Neill Byrne

[DonnyRover]

I know we’ve got a lot of things to be thankful for with the way the clubs ran compared to some others but do you ever think if we had a bit more ambition we’d be absolutely flying, if you look at the lad who Lincoln have signed from Bromley as an example they’ve probably signed him for 500k or less and no doubt he’ll potentially go for a couple million in a few years, similar to the Peterborough model, why do we seem to be bottom feeders instead of being proactive? I’m not saying we should be chucking money by any means but I think some signings we used to make, Matt mills, wellens, sharp etc… what happened to them kind of signings?

[Chris Black come back]

Well he won't be playing on Saturday!

This is an interesting point. No idea what happens here.

[RoseTInteD]

“Did the new gym affect the playing budget?”.

TB has built the Club Doncaster empire so revenues go into facilities, gym, training ground, Belles, rugby, etc and not just the first XI.
We have an owner who will right off the club’s debts but not invest in quality players. How many players have we ever paid for? Our real successful period was when we had three owners investing.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Just don’t see how he’s any different to Pearson who McCann wing pick now.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Absolutely honking signing, that makes no sense.
He's a non league journeyman who's career highlight is being a bench player for a league 2 club.
Mcann said hes experienced, but hes played next to no minutes at league 1 level.

No one can tell me we've got a decent budget when were rolling out signings like this.

Probably our most important position we needed to sign, and we roll out this competition winner near the end of the window.

TB, doesnt want a legacy, thats clear.

Meet the Owners event comes at a perfect time for you then.

[In the box]

Why is nobody on here seems to be excited about this signing why is that ?
 Our recent fall off I results was mainly down to not take our opportunities and dropping points  from winning positions . Wigan exposed the teams lack of concentration by not closing down a game by restricting the play and holding onto the ball better and not get dragged into dogfight .

[TonySoprano]

I know we’ve got a lot of things to be thankful for with the way the clubs ran compared to some others but do you ever think if we had a bit more ambition we’d be absolutely flying, if you look at the lad who Lincoln have signed from Bromley as an example they’ve probably signed him for 500k or less and no doubt he’ll potentially go for a couple million in a few years, similar to the Peterborough model, why do we seem to be bottom feeders instead of being proactive? I’m not saying we should be chucking money by any means but I think some signings we used to make, Matt mills, wellens, sharp etc… what happened to them kind of signings?

We had JR then who absolutely loved the club.
Now we've got a chairman who does the bare minimum.

[Ian Nimmo]

Nobody has seen him play yet. Not many players who sign have a great background or have been special previously, if they had, we wouldn't be able to get near them, most of those players are all your favourites or have been your favourites.

Sometimes, change of manager, tactics, players you are playing with all makes a difference.

Give him a chance here for gods sake.

Its so childish.

Lets see how he gets on and fingers crossed we are fine to kick on next year in league 1.

I don’t appreciate you saying that those who are only stating facts, are being childish.

[Branton Red]

For me the 3 priorities this January window were a goalkeeper, a centre forward and a centre half.

It would appear, in terms of budget, we've paid most out on signing Clark (a goalkeeper), Okoronkwo (a centre forward) and Adelakun (a winger).

After these 3 signings there doesn't appear to be much in the pot for signing any more quality on. From the clubs/owners perspective allowing the manager funds to sign 3 quality players seems fair given the size of the squad that was already in place.

Much as I like Adelakun spending the budget on him ahead of a higher quality centre half would appear at this point to potentially be a major error of judgement from the manager.

[RoversInSpain]

I know we’ve got a lot of things to be thankful for with the way the clubs ran compared to some others but do you ever think if we had a bit more ambition we’d be absolutely flying, if you look at the lad who Lincoln have signed from Bromley as an example they’ve probably signed him for 500k or less and no doubt he’ll potentially go for a couple million in a few years, similar to the Peterborough model, why do we seem to be bottom feeders instead of being proactive? I’m not saying we should be chucking money by any means but I think some signings we used to make, Matt mills, wellens, sharp etc… what happened to them kind of signings?

Errrrr Owen Bailey???  For gods sake this forum is dreadful.
Wonder if the players look at what is written on here, and ask themselves, when are we going to sign up some better supporters?

[Pliskin]

What an outrageously poor signing.

We have one of the worst defensive records in the league. We desperately needed a quality defensive addition even before our best defender O'Riordan was recalled.

What do we do? Sign some bloke who is, at best, a League 2 backup player.

We're clearly going to be back in League 2 next season if this is the best we've got.

[RoseTInteD]

TBF RIS, I think fans have a lot to be concerned about. Just look at the table and see where we are and our atrocious goal difference. If we were mid table I would agree with you.

[Lazar]

Strange one to point the finger at the budget and the board.

It’s clear they invested this window. It’s the manager who’s chosen how to allocate the budget.

We wouldn’t be so desperate for a striker and a CB if the summer recruitment wasn’t so horrendous. It’s the price of getting Pearson and Hanlan wrong.

[ChrisBx]

Rob Jones. Signed aged 33 after being at another League One club. Slow as a boat. Never done anything. Over the hill. Can't believe we signed an old clogger like him.

Jones had played in League One, the Championship and SPL in the 6 years prior to us signing him and had just won promotion from L1 with Wednesday. The two signings are miles apart.

[DonnyRover]

I know we’ve got a lot of things to be thankful for with the way the clubs ran compared to some others but do you ever think if we had a bit more ambition we’d be absolutely flying, if you look at the lad who Lincoln have signed from Bromley as an example they’ve probably signed him for 500k or less and no doubt he’ll potentially go for a couple million in a few years, similar to the Peterborough model, why do we seem to be bottom feeders instead of being proactive? I’m not saying we should be chucking money by any means but I think some signings we used to make, Matt mills, wellens, sharp etc… what happened to them kind of signings?

Errrrr Owen Bailey???  For gods sake this forum is dreadful.
Wonder if the players look at what is written on here, and ask themselves, when are we going to sign up some better supporters?

Owen Bailey the free agent?

[jmt23]

Got to say after listening to the reasoning behind the signing it makes logical sense. He’s a relatively local lad who has played with a fair few players in particular Sterry Senior and Pearson, so is that the new back 4?

[Fal]

I see the FIFA and Football Manager experts are out in force again...

[dickos1]

You think some of you would’ve learnt by now. Slagging off a new signing before he’s even kicked a ball for us is embarrassing.

[Northants Nomad]

TB, doesnt want a legacy, thats clear.

Time for TB to hand over the reigns then.

You know, Tony, there are times when I think you might just talk garbage, and then you post this and remove even the smallest scintilla of doubt in my mind. To say these things about TB shows a lack of knowledge and a lack of respect for everything this chap has done for this club. I would also like to know who is in this mythical queue you have imagined of people forming a line to buy our club.

[jmt23]

I would also say, I’m unsure this will be a cheap signing, he’s been at relatively high payers in Stockport and Bradford.

[Ian Nimmo]

I know we’ve got a lot of things to be thankful for with the way the clubs ran compared to some others but do you ever think if we had a bit more ambition we’d be absolutely flying, if you look at the lad who Lincoln have signed from Bromley as an example they’ve probably signed him for 500k or less and no doubt he’ll potentially go for a couple million in a few years, similar to the Peterborough model, why do we seem to be bottom feeders instead of being proactive? I’m not saying we should be chucking money by any means but I think some signings we used to make, Matt mills, wellens, sharp etc… what happened to them kind of signings?

Errrrr Owen Bailey???  For gods sake this forum is dreadful.
Wonder if the players look at what is written on here, and ask themselves, when are we going to sign up some better supporters?

Yes we were privileged to be able to watch some of the great players around that time, we did did throw quite a reasonable amount of monies into the pot, but I think we may have been also be lucky to get some of the players at a reasonable cost, stocky and jimmy o’conner and the like.
However dropping into L2 will have hit the club hard financially, and means we had to build up again from a low base point. We have however brought in some good young players and I agree will be hard for them if they view many of the harsh comments that are made, when potentially we have the basis of a good squad.
Unfortunately we needed a good recruitment of some quality in the summer and I don’t think anyone can say this recruitment was successful, the minimum requirement was we needed 2 good centre backs and a striker to lead the attack, has we stand now, I still believe this is what we need.

[MachoMadness]

Rob Jones. Signed aged 33 after being at another League One club. Slow as a boat. Never done anything. Over the hill. Can't believe we signed an old clogger like him.

To be fair Jones came to us off a very successful spell at Wednesday where he captained them and (i think?) left after they got promoted to the championship. He was a cult hero with their fans also. The definition of a 'proven winner' that people all bang on about.

Means little, maybe Byrnes profile is just what we need back there and everyone is missing it, but you can see why Rob Jones got people excited and this one doesn't. We'll see in the coming weeks I suppose.

[TonySoprano]

TB, doesnt want a legacy, thats clear.

Time for TB to hand over the reigns then.

You know, Tony, there are times when I think you might just talk garbage, and then you post this and remove even the smallest scintilla of doubt in my mind. To say these things about TB shows a lack of knowledge and a lack of respect for everything this chap has done for this club. I would also like to know who is in this mythical queue you have imagined of people forming a line to buy our club.

I knew someone would say that, and I think it was either Baldwin or brammall himself who said they could think of 3 interested parties.
Well, give them a ring I say !

[vaya]

TB, doesnt want a legacy, thats clear.

Time for TB to hand over the reigns then.

You know, Tony, there are times when I think you might just talk garbage, and then you post this and remove even the smallest scintilla of doubt in my mind. To say these things about TB shows a lack of knowledge and a lack of respect for everything this chap has done for this club. I would also like to know who is in this mythical queue you have imagined of people forming a line to buy our club.

I knew someone would say that, and I think it was either Baldwin or brammall himself who said they could think of 3 interested parties.
Well, give them I say !

Perhaps you could have said that at the last Meet The Owners event when they were sat on front of you.

[ncRover]

Strange one to point the finger at the budget and the board.

It’s clear they invested this window. It’s the manager who’s chosen how to allocate the budget.

We wouldn’t be so desperate for a striker and a CB if the summer recruitment wasn’t so horrendous. It’s the price of getting Pearson and Hanlan wrong.

TLT and Ajayi loans and Sharp contract renewal in the summer too.

Turning down half a mill for McGrath.

These mistakes can’t be undone and they cause a ripple effect.

*edit - Middleton too

[Jersey Rover]

Lots of comments around he’s League 2 standard. Wonder what level that makes are current CBs. If he gets us organised whilst out on the pitch, that’s good enough for me. We definitely need some experience in there Good luck to him, looking forward to see how he settles in.

[Metalmicky]

There is some bollox written on here... we have signed a player who has played nearly 500 senior games, is therefore experienced enough and will know what is required of him at this level.
Some of the comments are shocking - especially as most will never have even heard of him before his name was rumoured recently.  Give the lad a bloody chance...!!

[GazLaz]

There is some bollox written on here... we have signed a player who has played nearly 500 senior games, is therefore experienced enough and will know what is required of him at this level.
Some of the comments are shocking - especially as most will never have even heard of him before his name was rumoured recently.  Give the lad a bloody chance...!!

People do give players a chance but are entitled to an opinion on them before they play surely.

Byrne has been promoted to league 1 twice and not been trusted to play in league 1 twice, by two different managers. What makes us think differently?

The other big thing is that he’s not coming in to make up the numbers in a side that’s comfortable, he’s coming in to hopefully help drag us out of the horrible mess we are in. When signing players it’s all about assessing the level of risk and likelihood of success. These things are never binary but on any scale this looks a pretty high risk of not succeeding to the level it needs to.

We are chronically under achieving, recruitment has been awful it’s, fairly easy for people not to trust the process at the minute.

[monkeytennis]

I get that people think he should be given a chance but reflecting on signings so far this season it’s easy to understand why people aren’t exactly on the edge of their seats frothing at the mouth to see the new guy perform.

For me we’re either out of money or we can no longer attract the quality of players we really need. Or both. Let’s face it who would choose to join Rovers as things stand unless there was no better option.

[mpc123]

Agreed metal mickey,

Called facts apparently. I believe Mccann more Im afraid, as he is the football manager not the 'experts and waanabes' in the stands. Its crazy, Ive never known anything like it. I know a tranmere fan and he said it is crazy this type of abuse. They have had terrible seasons for years and arent like this.

They signed the god ironside according to many all the answers to all our problems and should have kept him

........ done nothing in league 2.

Players play differently everywhere especially at this level.

Give the guy a chance.