I hope the fans ambitions are one day matched by those at the club

[selby]

  How much ambition did Knoyle show while he was here? very little in my opinion, far less than good non league full backs like Marples and Tim Ryan showed when we were non league not even in the same class.


























































  We had far better full backs, with far more ability and all round game than knoyle when we were a non league side.  He coukldn't lace Marples and tim Ryan's boots for ability for defending pace or effort.

[idler]

I think that you can add commitment to that as well Brian.
Neither of those two ever shirked a tackle and would have run through  a brick wall for the team.

[sedwardsdrfc]

The last point is the key one Baz.

Sustainable or not, the question remains why, when we have somewhere around the 5th best gates in L2 (and better than many in L1), and are the self-professed best club in the lower leagues at generating income from other sources, are we struggling to get in the play-off mix in League Two?

That points to serious failings in how those resources are managed and deployed, which many of us have been raising as a concern for a number of years. This shows very little sign of improving at the moment, in spite of the “re-structuring” that has taken place. Whether it will prove to be a mistake appointing from within and from a small pool of “known” contacts for this restructure will come out in the wash in the coming months and years.

This is where I’m at. If everything about our business model is true, and I believe it is, why are we underperforming so badly. My hope is we are recovering from the shambles of 2021/22 season and we’ll get our ducks in a row soon.

Obviously question marks around how 2021/22 was allowed to happen but the club have reacted when the problems become obvious. Just need the people who are paid to run the club (off and on the pitch) to do a good job and we should be looking upwards

[Daniel_Smith]

I know you can't buy yourself out of trouble performance wise. No guarantees that buying expensive players will equal more wins. And if you spend outside your means you can get into all sorts of financial trouble!

As a club we always err on the side of caution though, and when we're playing bad we don't quickly run to the cheque book. However, if the club are serious about success on the pitch they have to spend some decent money now and then to get the talent required to climb the leagues.

I feel like the club are more proud of being sustainable then being successful. We're certainly not ambitious anymore in my opinion.

The fair-weather fan isn't going to keep going to games when decent players leave, aren't replaced, and our performances are poor. And as much as some of you might scoff at the importance of those types of fans - they are important. The money they spend account for a big chunk of the money that keeps the club afloat. All they care about is watching good football with good results. If that doesn't happen, then the club's lauded sustainability shibboleth goes with it!

[BillyStubbsTears]

I answered that in my post 53.  So, you believe the club can be considered sustainable whilst its owners have to subsidise the club to cover the annual losses?  I think there's many who would disagree with you.

During those seasons, did we have a waiting list for season tickets?

Why, even at that level, were attendances dropping?

Why did it become unsustainable for JR. I don't recall JR putting a time limit on his contribution. (Don't infer that as a dig a JR)

I go back to his statement back yonder when he took over "I believe the town of Doncaster can support a Championship club) Revisiting that, all these years on, was he right? (I believed that back then)

As I've said before, what was achieved under JRs leadership and financial support from those inc Wetzel, Beresford, then TB and DW was exceptional. It wasn't the norm.

How did the TB and DW recognise the tipping point between sustainable and unsustainable and have to cut our cloth accordingly? Being sustainable gives us the opportunity to grow (or shrink) organically without artificially propping up the club financially and taking huge risks.

We are fortunate to have owners who provide us with that insurance policy. Being better at how we operate the model is another question.   

I'm guessing, but the tipping point seemed to come when the Experiment was supposed to be a low cost marvel but left us with relegation and a wage bill pushing £10 million.

I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the board meetings as that disaster panned out.