SOD to retire

[atick45]

Just been reading in The Sun today that Sean is to retire at the end of the season whether Bristol stay up or not . Very surprised at that. 

[RobTheRover]

And this is in the Sun , you say?

[silent majority]

No he's not, he's issued a firm rebuttal.

[steve@dcfd]

And this is in the Sun , you say?

O'Driscoll slams retirement speculation

Sean O'Driscoll has rubbished a newspaper report suggesting he plans to retire at the end of this season.

Speculation in today’s edition of The Sun claimed the City head coach would retire from football this summer, regardless of whether the club will be playing in the Championship or League One in 2013/14.

O’Driscoll told bcfc.co.uk: “It’s certainly news to me!

“I've spent the past three months trying to set in motion a complete culture change at this football club and I’m already looking ahead at our plans for next season, including recruitment and the integration of the Academy with the first team.

“I've spoken at length in the past week about the plans to rebuild this club on a firmer, more sustainable footing and believe strongly that what we are doing is the right thing for the long-term future of the club.

“I've got absolutely no idea where this totally inaccurate, non-story has come from but there is not a single grain of truth in it.”

[atick45]

Thought it was very strange. Think they just print what they like, but strange thing to come up with
 

[Donnyjim]

A school of thought would argue that he retired in 2011?

[pubteam]

A school of thought would argue that he retired in 2011?

  Get your tin hat on.

[Donnyjim]

A school of thought would argue that he retired in 2011?

  Get your tin hat on.

Will do pubteam! ;-)

[CGJ]

"the integration of the Academy with the first team".

Novel idea for him - Pity he didn't think of that when he was here. Not sure he was even aware such things existed.

[DonnyOsmond]

"the integration of the Academy with the first team".

Novel idea for him - Pity he didn't think of that when he was here. Not sure he was even aware such things existed.

Uh oh.

[Belle-Vue-Ghost]

INCOMING!! 

[BillyStubbsTears]

“I've spent the past three months trying to set in motion a complete culture change at this football club and I’m already looking ahead at our plans for next season, including recruitment and the integration of the Academy with the first team.

“I've spoken at length in the past week about the plans to rebuild this club on a firmer, more sustainable footing and believe strongly that what we are doing is the right thing for the long-term future of the club.

What was it some folk on here said about Saunders using exactly the same words at Wolves that he used here?

[Filo]

“I've spent the past three months trying to set in motion a complete culture change at this football club and I’m already looking ahead at our plans for next season, including recruitment and the integration of the Academy with the first team.

“I've spoken at length in the past week about the plans to rebuild this club on a firmer, more sustainable footing and believe strongly that what we are doing is the right thing for the long-term future of the club.

What was it some folk on here said about Saunders using exactly the same words at Wolves that he used here?

The difference BST is one`s a Saint and the other the Antichrist!

[VivaRovers]

The difference is that one just did it, whilst the other said it and didn't do anything.

Whilst Saunders may have trumpeted youth involvement, he didn't involve himself in that side of things beyond the signing of James Husband. He wasn't even there watching when the youth team won the cup the other year.

O'Driscoll did follow the youth team, and watch them regularly. Perhaps he didn't feel that any were able/suitable to making the step up at the time.

Anyone can bowl into a new club and say "I believe in bringing youth team players through" to get the fans onside. I'd have more faith in O'Driscoll delivering a structure for that to happen than Saunders.

[AbsolutDRFC]

The difference is that one just did it, whilst the other said it and didn't do anything.

Whilst Saunders may have trumpeted youth involvement, he didn't involve himself in that side of things beyond the signing of James Husband. He wasn't even there watching when the youth team won the cup the other year.

O'Driscoll did follow the youth team, and watch them regularly. Perhaps he didn't feel that any were able/suitable to making the step up at the time.

Anyone can bowl into a new club and say "I believe in bringing youth team players through" to get the fans onside. I'd have more faith in O'Driscoll delivering a structure for that to happen than Saunders.

Yawn yawn yawn,
how would you know how much involvement Saunders had on a day to day basis; or even SOD?

It's easy from the outside to make such comments without real evidence either way.

Fair enough on your "opinion" about having more faith in SOD delivering.
But he didn't do that at DRFC and Saunders left before we really got to see what would've/could've/should've been delivered.

[VivaRovers]

I don't see why my reply gets "Yawn yawn yawn", when I'm just offering the other side to everything that's been written above. I don't want to see this debate flagged up, but I feel if it is then its important to offer the other side.

I wasn't commenting on what was delivered from the youth team, just observing that its one thing to say you'll involve youth and be committed to that, but another thing to do it.

The number of the players who have graduated from the Rovers youth team to first team over the last decade has been disappointing, but then these things take time to develop, and the first team's relatively rapid rise from 2002-2008 won't have helped that.

[Lincoln Rover]

Viva Rovers. I am with you sir. If I were going to build a team from scratch and I don't mean on a unlimited budget, sir Sean would get my call. But that's just my opinion.

[AbsolutDRFC]

I don't see why my reply gets "Yawn yawn yawn", when I'm just offering the other side to everything that's been written above. I don't want to see this debate flagged up, but I feel if it is then its important to offer the other side.

I wasn't commenting on what was delivered from the youth team, just observing that its one thing to say you'll involve youth and be committed to that, but another thing to do it.

The number of the players who have graduated from the Rovers youth team to first team over the last decade has been disappointing, but then these things take time to develop, and the first team's relatively rapid rise from 2002-2008 won't have helped that.

Because you turned it into the same old debate but without real evidence.
Dean may not have been at Exeter, but that doesn't mean he wasn't committed to it.
He may have already had a prior engagement. Who is to know!

If there was a commitment to youth between 2006-2012 (for example); why did the reserve team get scrapped under SOD (which historically would've been a better development area for getting the players through)?

[Chris]

I don't see why my reply gets "Yawn yawn yawn", when I'm just offering the other side to everything that's been written above. I don't want to see this debate flagged up, but I feel if it is then its important to offer the other side.

I wasn't commenting on what was delivered from the youth team, just observing that its one thing to say you'll involve youth and be committed to that, but another thing to do it.

The number of the players who have graduated from the Rovers youth team to first team over the last decade has been disappointing, but then these things take time to develop, and the first team's relatively rapid rise from 2002-2008 won't have helped that.

Because you turned it into the same old debate but without real evidence.
Dean may not have been at Exeter, but that doesn't mean he wasn't committed to it.
He may have already had a prior engagement. Who is to know!

If there was a commitment to youth between 2006-2012 (for example); why did the reserve team get scrapped under SOD (which historically would've been a better development area for getting the players through)?

The same reason it is yet to be brought back. Cost.

[Sheepskin Stu]

I thought the reserve team got scrapped at board level due to lack of funds?

[Filo]

The difference is that one just did it, whilst the other said it and didn't do anything.

Whilst Saunders may have trumpeted youth involvement, he didn't involve himself in that side of things beyond the signing of James Husband. He wasn't even there watching when the youth team won the cup the other year.

O'Driscoll did follow the youth team, and watch them regularly. Perhaps he didn't feel that any were able/suitable to making the step up at the time.

Anyone can bowl into a new club and say "I believe in bringing youth team players through" to get the fans onside. I'd have more faith in O'Driscoll delivering a structure for that to happen than Saunders.

John Maxted, Liam Wakefield, Jordan Ball, all in the match day squad against Crewe, Paddy Mullen and Jake McCormick, might all beg to differ with your opinion, all given Professional contracts along with James Husband by Saunders

[GazLaz]

How many top players has Paul Wilson brough through at Scunny or here?? Not many. There's the issue.

[Chris]

The difference is that one just did it, whilst the other said it and didn't do anything.

Whilst Saunders may have trumpeted youth involvement, he didn't involve himself in that side of things beyond the signing of James Husband. He wasn't even there watching when the youth team won the cup the other year.

O'Driscoll did follow the youth team, and watch them regularly. Perhaps he didn't feel that any were able/suitable to making the step up at the time.

Anyone can bowl into a new club and say "I believe in bringing youth team players through" to get the fans onside. I'd have more faith in O'Driscoll delivering a structure for that to happen than Saunders.

John Maxted, Liam Wakefield, Jordan Ball, all in the match day squad against Crewe, Paddy Mullen and Jake McCormick, might all beg to differ with your opinion, all given Professional contracts along with James Husband by Saunders

You can also name a list of youth players who came into the first team and sat on the bench (when we had a significantly stronger squad) under Sean O'Driscoll.

Pointless debate.

[Filo]

It only becomes pointless when someone offers an opinion you don`t agree with.


we`re on the verge of a return to the championship with a different manager and some folk still can`t let go of the past and move on!

[pubteam]

The difference is that one just did it, whilst the other said it and didn't do anything.

Whilst Saunders may have trumpeted youth involvement, he didn't involve himself in that side of things beyond the signing of James Husband. He wasn't even there watching when the youth team won the cup the other year.

O'Driscoll did follow the youth team, and watch them regularly. Perhaps he didn't feel that any were able/suitable to making the step up at the time.

Anyone can bowl into a new club and say "I believe in bringing youth team players through" to get the fans onside. I'd have more faith in O'Driscoll delivering a structure for that to happen than Saunders.

I don't think BST is referring specifically to the youth team comments anyway. I think it's more of a general remark about how people mocked Saunders for saying similar things in the press when he joined Wolves to what he used to say when he was here, yet nobody seems to point out that much of O'Driscoll's rhetoric similarly remains the same wherever he goes.

I could be wrong like, but that's how I read it.

[VivaRovers]

It only becomes pointless when someone offers an opinion you don`t agree with.

Erm no, that's when it actually becomes a debate, not when it becomes pointless.

As Chris says, both O'Driscoll and Saunders added youth team players to the bench, and I would think in similar numbers. You could pick out Wade Fairhurst going into the side in the Championship to counteract Ball scoring earlier this season if you so wish.

My point to follow BST's was that where some folk talk about things, others just get on and do it. Just because SOD didn't bang on about the future being youth doesn't mean he wasn't actively encouraging development of the youth system.

If managers have got a certain style, or an ethos, then they're inevitably going to deliver much the same rhetoric when they move somewhere new - I've no problem with that. What Saunders was picked up for back then was the more obvious crowd pleasing statements he threw in, like "Whenever I've played Doncaster I've always found their fans to be passionate." He'd only played against us twice... more than a decade apart.

Anyway, that's done, done, done and done now.

Onwards to Saturday, via a nosey at Bramall Lane tonight.
 

[pubteam]

It only becomes pointless when someone offers an opinion you don`t agree with.

Erm no, that's when it actually becomes a debate, not when it becomes pointless.

As Chris says, both O'Driscoll and Saunders added youth team players to the bench, and I would think in similar numbers. You could pick out Wade Fairhurst going into the side in the Championship to counteract Ball scoring earlier this season if you so wish.

My point to follow BST's was that where some folk talk about things, others just get on and do it. Just because SOD didn't bang on about the future being youth doesn't mean he wasn't actively encouraging development of the youth system.

If managers have got a certain style, or an ethos, then they're inevitably going to deliver much the same rhetoric when they move somewhere new - I've no problem with that. What Saunders was picked up for back then was the more obvious crowd pleasing statements he threw in, like "Whenever I've played Doncaster I've always found their fans to be passionate." He'd only played against us twice... more than a decade apart.

Anyway, that's done, done, done and done now.

Onwards to Saturday, via a nosey at Bramall Lane tonight.
 

That's fine then, isn't it? If he'd said that having never played here, or if he'd said "I played at Doncaster every year in my career...", then I could see the problem.

[Colin C No.3]

It only becomes pointless when someone offers an opinion you don`t agree with.


we`re on the verge of a return to the championship with a different manager and some folk still can`t let go of the past and move on!

Wind yer neck in Platini!!

[drfcsteve]

When saunders came to us and Wolves he had all this talk about the playoffs, then got us relegated and has led wolves from mid table to second from bottom. It's one thing saying things it's another actually doing them.

[Filo]

When saunders came to us and Wolves he had all this talk about the playoffs, then got us relegated and has led wolves from mid table to second from bottom. It's one thing saying things it's another actually doing them.

Or he could have took over two sinking ships, brought in to refloat them, he did just that with us and thats why we stand on the brink of promotion now!