VSC response to the Free Press questionaire


After two pre-seasons of takeover instability it finally felt good that this summer we could all concentrate on watching the club build a squad that would be capable of performing well in the League 1 promotion race. You could say we were optimistic that we at last could see how we as a club had managed to benefit from stable ownership, a fresh direction and a positive strategy that had long term implications.

So it is with some dismay that the VSC, its members and DRFC supporters in general, have sight of a Doncaster Free Press survey today that, on the surface, attempts to gauge the fans opinion on the current performance of the club in a negative light. This poorly constructed survey doesn't try very hard to disguise its intentions, which can be nothing short of a destabilising influence. What possible purpose can some of the questions attempt to meet? And further to that how can anyone then suggest that assessing the performance of the 2014/15 season will benefit the club in their plans for the season ahead?

Meaningful surveys are carefully thought out, with questions that offer a varied selection of reasonable responses, and in the VSC's opinion this survey lacks that approach. For instance, what possible response can you give to a question that asks what your view of Paul Dickov's future is and how long the club should give him? There are at least another two questions all with a negative bias towards Paul. How is that fair on a man tasked with building the squad for the 2015/16 season?

Question 9 asks if you think the club have backed him financially. How would any DRFC supporter be able to answer that with any certainty given that the the club have never revealed publicly what the budget was? The next 3 questions then ask for your opinion of the current ownership of DRFC, specifically with questions asking about ambition and the actions of Terry Bramall and Dick Watson. How can those questions serve any purpose other than to destabilise what is held up in footballing circles as a very well run club?

Other similarly meaningless questions ask supporters to rate the current owners, the chairman and CEO, with marks out of 10, and a further question asking if you miss John Ryan. Again what possible purpose do these questions serve? None the less, the questions are asked as are more questions on the Club Doncaster model and the takeover of DRLC. 

Why the Doncaster Free Press would publish such a survey with such a negative agenda is unclear, but what is perfectly clear is that this is not what the club or it's supporters need or want at this time. Most supporters want the past two seasons put behind them, let the damage done to the fan base heal and go forward to next season as one. After all we're all Doncaster Rovers aren't we? With the possible exception of one particular newspaper we would say that we are.


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