At a Crossroads

[Branton Rover]

I'm in constant discussion with a mate at work who says we're at a Crossroads in terms of what we do next his argument goes something like this.  Are we content to be a good, well run Championship side? Or are we looking to push on.  Personally I am happy how we're doing it under JR direction, but he states with a bit more ambition we could push on to bigger & better things.  My response to that is look at Blackpool they've spent relatively little £500k on Charlie Adam & now look where they are, we've already submitted a bid for Billy well in excess of what Blackpool paid for Adam, & if that doesn't come off for Billy we've still got the cash to splash elsewhere so that in itself shows backing for our wonderful manager.

It's a tough one but the carrot of Prem football & the four year of parachute money makes getting to the Premiership even more tantalizing, but I don't want us to go crazy & start living the dream because side's who do that invariably wake up with the worlds worst hangover, Palace are a classic case in point.  On a more pactical note we'd have been in the play-off ourselves had we not suffered injuries to the extent we did to critical players like Stock, Woods, Shackle & latterly Sharpy, so it's within our grasp to do it by building block by block & not going bananas.  Any thoughts?

[Filo]

The problem we have is keeping the \"blocks\" we already have, I mean, it stated in last weeks Free Press that Oster was expected to sign later that day or the following day, here we are 1 week later and still we do n`t know if we`ll have Oster next season or not

[awsworth_rover]

Its easy to say spend a few quid and we will make the premiership. Look how much some of the other clubs around us have spent and not gone up. Forest a prime example. They seem to spend millions of forward after forward and still stay in this league. If we spent a quarter of what they have and didnt go up, we would be a financial disaster. Trust JR. He knows the way forward. If all our newer fans are desperate for the prem, i suggest they get back to supporting liverpool or man utd! Slowly devoloping is defo the way forward. Spend outside our means and fail to go up, could ultimately kill the club

[hoolahoop]

awsworth_rover wrote:

Its easy to say spend a few quid and we will make the premiership. Look how much some of the other clubs around us have spent and not gone up. Forest a prime example. They seem to spend millions of forward after forward and still stay in this league. If we spent a quarter of what they have and didnt go up, we would be a financial disaster. Trust JR. He knows the way forward. If all our newer fans are desperate for the prem, i suggest they get back to supporting liverpool or man utd! Slowly devoloping is defo the way forward. Spend outside our means and fail to go up, could ultimately kill the club

Last chance saloon imo for any small club really wanting promotion.
Why wouldn't our ''newer''supporters want promotion, I know I did from Conf. to Div.2 to Div.1 to CCC.
Isn't it everybody's ambition to be at the top of their field ?? Never though to risk the loss of this club though , we've been on the edge for that before and that's not up for a gamble ever again.

[awsworth_rover]

Think u missed my point, although my text was after a few beers! What i was meaning is to think by throwing big money guarantees us promotion and loads of money is no way a guarantee. What would happen if we threw big money at sharp and Gardner of forest and the worst case scenario happened, they both had long term injuries? All the budget gone, no on field difference,and a hard slog ahead. Im not saying i dont want propmotion, but I would prefer the club to be financially secure for my kids to watch rather than sh1t or bust by gambling now. Of course everyone wants premiership football, but at what cost? Lots of championship club have spent and failed. They might have deeper pockets than us to back it up, and 20k plus crowds financing it.

[CusworthRovers]

There is a saying that 'you can't stand still in this game'.....also used by our club management and owners. I feel we may have to stand still (in terms of this league) for an unknown period of time. We are in no position to take the next leap of faith. We need to re-group and maintain what we have now, in essence that will mean improvement on all quarters of DRFC on and off the pitch (this analogy alone actually points to us not standing still).

I appreciate you will cite Blackpool and even Burnley, but what they have done is great, but not sustainable. They have not grown from where we have been neither.

We have come a very long way in a very short period of time........is it so bad if we just sustain, maintain and improve what we have now on and off the pitch, and who knows once we are happy that is right, we may have the structure to kick on again.

.......don't get me wrong neither, if Prem came along within the next 2 seasons I would be shouting louder than anyone for us to grasp it, but I am equally content with the other scenario.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

Another key thing, for every Blackpool there is a Bradford, Luton or Crystal Palace.  Palace got away with it, Luton and Bradford did not.

[hoolahoop]

CusworthRovers wrote:

There is a saying that 'you can't stand still in this game'.....also used by our club management and owners. I feel we may have to stand still (in terms of this league) for an unknown period of time. We are in no position to take the next leap of faith. We need to re-group and maintain what we have now, in essence that will mean improvement on all quarters of DRFC on and off the pitch (this analogy alone actually points to us not standing still).

I appreciate you will cite Blackpool and even Burnley, but what they have done is great, but not sustainable. They have not grown from where we have been neither.

We have come a very long way in a very short period of time........is it so bad if we just sustain, maintain and improve what we have now on and off the pitch, and who knows once we are happy that is right, we may have the structure to kick on again.

.......don't get me wrong neither, if Prem came along within the next 2 seasons I would be shouting louder than anyone for us to grasp it, but I am equally content with the other scenario.

I'm with you on this one Cussie, whilst it would be lovely to dream about promotion to the Prem. we do have quite a few areas to address first as much off the field as well as on it.
There have been minor advances in the Media, Marketing and Merchandising areas of the club but as yet we haven't quite got these areas to the desirable level.
We have (in footballing terms) climbed a lot of mountains with sustained improvements year on year but like a mountaineer climbing Everest , we do need our base camps (i.e. our Personnel and the 3'M's) to be close by to us to cope with any eventualities. Please excuse the metaphor ........
I would love to see JR and the Board members recoup some of their investment, as they do deserve it and for our supporters to ''taste'' well-deserved sucess for their loyalty.
However and finally this is my point, I want a ''slick'' and well established team of professionals running and maximising the future health of our club as a priority. The rest i.e. promotion can wait for another day should circumstance dictate.
Put all our eggs in one basket ?.........NOT NOW NOT EVER, the risk would be too great.

[Alan Southstand]

I appreciate you will cite Blackpool and even Burnley, but what they have done is great, but not sustainable. They have not grown from where we have been neither.

It really depends what your meaning of 'sustainable' is, Cussie. Yes, I agree, they cannot sustain being in the Premiership for more than 1 season, but the sustainability of the Club thereafter is guaranteed, at least for 4 more years!
 
Just think what we could have been doing this close season if we'd just dropped out of the Premiership last season. The budget that SOD would have had for rebuilding would have surpassed the current one, that's for sure (and the Board think what he has now is unique). Just exactly what could this management team achieve, if it were given the right financial support, I wonder?

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I just wonder whether Blackpool fans felt their board were being ambitious enough. They had a long line of loan players including JET and Adam.

They then bought Adam so, it shows it's better to try before you buy. Now this seems sensible enough for me and with Rovers making a record bid for Sharp then it doesn't smack of wanting to stand still.

Forest fans might see it differently. They no doubt felt the club had ambition but they fell short. I would have concerns about getting value for money from the Adebola's, the Blackstocks and the Majewski's etc that they signed.

Leicester/Derby fans must be wondering why they are paying their players at least twice the average in wages !

Ambition is not necessarily the money you pay in transfers/wages. You can be ambitious without risking existance of the club.

[Master Katesby]

In my opinion, now is the perfect time to really push on and be prepared to pay higher transfer fee's and wage bills, mainly due to the fact that we currently have a great manager in SOD, and everything is in place to mount a challenge for promotion. Without SOD, i'd be well content to stay where we are and do as we are doing.

[Savvy]

DonnyBazR0ver wrote:

I just wonder whether Blackpool fans felt their board were being ambitious enough. They had a long line of loan players including JET and Adam.

They then bought Adam so, it shows it's better to try before you buy. Now this seems sensible enough for me and with Rovers making a record bid for Sharp then it doesn't smack of wanting to stand still.

Forest fans might see it differently. They no doubt felt the club had ambition but they fell short. I would have concerns about getting value for money from the Adebola's, the Blackstocks and the Majewski's etc that they signed.

Leicester/Derby fans must be wondering why they are paying their players at least twice the average in wages !

Ambition is not necessarily the money you pay in transfers/wages. You can be ambitious without risking existance of the club.

I think Alan has covered your Blackpool point and heres hoping that some of their new found wealth can be spent on improving facilities for away supporters!

As for Leciester and Derby you've got to be kidding! Derby for sure have got over 20 thousand season ticket holders  and I feel sure the foxes won't be far behind!

As for your last paragraph, someone needs to mention that to the KM2!

[Savvy]

DonnyBazR0ver wrote:

I just wonder whether Blackpool fans felt their board were being ambitious enough. They had a long line of loan players including JET and Adam.

They then bought Adam so, it shows it's better to try before you buy. Now this seems sensible enough for me and with Rovers making a record bid for Sharp then it doesn't smack of wanting to stand still.

Forest fans might see it differently. They no doubt felt the club had ambition but they fell short. I would have concerns about getting value for money from the Adebola's, the Blackstocks and the Majewski's etc that they signed.

Leicester/Derby fans must be wondering why they are paying their players at least twice the average in wages !

Ambition is not necessarily the money you pay in transfers/wages. You can be ambitious without risking existance of the club.

I think Alan has covered your Blackpool point and heres hoping that some of their new found wealth can be spent on improving facilities for away supporters!

As for Leciester and Derby you've got to be kidding! Derby for sure have got over 20 thousand season ticket holders  and I feel sure the foxes won't be far behind!

As for your last paragraph, someone needs to mention that to the KM2!

[CusworthRovers]

Alan Southstand wrote:

It really depends what your meaning of 'sustainable' is, Cussie. Yes, I agree, they cannot sustain being in the Premiership for more than 1 season, but the sustainability of the Club thereafter is guaranteed, at least for 4 more years!

4yrs worth of financial grace is open to question on it being a sustained period. For me I'd say no, if it f**ks you right over for many more years after.

Burnley seem to be the only supposedly small club to have tasted the Premiership, that seem to have come away smiling. We cannot say on how Blackpool will cope, but admittedly the signs look good with Ollie and Oyston at the helm.

There are far more, who have suffered for the experience. I'd like to think we can cope with our management structure and come away smelling of roses......but like I said, more than happy to wait and equally happy like a pig in shit that we are in the CCC playing against some cracking clubs

[PDX_Rover]

Interesting thread, this.  I'd be perfectly happy to be a well-run Championship Club and if the chance to 'do a Blackpool' presents itself, then the Premiership adventure would be worth the financial rewards, even if it's just for a season, to invest back into the club at grassroots, facilities and so on.

Considering where we have languished for the majority of my time supporting Rovers, the last decade has been immense for the club.

Happy days, when all's said and done.

[Alan Southstand]

There are far more, who have suffered for the experience. I'd like to think we can cope with our management structure and come away smelling of roses......but like I said, more than happy to wait and equally happy like a pig in shit that we are in the CCC playing against some cracking clubs

Couldn't agree more, but we have to be mindful that, if we let the grass grow under our feet, we will fall back to the lower reaches (and we now know how difficult it is to get out of there!).

[CusworthRovers]

Yep, the evidence is clearly there though that we have a chairman who is a very shrewd intelligent man, and I'm sure he will not allow that said grass to grow........well he hasn't up to now.

I appreciate there has been another thread on this (but kinda links in), and one River Don is passionate about, but we are in a situation where we are going to be given a stack of money (to assist the board in not allowing that said grass to grow) for f**k all really, and this is giving us a massive leg up to stave off relegation to L1 and effectively giving us more clout than ever before. It may be deemed filthy lucre, but as I've touched on before, we cannot and should not turn it down. We are caught in a situation that we have to take advantage of. Yes, it's nowhere near the Prem parachute payouts in competing with the Burnleys, but it's approx £2m more than what the L1 clubs are getting. If Burnley want to use the money to have another bash at the Prem, then good luck to them, my aspirations are still sustaining CCC status and we hopefully don't need the Prem money for that, I'd like to think we can hopefully do it on the CCC handout money.

[donnybez]

I think anyone who is seriously ambitious about us making Premier League should watch a montage of Mr Richardson, Charlton, Hull, Portsmouth and ask is it worth it

Truth is i like it here. Much better then rotten friday night games where we're being beaten 2-0 by Northwich Victoria

If we by some miricle made Premiership, i'd be happy if we used that summer to say \"Right heres your budget for transfers, not much more then this seasons, i want you to also sign a youngster\" while the rest is used building for a future campaign to return, with an excellent youth and traing facillity, improvements to our infrastructure and stadia and perhaps coaching team and maybe to keep ticket prices down in order to attract more fans

Truth is i wouldnt want us to go up till we have a bigger stadia because i can't see me getting a ticket as often as i can now for my beloved Rovers