to the people that question saunders

[bpoolrover]

What would you do to turn it round? sod could not do it,at least saunders is trying he has brought in quality players in a short space of time yet people want rid of him or say he is not up to the task,please tell me and him if he reads this what he should do?

[Hag]

He should work hard as he can to improve things, BUT he is already doing that.

He is having to make do with the best of what he was left by SOD, which wasn't that good was it, and add to it to the best of his ability, which he IS doing, how many managers/agents do we know who could bring the quality of players we are seeing coming to the Rovers!
I doubt King Kev could bring bigger names, Id love to see him try, but that's never going to happen.
Give the guy time, Mourinho couldn't turn what SOD left into a good championship side.

[madmick50]

Resign immediately. If not for the sake of the club he needs to think of his poor wife. If he's so miserable after not winning then God help his marriage.

[Filo]

Resign immediately. If not for the sake of the club he needs to think of his poor wife. If he's so miserable after not winning then God help his marriage.

Assuming you`re married madmick, it`s your wife I feel sorry for, she must have the patience of a saint or be stone deaf, if your repetitive nature on here is replicated in your home life

[stokerover]

Hmmm... I went to the game last night and have just listened to Saunders interview on BBC.

3rd goal he says Henderson was stood where Goulon would have been had he not been took off and they happened to put the ball right in that spot. I haven't seen highlights yet but from what I can remember Henderson got in front of Wilson (who replaced Goulon).

This to me shows complete inept tactics. Why the F is Wilson marking Henderson? Surely if you take off your biggest player in Goulon you put the biggest player now on the field to replace him when marking, i.e. Fortune?

Also, Habib Beye was 1 million times worse than Sam Hird last night. In the interview the interviewer questions Saunders a couple of times about Habib Beye making mistakes and he seems to turn the blame on Hird or Gillett, Stock.

This is bang out of order! Is he not allowed to criticise the loan players? Beye for the second goal was ridiculous, trying to cut inside like he's in the peak of his career playing in the Premiership. He should of just got rid of the ball. 9,062 fans in the stadium last night would have agreed that Beye was to blame for the second goal, yet Saunders quickly shifts the blame to the other non-loanees?

Stinks in my opinion.

[madmick50]

Hmmm... I went to the game last night and have just listened to Saunders interview on BBC.

3rd goal he says Henderson was stood where Goulon would have been had he not been took off and they happened to put the ball right in that spot. I haven't seen highlights yet but from what I can remember Henderson got in front of Wilson (who replaced Goulon).

This to me shows complete inept tactics. Why the F is Wilson marking Henderson? Surely if you take off your biggest player in Goulon you put the biggest player now on the field to replace him when marking, i.e. Fortune?

Also, Habib Beye was 1 million times worse than Sam Hird last night. In the interview the interviewer questions Saunders a couple of times about Habib Beye making mistakes and he seems to turn the blame on Hird or Gillett, Stock.

This is bang out of order! Is he not allowed to criticise the loan players? Beye for the second goal was ridiculous, trying to cut inside like he's in the peak of his career playing in the Premiership. He should of just got rid of the ball. 9,062 fans in the stadium last night would have agreed that Beye was to blame for the second goal, yet Saunders quickly shifts the blame to the other non-loanees?

Stinks in my opinion.

If you listen to his interview after the game on Saturday he only singled out the misfits for praise. Even when prompted by the interviewer to praise Hird he couldn't bring himself to do it.

[NorthNorfolkRover]

Do we know is saunders personally due a cut of any deals ? A good sales man has to talk his product up even if hes sellig a turd.

[madmick50]

Do we know is saunders personally due a cut of any deals ? A good sales man has to talk his product up even if hes sellig a turd.

Think you might be onto something there.

[vaya]

Prove it.

[VikingJames]

Flawed football fan/forum logic...

We were losing every week under SOD - it wasn't SOD's fault.
We're losing under Saunders - it's Saunders' fault.

[benaldo]

Hmmm... I went to the game last night and have just listened to Saunders interview on BBC.

3rd goal he says Henderson was stood where Goulon would have been had he not been took off and they happened to put the ball right in that spot. I haven't seen highlights yet but from what I can remember Henderson got in front of Wilson (who replaced Goulon).

This to me shows complete inept tactics. Why the F is Wilson marking Henderson? Surely if you take off your biggest player in Goulon you put the biggest player now on the field to replace him when marking, i.e. Fortune?

Also, Habib Beye was 1 million times worse than Sam Hird last night. In the interview the interviewer questions Saunders a couple of times about Habib Beye making mistakes and he seems to turn the blame on Hird or Gillett, Stock.

This is bang out of order! Is he not allowed to criticise the loan players? Beye for the second goal was ridiculous, trying to cut inside like he's in the peak of his career playing in the Premiership. He should of just got rid of the ball. 9,062 fans in the stadium last night would have agreed that Beye was to blame for the second goal, yet Saunders quickly shifts the blame to the other non-loanees?

Stinks in my opinion.

If you listen to his interview after the game on Saturday he only singled out the misfits for praise. Even when prompted by the interviewer to praise Hird he couldn't bring himself to do it.

I think that's a disgrace. I mean, Sam Hird is a reknowned top class defender with a pedigree as long as your arm isn't he. Look, he had his best ever game, in my opinion, last Saturday, but if he's a championship centre back of top class then you might as well ask JR to get his boots on.

And I totally agree with viking james synopsis - We spent 8 months losing and half of you kept blaming the players, the weather, the pitch, the refs, the board.....now we are losing and it's practically treason to blame the players and there's a queue at the \"throw a brick at the manager\" stall!!!! Good god.......

[ditch_drfc]

Resign immediately. If not for the sake of the club he needs to think of his poor wife. If he's so miserable after not winning then God help his marriage.

Assuming you`re married madmick, it`s your wife I feel sorry for, she must have the patience of a saint or be stone deaf, if your repetitive nature on here is replicated in your home life

Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!

[madmick50]

Assuming you`re married madmick, it`s your wife I feel sorry for, she must have the patience of a saint or be stone deaf, if your repetitive nature on here is replicated in your home life

When I told my wife of your comments she said 'Pardon, what did you say?' So I told her 20 times before I gave up and let her read your comments on the computer instead.

[River Don]

Flawed football fan/forum logic...

We were losing every week under SOD - it wasn't SOD's fault.
We're losing under Saunders - it's Saunders' fault.

Losing every week under SOD - Lot's of injuries, lot's of bad luck
Losing every week under Saunders - Still too early to say

[benaldo]

Assuming you`re married madmick, it`s your wife I feel sorry for, she must have the patience of a saint or be stone deaf, if your repetitive nature on here is replicated in your home life

When I told my wife of your comments she said 'Pardon, what did you say?' So I told her 20 times before I gave up and let her read your comments on the computer instead.

Couldn't she hear you over the din of the hoover? Tea on the table at 5 at your house?

[VikingJames]

Flawed football fan/forum logic...

We were losing every week under SOD - it wasn't SOD's fault.
We're losing under Saunders - it's Saunders' fault.

Losing every week under SOD - Lot's of injuries, lot's of bad luck
Losing every week under Saunders - Still too early to say

And a style that wasn't getting us anywhere, yet he was unwilling to change. Same problems every game, not as good a football as people made out, and poor negative substitutions. Too loyal to shite/crocked players. Failure to resolve problems that stuck out like a sore thumb (GK, defence.) There was a lot more going wrong under SOD that was within his control than people are willing to admit IMO.

[benaldo]

It was ultimately SODs unwillingness to change that got him in contention for the Doncaster district roses club of the year \"most promising new member\".
Didn't he turn down Charlie Adam a before his move to blackpool? Didn't he continue to play his system after losing with it for 8 months? And probably most importantly, it's more than likely he opted out of the boards scheme with Mackay isn't it?

OK, so things aren't completely fixed yet, but anyone who thinks the players Saunders has brought in are rubbish needs to rewind to the end of last season and look at the \"talent\" Rovers had on display and remember the feeling of utter hopelessness that anything would get better.

[Rovin Reporter]

What would you do to turn it round? sod could not do it,at least saunders is trying he has brought in quality players in a short space of time yet people want rid of him or say he is not up to the task,please tell me and him
if he reads this what he should do?

.Dean Saunders is starting to become very predictable in his interviews.. he slags off the SOD players ( something SOD nver did ) and completely ignores the  shop window players. Since coming to Rovers he has failed to bring a team spirit to the club. under SOD we never needed to question  as it was there for all to see, we punched above our weight and teams we very wary of this , for this  is called team spirit. and  in-spite of all the quality in the squad , it is there to see that players are not pulling the same direction, When Billy can score 2 in a game and we still get beat only shows that the problems we had for the last 2 years have NOT been addressed and like most managers who have never played at the back  forget that points are won by clean sheets and not by just scoring more than your opponent  , we can all ask questions ,but this IS  a results based league , and we are not getting the right results for me,

[WhiteyBFC]

Listening to Saunders on deedar earlier.. I dont remember verbatim what he said, but it was sumat along the lines of \"we need good players...\"
That is sooooo wrong. Glad he's not our manager. In fact, where our Keef sometimes goes too far in defending our lads, your guy seems quite happy to pretty much write off his own.
The good players remark can be read in many ways, but the way he said it was clear.. he basically admits with that statement that the current lads are sh*te.. He also said sumat about \"proper top players dont make these mistakes every week..\"
And thats just as inane a comment. Of course they dont Dean. But this is Doncaster, with average players, and the odd good player. If you are hinting that the likes of Beye and Goulon are \"top players\" then you are mistaken. They wouldnt be at KMS if they were. And didnt Beye make a mistake or 2??
Its like your manager is saying that you can only stay up with top/good players... and thats bizarre.
Didnt Blackpool go up the other year? Hull, Burnley, and our good selves? Swansea and Norwich last year? And thats PROMOTION, not just staying up. They didnt need a shed-load of Prem rejects, or top players. They DID have top players though, but players who werent - until then - thought of as top players.
They built a squad of players with sumat to prove. Team spirit is an essential attribute of any - relatively - successful team.
And nothing that Ive heard (radio), read (online), been told (by Donny fans/friends) or seen (at Oakwell the other week) suggests that team spirit is evident at your club.
It gets more sad, more head-scratching by the minute whats going off at the KMS.. and I repeat as I always say, I take no joy in it.
I find it quite strange too, that most of you on ere are so quick to rubbish possibly the best manager you've had.
Billy is your best player, and who signed him? And Oster, Coppinger, Mills, Shackell, Bennett, Hayter and so on...?
Ive said before that maybe he had to leave, sometimes its best. But that should have been the summer. He had watched over 6 months+ of bad bad form. But he had terrible injuries to deal with. And maybe he didnt want the 'shop window' strategy because he knew it was stupid, and doomed as a strategy..? And so he didnt want that on his CV after working so hard to build a reputation for the complete opposite..?
From a TEAM playing 'FOOT-ball' to mercenaries playing 'hoofball'

[dickos1]

What would you do to turn it round? sod could not do it,at least saunders is trying he has brought in quality players in a short space of time yet people want rid of him or say he is not up to the task,please tell me and him
if he reads this what he should do?

.Dean Saunders is starting to become very predictable in his interviews.. he slags off the SOD players ( something SOD nver did ) and completely ignores the  shop window players. Since coming to Rovers he has failed to bring a team spirit to the club. under SOD we never needed to question  as it was there for all to see, we punched above our weight and teams we very wary of this , for this  is called team spirit. and  in-spite of all the quality in the squad , it is there to see that players are not pulling the same direction, When Billy can score 2 in a game and we still get beat only shows that the problems we had for the last 2 years have NOT been addressed and like most managers who have never played at the back  forget that points are won by clean sheets and not by just scoring more than your opponent  , we can all ask questions ,but this IS  a results based league , and we are not getting the right results for me,

Off the top of my head, sod openly criticised hird, dumbuya, oster, heffernan.

[dickos1]

I don't think Saunders thinks clean sheets are all that matters. If you listen to his interviews all he talks about is keeping clean sheets. Like he did successfully at Wrexham.
We've had many problems for a year now, and it's not sensible to believe a manager can solve all of these in 12 games!

[dickos1]

I meant to say Saunders does know we need to keep clean sheets!

[madmick50]

Dean Saunders is starting to become very predictable in his interviews.. he slags off the SOD players ( something SOD nver did ) and completely ignores the shop window players. Since coming to Rovers he has failed to bring a team spirit to the club. under SOD we never needed to question as it was there for all to see, we punched above our weight and teams we very wary of this , for this is called team spirit. and in-spite of all the quality in the squad , it is there to see that players are not pulling the same direction, When Billy can score 2 in a game and we still get beat only shows that the problems we had for the last 2 years have NOT been addressed and like most managers who have never played at the back forget that points are won by clean sheets and not by just scoring more than your opponent , we can all ask questions ,but this IS a results based league , and we are not getting the right results for me,

The fact he slags off the old guard and never the new guard shows his complete lack of understanding of man management. He also never ever takes any of the blame himself. No wonder there is no team spirit. Another thing that he does in interviews is say 'you know' a lot. I've always thought anyone that does this shows a lack of intelligence (Frank Bruno, David Beckham etc).

[madmick50]

Listening to Saunders on deedar earlier.. I dont remember verbatim what he said, but it was sumat along the lines of \"we need good players...\"
That is sooooo wrong. Glad he's not our manager. In fact, where our Keef sometimes goes too far in defending our lads, your guy seems quite happy to pretty much write off his own.
The good players remark can be read in many ways, but the way he said it was clear.. he basically admits with that statement that the current lads are sh*te.. He also said sumat about \"proper top players dont make these mistakes every week..\"
And thats just as inane a comment. Of course they dont Dean. But this is Doncaster, with average players, and the odd good player. If you are hinting that the likes of Beye and Goulon are \"top players\" then you are mistaken. They wouldnt be at KMS if they were. And didnt Beye make a mistake or 2??
Its like your manager is saying that you can only stay up with top/good players... and thats bizarre.
Didnt Blackpool go up the other year? Hull, Burnley, and our good selves? Swansea and Norwich last year? And thats PROMOTION, not just staying up. They didnt need a shed-load of Prem rejects, or top players. They DID have top players though, but players who werent - until then - thought of as top players.
They built a squad of players with sumat to prove. Team spirit is an essential attribute of any - relatively - successful team.
And nothing that Ive heard (radio), read (online), been told (by Donny fans/friends) or seen (at Oakwell the other week) suggests that team spirit is evident at your club.
It gets more sad, more head-scratching by the minute whats going off at the KMS.. and I repeat as I always say, I take no joy in it.
I find it quite strange too, that most of you on ere are so quick to rubbish possibly the best manager you've had.
Billy is your best player, and who signed him? And Oster, Coppinger, Mills, Shackell, Bennett, Hayter and so on...?
Ive said before that maybe he had to leave, sometimes its best. But that should have been the summer. He had watched over 6 months+ of bad bad form. But he had terrible injuries to deal with. And maybe he didnt want the 'shop window' strategy because he knew it was stupid, and doomed as a strategy..? And so he didnt want that on his CV after working so hard to build a reputation for the complete opposite..?
From a TEAM playing 'FOOT-ball' to mercenaries playing 'hoofball'

Wise words. My thoughts entirely.

[Donnybax]

I know i dont no what we do in training but Im not sure saunders has us fully prepared especially after a break when he has the most time to do so. We seem to go out not knowing what system we are playing, if we want to play long ball or on the ground and when a player comes off who then marks his player,like milwall on tuesday. I do accept he needs more time to get his own system and the way he wants us to play but im not sure how much time we actually have.

[dickos1]

Stop talking about team spirit, a subject you have no idea about. Think you should have a think about why the only person who agrees with you entirely is a Barnsley fan!!

[benaldo]

Like it or not SOD isn't the manager anymore. It's just simple now, support what Rovers are trying to do....or don't.

It's easy to say that SOD brought some good players to the KM, he did, but a lot of them aren't the same players anymore, for a whole load of reasons...injury, age, being the most important two. I wish Brian Stock was spraying the ball from midfield like he used to and getting forward sometimes to test their keeper, but he doesn't (his back maybe is crippling him?), I wish Coppinger could breeze past full backs and into the area like he used to....but he doesn't now, I wish we had concentrated on defenders and a keeper in the summer transfers..but we didn't.

Loads of things conspired against SOD...the board wouldn't give him any money is probably the biggest, but at the end of the day he was left with a bunch of poorly performing, ageing, injury prone, players. You can't blame him for that.

And I still maintain that team spirit isn't as important as you suggest. Give me a team of talented, fit, skillfull players who hate each other any day! I really think the team spirit element of football is fading as players look towards themselves over their teams. It's now all about individuals rather than a team. Look at the profiles of some of the top footballers, all the adverts they do, the money they have, the individual is more important than the squad. No team building in the world is going ot help a group of players who will not be staying their whole careers at one team....and that goes for every single Rovers player in that squad today.

That guy goes on about \"who signed sharp\", and I think it's common knowledge that the board signed him...and only a madman would have turned that offer down as a manager wouldn't they? He also signed some complete tosh too though......

When he says that these \"top players\" aren't top players because they are at Rovers, I don't believe that for a second, it sounds like sour grapes to me. Any team in teh championship would surely rip someones hand off if they were offered Diouf on next to nothing, or Fortune, or Goulon, or Ikeme. These players are TOP players at this level, jesus christ..our strike force is probably the best in the league by a mile...Diouf, Sharp, Fortune....there isn't a team our there that would turn any of those three down!

ps Blackpool went up that year after spending 133% of their total income on players wages alone. Hardly a ramshackle team of \"good spirited\" try hards was it????!! And hardly good business sense either!

Rovers will get this system working. And until 8 months have passed without a win, I'm sticking with it.

[Akinfenwa]

Another thing that he does in interviews is say 'you know' a lot. I've always thought anyone that does this shows a lack of intelligence (Frank Bruno, David Beckham etc).

Did you ever listen to O'Driscoll's interviews?

[madmick50]

Stop talking about team spirit, a subject you have no idea about. Think you should have a think about why the only person who agrees with you entirely is a Barnsley fan!!

I don't care who he supports. I could have written that post myself.  The only difference would have been that I would definitely have kept SOD. I like all South Yorkshire teams to do well and admire what Barnsley are doing and the progress they have made.

[madmick50]

Did you ever listen to O'Driscoll's interviews?

I said a lot. I don't mind people doing it occasionally. It's a fact that anyone that uses that phrase excessively is not the sharpest tool in the box.