JR and Forest

[Dagenham Rover]

http://www.hucknalldispatch.co.uk/sport/football/would-john-ryan-nigel-doughty-and-sean-o-driscoll-have-been-a-nottingham-forest-dream-team-1-8280497

[esdailles left foot]

no nets, no balls or kits blah blah blah. I love JR but jeeez talk about dining out on the same old story.

[RoversAlias]

The whole article seems sloppy to me, as if they couldn't find a story so just let J.R. talk his usual guff.

How did he call up his mate Neil Warnock at Sheff Utd in 1998 to get us kit when he was managing Bury as well? Cracking journalism.

[CrippyCooke]

John Ryan was undoubtedly a hugely influential figure at the club in the period mentioned but that is a nauseating read.

[Canadian Rover]

And we'd have seen James Coppinger in a Forest shirt 

[BobG]

A man living in his dreams that is. Past glories and future emptiness.

BobG

[aidanstu]

I think JR has a short memory. Matt mills, George friend, Jason shackell, King Billy anyone. Where was his ambition when he let that lot walk.

[MrFrost]

Jesus. Some people can't wait to have a dig at JR

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I think the players you mention would have gone anyway. When other bigger clubs can double their wages and provide a pathway to the top then we couldn't compete. The exception I would say was Shackell, when we were caught napping by Barnsley.

Ironic, when I distinctly remember JR defending the sale of Mills to a group of fans "....but I've told him, I won't sell him to Forest!". Was the actually true or was it JR appeasing Rovers fans who would have been angry if he'd have joined our closest rivals at the time?

There's no doubt JR had drive and ambition. He could also sell the dream. There's a long list of former shareholders in Patienceform who he sold the dream to. Nothing wrong with that but he ran out of people who were prepared to take the financial gamble to take us further.

[wing commander]

    I will always be thankfull to the man for saving the Rovers when we looked doomed,people should never forget that...However I will always remain just as thankfull to the present owners for blocking the sale he wanted to do to that dodgy hedge fund....Hedge funds are piranas..Purchasing things to strip bare,maximise the profit for a group of investors who remain anonymous for the sole reason of taking the money while hiding behind a shield so they don't get the trouble that follows...Coventry City are owned by a hedgefund Cissko which is a classic example in football..Although I could list similar tales of woe for hundreds of companies in all industry's...

[Bentley Bullet]

Aye, it's a good job JR left when he did, or we'd have ended up back in the fourth division, where we belong!

[bobjimwilly]

Not this old chestnut 

[MrFrost]

Not this old chestnut 

What people having an unwarranted dig at JR?  I agree. 

[aidanstu]

Sorry it was me who had the first pop at JR on this thread. I will always be grateful for the mess he dug us out of and the great times he brought the club. He did however stay too long in my opinion. Whether it was a lack of cash or ego that started to complicate things he reached a stage where he could not take the club any further and very nearly took us down a slippery slope to oblivion. We parted company a year too late but good luck the man whatever he is upto now.

[bobjimwilly]

Not this old chestnut 

What people having an unwarranted dig at JR?  I agree. 

Very clever MrFrost. You know I actually meant both "sides". When you say unwarranted dig, someone else says unwarranted praise. It goes back and forth, we don't get anywhere and everyone ends up bursting a blood vessel.

Here's my two pence: the article doesn't tell us anything new about JR's achievements, or give any insight we didn't know about. It's a story about nothing. And stories about nothing shouldn't be used to stoke old arguments. We're top of L2, we've got a big game tomorrow, and the future is actually bright at the minute. Can we concentrate on that?

[NickDRFC]

I had no idea that Forest were his "second team". And I've sat with or near him at a lot of football matches, including against Forest once or twice. I always thought it was Man City. So that's something new!

[Bentley Bullet]

It's the sheer ungratefulness that gets my goat. People go on, and on, and on, and on, and on about how JR let us down, and then stick a little bit in about appreciating what he did prior to that, so as to make them sound all level headed and reasonable.

What also does my head in is the attitude of those who suggest that when the club was run by TB, DW and JR, all the good things were down to TB and DW, and all the bad things were down to JR!

It's like the king is dead, long live the king, only it is the sugar daddy's dead, long live the richer sugar daddy, in this case. Those with this attitude will treat TB and DW with much the same disrespect as they did JR, when they leave.

[dickos1]

But what about the people that show the disrespect to our current owners? They aren't showing the same respect they showed Ryan

[wing commander]

It's the sheer ungratefulness that gets my goat. People go on, and on, and on, and on, and on about how JR let us down, and then stick a little bit in about appreciating what he did prior to that, so as to make them sound all level headed and reasonable.

What also does my head in is the attitude of those who suggest that when the club was run by TB, DW and JR, all the good things were down to TB and DW, and all the bad things were down to JR!

It's like the king is dead, long live the king, only it is the sugar daddy's dead, long live the richer sugar daddy, in this case. Those with this attitude will treat TB and DW with much the same disrespect as they did JR, when they leave.

   it depends how you read the posts..it's balance for me....Nobody can argue what he did for this club for many years.His place is cemented in our legacy and if there was a fund for a statue of the man I would happily contribute.Thats not a token few words of praise,they are facts that cant be argued with,but for me he also deserve to be criticised for some of the things he said and did during those closing few months during his time at the club...

[IDM]

Wing Co sums it up perfectly.  JR saved the club, period, and will always be remembered thus.  He did however leave under a cloud.

Is there any point in taking this thread any further???

[Copps is Magic]

John is obviously a story teller, a dreamer, a front of house guy. The ideal situation would have been for him to stay on as honoury chairman. A Barry Fry type role. We could have done with someone telling the story of this team now because no one is willing to do it.

It does make me laugh slightly - the 'above it all', 'holier than' attitude of some. Anyone ever been in a pub, anywhere in this country? Have you heard some of the stuff people make up about themselves, the shit they talk, the stories they tell, their f**king egos. Just refer to some of the posts on here, for example, the faux-intellectualism that goes on. Everyone's a bullshitter.

We can do without a club funded by a crowdfunded or a Belize-based hedge fund but someone selling the dream to the Donny public we could definitely do with.

[craigdrfc]

 

[Bentley Bullet]

But what about the people that show the disrespect to our current owners? They aren't showing the same respect they showed Ryan

I can't really speak for them, but if you mean, for instance, those who showed disrespect to TB and DW by equally blaming them, instead of just singling out JR for the failed 'experiment',  I can understand their point. If the experiment had been successful, would JR have been solely credited for it?

If you mean those who think TB and DW should be shown the same disrespect as JR for the things that went wrong when the three of them were in charge, then again I can understand their point.

Personally I don't think any of them should be shown disrespect, but there's a difference in disrespecting them and disagreeing with their policies.

Those who choose to exploit the negatives of someone, instead of their positive successes, are in my opinion deliberately disrespecting that person.

It reminds me of the 'I shags one sheep' joke, but in this case there were three of them at the scene, but only one guilty!

[darren61]

Wing Co sums it up perfectly.  JR saved the club, period, and will always be remembered thus.  He did however leave under a cloud.

Is there any point in taking this thread any further???

I will always hold JR in the upmost respect, he did so much for us. Never forget that. The man defined DRFC for a long time, he loved the club, and most of us loved and respected him.

[hoolahoop]

Had enough of wading through JR  stories thanks . Think I will just remember the good times for now.

[HomerJSimpson]

JR is part of the most successful history of our club and should be given the freedom of the town the club the world (technically the world is Yorkshire). So he went down the hedge fund route, personally I don't care, he thought it was the right thing to do to progress the club. Same as SOD, I never understand the negativity around the two people who have us our best times EVER. Both deserve statues outside the ground and both are rightly DRFC LEGENDS.

I could listen to JR all day because that's what football is about, reminiscing about the good ol' day and dreaming.

Sad people those who choose to knock either of them.

[DearneValleyRover]

Can we lock this thread please it serves no purpose

[the vicar]

Not this old chestnut 

What people having an unwarranted dig at JR?  I agree. 

Very clever MrFrost. You know I actually meant both "sides". When you say unwarranted dig, someone else says unwarranted praise. It goes back and forth, we don't get anywhere and everyone ends up bursting a blood vessel.

Here's my two pence: the article doesn't tell us anything new about JR's achievements, or give any insight we didn't know about. It's a story about nothing. And stories about nothing shouldn't be used to stoke old arguments. We're top of L2, we've got a big game tomorrow, and the future is actually bright at the minute. Can we concentrate on that?

and he JR can only answer questions he is asked, we would not have a clue without this great man

[wilts rover]

Good old John, still dreaming the dream. He is by far the single most important figure in the recent history of Rovers - and as this thread shows - also the most divisive. Certainly publicity and marketing rather than factual history have always been his strongpoints and I can't say the goalnets and kits story didn't happen but...

As well as Warnock not being manager of Sheff United in the summer of 1998, John wasn't the owner and chairman at Rovers either. According to Tony Bluff, Westferry took over on 22nd July 1998 with Ian McMahon as Chief Executive and Ian Green as chairman. John didn't join the board and replace Green until 17th August, after the first match of the season at Dover. He wasn't the owner until he Peter Wetzel bought out Westferry in May 1999.

[Sprotyrover]

John did an excellent job of saving the club but couldn't sustain us at Championship  level. A new chapter is now being written in club history and at the moment things are going well let's hope that trend continues.