Incomings ??

[tyke1962]

We don't need to be looking to be a prem side tho tyke.

Our idea has been to try and have more forward thinking, and look into multi-year contracts, while also developing the production line of our youth system (to what level of success is very debatable). So the strategy has been somewhat correct. The problem, as mentioned, has been that the talent that has been identified and gambled on hasn't been the right talent.

If we listen to the club, the noises they are making is that these problems are due to Wellens and/or other managers solely making decisions on individual players, so they want to change this by using a recruitment panel. IF we take them at their word, and IF Younger and others had limited influence over previous signings, then I'm on board.

Something tells me it could be individuals at the club pinning blame on Wellens rather than taking some form of ownership that these deals still happened on their watch (at best) or they were involved and behind the deals too (at worst)

As I understand it in today's game a manager has the greater say in recruitment but a HC has only a seat around the table and works under a recruitment team .

There will of course be various ways of how this works from club to club but generally speaking that's how it is suppose to work .

I've always had the impression at Rovers that the manager has the greatest say on recruitment , at least it comes over that way whilst our HC's work from a list provided by our recruitment team which is pretty much on the record over here .

The industry standard if you like is that if you get 40% right your doing relatively well .

How that 40% is measured is perhaps the question .

Three season's ago with Kane and Wilks in the side I'd reckon you were way above 40% but unfortunately and unluckily you missed out in the play off semi final .

That percentage has probably come down since that night at The Valley but taking the last 3 and a half seasons in to consideration you'll probably not be far short of the 40% mark .

We would have been way above 40% last year. Pretty much all of the loan signings worked out, with some being exceptionally good acquisitions. Our hit rate this year would be very poor. Only Olowu, Rowe, and Galbraith have been good signings for me, and each of them not knock your socks off brilliant.

Out of interest, where does the 40% figure come from? Have you worked in football tyke, or is it just something you've just come up with, a fan theory? Genuinely interested.

I read an article by the Brentford owner a few years back who said he had a system to beat those 40% odds .

My eyebrows were raised initially until I then read he's made his millions using analytics to beat the bookies in spread betting .

It would appear he was right given the quality of their recruitment , subsequent sales and progress on the pitch .

However it's also due to that £60m initial investment and the fact that Brentford is in West London and a very desirable location to attract young footballers especially from abroad where  Barnsley isn't and nobody put in £60m of investment .

He's beaten the odds in many respects but he's still put a tremendous amount of money in initially and a London location is an extremely understated advantage in my opinion .

[Sammy Chung was King]

Very little will come in and the end game will be Wellens getting blamed for our woes.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

The mixed messaging is unhelpful but let's wait and see. If there aren't players in this week then with a big game this Saturday you have to question the messaging sent out by Gavin Baldwin and David blunt in the statements they made when processing a new manager.

However, we may see players.  Mcsheffrey has already proven that he can play things down as he did when he was asked if he wanted the job, he'd be stupid not to do the same with transfers.

Agree with all of this.

I’ll add that we would need to be very careful of waiting for our top targets. As the month goes on and other clubs start to move, it creates a chain and we’re normally at the bottom of that because we don’t like to force any issue. It could very well leave us with nothing again. Or drawing up a new list at the last minute. And we must avoid the same mistakes again.

DM was caught by the same dilemma waiting for Norwich to release Adam Idah. It's a tough call particularly if you have a player that's tantalising close that you believe will make a big impact.

These are big decisions that are more acute in our position. This is when GM needs the support of those around him to try and make those decisions a little easier including the board who must encourage him and take the finances out of the decision making.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

We don't need to be looking to be a prem side tho tyke.

Our idea has been to try and have more forward thinking, and look into multi-year contracts, while also developing the production line of our youth system (to what level of success is very debatable). So the strategy has been somewhat correct. The problem, as mentioned, has been that the talent that has been identified and gambled on hasn't been the right talent.

If we listen to the club, the noises they are making is that these problems are due to Wellens and/or other managers solely making decisions on individual players, so they want to change this by using a recruitment panel. IF we take them at their word, and IF Younger and others had limited influence over previous signings, then I'm on board.

Something tells me it could be individuals at the club pinning blame on Wellens rather than taking some form of ownership that these deals still happened on their watch (at best) or they were involved and behind the deals too (at worst)

As I understand it in today's game a manager has the greater say in recruitment but a HC has only a seat around the table and works under a recruitment team .

There will of course be various ways of how this works from club to club but generally speaking that's how it is suppose to work .

I've always had the impression at Rovers that the manager has the greatest say on recruitment , at least it comes over that way whilst our HC's work from a list provided by our recruitment team which is pretty much on the record over here .

The industry standard if you like is that if you get 40% right your doing relatively well .

How that 40% is measured is perhaps the question .

Three season's ago with Kane and Wilks in the side I'd reckon you were way above 40% but unfortunately and unluckily you missed out in the play off semi final .

That percentage has probably come down since that night at The Valley but taking the last 3 and a half seasons in to consideration you'll probably not be far short of the 40% mark .

We would have been way above 40% last year. Pretty much all of the loan signings worked out, with some being exceptionally good acquisitions. Our hit rate this year would be very poor. Only Olowu, Rowe, and Galbraith have been good signings for me, and each of them not knock your socks off brilliant.

Out of interest, where does the 40% figure come from? Have you worked in football tyke, or is it just something you've just come up with, a fan theory? Genuinely interested.

I read an article by the Brentford owner a few years back who said he had a system to beat those 40% odds .

My eyebrows were raised initially until I then read he's made his millions using analytics to beat the bookies in spread betting .

It would appear he was right given the quality of their recruitment , subsequent sales and progress on the pitch .

However it's also due to that £60m initial investment and the fact that Brentford is in West London and a very desirable location to attract young footballers especially from abroad where  Barnsley isn't and nobody put in £60m of investment .

He's beaten the odds in many respects but he's still put a tremendous amount of money in initially and a London location is an extremely understated advantage in my opinion .

The Brentford model is a non starter. I wish folk wouldn't see this as an aspiration for ourselves because they don't see what's under the surface. You only have to look at their accounts prior to them achieving their prem status. For all their good trading, there's plenty of wastage and risk on wages on players that haven't made the grade. 

[tyke1962]

And don’t forget the last time we got relegated to League Two in 2015/16, Ferguson did so on the back of an unbelievable run of 16 games where we won 0 (zero), drew 4 and lost 12. This included a run of 7 straight defeats in a row.

When it’s bad, it’s really bad for us.

This is true, however a few notable observations on the back of that:

- After that run, loads of our fans demanded Ferguson must be sacked.
- We didn’t sack him, and we bounced straight back
- But because we fluffed the title, loads of our fans demanded Ferguson must be sacked
- We didn’t sack him, and he stabilised us in League One
- This wasn’t good enough for a load of our fans, who demanded he must be sacked
- He left anyway, and we appointed McCann, who most of our fans didn’t want
- He got us to a dubious penalty shoot out away from the play off final. Then when he left to go to a club in the next division our fans were unhappy as he didn’t show loyalty

The moral of the story? Even when things are alright our fans will moan and demand that heads roll.

Today was a real low. But it would be better for everyone if we stuck together, got some players in and had a crack at the second half of the season drawing on the first half of today.

I think you're right there and we do have a very glass half empty outlook and a paranoa, an insecurity, an obsession about what other clubs think about us, when in reality, there are fans up and down the land with their own concerns and wouldn't give two hoots about us.

There are plenty of clubs who have suffered and you don't have to look too far away towards Bradford, York, Scunthorpe, Chesterfield, Notts County and just think for a minute. Has it really been as bad as some make out ??

It's a very good point Baz , my club is in far more trouble than Rovers right now .

We are set to lose £7m in Sky tv revenue , there's a poll on the main Barnsley board asking whether fans are renewing ST's next season and 57% currently aren't .

We are going to be down by £8m to £9m next season with no cash in the bank and players not worth the money it would take to take that hit .

There's also the small matter that our owners do not put any money in to the club what so ever and it lives and dies under its own weight .

You can pretty much work out where we are heading for the next few years under those scenarios .

Our gates and your gates next season won't be too far apart .

[BillyStubbsTears]

Let's be grown up and honest folks.

I'm usually an inveterate optimist, but regardless of who we sign, looking at the matches coming up, we'll be lucky to get 9 points from the next 9 games. That would leave us needing near playoff form for the final 14 games to survive.

If we don't quickly add serious quality, that side that finished yesterday's game wouldn't get a point from those next nine games. Or indeed from any nine games ever.

As I say, I'm usually the optimist, but I reckon we have a 10% chance of escaping this.

[The Beast]

I keep hearing about Brentford idea, like Tyke says they started with £60m. The truth is that now, more so than in John Ryan’s time, football is just an absolute money pit, you’ve got to be prepared to lose a fortune just to stand still. Listen to Simon Jordan and Lord Sugar, I think they call it the prune juice system, all the money that comes into the game goes straight out to agents and players.
The problem is that FFP doesn’t work, because the rich clubs don’t want it to work, they can afford to lose hundreds of millions, so the market is totally skewed, this will get worse now as Newcastle are on the scene and prepared to waste billions and will sue anybody who tries to stop them. Look at Southampton, you’d think they were a good example of a well run selling club in the prem, they still lose tens of millions, it’s ridiculous, there’s hardly any clubs who don’t run at a deficit.
People come on here and reckon there’s a pot of payers you can buy at reasonable price on reasonable wages, prosper at your club and sell for a profit, it’s really not like that, these players are always a gamble and there’s always dozens of clubs interested.
I can’t see an answer to the predicament we’re in at the moment, we’ve just got to try and get some players in and try and improve, hopefully we’ll get some of the injured players back and try make a fight of it. As fans we’ve got to get behind the team and stop bitching! We’ve got to also temper our expectations, where in the pyramid is a club with a fan base of about 5/6000 realistically going to play. Yes we’re doing shit at the moment but I don’t we can complain about what we’ve been dished up over the last 15 years and we will come back from this.

[DonnyOsmond]

Let's be grown up and honest folks.

I'm usually an inveterate optimist, but regardless of who we sign, looking at the matches coming up, we'll be lucky to get 9 points from the next 9 games. That would leave us needing near playoff form for the final 14 games to survive.

If we don't quickly add serious quality, that side that finished yesterday's game wouldn't get a point from those next nine games. Or indeed from any nine games ever.

As I say, I'm usually the optimist, but I reckon we have a 10% chance of escaping this.

That high?

[MagicMartinoWoods]

it’s really not like that, these players are always a gamble

and that's the rub.
 
The success of a club in our situation will depend on which of those gambles work and which don't. What we are thinking about here is as a club how do you sway the odds in your favour so that more of those gambles pay off than don't.

Clubs that are more successful than others will either a) splash the cash, or b) find out a way to do the above.

Do you do that by picking a manager with contacts and good eye for a player and ability to sell the club? Do you have less power to the manager and have a recruitment panel? Do you use a different system?

That's the point - there is no certainty with these deals for footballers, they are all a risk - we need to trying and work out what's the best way to influence the odds in a favourable way. The way that poker is ultimately all about luck, but a good poker player makes decisions based on best odds in any given situation.

[graingrover]

I think a statement  of real intent is needed right now from the Board ..we are no longer talking of re building a brand we are no longer talking of building for the future .We are  talking of keeping our League One status and that can only mean signatures of people like Marquis and Downing and nothing less ambitious will bring us the 34 points we will need from the remaining 23 games .
Having had a multi disciplinary organisation to manage in my career I can foresee scenarios like the following arising shortly .Recruitment Man identifies Jo Bloggs and in the meeting Frank Sinclair says he’s crap .Copps chimes in and  says well we can help him get his mind straight and Greeny says the guy is injury prone, Gavin B asks how much is he on ….over to you boss .

[NewDonny]

Don't forget,there is hundreds of loanees,some with premiership experience,the possible loanees identified will be invited for interview and then after being whittled down loanees will be requested to come back for a 2nd interview before the successful loanees being invited to register.

Interview??

Register??

[bigbadjack]

Rob staton on Twitter says we were interested in Mark Beevers but the price is too high

[GazLaz]

Let's be grown up and honest folks.

I'm usually an inveterate optimist, but regardless of who we sign, looking at the matches coming up, we'll be lucky to get 9 points from the next 9 games. That would leave us needing near playoff form for the final 14 games to survive.

If we don't quickly add serious quality, that side that finished yesterday's game wouldn't get a point from those next nine games. Or indeed from any nine games ever.

As I say, I'm usually the optimist, but I reckon we have a 10% chance of escaping this.

10% is about right. When if we do end up getting relegated the best 5 months are massive. How we go about are business between now and May will have a massive baring on how we move into the next campaign. Hopefully Gary can implement a style of play that suits the players and we look like a functioning side when the season ends. That will at least give us a platform to move into next season.

[tyke1962]

We are at a point in time and if the truth be known for probably many years previously that we have to accept what is now possible and what is totally out of reach at least in a sustainable way .

My club is not a championship club anymore despite having a fan base to support a lower mid table team and the history , nobody has spent more seasons than us at this level in the entire football league .

I believe it's just over 90 seasons out of 134 .

It's changed so much that championship level was taken as a given and now it's something of a luxury to survive for a season .

These are difficult things to accept but as much as it hurts it is a fact .

The lowering of expectations also kills aspiration and the dream factor and without dreams then what's this game all about ?

The days of Graham Taylor taking Watford from the old 4th division to the top end of the first division and qualifying for European football and an FA cup final are simply out of the question today unless you are bankrolled massively .

Bankrolled massively can also see you fail with millions of pounds worth of debt , points deductions and in a worse place than you began with , S6 and Derby County are the evidence .

If it wasn't for the fact my Saturday afternoons are my escape , meet up with the lads at 12.30pm and a few jars and a couple afterwards then I'd have binned it off years ago .

That wasn't why I signed up to this club all those years ago because with a good youth system or value for money recruitment anything was possible .

Teams could comfortably survive in the old first division when promoted from the second division , Forest finished third and then won the first division title and two European cups , they may have eventually signed the first million pound player in Trevor Francis but they got to that position by seeing Kenny Burns , Peter Withe , Gary Birtles and Frank Clarke were top players where nobody else could see they were .

57% of my clubs fan base are walking away , not because we are shyte but because there's no point anymore , we've been relegated before and still the support stuck with it .

Here's a remarkable fact , it's not the Jonny come lately 's or the younger end who are walking away , far from it .

It's people like me , fans who have had an ST for 40 years plus and seen times way worse than this season .

The dreams gone , players are only passing through to try and secure more money and to be honest the fans aren't appreciated anymore .

I'll keep going just to get my afternoon out with the lads but other than that it's pretty pointless to be honest .

[EasyforDennis]

We are at a point in time and if the truth be known for probably many years previously that we have to accept what is now possible and what is totally out of reach at least in a sustainable way .

My club is not a championship club anymore despite having a fan base to support a lower mid table team and the history , nobody has spent more seasons than us at this level in the entire football league .

I believe it's just over 90 seasons out of 134 .

It's changed so much that championship level was taken as a given and now it's something of a luxury to survive for a season .

These are difficult things to accept but as much as it hurts it is a fact .

The lowering of expectations also kills aspiration and the dream factor and without dreams then what's this game all about ?

The days of Graham Taylor taking Watford from the old 4th division to the top end of the first division and qualifying for European football and an FA cup final are simply out of the question today unless you are bankrolled massively .

Bankrolled massively can also see you fail with millions of pounds worth of debt , points deductions and in a worse place than you began with , S6 and Derby County are the evidence .

If it wasn't for the fact my Saturday afternoons are my escape , meet up with the lads at 12.30pm and a few jars and a couple afterwards then I'd have binned it off years ago .

That wasn't why I signed up to this club all those years ago because with a good youth system or value for money recruitment anything was possible .

Teams could comfortably survive in the old first division when promoted from the second division , Forest finished third and then won the first division title and two European cups , they may have eventually signed the first million pound player in Trevor Francis but they got to that position by seeing Kenny Burns , Peter Withe , Gary Birtles and Frank Clarke were top players where nobody else could see they were .

57% of my clubs fan base are walking away , not because we are shyte but because there's no point anymore , we've been relegated before and still the support stuck with it .

Here's a remarkable fact , it's not the Jonny come lately 's or the younger end who are walking away , far from it .

It's people like me , fans who have had an ST for 40 years plus and seen times way worse than this season .

The dreams gone , players are only passing through to try and secure more money and to be honest the fans aren't appreciated anymore .

I'll keep going just to get my afternoon out with the lads but other than that it's pretty pointless to be honest .

Just how I feel at the moment Tyke.

[danumdon]

Tyke, I think you have just summed up the lot of a small town football club very well, we have had our moments these last twenty years that more than make up for the general dross and poor performance we have had to endure for the majority of the time before, the fact they we are now reverting to type is passing over many heads who should know better.

We have been tempted, the carrot got dangled by John Ryan and a good proportion went for it, the last piece in the jigsaw was the addition of some serious money men onto our board, with Ryan's optimism and the keepmoat cash it was very close to working out for us but the cold light of day business acumen of the Keepmoat two squeezed the life out of it with the rational of proper business footings.

Who knows where we would now be if they had been the carefree, lax and borderline criminal/corrupt leaders some more illustrious clubs have flirted with?

What i do know is that all this is cyclical, i'm pleased we still have a functioning club to ride that roller coaster again when it comes around, 5,10,20 years who knows but what we do know is it will be bloody interesting seeing where it does go and we will still be here to see it.

[StocksArmy]

As much as the board dont want to admit failure and be seen as throwing the towel in and they want to have a good crack at staying in the league, i think the funds would be better used to buy out some of the existing wasters currently in the squad rather than potentially adding more. If you are consistent on bringing in players from this level who arent being offered new terms from their parent clubs, it just stinks of bad news to me.

[normal rules]

I’m already starting to look forward to next season in what will most likely be lge two. I’m sure rovers will be a bit more competitive by then. And supporters will turn out for a winning side. Irrespective of which league they are in. That last season we had in lge two was pretty enjoyable if memory serves.
There are still a few twists and turns to go yet this season. The miracle is still do-able. But it’s looking increasingly unlikely with a team that can’t defend, can’t score (consistently) and can’t take set backs time after time after time.

[DonnyOsmond]

As much as the board dont want to admit failure and be seen as throwing the towel in and they want to have a good crack at staying in the league, i think the funds would be better used to buy out some of the existing wasters currently in the squad rather than potentially adding more. If you are consistent on bringing in players from this level who arent being offered new terms from their parent clubs, it just stinks of bad news to me.

But then we've got no budget and no players.

[StocksArmy]

We wont be missing much then 

[tyke1962]

Three things have had a detrimental affect on me and loosened a link with my club and football in general that I never could envisage at one time .

1, An 18 year old kid Mason Holgate walks in to then manager Danny Wilson's office and demands a move to the PL , he's played 9 first team games !!

Danny says get your head down , play every week here and the money will come son and the move you want .

Hmm no I want to go now or don't pick me I'm done here .

2 , We are 7th in the championship in January 2017 , we've a shot at the play offs , the play off final was won that season by Huddersfield Town .

Connor Hourihane our captain and our best player wants away to Aston Villa , a club at that time who were 15 points worse off than us .

Our owner Patrick Cryne is dying of terminal cancer and Connor tells him this at the side of his hospital bed .

Patrick says I'll pay you £18k a week to see the season out Connor and you can leave at the end of the season for nowt but just stay and gives a chance , his contract was up by the way .

He refuses and signs for Villa for £32k a week , he couldn't even give a dying man his last wish at a club who'd made him a £32k a week footballer .

3 , 9k of our fans bought ST's last season even though everyone knew they wouldn't see a single ball kicked inside Oakwell but they backed the club .

Against all expectations we have a home play off semi final and 4k fans are allowed to attend who are all ST holders drawn from a lottery .

The club charges them £25 to watch the home play off semi final !!!


Bit by bit these things add up , test you and question why you'd even want to part with any of your own hard earned brass to fund this so called game anymore .

[graingrover]

I was struck by a comment from Bolton fan who went to see his side play at Wycombe .He said ‘ it’s not football like we know it but the club ( Wycombe) seems happy enough with things ‘ .Wycombe fans love life right now and credit due to their owners for making silk out of what in Bolton looked like a pig’s ear .

[Retdon1]

We are at a point in time and if the truth be known for probably many years previously that we have to accept what is now possible and what is totally out of reach at least in a sustainable way .

My club is not a championship club anymore despite having a fan base to support a lower mid table team and the history , nobody has spent more seasons than us at this level in the entire football league .

I believe it's just over 90 seasons out of 134 .

It's changed so much that championship level was taken as a given and now it's something of a luxury to survive for a season .

These are difficult things to accept but as much as it hurts it is a fact .

The lowering of expectations also kills aspiration and the dream factor and without dreams then what's this game all about ?

The days of Graham Taylor taking Watford from the old 4th division to the top end of the first division and qualifying for European football and an FA cup final are simply out of the question today unless you are bankrolled massively .

Bankrolled massively can also see you fail with millions of pounds worth of debt , points deductions and in a worse place than you began with , S6 and Derby County are the evidence .

If it wasn't for the fact my Saturday afternoons are my escape , meet up with the lads at 12.30pm and a few jars and a couple afterwards then I'd have binned it off years ago .

That wasn't why I signed up to this club all those years ago because with a good youth system or value for money recruitment anything was possible .

Teams could comfortably survive in the old first division when promoted from the second division , Forest finished third and then won the first division title and two European cups , they may have eventually signed the first million pound player in Trevor Francis but they got to that position by seeing Kenny Burns , Peter Withe , Gary Birtles and Frank Clarke were top players where nobody else could see they were .

57% of my clubs fan base are walking away , not because we are shyte but because there's no point anymore , we've been relegated before and still the support stuck with it .

Here's a remarkable fact , it's not the Jonny come lately 's or the younger end who are walking away , far from it .

It's people like me , fans who have had an ST for 40 years plus and seen times way worse than this season .

The dreams gone , players are only passing through to try and secure more money and to be honest the fans aren't appreciated anymore .

I'll keep going just to get my afternoon out with the lads but other than that it's pretty pointless to be honest .

Just how I feel at the moment Tyke.

Same here. Had a season ticket for 20 years but I think this will be my last. I just don’t get the enjoyment of going to games like I used to. It’s almost become a chore. The 3 lads I go with all arnt renewing for next season. 2 have recently had a baby so will be working opposite their partners for childcare and the other has a new job with a 4 on 4 off pattern. I think we will just pick and choose 8-10 games a season.... it’s a shame

[since-1969]

I wonder if the Baldwin accesses the forum . He’d be disappointed at the way things a appearing to us after the everything that’s gone before .

[5minstogo]

I don't expect much, I started watching in the Conference when I moved up to Donny.

I enjoy following and supporting the team, all I ask for in return is some bloody effort, we've had some truly terrible players but they've, in the main, always tried. This last 12 months,  almost 13 months, there has been almost zero effort. Its just not good enough.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

We all know the cause of the problem which is the 'false' money that has gone into football. It's financed beyond what is generated by clubs fans and your local businessman, come benefactor who put in proportionate amounts in without taking huge risks.

There has to be a levelling out somewhere along the line that allows clubs to manage more prudently which means there has to be more equitable steps in player average wages across the leagues.

Whether the fans led review will go far enough we don't know but as things stand its understandable why fans of grass roots clubs are increasingly disenchanted with the game as it's become more financially unfair. We need to get to a place where the income from fans does make a competitive difference from top to bottom.

[ChrisBx]

We are at a point in time and if the truth be known for probably many years previously that we have to accept what is now possible and what is totally out of reach at least in a sustainable way .

My club is not a championship club anymore despite having a fan base to support a lower mid table team and the history , nobody has spent more seasons than us at this level in the entire football league .

I believe it's just over 90 seasons out of 134 .

It's changed so much that championship level was taken as a given and now it's something of a luxury to survive for a season .

These are difficult things to accept but as much as it hurts it is a fact .

The lowering of expectations also kills aspiration and the dream factor and without dreams then what's this game all about ?

The days of Graham Taylor taking Watford from the old 4th division to the top end of the first division and qualifying for European football and an FA cup final are simply out of the question today unless you are bankrolled massively .

Bankrolled massively can also see you fail with millions of pounds worth of debt , points deductions and in a worse place than you began with , S6 and Derby County are the evidence .

If it wasn't for the fact my Saturday afternoons are my escape , meet up with the lads at 12.30pm and a few jars and a couple afterwards then I'd have binned it off years ago .

That wasn't why I signed up to this club all those years ago because with a good youth system or value for money recruitment anything was possible .

Teams could comfortably survive in the old first division when promoted from the second division , Forest finished third and then won the first division title and two European cups , they may have eventually signed the first million pound player in Trevor Francis but they got to that position by seeing Kenny Burns , Peter Withe , Gary Birtles and Frank Clarke were top players where nobody else could see they were .

57% of my clubs fan base are walking away , not because we are shyte but because there's no point anymore , we've been relegated before and still the support stuck with it .

Here's a remarkable fact , it's not the Jonny come lately 's or the younger end who are walking away , far from it .

It's people like me , fans who have had an ST for 40 years plus and seen times way worse than this season .

The dreams gone , players are only passing through to try and secure more money and to be honest the fans aren't appreciated anymore .

I'll keep going just to get my afternoon out with the lads but other than that it's pretty pointless to be honest .

This is depressingly accurate.

[Barmby Rover]

Gary McSheffrey says there are no imminent signings due in for Doncaster Rovers. DFP

[bpoolrover]

The way I see it Baldwin is getting so much grief as he is the voice of the board, he also comes out and says substantial funds would be made available, you have to question what substantial is of getting downing in Would pretty much wipe that money out, I think sometimes rather than get the supporters hopes up and expectations he would be best off saying nothing

[bpoolrover]

Gary McSheffrey says there are no imminent signings due in for Doncaster Rovers. DFP

I find it incredible they can't see we need players in now, maybe they should just write this season off and save the budget for next year