Paul Dickov

[drfchound]

I really liked him as a bloke, but he should never have been given the job in the first place. After Dean Saunders left us for Wolves, Brian Flynn and Rob Jones guiding us to the title, in my opinion, had earned the right to oversee our return to the Championship. Dickov was a John Ryan appointment, and sadly Flynn knew that regardless of what happened in that promotion race.

I do honestly believe we are still suffering because of such a poor appointment and we seemed to yo-yo between L1/Championship at the time.

I would take that scenario again.

[VivaRovers]

Not sure Flynn was that much better an option. We stumbled over the line a bit from what I remember (and I don’t just mean the last minute heroics at Brentford!) and for all his experience he hadn’t managed in football for 10 years when he got the job with us.

Edit - just checked and Flynn’s league record was 34 points from 20 games, Saunders had 50 from 26 games - 1.7 points per game vs 1.92. A relatively marginal difference but Flynn’s record over the course of the full season would have been enough for only 3rd place.

Stats only tell half the story though... Saunders had put together a strong 12 or 13 players for League One but there was no depth to the squad and so he was pretty lucky in terms of there being no significant injuries during the first five months of the season meaning he was able to play a really consistent side before he left for Wolves.

Flynn on the other hand had to put together a new central midfield during his time in charge and deserves huge credit for bringing in Furman and Lundstram to do that job and keep us challenging.

[oggycompton]

I've spent a fair bit of time at the club and met nearly allof the recent managers and like most have said on here, Dickov was a very approachable amenable man and very engaging to talk to.

[TheFunk]

I thought Flynn didn't want the job.

I'm not sure if it's still on youtube, but there was a video from the reunion night they had where Flynn reveals what happened. He wanted the job but JR kept moving the goalposts. In the end Dickov had already been given the job.

Didn't Dickov bring in a training ground manager because Dickov was only there two days per week.

[Bentley Bullet]

This is a version of the story I heard. I accept it's The Guardian so therefore, it cannot be cast in stone as the truth and nothing but the truth, but here goes...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/03/bryan-flynn-doncaster-rovers

[NickDRFC]

I thought Flynn didn't want the job.

I'm not sure if it's still on youtube, but there was a video from the reunion night they had where Flynn reveals what happened. He wanted the job but JR kept moving the goalposts. In the end Dickov had already been given the job.

Didn't Dickov bring in a training ground manager because Dickov was only there two days per week.

That second part chimes with what I’d mentioned earlier in the thread, about having heard that he wasn’t particularly hard working.

[Usher wide.]

He always looked like a spiv to me. A sort of Joe Walker character from Dad’s Army.

With his ‘Brylcreamed’ down hair & dapper suits you could well imagine him walking up to you outside the ground, looking around furtively, then opening up one side of his jacket to reveal a row of wrist watches! Or is that just my furtive imagination.

[BobG]

This is a version of the story I heard. I accept it's The Guardian so therefore, it cannot be cast in stone as the truth and nothing but the truth, but here goes...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/03/bryan-flynn-doncaster-rovers

Given that the Guardian article is almost entirely quotations from the club I'm struggling to understand the rationale for your snide comment BB.

No. On second thoughts, I understand completely.....

BobG

[VivaRovers]

This is a version of the story I heard. I accept it's The Guardian so therefore, it cannot be cast in stone as the truth and nothing but the truth, but here goes...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/03/bryan-flynn-doncaster-rovers

To be fair, that's just a newspaper regurgitating a club statement.

I think the truth – as others have intimated – is that Brian fancied the job, but that Dickov had already been lined up and so this was put out as the solution. I contributed some lines to Flynn's biography and I've heard similar from Flynn's biographer so I'd be more inclined to believe that.

All water under the bridge now of course, and there's no guarantee Flynn would've done any better in the Championship either. I feel he was a better man-manager that Dickov who would've got more out of players, but also I don't think he'd have had the connections to bring some of the players in that Dickov did. So who knows?

[VivaRovers]

He always looked like a spiv to me. A sort of Joe Walker character from Dad’s Army.

With his ‘Brylcreamed’ down hair & dapper suits you could well imagine him walking up to you outside the ground, looking around furtively, then opening up one side of his jacket to reveal a row of wrist watches! Or is that just my furtive imagination.

In the fanzine we had similar thoughts, but Jack the Miner took them down a different route.

The secret double life of Paul Dickov

[Bentley Bullet]

This is a version of the story I heard. I accept it's The Guardian so therefore, it cannot be cast in stone as the truth and nothing but the truth, but here goes...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/03/bryan-flynn-doncaster-rovers

Given that the Guardian article is almost entirely quotations from the club I'm struggling to understand the rationale for your snide comment BB.

No. On second thoughts, I understand completely.....

BobG

So The Guardian has never misquoted quotes?

[BobG]

Have you never heard of the Guardian's Corrections column BB? Why don't you write in pointing out the errors, falsehoods and misrepresentations in that piece? If you paste your letter on here then we'll all be in a much better position to understand what you think is wrong with it and why you wrote that really rather peculiar remark.

BobG

[Bentley Bullet]

The Guardian has misquoted quotes in the past, therefore I was quite right to point out it cannot be cast in stone as the truth and nothing but the truth.

Regarding that piece about Flynn, I didn't see any reason for it to be untrue, as although it was The Guardian, and susceptible to the odd misquote, I didn't feel such a non-political article would require the usual political bias. However, expecting comments about the article claiming it is untrue, I added the "cannot be cast in stone" bit as a personal disclaimer!

If I'd quoted from The Mail I'd have said the same thing.

Anyway, BobG, it took 67 posts, and your first contribution to the thread to be the first person to be offensive to a fellow poster.

[BobG]

Offensive? There is absolutely nothing offensive in any of my posts on this thread. Unless you're  thin skinned and have a guilty conscience? All I've done is ask you a question  and suggested a way forwards for you to air your grievance. Both of which, strangely, you seem to have ignored preferring to play the man rather than the ball.

BobG

[Harrogate Rover]

This is a version of the story I heard. I accept it's The Guardian so therefore, it cannot be cast in stone as the truth and nothing but the truth, but here goes...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/03/bryan-flynn-doncaster-rovers

To be fair, that's just a newspaper regurgitating a club statement.

I think the truth %u2013 as others have intimated %u2013 is that Brian fancied the job, but that Dickov had already been lined up and so this was put out as the solution. I contributed some lines to Flynn's biography and I've heard similar from Flynn's biographer so I'd be more inclined to believe that.

All water under the bridge now of course, and there's no guarantee Flynn would've done any better in the Championship either. I feel he was a better man-manager that Dickov who would've got more out of players, but also I don't think he'd have had the connections to bring some of the players in that Dickov did. So who knows?

That was my reading of the situation when I spoke to Brian. Been back in the dug out coupled with the great team spirit had wetted his appetite, but Dickov was present at Rovers last five home games so Brian knew he wasn't going to be manager regardless of where we finished in the league. I got the impression from him that JR wanted a say on who should be playing in the first team, Flynn was having none of that whereas Dickov was probably easier for JR to 'control'.
He also said Dickov had undone a lot of the good work that he and Dean Saunders did regarding the players, and that the togetherness of that 12/13 squad was among the best he'd witnessed in all his years in football.
He seemed to slip away quietly the following season and, in my opinion was never really acknowledged for the contribution he'd made to our club.

[BillyStubbsTears]

That team in the Championship was quality, and we got relegated.

Turnbull
Johnstone
Quinn
Khumalo
Meite
Tamas
Stevens
Jones
Wellens
Furman
Keegan
Cotterill
Coppinger
Duffy
Sharp
Brown
Macheda

Issue was, of that lot, only Wellens and Brown started more than 75% of the matches that season. And in both their cases, that included games where they were palpably unfit.

I've never known a season like that one forr injuries. Anything like a reasonable bit of luck and we'd have stayed up by 10 points.

[Bentley Bullet]

Offensive? There is absolutely nothing offensive in any of my posts on this thread. Unless you're  thin skinned and have a guilty conscience? All I've done is ask you a question  and suggested a way forwards for you to air your grievance. Both of which, strangely, you seem to have ignored preferring to play the man rather than the ball.

BobG

https://www.google.com/search?q=is+calling+someone+snide+offensive&rlz=1C1YTUH_en-GBGB1045GB1045&oq=is+calling+someone+snide+offensive&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigAdIBCTE1ODQwajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[Mustapha-Dump]

I have always thought him sending turnbull forward for a corner against Blackpool on the first game of the season, us conceding in the process and then us eventually being relegated on goal difference by one goal summed up his time with us pretty well.