Bobby Faulkner

[Shawn_drfc]

Bobby had an injury hit first half of the season and now has started every game for Buxton since 21st January.

Will Flint has play 40 plus games this season, maybe McCann has thought rather than pulling Bobby back for him not to play because Wood, Anderson both stay fit and McGrath should be back shortly, as well as having Bailey and Senior who can fill in, he has thought let him keep playing games and helping buxton, think they have conceded 1 goal in last 5 or 6 games as well.

McCann sent Bobby to Ireland to help him, like being over there helped McGrath after his release, and then we signed him. If he had no future he would of been sold like Jones was for a nominal fee.

He will probably get Preseason with us and hopefully he goes strength to strength.

[DonnyOsmond]

Don’t think Bobby can play for us until next season now

Yeah played official games for his maximum of 2 teams so can't play for us this season, IIRC.

https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/sport/football/probably-would-have-bobby-faulkner-situation-clarified-by-doncaster-rovers-boss-grant-mccann-5059873

[ForsolongaRover]

This is an example of a situation where letting short term managers dictate player contracts, can be detrimental to the longer term of the club. Like the potential Olowu situation and the May/Watters situations. If the manager makes mistakes, it’s the club that potentially suffers longer term.

Generally managers have no real interest in longer term development of players. They all say it every week “we are just thinking about the next game”. Grant doesn’t give a flying f**k about a player that has no use to him in the short term, which is essentially what Bobby is.

I can’t say I know enough to agree or disagree with this, but it’s a good point to make and when all is said and done, how many managers can know how long they’ve got until they’ve been in post for 3 or 4 years. What does concern me about McCann and Faulkner is that he does not seem to want to say much about him and considering how long he’s been on the fringes, you’d expect him to have more thoughts and to share them. McCann surely owes him that and perhaps you’d expect more pressure from Faulkner’s agent. Surely he cannot be a happy man.

EDIT: I’ve just seen the press Article about the 2-club restriction on BF, but GM still seems to prefer to limit what he says to a bare minimum.

[GazLaz]

Don’t think Bobby can play for us until next season now

Yeah played official games for his maximum of 2 teams so can't play for us this season, IIRC.

https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/sport/football/probably-would-have-bobby-faulkner-situation-clarified-by-doncaster-rovers-boss-grant-mccann-5059873

How far down the leagues does the two club rule apply?

[Pancho Regan]

Don’t think Bobby can play for us until next season now

Yeah played official games for his maximum of 2 teams so can't play for us this season, IIRC.

https://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/sport/football/probably-would-have-bobby-faulkner-situation-clarified-by-doncaster-rovers-boss-grant-mccann-5059873

Until reading that I had no idea that Olowu's season was over due to injury.
Must have missed that.

That's bad news for Joseph and the club.

[selby]

  Raven, it is along time since me or you have seen a display by a central defender as bad as McGraths  at Chesterfield and  you and I have never seen Faulkner play that bad. those saying Wood had a bad game against Walsall have forgotten McGraths display at Walsall.
  .
 

[Nudga]

You really don't like McGrath do you Selby.
Plainly obvious why.

[Draytonian III]

As I’ve said before I think Bobby will be released and will have to take a step backwards before coming forward, say York or Scunthorpe if they are in National League next season

[ravenrover]

  Raven, it is along time since me or you have seen a display by a central defender as bad as McGraths  at Chesterfield and  you and I have never seen Faulkner play that bad. those saying Wood had a bad game against Walsall have forgotten McGraths display at Walsall.
  .
 

You pick one game, did Faulkener play against Kings Lynn?  I'll leave that one there
It's very sad that you can't see past your boy.

[drfchound]

As I’ve said before I think Bobby will be released and will have to take a step backwards before coming forward, say York or Scunthorpe if they are in National League next season

That can sometimes add desire to a young players attitude.
It happened to Russ Wilcox after he was released by Rovers and ended up at Frickley.
He performed really well for them and when he got his next opportunity to be a full time pro again he decided that he didn’t want to let it slip away from him again and had a very good career.

[scawsby steve]

As I’ve said before I think Bobby will be released and will have to take a step backwards before coming forward, say York or Scunthorpe if they are in National League next season

That can sometimes add desire to a young players attitude.
It happened to Russ Wilcox after he was released by Rovers and ended up at Frickley.
He performed really well for them and when he got his next opportunity to be a full time pro again he decided that he didn’t want to let it slip away from him again and had a very good career.

Absolutely, mate. He was brilliant at Frickley, then went on to captain Northampton.

[knockers]

  Raven, it is along time since me or you have seen a display by a central defender as bad as McGraths  at Chesterfield and  you and I have never seen Faulkner play that bad. those saying Wood had a bad game against Walsall have forgotten McGraths display at Walsall.
  .
 

McGrath was playing with an injury in the Chesterfield game hence the poor performance.

[Bentley Bullet]

I know from experience that we supporters make judgements of players' performances without full knowledge of the circumstances. It is often those unknown situations that give a false impression.

[Pancho Regan]

  Raven, it is along time since me or you have seen a display by a central defender as bad as McGraths  at Chesterfield and  you and I have never seen Faulkner play that bad. those saying Wood had a bad game against Walsall have forgotten McGraths display at Walsall.
  .
 

It's unfair and misleading to judge a player's ability by cherry-picking one or two poor performances.
Your bias towards Faulkner is becoming a little embarrassing.

[Nudga]

Surely we'd all want to see both BF and JM smashing it for us??

[ravenrover]

I don't think anyone wants Faulkener to fail, most would love to see a local boy make good. The problem is Selby is besotted in his belief that Faulkener is better than McGrath and has a pop at every opportunity. Only 1 persons thoughts matter and that is GM. He obviously thinks differently to Selby

[DRFCSouth]

Everyone wants to see young local talent coming through. The reality is the accounts show we are losing a lot of money. Every signing or re-signing needs to be right, and if some aren't good enough, then it's unfortunate.

Of course there are exceptions,  and mistakes will be made.

[Plumbster]

It’s funny how extreme positivity- Selby on Bobby, New Donny on Sadlier, Dickos on practically everything - does more harm than good and tends to wind everyone else up!

[selby]

  As I mentioned on my let's talk about thread I went to Buxton yesterday to watch the game v Kidderminster one of the top two sides and pushing Scunthorpe for the top spot and automatic promotion with a goal difference of 42 in the league pushed us to the limits in the FA Cup and have experienced strikers up front strong physical and have been around the block the top strikers in the division.
 I am just going to describe Bobby's game as having a blinder in old football parlance, watched by a number of scouts including Stoke City for the second game in succession, others comments to me and his father by Kidderminster supporters and scouts were, where did you get him from". " your two centre halves will not be here next year" the other lad is called Burton on loan from Hartlepool a good left footed player central or full back, well worth a look at, and along with a lad on loan from Stockport named Mann form a formidable skilled  back three, hard as nails and young  for this standard of football in the back line.
  Backing all this up, the striker he marked Morgan Smith said " good battle lad well played " as they came off after a real tussle physically between the two of them and  this morning the Non League Paper picked Bobby as the MOM and in their National North League team of the week, so well done Bobby, 
 

[selby]

  Raven you asked a pointed question, I will give you a straight answer, yes I do, IMHO he is the better defender, faster, better aware of space when defending and get tighter, and more dangerous in the oppositions area, yesterday winning two far post set pieces back across goal that should have been put away.
 What I will say they could form a great defensive pair of young defenders that could do well. I would also look at Burton who is a very good player lives in Tadcaster if McGrath moves on.

[nightporter]

I feel it would be a mistake to let Faulkner go. He has the qualities needed for a good, tough central defender, He's 20 and will improve with age and experience.  He may not have the skills of Bobby Moore or Alan Hansen, who does.  I liken him to Lewis Dunk  no thrills, get the job done.

[Belle_Vue]

Well suited to non-league football

[selby]

  Belle view, insightful ?

[ChrisBx]

What's Faulkner's contract situation?

[selby]

 Out of contract at the end of the season, talking to the club.

[IDM]

When did we play Kidderminster?

[ravenrover]

  Raven you asked a pointed question, I will give you a straight answer, yes I do, IMHO he is the better defender, faster, better aware of space when defending and get tighter, and more dangerous in the oppositions area, yesterday winning two far post set pieces back across goal that should have been put away.
 What I will say they could form a great defensive pair of young defenders that could do well. I would also look at Burton who is a very good player lives in Tadcaster if McGrath moves on.

The question of whether he is better than McGrath  was asked more of GMs opinion, the one that matters.
My question to you was did he play against Kings Lynn seeing as how you were picking a single game to judge McGrath.
I have no feelings either way great if Faulkener stays as he's local but if GM thinks otherwise I wouldn't lose any sleep. We kept a local lad in Jones and look how that ended

[TheFunk]

To be fair wasn't New Donny Sadier's dad.

[BessieBlue]

I am sure we would all want our youth team graduates to progress into the senior squad but we have to accept the reality that generally the products of our youth system are more suited to a career in non-league football.

As a club we tend to look toward the second hand products of the higher league team academies - including the likes of Arsenal, Newcastle and Manchester United. For direct acquisitions Sheffield United springs to mind for the likes of Whiteman and more recently Broadbent.

From my days in junior football the better players were usually snapped up by Leeds United and sometimes Barnsley and the Sheffield clubs - who all ran accredited academies in contrast to our youth system.

For me it has to be the manager and coaching staff who make the decisions on who is and who isn't likely to make the grade in terms of league football - rather than the random observations of us football fans.

[Nudga]

My lad has just seen BF and JM in Smokeys together this evening so a good friendship there with our future centre back pairing.

I bet Selby will be gutted about that lol.