JR tipping rovers to return

[roverstillidie91]

Article from the star

http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football/doncaster/doncaster-rovers-will-return-john-ryan-1-4499119#


DONCASTER Rovers’ chairman John Ryan delivered an upbeat message at the club’s end-of-season presentation evening at The Dome.


Speaking just hours after seeing the club go down 3-2 at home to Ipswich Town in their final game of the season, he pledged: “We’ll soon be back (in the Championship).

“We had five years in the Conference and then we won on that glorious day (Promotion Play-off final) in Stoke, then one year in League Two where we won the league that year and a lot of people made a lot of money on odds of 33-1.

“Then we had four years in League One, during which time we won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. We are back in that again (next season) so we can win that again, and we’ve just had four years in the Championship.

“Four great years; I’ve loved being in the Championship and I certainly want us to get back there pretty quickly.

“The last time (we were relegated) it took us 50 years to get back and it’s got to be a lot quicker than that for me anyway, so we’ll be looking to bounce straight back.

“Dean (Saunders) is very enthusiastic, as is his staff. We are going to build a squad with the current players we’ve got to challenge to get straight back into the Championship.

“Peterborough did it last year and we are a lot better team than them and there is no reason why we shouldn’t do it at the first time of asking. ”

He added: “In the Championship we have been regarded as a small club - never in my mind - but generally speaking.

“But the nice thing about League One is that we’ll be regarded as one of the bigger clubs and hopefully we’ll be able to get seven or eight thousand at the Keepmoat Stadium next season.

“We are a team which has achieved success; we’ve had a bad season but sometimes you have to take a step back to then take two steps forward.

“I fervently believe that next season will be a great season for Doncaster Rovers and we’ll be pushing for a place at the top of League One.”

The Rovers’ chief also congratulated ex-striker Billy Sharp on winning promotion to the top flight with Southampton, who he joined from Rovers in January, earlier in the day.

He also praised Doncaster’s elected mayor, Peter Davies, who he said had been ‘most helpful’ in negotiations between Doncaster Council and the club over plans to sell Rovers the stadium during the summer.

Skipper George Friend, who received the Supporters’ Club Player of the Season award before the Ipswich game, pipped other nominations, Kyle Bennett, Sam Hird, El Hadji Diouf, Tommy Spurr and Simon Gillett, to pick up the One Call Insurance Player of the Season award.

Brian Stock’s match-winner in the 2-1 win at Peterborough in September, won him the club’s Goal of the Season award. Bennett, who had two goals in the final four, and Gillett were also nominated.

Defender James Husband lifted the Young Players’ Player of the Season award.

 The entire youth team, who play Exeter City in the Football League Alliance Cup final at St James’ Park tomorrow night, shared the Youth team Player of the Year award.

[Belle-Vue-Ghost]

Great article.  Its nice to see some positives flowing through the club again.

Hope hes right about a push for promotion next season 

[MrFrost]

To be fair, he isn't going to come out and say we are going to be battling against relegation again. I really don't know what to expect next season. It is going to be a huge change in squad personel, and it may take time for them to gel.

[jonnydog]

Promotion/Play-offs, fair enough if we can do it... But IMO I would much rather spend a season building a very good, young, fresh team then push forward with a team that could hold their own in the championship with minimal injuries etc...

[Thinwhiteduke]

We're a much better team than Peterborough? Really?

[Rios]

We're a much better team than Peterborough? Really?

I agree.  Surely JR is showing them as little respect as the rest of the Championship showed us.  Peterborough went down and were just as poor as we've been this season, but kept most of the team together and bounced back.  Clearing the decks, whilst badly needed, means it's going to be very difficult for Saunders to have any sort of consistency... a bit like this season really!

[The Red Baron]

This article is interesting:

http://www.seagulls.co.uk/page/Latest/0,,10433~2754632,00.html

However, he clearly doesn't understand the situation at Rovers, where we HAVE been paying higher wages than the norm and therefore will not be able to keep the squad together.

As for Peterborough, they will face a dilemma this summer. They'll have bigger clubs in for some of their players and will either have to sell (and recruit new blood to replace) or offer their squad higher wages. Sound familiar? It'll be interesting to see how they resolve the problem.

[RobTheRover]

Peterborough actually fought tooth and nail to keep one or two of their "star" players - Boyd, Mackail-Smith and McCann notably.  That was a clear sign of intent and ambition.

I'm not sure we have anyone in the same category most supporters would consider a disaster if we lost this summer, do we?  Copps, maybe?  Friend?  Spurr?

The difference, I guess, is that the players Peterborough fought to keep were the ones who would get the goals to fire them out of L1.  None of the ones we might want to keep will do that for us.  That makes it a much tougher proposition, to me.

[jonnydog]

especially considering we HAVE no players who can get the goals to fire us out of League 1.

... A goal scorer is one of the first things we need to secure!

[Norfolk N Chance]

Very poor division indeed with the likes of Pompey / coventry likley to have financial hardship

[RobTheRover]

Very poor division indeed with the likes of Pompey / coventry likley to have financial hardship

I agree, Martin.  I'm sure JR sees it like that too.  With Charlton and 2 of Wednesday, United, Hudders, MKDons and Stevenage (spit) also leaving the division, and nothing of any real note coming up from L2 (Swindon will be mid-table at best, I reckon) there will be a lot of dross there for the taking if we can keep a core of players here and strengthen with some young talent.

[Filo]

All these noises coming out of the club don`t fill me with any confidence at all, we seem to be advertising our players all over the place and we`ll have to probably recieve next to nothing for them!

[RoversAlias]

Very poor division indeed with the likes of Pompey / coventry likley to have financial hardship

Very true, besides those two and whichever one of the Sheffields/Huddersfield doesn't go up, there are no 'big' teams in the division and there is certainly nobody that we should fear.

[Chris Black come back]

Although

Very poor division indeed with the likes of Pompey / coventry likley to have financial hardship

Very true, besides those two and whichever one of the Sheffields/Huddersfield doesn't go up, there are no 'big' teams in the division and there is certainly nobody that we should fear.

Although saying all that, we have been crap for two years now (REALLY crap) and starting to become a winning team again will take time, whoever we are playing against. Anyone care to remember the 'performance' against Notts County this season for instance?

Saunders has got it bang on in his interview after the game on Saturday. Nowhere near tough enough for the Championship. Arguably even weaker facing League One. I can see him giving Keegan a contract.

[Thinwhiteduke]

especially considering we HAVE no players who can get the goals to fire us out of League 1.

... A goal scorer is one of the first things we need to secure!

We need what all succesfull teams need - a solid, quality spine:

Competent Goalkeeper (not the existing one)
Competent Centre Half
Competent Central Midfielder
Competent Centre Foward

...and build from there.

[bedale rover]

especially considering we HAVE no players who can get the goals to fire us out of League 1.

... A goal scorer is one of the first things we need to secure!

We need what all succesfull teams need - a solid, quality spine:

Competent Goalkeeper (not the existing one)
Competent Centre Half
Competent Central Midfielder
Competent Centre Foward

...and build from there.

definitely and players playing his position

[The_Rooky]

Back to the OP, we mustn't forget that JR will play a big part in convincing future players to sign for us and that this is a club looking to move forward again (as he has done over the past 10 years or so!!). It's really important that he remains positive and upbeat about our chances next season - so let's not knock him for that. There are enough of us fans (sometimes me included!!) that are aren't even as optimistic as 'half empty'!!

We really do need to try and rebuild confidence right across our football club - supporters, players, coaching staff etc.