid let them go. It's about having a list of potential replacements which we go for should that happen that's key. Look at Liverpool they'll sell any player who wants out and use the money well the majority of the time.

The only worry i'd have is that we sell too late in the window to replace but the board have shown before they will turn bids down if that's the case.

I agree with the players we need to bring in though getting a couple of midfielders, winger, centre half and another decent centre forward is needed.

[GazLaz]

The fortunate thing about Whiteman is that currently it’s still at the stage where he’s young, and the vultures aren’t circling yet.

This time next year, who knows?

With Marquis, the vultures are circling right now, the wolves are at the door, and in the next few months the Championship huntsmen may well try and tempt him with some coin bait.

Clubs like us have to sell when the time is right. If we were to get 2.5m for JM, that’s a massive chunk of our yearly wage bill. Imagine if when his contract runs down he goes for peanuts. That’s just bad management.

[anton123]

For the keeper I’d be looking a Jordan archer just been realised by Millwall and would push for the no1 spot

[roversdude]

Just a thought - DA is away on his own stag do weren’t we possibly going to be somewhere else last Sunday lol

[RedRover]

McCann and the club are going to look ridiculous if Danny Andrew doesn't now go on to sign a contract with us. Someone should teach McCann that it's OK not to comment on some things particularly when it's not a done deal. Anyone who responds saying DA hasn't signed because he's away on his stag deal obviously thinks his agent is just gonna sit and twiddle his thumbs this week then, and won't possibly be telling other clubs about DA's availability in the hope of making himself a few quid.

Additionally McCann didn't need to make those comments about Tommy Rowe reference his age and hoping to bring in someone better. No better way to motivate a player to do well against us in the future!

[BigKeif]

McCann and the club are going to look ridiculous if Danny Andrew doesn't now go on to sign a contract with us. Someone should teach McCann that it's OK not to comment on some things particularly when it's not a done deal. Anyone who responds saying DA hasn't signed because he's away on his stag deal obviously thinks his agent is just gonna sit and twiddle his thumbs this week then, and won't possibly be telling other clubs about DA's availability in the hope of making himself a few quid.

Additionally McCann didn't need to make those comments about Tommy Rowe reference his age and hoping to bring in someone better. No better way to motivate a player to do well against us in the future!

Let them go I say if that’s the case. If you’re not fully committed to the club then go sign for someone else. There’ll be just as many good LB’s out there better than Andrew that would want to play for us I’d have thought.

As for Rowe, you can’t blame either party for it really. Rowe doesn’t want a drop in wage which you can’t blame any person for but the club doesn’t want to pay big wages to a player that didn’t feature much last season.

[Jonathan]

McCann and the club are going to look ridiculous if Danny Andrew doesn't now go on to sign a contract with us. Someone should teach McCann that it's OK not to comment on some things particularly when it's not a done deal. Anyone who responds saying DA hasn't signed because he's away on his stag deal obviously thinks his agent is just gonna sit and twiddle his thumbs this week then, and won't possibly be telling other clubs about DA's availability in the hope of making himself a few quid.

Additionally McCann didn't need to make those comments about Tommy Rowe reference his age and hoping to bring in someone better. No better way to motivate a player to do well against us in the future!

Would you prefer football media relations to be sanitised to the extent that there’s no place for honesty or opinion? One of McCann’s best qualities is his no-nonsense approach. He’s very positive and extremely forthright. It’s been a breath of fresh air. He’s told it straight and now we see what happens. I happen to like the fact that he clearly feels there’s life after Tommy Rowe.

[IDM]

The fortunate thing about Whiteman is that currently it’s still at the stage where he’s young, and the vultures aren’t circling yet.

This time next year, who knows?

With Marquis, the vultures are circling right now, the wolves are at the door, and in the next few months the Championship huntsmen may well try and tempt him with some coin bait.

Clubs like us have to sell when the time is right. If we were to get 2.5m for JM, that’s a massive chunk of our yearly wage bill. Imagine if when his contract runs down he goes for peanuts. That’s just bad management.

Bad management my arse.!

DRFC isn’t run to make money by farming off valuable players..

It would be bad management not to replace our best asset with decent players..

I would rather Marquis stays and leaves for f**k all next summer if we can be competing for promotion with him in the side..

[RoversAlias]

McCann and the club are going to look ridiculous if Danny Andrew doesn't now go on to sign a contract with us. Someone should teach McCann that it's OK not to comment on some things particularly when it's not a done deal. Anyone who responds saying DA hasn't signed because he's away on his stag deal obviously thinks his agent is just gonna sit and twiddle his thumbs this week then, and won't possibly be telling other clubs about DA's availability in the hope of making himself a few quid.

Additionally McCann didn't need to make those comments about Tommy Rowe reference his age and hoping to bring in someone better. No better way to motivate a player to do well against us in the future!

I see your point, but we're always asking for managers, footballers and owners to show more transparency and honesty and McCann has given us plenty of that since he came in to the club. If he was coy or non-committal on questions around transfers and contracts, we'd all be complaining and saying we want more information. McCann answers the questions put to him straight and I think we should be glad of that. It means we as fans stay in the loop a lot better than many other clubs' supporters do.

[GazLaz]

The fortunate thing about Whiteman is that currently it’s still at the stage where he’s young, and the vultures aren’t circling yet.

This time next year, who knows?

With Marquis, the vultures are circling right now, the wolves are at the door, and in the next few months the Championship huntsmen may well try and tempt him with some coin bait.

Clubs like us have to sell when the time is right. If we were to get 2.5m for JM, that’s a massive chunk of our yearly wage bill. Imagine if when his contract runs down he goes for peanuts. That’s just bad management.

Bad management my arse.!

DRFC isn’t run to make money by farming off valuable players..

It would be bad management not to replace our best asset with decent players..

I would rather Marquis stays and leaves for f**k all next summer if we can be competing for promotion with him in the side..

If the club is to be self sustainable we have to buy players cheap, develop them and sell them on for big profit. You are living in cloud cuckoo land.

[glosterred]

McCann and the club are going to look ridiculous if Danny Andrew doesn't now go on to sign a contract with us. Someone should teach McCann that it's OK not to comment on some things particularly when it's not a done deal. Anyone who responds saying DA hasn't signed because he's away on his stag deal obviously thinks his agent is just gonna sit and twiddle his thumbs this week then, and won't possibly be telling other clubs about DA's availability in the hope of making himself a few quid.

Additionally McCann didn't need to make those comments about Tommy Rowe reference his age and hoping to bring in someone better. No better way to motivate a player to do well against us in the future!

Trouble is that they are damned if they do speak and damned if they don’t. It’s a no win situation for the club and manager


COYR

[redarmi66]

The fortunate thing about Whiteman is that currently it’s still at the stage where he’s young, and the vultures aren’t circling yet.

This time next year, who knows?

With Marquis, the vultures are circling right now, the wolves are at the door, and in the next few months the Championship huntsmen may well try and tempt him with some coin bait.

Clubs like us have to sell when the time is right. If we were to get 2.5m for JM, that’s a massive chunk of our yearly wage bill. Imagine if when his contract runs down he goes for peanuts. That’s just bad management.

No brainer that. As long as most if it was made available to strengthen. Timing is everything, because imho he is not worth that figure

[sedwardsdrfc]

The fortunate thing about Whiteman is that currently it’s still at the stage where he’s young, and the vultures aren’t circling yet.

This time next year, who knows?

With Marquis, the vultures are circling right now, the wolves are at the door, and in the next few months the Championship huntsmen may well try and tempt him with some coin bait.

Clubs like us have to sell when the time is right. If we were to get 2.5m for JM, that’s a massive chunk of our yearly wage bill. Imagine if when his contract runs down he goes for peanuts. That’s just bad management.

Bad management my arse.!

DRFC isn’t run to make money by farming off valuable players..

It would be bad management not to replace our best asset with decent players..

I would rather Marquis stays and leaves for f**k all next summer if we can be competing for promotion with him in the side..

Problem with this is the season after when our key striker has left for nothing. We'll have his wages freed up to get a replacement but wouldn't give us the boost that a few million would give us. Come this january if we aren't chasing promotion (i think we will be in playoff mix) we have to sell him if he isn't going to sign even a few 100k is massive for our summer recruitment.

But if we are in the middle of a promotion push then we'll probably gamble that we'll get promotion which will be worth more than any player we can sell. It's all about timings

[Alan Southstand]

What's wrong with extending his contract for another year? It's all well and good selling our best asset but that is not making us stronger next season (which is what McCann has told us).

I can see the reasoning, but if we need him to help us get promotion and we don't want to lose him for nothing, then the only answer is to extend, surely! (Maybe at Christmas).

[jackthelad]

What's wrong with extending his contract for another year? It's all well and good selling our best asset but that is not making us stronger next season (which is what McCann has told us).

I can see the reasoning, but if we need him to help us get promotion and we don't want to lose him for nothing, then the only answer is to extend, surely! (Maybe at Christmas).

The small problem with that is that It needs to be agreed with Marquis too.

[sedwardsdrfc]

What's wrong with extending his contract for another year? It's all well and good selling our best asset but that is not making us stronger next season (which is what McCann has told us).

I can see the reasoning, but if we need him to help us get promotion and we don't want to lose him for nothing, then the only answer is to extend, surely! (Maybe at Christmas).

Not saying we don't try to extend but there has to be a point where it's either sign our offer or we sell if there's interest. What i'm saying is that letting him leave for nothing will probably be bad business

[Jonathan]

Before we worry too much about not being stronger for next season, I think we need to remember that we’re still in May and the domestic season only finished two days ago. To make any kind of change there has to be movement on both sides. The process has begun and it’s very early days. I’m placing a lot of trust in a manager that’s well and truly earned it.

[IDM]

Alan has it right - if we don’t “cash in” now and Marquis stays then clearly the player is happy here.  There’s nowt wrong with extending his contract with caveats that he can get paid more if promoted or sold at a cut off value.?

[RedRover]

McCann and the club are going to look ridiculous if Danny Andrew doesn't now go on to sign a contract with us. Someone should teach McCann that it's OK not to comment on some things particularly when it's not a done deal. Anyone who responds saying DA hasn't signed because he's away on his stag deal obviously thinks his agent is just gonna sit and twiddle his thumbs this week then, and won't possibly be telling other clubs about DA's availability in the hope of making himself a few quid.

Additionally McCann didn't need to make those comments about Tommy Rowe reference his age and hoping to bring in someone better. No better way to motivate a player to do well against us in the future!

Would you prefer football media relations to be sanitised to the extent that there’s no place for honesty or opinion? One of McCann’s best qualities is his no-nonsense approach. He’s very positive and extremely forthright. It’s been a breath of fresh air. He’s told it straight and now we see what happens. I happen to like the fact that he clearly feels there’s life after Tommy Rowe.

It's not no-nonsense honesty, it's naivety and it's undoubtedly costing us results and holding us back. Like coming out and saying the target is to finish in the top 2 next season. Top 2!? Who in the right mind is looking towards the coming season and not aiming to finish top? It's talk like that that prevented us from winning League Two under Fergie. He came out and said the target was promotion. When we sealed automatic promotion the players celebrated like they'd won the World Cup! To be fair to them all season they'd heard DF saying the aim was to be promoted so they'd achieved what had been set out for them. I guarantee you if he'd been saying to them all season the aim was to win the league, the celebrations would've been more muted, and we'd of gone on to seal the title, which afterall should be the aim of every football club, every season.

Promotion is just a reward, like champagne to a racing driver, like a belt to a boxer, like a gold medal to an Olympian, like prize money to snooker players, the aim is to be the best, to win, to be a champion and by coming out and saying the aim is to finish top 2, Grant McCann is telling the world he doubts we can win the league and that not winning is OK. Worst thing is he didn't have to say anything or even better he could've of put pressure on the side/sides he thinks will be up there by naming them favourites, telling the world they're the teams to beat, that they've got all the best players etc.

[Jonathan]

McCann and the club are going to look ridiculous if Danny Andrew doesn't now go on to sign a contract with us. Someone should teach McCann that it's OK not to comment on some things particularly when it's not a done deal. Anyone who responds saying DA hasn't signed because he's away on his stag deal obviously thinks his agent is just gonna sit and twiddle his thumbs this week then, and won't possibly be telling other clubs about DA's availability in the hope of making himself a few quid.

Additionally McCann didn't need to make those comments about Tommy Rowe reference his age and hoping to bring in someone better. No better way to motivate a player to do well against us in the future!

Would you prefer football media relations to be sanitised to the extent that there’s no place for honesty or opinion? One of McCann’s best qualities is his no-nonsense approach. He’s very positive and extremely forthright. It’s been a breath of fresh air. He’s told it straight and now we see what happens. I happen to like the fact that he clearly feels there’s life after Tommy Rowe.

It's not no-nonsense honesty, it's naivety and it's undoubtedly costing us results and holding us back. Like coming out and saying the target is to finish in the top 2 next season. Top 2!? Who in the right mind is looking towards the coming season and not aiming to finish top? It's talk like that prevented us from winning League Two under Fergie. He came out and said the target was promotion. When we sealed automatic promotion the players celebrated like they'd won the World Cup! To be fair to them all season they'd heard DF saying the aim was to be promoted so they'd achieved what had been set out for them. I guarantee you if he'd been saying to them all season the aim was to win the league, the celebrations would've been more muted, and we'd of gone on to seal the title, which afterall should be the aim of every football club, every season. Promotion is just a reward, like champagne to racing driver, like a belt to a boxer, like a gold medal to an Olympian, like prize money to snooker players, the aim is to be the best, to win, to be a champion and by coming out and saying the aim is to finish top 2, Grant McCann is telling the world he doubts we can win the league and that not winning is OK. Worst thing is he didn't have to say anything or even better he could've of put pressure on the side/sides he thinks will be up there by naming them favourites, telling the world they're the teams to beat, that they've got all the best players etc.

I can’t agree with that at all. It’s nonsense to suggest all teams start the season with the target of winning the league. Of course they don’t and in many cases it would be utterly meaningless (bordering on preposterous) if it was suggested otherwise in the public domain.

Personally I believe McCann’s bullish attitude and positivity has made for a very successful season, albeit one he’s made very clear he’s not satisfied with personally. His attitude around the club has been a breath of fresh air and long may the impact of that continue. I’m amazed that there would be any suggestion that the publicly stated aim to target the top 2 bred any sense of complacency around the club. Absolutely amazed.

[RoversAlias]

Very well said, Jonathan.

[Chris Black come back]

Bizarrely this could be more of a transition season than last. McCann was lucky to have players still at club who are clearly top drawer League One (Copps, Marquis, Whiteman, Rowe) and did very well with loan signings. The former group is clearly not going to be intact and the latter needs to be extremely well chosen given we are looking st teenage lads who are volatile and unpredictable in many ways. Who would have thought Kane with not a single pro game to his name would have adapted so easily, whatever his natural ability. Wilks less of a risk given his experience in basement already.