The Only Thing Instant is Coffee

The only period when I didn't enjoy being a Rovers fan was when 'im on the left was slowly draining our life-blood.  That was just sad and painful.  

But wasn't surviving those awful times absolutely brilliant?

In the space of five short years we rose from Conference anonimity to competing in the second flight of English football and the seventh biggest league in Europe.  Its a remarkable story and all the more remarkable when you consider that the meteoric rise started only five years after John Ryan purchased the club for £50000 maintaining to this day that he was robbed!

I have said many times that this story would have made a fantastic film bringing even more people to regard Donny as their second favourite club, if not their favourite.

The observant will notice that I used the past-tense to begin that last paragraph.  Now such a film would be something of a joke with football fans all knowing "the most prolific bring-and-buy sale in history" now takes place every Saturday at the Keepmoat Stadium.

The title I have chosen for this article is actually a quote from John Ryan's excellent book.  Sage advice, but baring that meteoric rise up the leagues in mind, and Ryan's continual mentions of play-offs even when we are sitting at the bottom of the league, does he actually believe it?

There's plenty more sage advice in the book too.  Particularly in Chapter 11, "The Fan's Chairman".  I'd encourage anyone to give this chapter a read and try to square it with events at the club today.

Here are a few examples:

Rather than constantly seeking instant and risky solutions by signing endless players, he (O'Driscoll) takes it on board that he bears some of the responsibility, along with the rest of the coaching staff to improve what we have and utilise our resources wisely.

Now try to rationalise that with Dean Saunders' role of being the peace-keeper in a dressing room where good and loyal players are going to be asked to put up and shut up when their place in the squad is lost because some spoilt French brat hasn't had enough time in the Keepmoat Car Boot.  What responsibility does Saunders have when it come to getting the performance of the team to improve?  At the moment, he can just say that he doesn't have the right type of players and in six months he can blame it on the team not gelling, as it is unlikely to do with that revolving door on the dressing room.

Another?

I would wager that most of our fans could have named the side for much of last season and not gone too far wrong.  Continuity is a key factor of our club at all levels.  We've had continuity in the boardroom, continuity in management and, as far as possible, a settled squad......I don't see us as being a club that will suddenly bring in a dozen players in a transfer window.  I'm not sure I've got a chequebook big enough and in any case, it goes very much against the team ethic that we are at pains to promote here.

WOW!  When somebody writes what is effectively an autobiography, you would think what was written in the pages would be sincere stuff!  People change, I accept that but....WOW!  

What is even more incredible is that events over O'Driscoll's last 9 months in charge have unquivocally confirmed how correct Ryan was when writing his book.  Continuity in the team was denied O'Driscoll through a massive amount of injuries and we dropped like a stone.  So, deliberately disrupting the continuity that was proven to be correct must be a smart move!

And finally...

It is also important to me that we are a well-disciplined team.  This is another sometimes under-rated feature of our game that has been transformed over the last decade....I'd like to believe that Donny Rovers are one of the easiest clubs for referees to handle and that is indeed the feedback I often get from them.

Having staffing policy that promotes players being self-serving and hinders the building of team-spirit isn't going to help on the field discipline.  We are also talking, to an extent,  about disillusioned misfits.  Players who are dissatisfied with their lot on £25000 per week.  True, if they pick up red cards, they will be out of the shop-window but will these players have the character and presence of mind to think about that if a potential flash-point in a game occurs?

Now to the "strategy" in which Willie McKay is so confident and let's use his own example.

Herita Ilunga, is being paid £26000 per week.  He's out of favour at the Hammers and they can't get him a move.  So he comes to us and is in the shop window.  The idea being that someone sees him and transfers him to their club.  

Is Ilunga going to take a pay-cut or are his  new employers also going to be happy to pay him £26000 per week?  The only advantage Ilunga has had over staying where he was is playing championship football instead of reserve-team football.  It is a better stage on which to evaluate a player but the player isn't any cheaper and he still is not able to make the starting line-up of a leading championship side.  

So how does his cameo apperance in red and white hoops make him worth his wages?  Surely, any club interested in him will try to squeeze his wages because of how clearly he is displaying his desire for a move?  I'm not a football agent but I really struggle with the business model as far as McKay is concerned.  If the players McKay tauts are forced to take significant pay-cuts to get their football, surely word will get round.  How attractive will our shop window be then?

Using another example, Billy Sharp, I'd like to talk about the players I care about rather than those for whom I could not care less.  Billy has made no secret of the fact that he wants to move on from Donny to a top-flight club at some point.  Good for him!  I hope it happens.

But according to the Daily Mail article, nobody can come in or go out of the Keepmoat without McKay's agreement.  Does that include Billy and other real Rovers players?  What if Billy puts in a transfer request.  Can McKay say no?  When it comes to footballers, strikers are where the money is.  Freddy Piquionne has already been mentioned as a possible window-sitter.  What if another striker comes along, will they get the nod over Billy Sharp?  Personally, if anyone is going to sit in Donny's shop window, I would prefer it to be Billy, for the simple reason that if Billy is transfered, Doncaster Rovers benefit the most from what will be a very sizeable transfer fee (£3.4M at the last offer).  Well, at least it will be sizeable if Billy keeps playing.  How much does that fee drop if he stops playing?

Finally we have the fans.  I quite deliberately posted the Daily Mail article on ja606 without comment and read responses both there and on VSC.  I was quite surprised to see that a majority of fans, whilst appreciating the enormous risks being taken, are largely in favour of what McKay and Doncaster Rovers are doing.

That old joke about the difference between your wife and your football team being that your football team is for life certainly applies to me.  I love the Rovers.  I just don't like them very much at the moment.

But that said, when I read the Daily Mail article, I could not help wondering what I would be watching the next time I am lucky enough to get the chance to go to a match.  The closest thing I could reconcile with the image McKay and Neil Ashton painted for me this morning was a very sad image brought to me by a football documentry.

The documentry covered one of Manchester United's academies and the moment in question was a trial match played in front of a host of football league scouts.  The match involved two teams of young United Academy players.  These players had been told that day that they weren't making the grade at United.  They had then been put on a coach and told to play the best they could because if they played well, they may pick up a contract with a league club.  It was a meat market and such a pitiful one.

It's not going to be that bad at Donny.  The players are older and more seasoned.  But tell me it isn't a meat market.

The main issue facing the Rovers is, as ever, financial.  It is now obvious to me that at least one of the three musketeers is balking at putting his hand in his pocket to the extent that is being asked.  The wage bill did not become £8M overnight.  It was already £7M in 2009/10 season and McKay is correct, those kind of salaries are not sustainable with our attendances unless there is an Abramovich-style benifactor on the scene.

So, we need to either drop a league while maintaining that identity that we used to hold so dear, or we have to do what the club has misguidedly tried to do and find a model that works.

My opinion is that if you are going to restrict that model to a £4M wage budget, in a division where the average was 4-times that figure in 2009/10 it is going to be very difficult.  The only model that would maybe fit would be that of Dario Gradi's Crewe Alexandra of the late 90's / early 00's.

Crewe managed to stay in the second flight between 1997 and 2002.  After relegation, they yo-yo'd, and had another 3 years between 2003 and 2006.  Ominously, Crewe haven't returned to the second flight since parting company with Gradi in 2007.  He is now back with the club who have simply not found anybody who could do what he could.  Crewe are now a mid-table league 2 club.  I can't help worrying that this could join an already long list of parallels I find between Donny and Crewe.

So, if Donny want a model of low budget, high level football and they felt O'Driscoll had done as much as he was able why not give him some low-cost expert support.  Dario Gradi, I am sure would be pleased to act as a consultant to Donny. Dario has a vital piece of knowledge that he can offer the Rovers.  He knows where Crewe went wrong in their pursuit of continuing to punch above their weight.  He is also an expert in the development of young players, an area where Rovers under O'Driscoll failed to excel.  Dario's advice with Sean's tactics might just have brought about a strategy rather than borrowing Willie McKay's  Nescafé.


Please read the Neil Ashton's article about Doncaster Rovers and Wille McKay here