The VSC report following todays meeting with the club

[dickos1]

I'm not sure Dickov dismantled Saunders side last year, did he?
The squad was identical

[Donnybax]

I'm not sure Dickov dismantled Saunders side last year, did he?
The squad was identical

He didn't just get rid of everyone. Syers and Paynter didn't get a fair chance but apart from that he added to the squad rather than dismantled it id say

[Spike]

How can the take over deal collapsing hamper the budget ?? What has happened to all the money in the space of 2 months ?

Takeovers require the appointment of accounting and legal teams which don't come cheap.

[dickos1]

They were still in the squad though. The side that finished the brentford game won't have been much different to the one that started the Blackpool game.

[Donnybax]

They were still in the squad though. The side that finished the brentford game won't have been much different to the one that started the Blackpool game.

yes I agree with you

[redbrez]

That's fair enough, but with that system, we won't get to the championship, it's like a sustainable plan for league 2 , just my opinion.

[dickos1]

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, the proof will be in the pudding but my initial reaction is that its a nicer way of saying were not spending money anymore and were going back to the days of league 2 survival being our main objective.

[silent majority]

How can the take over deal collapsing hamper the budget ?? What has happened to all the money in the space of 2 months ?

Where do we say that it hampered the budget?

[silent majority]

That's fair enough, but with that system, we won't get to the championship, it's like a sustainable plan for league 2 , just my opinion.

So you missed the bit were I said the budget is significant enough for a top 8 finish? How does that become a sustainable LG2 budget?

[Spud]

It does sound like we're settling for league one though for the foreseeable,  what happened to the battle cry when we were relegated?

[redbrez]

I don't get how we can have that decent a budget , top 8 , I suppose I will reserve my judgement and see who we sign? But I ain't optimistic, how many strikers do we need , we have Robinson and who?

[Bentley Bullet]

Would this policy have been adopted had we not been relegated last season?

[craigdrfc]

I'm not against this at all, infact, despite being quite depressed about the last few days news, I'm already excited about it ... my biggest issue here is that it falls down at stage 1 in that our youth set-up and youth coaching team are extremely poor. For this to work, and if it does work could be the best thing ever for us, the whole infrastructure needs ripping up and starting again at the youth level ... I imagine that doesn't come cheap and takes quite a few years to grow fruit.

[River Don]

It sounds like we have a budget which is reasonably competitive and they are aiming to build a squad with a longer term outlook that can grow and develop. That would suggest if it's not good enough for promotion this term, it should lead to improvement the following season.

[redbrez]

It does sound like we're settling for league one though for the foreseeable,  what happened to the battle cry when we were relegated?

This is what I'm missing more than anything , the passion and a slim chance of success

[Mr1Croft]

I'm not sure Dickov dismantled Saunders side last year, did he?
The squad was identical

Agreed. From the side that started against Blackpool there was 4 new recruits (Turnball, Duffy, Khumalo and Wellens). The rest were part of the squad the previous season.

If anyone dismantled that side it was injuries rather than Dickov.

But I do see what SM is trying to say, with the possible exception of last season its about building a core group of players with a focus on younger stars (similar to what SOD was always trying to do).

[South West Rover]

I'm all for this change in direction by the club.  Playing the long game instead of gambling on expensive quick fixes to gain promotion/stay clear of relegation makes sense to me.  However, I do hope that this is not a case of the club saying the right things just to keep the fans at bay.  Any more false promises will ruin an already battered relationship between the two.

[Spud]

What happens if the youngsters on 3 year contracts turn out to be shite after a year though? Then we're stuck paying em?

[Lipsy]

It does sound like we're settling for league one though for the foreseeable,  what happened to the battle cry when we were relegated?

The rallying cry, and the bit about not losing players that occurred after we were relegated - it wasn't true. No truer than JR's horse shit about having a better team than last season and all the rest of it.

PD confirmed earlier today that the budget he's working with now is identical to the budget the current board offered him back then. We couldn't afford the players we're losing now, so we couldn't afford them then, either - they presumably stuck around thanks to the lure of the emperor's new money.

Interesting reading, so thanks to all those for the effort they put in to getting this out there.

[CGJ]

Yes the youth set-up does need more work. Under EPP we are due another evaluation soon and a step up in category.
[/quote]

Do we not need an increase in the  development budget and also indoor training facilities to step up from Cat 3 to Cat 2. If that were to happen then things would definitely seen to be on the up as we are below nearly all our local clubs in this respect.

[Jonathan]

I like the model, the strategy makes perfect sense. What I'm still struggling to comprehend is how we can let Coppinger walk away amidst all this. He's someone the fans, the senior pros and the younger players all look up to. He's become part of our identity, I do not believe he's a money grabber at all, and most importantly he remained one of our top players through every transition right up to the present day. To let someone so highly regarded walk away without a fight flies in the face of all our plans. I live in hope that we could still show him the respect he's earned, but that's very much hope rather than expectation.

I'm sorry that's tainted an otherwise good, forward thinking plan.

[karlos]

SM i fully understand that we need to guarantee the future of DRFC but they also need to consider that a youthful team in this league where young players will get battered by other clubs seasoned pros just doesn't work. you only have to look at what happened when we put the youngsters in last year which effectively along with injuries cost us our Championship status. Just remember whilst we are adjusting to this new plan if we are losing then crowds will be vastly effected and then what ADMINISTRATION due to Doncaster fans not attending. Supporters pay a lot of money to hopefully see their team win and once this stops then the crowds will dwindle and before you know it the last ten years will have been for nothing.

Ask yourself this would you keep paying for a car if you knew it was going to breakdown every time you got in it, i know i wouldn't.

The same can be said for supporting your team we all want to win and whilst we may still support our team if the results are not their then eventually most supporters will stop spending their hard earned cash on what maybe and i hope i am proved wrong a lost cause.

Can i also say that whilst fans appreciate that you got this overview for the fans, what needs to happen is for TB to face the fans and answer the awkward questions and not just the ones from his supporters. until this happens you will not get a united set of supporters because all the ones who don't agree with you and this includes me will disagree with the plan. Let the Board answer the fans as whole not a individual

[arkseyrover]

While I am thoroughly in favour of developing home grown talent and reaping the rewards our record is not good in bringing players through the youth ranks. Nor is it good at identifying good lower league prospects and turning them into nuggets like other clubs seem to do. If we are going down this route we need a top class scouting network as well as a proper youth system The down side to this is that in the modern post Bosman era we are likely to get very little financial return on our investment as they will leave us for peanuts after we have developed them

[dickos1]

The coppinger situation makes a mockery of the plan, it contradicts the whole mechanics of the plan.
Which makes me think the plan isn't really the plan at all

[Lipsy]

Yes, the glaring downside to what is - to be fair -  a potentially exciting plan is that we can't fund a decent squad at the moment, and we've lost (or are losing) players the manager says he wants to keep.

So we'll have a squad of so-called 'seasoned pros' who are cheap enough for us to afford (but not competitive enough to push for promotion, I would guess) and we'll have young 'uns to fill the gaps when injuries strike... And we're not normally plagued by injuries, are we?

However, in saying that, I am spending someone else's money. Frankly, it's a sensible approach, but you can pretty much kiss goodbye thoughts of promotion (as confirmed today by PD), which is arguably a good thing - the club isn't big enough to sustain itself above League One.

[silent majority]

I'm struggling to answer every point here, and I'm cooking dinner for me and my missus too!!  Sausage fusili  if anybody's interested! However,

Its a three tier strategy, not two. In other words then youths come after the senior pro and junior pro. Not as a straight forwrad replacement on a one for one basis.

Secondly the budget is going to be the same whether we go for seasoned pros in an attempt to get back to the Championship in one season or we invest the same amount of money in developing a team for the next 2 or 3 seasons. Do you see the advantages in that?

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Me too. I'm all for the new strategy. The Copps thing aside, as I'm sure we're all gutted about that one, we can't carry on the way we have been.

When we were relegated, any reasonably sound minded person would expect to lose players. Some you rather not go, some you're glad to see the back of. Of all the players, we had and looking to the future, the one most of all I was wanting to stay was Forrester. The other exception being Copps for obvious reasons. The rest I was either resigned to lose or couldn't care about.

We needed to clear the decks and start afresh but, getting from A to B was never going to be pain free.

I don't know what your interpretation of young players are, but I see  this as a mixture of those emerging from the youth set up and younger prospects from around the leagues.

It takes time to develop. It took SO'D time to develop his strategy and instill his beliefs. We have to be prepared for the same. If we can see progress, even if we're not winning every match then we'll be patient.

I suspect this is what the majority would like to see and will be prepared to back the team and will enjoy the refreshing approach. I will although, I think we need to see evidence of PD adapting to this. 

[silent majority]

The coppinger situation makes a mockery of the plan, it contradicts the whole mechanics of the plan.
Which makes me think the plan isn't really the plan at all

But without knowledge of the financials then you would say that. If you think Coppinger was showing any loyalty to DRFC then I would challenge that.

[karlos]

Lipsy

and isn't this what supporters were saying a few months ago that TB would be a happier man in league 1 well i guess he maybe even happier if we were to be relegated to League 2. GET THIS MAN OUT AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE.

[since-1969]

In a nut shell. Blah Blah Blah ... Fans can go to hell..it's my club and I'm not listening to you effen lot. So I'll use my monkey in the VSC to do the easy bits .