Sack the board

[roversdude]

Cant we organise a counter protest against the sack the board idiots.

Think there would be more there

[roversdude]

How did the protest go ?

[glosterred]

How did the protest go ?

There was a protest?


COYR

[andy didcott]

No protest, just sack the board chants in the south stand, ten seconds later rovers till I die, got to laugh eh.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

No protest, just sack the board chants in the south stand, ten seconds later rovers till I die, got to laugh eh.

It's fine to be both isn't it?

People are rightly allowed to be disgruntled.

[DonnyOsmond]

Rovers till they die, isn't support the board till they die, is it?

[Spilsby Red]

I understand there frustrations. They are the younger supporters of our club who have generally seen a winning team. What they do have to understand what this board have done for the club. I think they need to put things into perspective.
I was in the forefront of Richardson protests, they were validated protests.

[normal rules]

Bradford City have played in the old First Division as well as two Seasons in the Premier League.
in their history have won the FA Cup.
Lost in a League Cup Final at Wembley.
Played in Europe.
Been to Wembley in play off finals three or four times.
They have been stuck in the lowest league since 2019.
There fans have sadly held up over the last few years far better than a lot of ours.
I’m as disappointed as anybody but some comments beggar belief.
We more or less have to write this season off now and hope that lessons have been learned and we can turn it around in the summer.

Season tickets of just £100 would have helped alot

[Mike_F]

I can't blame the mainly younger supporters who are disgruntled with the board.

As the club has spiralled into self-perpetuating decline one of the things I refer to from the glory days of the millennium onwards is the sea change in the children of Doncaster being swept up in the surge of positivity around the club and proud to wear Rovers shirts.

When I was a kid there were two or three of us in my entire school year who regularly attended Rovers matches and we were very much the laughing stocks of the playground for doing so.

The ambition and success that came with our redemption from the doldrums led to kids proudly "being" their favourite Rovers players as they kicked a ball about in the street. You couldn't drive through town without seeing a youngster or two in red and white hoops.

Those kids are now in their late teens/early twenties and have seen a dream turn to heartbreak and those with the power to fix it don't seem to care. They don't share the passion or the engagement that the fans do. They're not interested in bringing back the glory that led to the whole town benefitting from the success of its football club.

As life gets inexorably tougher with the cost of living, lack of decent employment opportunities and crippling cuts to public services, now more than ever a good result for the Rovers on a Saturday is crucial to lift spirits but dreadful performances and poor results are compounding the misery.

[roversdude]

There is a lot of work to be done to get fans back on-site, however THE biggest driver is success on the field, I think whilst ever we are failing on the pitch there will be disgruntled fans.
Unfortunately we have no divine right to success and the road is littered with clubs that thought they only had to throw money at a squad

[Draytonian III]

I heard a few chants, well the same one about 4 times it might more noticeable in a few years time when the singers have deeper voices and perhaps have started shaving, it just sounded like Aled Jones and half a dozen mates

[idler]

Bradford City have played in the old First Division as well as two Seasons in the Premier League.
in their history have won the FA Cup.
Lost in a League Cup Final at Wembley.
Played in Europe.
Been to Wembley in play off finals three or four times.
They have been stuck in the lowest league since 2019.
There fans have sadly held up over the last few years far better than a lot of ours.
I’m as disappointed as anybody but some comments beggar belief.
We more or less have to write this season off now and hope that lessons have been learned and we can turn it around in the summer.

Season tickets of just £100 would have helped alot

My point NR was that a bigger club with far more fans accepted their failings far better than some of our fans. Living in Bradford and having a lot of mates that watch City I do hear the moans when they do but it doesn't seem as vicious as a lot of ours.
Maybe it could be because my mates are all knocking on a bit and I also don't go on their forum.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

I heard a few chants, well the same one about 4 times it might more noticeable in a few years time when the singers have deeper voices and perhaps have started shaving, it just sounded like Aled Jones and half a dozen mates

You'd think the waves of red seats would tell the answer. There's 6 of us who have STs together. Yes two are kids so don't go to Tues night games but last night I was on my own and couldn't give the tickets away to friends or family.  Plenty of fans I know but all disengaged and doing other things.  Varying reasons but the lack of success is the clear winner.

[Cramby10]

The fact that “football” on show is verging on unwatchable doesn’t help like. I don’t have a ST anymore but had to beg my son who does,  to come with me last night. The lad’s not daft.

[drfchound]

It isn’t just Rovers supporters who are talking about our current situation.
I had Football Heaven on the radio this evening as I drove back home from Derby and Andy Giddings was speaking with a Sheff Utd fan and they also discussed “the things that are going off right now at Doncaster Rovers”.
It seems to be common knowledge among South Yorkshire football fans that their is much going on at our club.

[Alan Southstand]

In Idler’s post: “hope that lessons have been learned”. How many years have we been saying the same thing? And it only seems to get worse!

[sedwardsdrfc]

In a post the other day it’s only 2 years since we were 3rd in L1.

We’re on a bad run as a club and need to stop the rot. We can soon be on a good run as a club again.

[no eyed deer]

In a post the other day it’s only 2 years since we were 3rd in L1.

We’re on a bad run as a club and need to stop the rot. We can soon be on a good run as a club again.

So 3rd in League one to mid-table league two is classed as a bad run.

[coventryrover]

In a post the other day it’s only 2 years since we were 3rd in L1.

We’re on a bad run as a club and need to stop the rot. We can soon be on a good run as a club again.

So 3rd in League one to mid-table league two is classed as a bad run.

So an owner who wanted to put back into the community and is keeping drfc above water as a club is a bad owner?

[silent majority]

I find it odd, TB has had joint ownership of this club for the last 16 years thereabouts, and yet the last 2 years , which followed a global pandemic, we’ve been really poor on-field, been really good off-field, and these are the reasons for the abuse that’s being dished out?

I think some of our supporters need to give their head a shake.

[pib]

I find it odd, TB has had joint ownership of this club for the last 16 years thereabouts, and yet the last 2 years , which followed a global pandemic, we’ve been really poor on-field, been really good off-field, and these are the reasons for the abuse that’s being dished out?

I think some of our supporters need to give their head a shake.

Have we been really good off the field? I think our player and manager recruitment over the past couple of years would suggest otherwise.

[silent majority]

I find it odd, TB has had joint ownership of this club for the last 16 years thereabouts, and yet the last 2 years , which followed a global pandemic, we’ve been really poor on-field, been really good off-field, and these are the reasons for the abuse that’s being dished out?

I think some of our supporters need to give their head a shake.

Have we been really good off the field? I think our player and manager recruitment over the past couple of years would suggest otherwise.

That’s on the field stuff.

[TommyC]

In a post the other day it’s only 2 years since we were 3rd in L1.

We’re on a bad run as a club and need to stop the rot. We can soon be on a good run as a club again.

And as I posted in response to that very valid point about us being in at the top of League 1, we were told in 2018 that we had a budget that "flirted" with being the 6th highest in League 1. At that time we had a number of quality players on permanent contracts (mainly signed by Ferguson) and the teams assembled by McCann and to a lesser extent Moore, were still benefiting from the presence of those quality players. Those quality players were sold for relatively large fees and that quality has not been replaced. I would say McCann and Moore benefited from the budget we had under Ferguson. The club acknowledged that it was moving away from a model whereby we paid fees for players or had players under long contracts and instead we were going to rely on the loan market and short term deals. McCann and Moore operated under that model but still had the benefit of the Fergie signings. Those quality players have gone and have not been replaced. So that run that saw us at the top of League 1 was based on quality signings we added during the Fergie era and a budget that was allegedly top 6 in League 1. McCann in particular made great use of the loan market so all credit to him for making it work. But it was a model that was built on sand and the chickens have now come home to roost.

I did ask on another thread if SM or someone else could confirm if our budget currently would rank 6th in League 1 and if not, where exactly it now ranks by comparison to our competitors. I haven't had a response yet. Didn't manage to get a ticket for the Meet the Owners but if there's a facility to email that question in, I will do so.

[TommyC]

I find it odd, TB has had joint ownership of this club for the last 16 years thereabouts, and yet the last 2 years , which followed a global pandemic, we’ve been really poor on-field, been really good off-field, and these are the reasons for the abuse that’s being dished out?

I think some of our supporters need to give their head a shake.

Ah yes, that pandemic that didn't affect the other 91 football league clubs.....

[silent majority]

I find it odd, TB has had joint ownership of this club for the last 16 years thereabouts, and yet the last 2 years , which followed a global pandemic, we’ve been really poor on-field, been really good off-field, and these are the reasons for the abuse that’s being dished out?

I think some of our supporters need to give their head a shake.

Ah yes, that pandemic that didn't affect the other 91 football league clubs.....

Of course it did.

[TommyC]

I find it odd, TB has had joint ownership of this club for the last 16 years thereabouts, and yet the last 2 years , which followed a global pandemic, we’ve been really poor on-field, been really good off-field, and these are the reasons for the abuse that’s being dished out?

I think some of our supporters need to give their head a shake.

Ah yes, that pandemic that didn't affect the other 91 football league clubs.....

Of course it did.

Yes, I know it did.

So why have we fared so badly by comparison? The pandemic affected all football clubs and budgets will have been hit in all clubs big or small. That's why an answer to the question of where our budget currently places us out of the 92 seems quite a pertinent question. Baldwin stated the figures were very easy to quantify and he wasn't shy about crowing about how highly we ranked in League 1 back in 2018 at the launch of the Five Year Plan for Championship football.

So come on guys, we're five years down the line so now would seem a good time to assess whether or not that Five Year Plan was successful or not. Where does our budget rank as of today? Is it still a top half of League 1 budget? If so then I absolutely agree that the likes of Wellens and those who have followed him, have absoultely p***ed it away. But if, as I suspect, we now have a mid table League 2 budget....should we be surprised that we find ourselves mid-table in League 2?

[roversdude]

It’s a very short sighted view if people think that clubs aren’t going to suffer from the pandemic year/s going forward financially

[drfchound]

I would think that everyone accepts that football clubs will have suffered as a result of the pandemic.

[pib]

Maybe the idea is to get the gates down to an average of 3000 so that we can compete in League One, like pandemic-immune Accrington are doing. 

[TommyC]

The more I read it, the more that interview with Baldwin in 2018 yields up everything you need to know. It's all in here.

“And they choose to put well into seven figures into the club but that purely goes into the playing budget because they want a Championship club.

“But that is now purely their choice."

So do they still want a Championship club? Do the owners still put seven figures into the playing budget? One might suspect this all changed when Dick Watson sadly died and the Watson family left a while later. If that's not the case then bloody well tell us so and we can moderate our expectations accordingly!

And to those of you shouting about "it isn't about the money, it's how you use it....." Mr Baldwin also had this to say.....

“More often than not, budgets will equate to league position, roughly. There are anomalies such as Shrewsbury. That makes it exciting. Over five years your squad budget will tell you where you come in the league. Therefore we do post a lot of credence on benchmarking and giving the manager the best possible chance of getting the play-off position.”

There you have it.