2 years ago today

[Prez]

What a horrendous decline.

[Michael Shaw]

We all know, Prez. But this is where we are going to remain until we find an owner who wants to put some money in. Simple as that.

[Branton Rover]

We’re literally in catch 22 situation we don’t get the gates to sustain much better than league one, the outlay to return us to the Championship is simply unsustainable & any multimillionaires would be bonkers to Chuck their money down our toilet - John Ryan’s of this world come around only once & we don’t have a divine right to think we should be. I bet any fan of Darlo, Scunny, York & Rochdale would rip their arms off to be in our position. I know it’s frustrating but things could be much worse.

[karldew]

I might be wrong but…

I’m sure we went to Fleetwood (possibly a game in hand) and we’re winning, possibly putting us top? We ended up losing that game and we’ve been on a decline ever since.

[BillyStubbsTears]

We all know, Prez. But this is where we are going to remain until we find an owner who wants to put some money in. Simple as that.

Err...who were the owners 2 years ago today?

[Alan Southstand]

And, what was the budget?

[donnyallday]

You can listen to the b*llocks you are told all day long. Just open your eyes and have a good look and a long hard think. .......  this club has been starved  for far too long.

[Campsall rover]

It’s painful looking at that table.

[Lesonthewest]

Made my stomach churn looking at that.

[Spilsby Red]

‘Until we find owners who put money in’. The current owners have put plenty of their own money in over the years. We wouldn’t have a club if they hadn’t.
Yes it’s not great at the moment, but there is still hope, a win or two could change things.
The people slagging the board are (yes there thoughts) wrong. We should be thankful. But I suppose I will get slated.

[drfchound]

Made my stomach churn looking at that.

 
The football and results since then has been terrible.

[Spilsby Red]

I get that. But that isn’t the owners fault.

[drfchound]

We all know, Prez. But this is where we are going to remain until we find an owner who wants to put some money in. Simple as that.

Err...who were the owners 2 years ago today?

BST, no so long ago you started a thread entitled Two Years and wrote this:

BillyStubbsTears »
Unlike (You & 5 others liked this) Quote
Since there's been any sense of structure, discipline and purpose to our side.

Two years since there's been anything remotely enjoyable to watch.


So who are still the owners two years on and presiding over the two years of heartache we have had to endure.

[Lesonthewest]

We’re literally in catch 22 situation we don’t get the gates to sustain much better than league one, the outlay to return us to the Championship is simply unsustainable & any multimillionaires would be bonkers to Chuck their money down our toilet - John Ryan’s of this world come around only once & we don’t have a divine right to think we should be. I bet any fan of Darlo, Scunny, York & Rochdale would rip their arms off to be in our position. I know it’s frustrating but things could be much worse.

In my opinion, with our attendances, at the bare minimum we should at least be an average league 1 side that flirts with the play offs now & again. The position we are in should be unacceptable.

[Lesonthewest]

We’re literally in catch 22 situation we don’t get the gates to sustain much better than league one, the outlay to return us to the Championship is simply unsustainable & any multimillionaires would be bonkers to Chuck their money down our toilet - John Ryan’s of this world come around only once & we don’t have a divine right to think we should be. I bet any fan of Darlo, Scunny, York & Rochdale would rip their arms off to be in our position. I know it’s frustrating but things could be much worse.

In my opinion, with our attendances, at the bare minimum we should at least be an average league 1 side that flirts with the play offs now & again. The position we are in should be unacceptable.

I get that. But that isn’t the owners fault.

Dissagree, it's them that appointed wrongly over those 2 years, not once, but four times. The buck stops with them.

[Donny Exile in York]

We’re literally in catch 22 situation we don’t get the gates to sustain much better than league one, the outlay to return us to the Championship is simply unsustainable & any multimillionaires would be bonkers to Chuck their money down our toilet - John Ryan’s of this world come around only once & we don’t have a divine right to think we should be. I bet any fan of Darlo, Scunny, York & Rochdale would rip their arms off to be in our position. I know it’s frustrating but things could be much worse.

Tony Stewart seems to be prepared to keep investing and having a go! And he's not one of three amigos, nor is he likely to be on the Times UK Rich list as our Owner is (or has been) or certainly one of the wealthiest men in the Yorkshire region if not North of England. The inverse negative mindset of a happy clapper in full force again.... look at that table, we had two games in hand and could have gone top! Poor investment, bringing in a novice manager and losing his strong defensive partnership with Anderson, replacing the quality of Whiteman with Bostock and Bogle... and it all starts to unravel at a lightening speed... but of course none of the meteoric decline can be laid at the door of those that actually run the football club!

[Spilsby Red]

I knew a comment about happy clapper would come. So pedictable

[Chris Black come back]

Money might help but the biggest issue is we need to start signing better players. It’s a simple as that. We don’t sign enough good players.

[Donny Exile in York]

I knew a comment about happy clapper would come. So pedictable

So is someone banging on about Scunny, Darlo, Hereford, Aldershot, Newport, but forgetting to mention Rotherham's 8 year spell having a go at the Championship and including 3 promotions from league 1, or Brentford or Bournemouth punching well above their historic weight, or Huddersfield and Wigan in the not too distant past. Even more predictable.

We were once just a pub team having a laugh, that sort of spirt held us in good stead, now the happy clappers on here are petrified to criticise our dramatic decline which is only parallelled in 40+ years of history by the decline in the late 80s when guess what we had no money! or Richardson's desire to ruin the club in 97-98 (but apparently now we do have money or budget wasn't an issue - really? so why Joe Dodoo as the answer to our relegation fight, or McSheffrey being appointed). Give us hope, ambition, pride, than fear of becoming the next Scunthorpe. The last two years results have already been comparable!

Where is that we're just a pub team having a laugh mentality and fighting spirit gone. Apathy is happy now it  won without a fight, from the Board room to the fans on the Vikings forum.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Interesting it feels way longer that 2 years ago. Maybe that’s just life been busy but I feel like we’ve been awful for way longer than that.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Interesting it feels way longer that 2 years ago. Maybe that’s just life been busy but I feel like we’ve been awful for way longer than that.

I think it feels longer because it's been such an utterly dreadful collapse in form since then.

The first half of 20/21 was one of the best half seasons in our history. We won 2.09 points per game, which we've only bettered over a full season once (46/47, taking 3 points for a win). That came after 2 seasons when we'd been there or thereabouts for the playoffs.

Since then, our form is:

P96 W25 D16 L55 GF90 GA166 PPG0.95

We've had three (hopefully not 4) awful managerial appointments, our permanent recruitment has been simply shocking (loan signings have been even worse) and some long term players have struggled with injuries and form.

I don't buy the "Board is starving the club" ba-baa. We have clearly been spending relatively large amounts. Just on players who have been injured or not very good. We've been hit with a combination of very bad choices and moderately bad luck.

Doesn't make it any easier to watch though.

[oggycompton]

Yeah selling or releasing good players at league 1 level and replacing with league 2 players and loads of 18 year old loanees will do that BST.

One of best performers this season Knoyle...gone. Even his comments suggested a poisonous atmosphere.

I honestly dont know what needs to happen before some people realise there is something really badly wrong at the club. Everything by the way.......

[BillyStubbsTears]

As far as I can see we haven't released a single good player in the past 2 years. We've sold Knoyle who wasn't remotely a good enough L1 defender last season and who presumably has upped his wages by the move. As I've said before, given his defensive frailties last year, we'd have been stupid to match that.

The key problem has been that we have spent wages on numerous players who have been way off the standard required.

Bogle
Dodoo
Hiwula
Bostock
Cukur
Woltman
Clayton
Agard
Odubeko
Griffiths
Dahlberg
Vilca
Gardner
Long

None of them played for Co-op cheques. Few of them have ever looked like strengthening the team. It's been recruitment and injuries that has scuppered us.

[BillyStubbsTears]

This is how bad our management and recruitment has been over the past two years.

We elbowed out Bogle, who was rubbish, but was on the payroll. He scored 3 goals in 27 appearances.

We replaced him with

Agard
Dodoo
Hiwula
Cukur
Griffiths

Between them, they scored 11 goals in 123 appearances. I'd take a guess at 3 times Bogle's salary for absolutely zero improvement.

Shockingly bad management decisions.

[Colemans Left Hook]

I might be wrong but…

I’m sure we went to Fleetwood (possibly a game in hand) and we’re winning, possibly putting us top? We ended up losing that game and we’ve been on a decline ever since.

Yes you were right we were kicking left to right as you view on the tv ... Someone passed the ball back towards our goal on the left side presumably without looking to one of their players in their right wing position and the rest was history.

I had forgotten about that critical "point of inflection" in our form.

[TommyC]

‘Until we find owners who put money in’. The current owners have put plenty of their own money in over the years. We wouldn’t have a club if they hadn’t.
Yes it’s not great at the moment, but there is still hope, a win or two could change things.
The people slagging the board are (yes there thoughts) wrong. We should be thankful. But I suppose I will get slated.

"We wouldn't have a club if they hadn't"

Utter cobblers. I'm getting so sick of being told that the current owners effectively saved the club from oblivion and we must therefore be eternally grateful. They didn't. They took over a well respected, well run football club that flirted with the Championship amd upper end of League 1. A club that had vision and identity. Now look at it.

I would suggest it would be more appropriate to say that they historically invested to a level reasonably expected of football club owners at that level. They didn't save the club from oblivion! There was a Doncaster Rovers before them and there will be one after them. Virtually every single club requires investment from their owners. Have all those owners saved their clubs from oblivion too?! Are all those owners purely altruistic saviours of their clubs? Of course they aren't.

Your words may be more appropriate to the takeover in 98, but certainly not to the efforts of these three.

And no, I have no idea who would or would not have been in the running to take over from them had they decided to sell the club. But to suggest nobody and the only outcome without them to be "no Rovers" is delusional.

[Campsall rover]

‘Until we find owners who put money in’. The current owners have put plenty of their own money in over the years. We wouldn’t have a club if they hadn’t.
Yes it’s not great at the moment, but there is still hope, a win or two could change things.
The people slagging the board are (yes there thoughts) wrong. We should be thankful. But I suppose I will get slated.

"We wouldn't have a club if they hadn't"

Utter cobblers. I'm getting so sick of being told that the current owners effectively saved the club from oblivion and we must therefore be eternally grateful. They didn't. They took over a well respected, well run football club that flirted with the Championship amd upper end of League 1. A club that had vision and identity. Now look at it.

I would suggest it would be more appropriate to say that they historically invested to a level reasonably expected of football club owners at that level. They didn't save the club from oblivion! There was a Doncaster Rovers before them and there will be one after them. Virtually every single club requires investment from their owners. Have all those owners saved their clubs from oblivion too?! Are all those owners purely altruistic saviours of their clubs? Of course they aren't.

Your words may be more appropriate to the takeover in 98, but certainly not to the efforts of these three.

And no, I have no idea who would or would not have been in the running to take over from them had they decided to sell the club. But to suggest nobody and the only outcome without them to be "no Rovers" is delusional.

Don’t get me wrong I am far from happy with our current situation and seeing how far we have nose dived in only 24  months.
But we could quite easily be a National League North club without our 3 Amigos.
Gavin Baldwin can’t be really blamed. He isn’t the man with the money.
Yes he holds shares but that different. He has brought in large sums of money through Club Doncaster which was his baby as far i I remember. 
Yes GB has been part of the mistakes made in managerial appointments and he should have had a HoF appointed at the club a long time ago.
I have no in depth knowledge on how much reduction in the playing budget we have had in the last 2 to 2 and a half years but it was certainly much much better than relegation last season and mid table in League 2.

Serious Question.  Have Stevenage, Northampton, Carlisle, Salford, Swindon, Barrow, Mansfield, and all the other clubs in this league got better squads than we have.  Our best 14 players at least anyway.
From what I can see only Leyton Orient, Bradford City and Stockport County look to have stronger squads.

We are desperately underachieving due to our managers simply not being very good. That’s how I see it.
DS obviously needs more time but I think he needs some help from an experienced manager/ coach a right hand man who has got multiple tee shirts. Someone who has been round the block, knows the lower leagues like the back of his hand & has promotion on his CV & has therefore got a huge no of contacts.
Think I have just described the manager we need maybe not the no 2.

[Sammy Chung was King]

As far as I can see we haven't released a single good player in the past 2 years. We've sold Knoyle who wasn't remotely a good enough L1 defender last season and who presumably has upped his wages by the move. As I've said before, given his defensive frailties last year, we'd have been stupid to match that.

The key problem has been that we have spent wages on numerous players who have been way off the standard required.

Bogle
Dodoo
Hiwula
Bostock
Cukur
Woltman
Clayton
Agard
Odubeko
Griffiths
Dahlberg
Vilca
Gardner
Long

None of them played for Co-op cheques. Few of them have ever looked like strengthening the team. It's been recruitment and injuries that has scuppered us.

Buy cheap pay twice, that’s what that list signifies.

[Campsall rover]

As far as I can see we haven't released a single good player in the past 2 years. We've sold Knoyle who wasn't remotely a good enough L1 defender last season and who presumably has upped his wages by the move. As I've said before, given his defensive frailties last year, we'd have been stupid to match that.

The key problem has been that we have spent wages on numerous players who have been way off the standard required.

Bogle
Dodoo
Hiwula
Bostock
Cukur
Woltman
Clayton
Agard
Odubeko
Griffiths
Dahlberg
Vilca
Gardner
Long

None of them played for Co-op cheques. Few of them have ever looked like strengthening the team. It's been recruitment and injuries that has scuppered us.

BST bang on. Wellens brought most of those to us. He totally wasted what was supposed to be a top 12 league 1 budget.
GM then was left with only scraps available last January.  Having said that we still should have stayed up.

[turnbull for england]

Cuker ( the million pound version) is now on loan in Belgian division b. 2 goals in 16 appearances. I'll take some convincing that that isnt as pure an example of money laundering you could ever see