Wellens

[Chris Black come back]

Good interview with him on The Lower League Look about the shitshow of his transfer window with us.

Wanted to sign Dan Crowley and Louie Reed but their wages way out of our reach. Bostock had to go as his contract renewed automatically at far higher wages the next season. Halliday, James and Wright contract renewals would have burnt his budget if they accepted.

Reckons Grigg deal could only happen if he got Bogle out of the door. Bradford City came in for Bogle but he refused to go so Blunt apparently according to Wellens said Bogle doesn't play again for us. Wellens agreed with this and then he didn't play.

Says problems at club all stem from not reinvesting the Whiteman money.

[German Rover]

Nothing to do with him and his methods then?

[DaveDRFC]

Well the Bostock part is b*llocks, he didn't leave until the following summer. I have a photo of him with my lad after the last game of the season against Oxford. We offered him a contract as well.

[BillyStubbsTears]

So after the closure of the transfer window, Wellens, with all his bristling ego and self-confidence, was forced into not playing the best centre forward on the club's books because his chairman said so? And he meekly stuck by this directive while the losses piled up until he was sacked? And he never once went and had a word with the chairman?

As for the others.

James had effectively left in April, a month before Wellens took over, when he was bottling out of challenges. That was the most telegraphed "I'm not staying here next season" a player could communicate without actually hiring a plane trailing a banner.

Wright was injured for the entirety of Wellens's spell and wasn't an option for a new contract.

[MachoMadness]

It's from about 19 minutes in here: https://youtu.be/ZlB8xWFIsQ8?si=EKtxj-w9j-22SxEL

An interesting listen. I don't think he really says anything people hadn't already put together, although some of the details are new. The Blunt/Bogle situation is an odd one, especially since Bogle was back in the squad under Mcsheffrey.

[Bailey Vickerage]

Well the Bostock part is b*llocks, he didn't leave until the following summer. I have a photo of him with my lad after the last game of the season against Oxford. We offered him a contract as well.

He said that Bostock had already had the option exercised automatically and his wages went up a lot.

[mushRTID]

Nothing to do with him and his methods then?

Nothing appears to be his fault in most of the interview.

[NickDRFC]

I’d imagine that this is a version of the truth. I think Wellens’ hands were tied to some extent by the cost cutting that it seemed very obvious at the time that we were doing, but I’ve also no doubt that he’s embellished the story to excuse the paucity of results whilst he was here.

[mushRTID]

If you are a strong character like Wellens is, why would you play 50% of games without a striker just because the chairman said so.

You’d tell him,”I don’t have a striker, I play him or I walk”

[GazLaz]

There was more to the Bogle story. More than just not agreeing to move.

[Nudga]

And where did this money go?

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/keepmoat-name-goes-as-rovers-sign-record-re-naming-deal-3493504

Because I don't remember McSheffrey and Schofield having much a budget to play with.
Infact Schofield was dealing in tacs and washers.

[BillyStubbsTears]

And where did this money go?

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/keepmoat-name-goes-as-rovers-sign-record-re-naming-deal-3493504

Because I don't remember McSheffrey and Schofield having much a budget to play with.
Infact Schofield was dealing in tacs and washers.

I think the club was trying to wean itself off the £1-2m/year Bramall tit wasn't it?

[Bentley Bullet]

Since our desperately unlucky relegation from the Championship under Paul Dickov,  we have had a succession of managers who were doomed to fail in a job that even Pep Guardiola couldn't have succeeded in.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

He said, they said blah blah blah.

Ffs, it's in the past now. These times were very testing for everyone and maybe hindsight and subsequent actions have shown thinking wasn't as clear as it could have been during that period.

We've moved on for the better without Wellens and without Bogle. Rejoice!

[Draytonian III]

IMO Wellens always seemed to pass the buck if things didn’t go right on and off the pitch

[i_ateallthepies]

And where did this money go?

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/football/keepmoat-name-goes-as-rovers-sign-record-re-naming-deal-3493504

Because I don't remember McSheffrey and Schofield having much a budget to play with.
Infact Schofield was dealing in tacs and washers.

I think the club was trying to wean itself off the £1-2m/year Bramall tit wasn't it?

Exactly.  They called it sustainability.

[mushRTID]

He said, they said blah blah blah.

Ffs, it's in the past now. These times were very testing for everyone and maybe hindsight and subsequent actions have shown thinking wasn't as clear as it could have been during that period.

We've moved on for the better without Wellens and without Bogle. Rejoice!

Very strange post. As if we’re not going to discuss such a recent interview?

[belton rover]

Wasn’t Bogle straight back in the team when Wellens went?

[BillyStubbsTears]

Wasn’t Bogle straight back in the team when Wellens went?

He was. And played reasonably well.

Maybe McSheffrey was more able to stand up to Blunt than the shrinking violet that was Wellens?

[belton rover]

Or it wasn’t Blunt at all.

[NickDRFC]

He said, they said blah blah blah.

Ffs, it's in the past now. These times were very testing for everyone and maybe hindsight and subsequent actions have shown thinking wasn't as clear as it could have been during that period.

We've moved on for the better without Wellens and without Bogle. Rejoice!

We might as well not talk about the Peterborough game at 5pm because ffs, it’s in the past now.

[Chris Black come back]

Of course there was a reason to do it and of course it’s easy to look retrospectively but the decision to cut the budget in the summer of 2021 has cost us multiples more in revenues of all kinds, and has left us in bottom realms of League Two. Wellens said in the interview that he guesses our budget now is well in excess of what he had in League One. Could be b*llocks but sounds somewhere towards the truth. We can’t keep taking cash from Terry forever but we ended up taking more from him due to that disastrous decision.

[Plumbster]

That’s true with hindsight but partly because what we did have we spent badly.

[ravenrover]

Please sir, I want some more!

[BillyStubbsTears]

Of course there was a reason to do it and of course it’s easy to look retrospectively but the decision to cut the budget in the summer of 2021 has cost us multiples more in revenues of all kinds, and has left us in bottom realms of League Two. Wellens said in the interview that he guesses our budget now is well in excess of what he had in League One. Could be b*llocks but sounds somewhere towards the truth. We can’t keep taking cash from Terry forever but we ended up taking more from him due to that disastrous decision.

You have to feel for him, don't you?

Took the job with no money to spend, and then instructed by the chairman not to play one of the players he does have.

[Donny Exile in York]

Or it wasn’t Blunt at all.

Are you in cloud cookoo land.. Blunt and his austerity and the statements since show a strategic decision by the Board led to us losing c70 league games in 3 seasons. Irrespective of Wellens. We move on and have hope under McCann but Let's not forget the raft of crap budgets, bull spinning and acknowledgement right from the top that strategic decisions led to significant cost cutting at the club and left us bereft of quality on it alighned a number of poor managerial decisions.

Pleased to have fresh hope under McCann amd better recruitment on players but let's not exonerate Blunt here from his part in a sh..show and lack of leadership and direction in the worst run of results other than under Uncle Ken in my 40 years of supporting Rovers. McCann definitely helping lift the pressure off Blunt and a great get out of jail free card at present.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Think we’ve all criticised Blunt for not seeming that involved or proactive in on the field matters so him saying a player can’t play. Seems at odds with the persona that’s developed

[Draytonian III]

I wonder if Richie Wellens hadn’t been such an excellent player especially in his first spell with us people’s attitude towards him might be slightly different

[Chris Black come back]

It goes without saying that his spell with us was a disaster but by and large he has done well at a number of other modestly resourced clubs. At some stage he will be given a decent sized club. Interesting to see how he handles that.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

I don't buy it personally.  I think we all can see a budget needed to be stronger but I'd still argue he had enough to get the team better than it was.  Wellens got the hump on with Bogle after a few average performances, he cannot rewrite history. I also remember there were a few other things in the background rumoured too.

Its frustrating wellens doesn't seem to think any of it was his fault, it was.