Takeover quest rumbles on, but time is ticking for Doncaster — opposition profile Tuesday, 31st Dec 2013 17:27 by Clive Whittingham With the January transfer window fast approaching, and Doncaster in need of reinforcements, a boardroom takeover saga continues to rumble and undermine their Championship prospects. OverviewJohn Ryan, the toothy entrepreneur famed for his cosmetic surgery business that holds responsibility for the size of Melinda Messenger’s breasts among other achievements, resigned from the club’s board in November in protest at the obstruction of a potential takeover by Irish consortium Sequentia Capital. That was a worrying move for Rovers, who were rescued from the scrap heap by Ryan more than a decade ago and taken from the brink of extinction and turned into the Championship club we see before us today. The club was bought in the mid-1990s by Ken Richardson, a local businessman promising First Division football and a new stadium — with the obligatory tidy profit for himself, of course, from the sale of the existing Belle Vue ground and associated development around a new stadium. When the council refused to come on board with his plans he set about running the club into the ground. In June 1995 he hired two former SAS soldiers to go to the ground in the middle of the night and torch the main stand for insurance purposes. He was jailed for four years. By the start of the 1997/98 Third Division season the team was managed by Mark Weaver — whose previous football experience stretched as far as being the lottery manager for Stockport County — and was essentially a semi-professional side made up mostly of non-league players and kids, left to train among the dog dirt on the local park. They lost 2-1 at Shrewsbury on the first day of that season, and then in front of the biggest home crowd in many years were thrashed 8-0 by Nottingham Forest in the first round of the League Cup. Peterborough came to South Yorkshire in the league that Saturday and won 5-0. And so it continued. They lost their first seven matches of the season, then drew three, then lost ten of the next 13 and drew the other three. That’s 17 defeats and six draws from the first 23 games of the season in case you’re counting. They lost 5-2 at Notts County, 5-1 at Exeter, 7-1 at Cardiff and 8-0 a Leyton Orient. 8-0 at Leyton Orient. My goodness. They finished the season with a record of four wins, eight draws and 34 defeats from 46 matches. They scored 30 goals and conceded 113. They were, inevitably, relegated from the Football League and on the final day of the season — a 1-0 defeat against Colchester — the fans that remained carried a coffin to the decrepit old stadium out by the racecourse. To recover from that point to where they are now has been remarkable, and it’s been led from the start by Ryan who was part of a consortium that took charge at the start of the 1998/99 season. Dave Penney’s side won the place in the Football League back in 2003 and scooted straight through the Third Division into the second just 12 months later. Memorable cup runs followed — Man City and Aston Villa were beaten, and Arsenal taken to penalties, during a run to the quarter finals of the League Cup in 2005/06.
New, identikit, soulless stadiums on the edge of towns surrounded by retail parks aren’t t my taste. But I spent my youth kicking around at Belle Vue — as well as Glanford Park at Scunthorpe and Blundell Park in Grimsby — and it clearly wasn’t fit for purpose. I was on the away terrace to see former West Ham trainee Lee Hodges score a brilliant goal in a 3-2 FA Cup win for Scunthorpe — towards the end the away fans were pelted with eggs through the meshed fence of the crumbling away terrace by local chavs who’d spent their mugging takings on eggs from an adjacent Asda. Hodges incidentally, who looked so far above Scunthorpe’s level it was almost embarrassing to have him there, didn’t get his big money move to Hull and ended up getting fat at non-league Thurrock instead. The Keepmoat Stadium, which Ryan promised to deliver within ten years of taking over and was as good as his word, is a thing of majestic beauty by comparison and has enabled Rovers to push on into the Championship in 2008 — they beat ‘Champions of Europe’ Leeds United in the play off final at Wembley to the obvious delight of the entire developed world — where they stayed until 2012. Those who thought relegation might spark decline — as it had done at Scunthorpe following a similarly miraculous rise to the second tier — have been disappointed because Rovers are back this season. They lost manager Dean Saunders to Wolves midway through the 2012/13 campaign, and gave veteran chief scout Bryan Flynn — known for being Wrexham manager for the best part of 100 years, and for being just shy of three feet tall — caretaker charge. Still, on the final day of the league season, requiring a point for promotion from nearest challengers Brentford, they not only survived an injury time penalty but also, memorably, stormed down to the other end to win the match, and the promotion, with the last kick of the game. Stubborn, spirited, admirable little club this one. Paul Dickov, who hardly seemed like management material during a tempestuous playing career and didn’t tear up any trees during his first spell in the hot seat at Oldham, seemed an odd choice for the Doncaster job during the summer but the indications so far are that he, and his team, have enough about them to just about stay in the league this season. But that will probably only happen if new players can be added in January. Rovers have shown in the past that they don’t quite generate sufficient money to survive at this level and have previously relied on the shrewd management of Sean O’Driscoll to battle against the odds. Last time they were at this level they, rather foolishly and desperately, threw their hat in with agent Willie McKay and gave him permission to use the club as a sort of British showcase for his foreign clients who wanted to attract attention from UK clubs. It didn’t work and they were relegated. Ryan believes the Sequentia takeover is required for the club to continue competing in the second tier, but fellow board member Terry Bramall disagrees and now the pair are at loggerheads. They met face to face just before Christmas in a desperate attempt to resolve the stand off, with Sequentia keen to have the deal concluded so Dickov can have money to spend on a team that hasn’t won in six attempts since beating QPR at the Keepmoat in November. Rovers had released a statement saying the club would continue under its present ownership but that remains far from certain. Kevin Phelan, Sequentia’s representative, told the Doncaster Free Press: “We would like to gain control as soon as possible so that we can put investment into the club to help Doncaster avoid relegation. The ball is in the court of Mr Watson and Mr Bramall. But it needs to be done sooner rather than later because at the end of January time starts to run away to the end of the season very quickly. If they are not going to put the money in themselves we are here, prepared to put the money in. We have proven we have £20m.” A Rovers spokesperson said: “As we have previously stated, any transfer a shareholder wishes to make is subject to the club’s constitution which the directors must approve. I can confirm that Doncaster Rovers have not received any official notification from any shareholder or from any loan holder regarding the sale of their shares or loans in the club.” It’s a messy situation, and potentially unsettling for an injury hit side that was always going to struggle to stay up this season anyway. InterviewThis week we thank Doncaster fan Josh Wragg for his extensive input into the latest goings on at his club. We find a gem every now and again doing this, and here’s the latest one… Asses Doncaster’s start to the season for us. What have they done well, not so well? What were your pre-season expectations and are they meeting them? JW: We have started the season better than I expected. Most Doncaster fans seemed to start the season with a lot of ambition, thinking we could survive comfortably back in the Championship after just one year away. Realistically, fourth from bottom would be considered a successful season as of now. The Championship is a really tough league this year, the quality of teams and players in the league this season is unbelievable. As a small club with a low budget, we are all aware that we are not going to preform wonders. However we are still optimistic, we have got a few brilliant results already this season: a 1-0 home win against Leiceste and a vital win against Yeovil in a so called ‘six pointer’ With the form of a few other teams in the league, for example Sheffield Wednesday and Yeovil, we are still extremely confident we can avoid the drop. Doncaster’s main problem so far this season is consistency — we’re finding it hard to string a few good results together. A major positive about Doncaster is the attractive football we play. Last season we used the ‘hoof ball’ tactic and although it may have been effective - we ended up winning the league - it was not great to watch. Dickov has really got the team together this season and got them playing fantastic football so I’m guaranteed an exciting game and my money’s worth every time I go to watch the Rovers this season. Where is the team strong and where is it weak? Who are the key players and who should we be targeting? JW The main weakness for the team at the moment is the defence. Recently Donny have conceded 11 goals in three games: 4-1 loss to Reading, 4-0 loss to Middlesbrough and a 3-1 loss to Brighton. These three results speak for themselves. With the recent injury of our captain Rob Jones, ruled out for up to seven weeks with a groin injury, the team has been leaking goals. Currently, three players out of our defence of four are on loan. This shows the lack of players we have in this position and the main reason we have conceded far too many this season. This is most worrying when we come up against teams like QPR, who have such a quality range of attacking options it could be an absolute landslide of a score line. Our strongest area is probably our midfield players. If anybody caught the Friday night game of against Yeovil live on Sky Sports they would have seen the quality we have in midfield. Our key player in the last few games is left midfielder Mark Duffy who has been tearing teams apart recently with his quick feet and blistering pace. Also the loan signing of former QPR striker Federico Macheda has been a massive boost to us. He was fantastic in his first loan spell with the club scoring three goals in five games before having to return to Manchester United because of injury, but he has turned down other clubs to return to Doncaster now that he is fully fit. Other stand out key players in the Doncaster team include… Ross Turnbull the goalkeeper. Kept the score down in a lot of our games already this season, really enjoying playing first team football again after four years at Chelsea. Bongani Khumalo — centre back on loan from Tottenham, South African international. Stepped up well to try and fill that gap that Rob Jones has left. Solid player and very reliable, very experienced for such a young age. Chris Brown — Striker, top form for Doncaster this year. On his day one of the best strikers in the league as Dickov has said previously. Holds the ball up well and is a goal machine when he gets the right service, unfortunately he is currently injured for around five weeks so will miss the fixture against QPR on Saturday. What did you make of the appointment of Paul Dickov in the summer, and how has he done so far? JW Personally I think the decision to appoint Dickov in the summer was wrong. Maybe Brian Flynn, the man that won us the league, deserved a chance at this level, but it was not to be and he is now director of football. I was impressed with Dickov’s first few days as Doncaster manager - he spoke really well and showed a clear fantastic knowledge of the game. He revealed his ambitions for the club and I was more than prepared to give him a chance. As said, he has got the team playing fabulous football, really good to watch, and I like him. I am sure most Rovers fans will agree.
We noticed John Ryan left the club recently amid some row about a potential takeover. What’s the story there? What’s the fans general consensus among the fans about the boardroom situation? JW Everybody at the club was gutted when the news came through that John Ryan had resigned. The man is a legend at the club. He picked us up when the club was on the brink of extinction and brought us up from the Conference to the Championship in ten years. But I am not so sure this is the last we will see of John Ryan… The club have been subject of a takeover bid from Sequentia Capital. John Ryan brought this bid to the table around four months ago and demanded that the other shareholders sell up to Sequentia as this is what could take the club forward. Ryan was trying to indicate that he and fellow shareholders could not do anymore to take Rovers to the next level as they simply did not have the money. A boardroom fall out between John Ryan and Terry Bramall then triggered John to leave the club. It was later revealed that Terry had gone to speak to Sequentia behind John Ryan’s back to try and get a better deal for himself. Now that John has left the club, Bramall is continuing takeover talks with Sequentia hoping to get a deal done. Although the twist in the story is that if Sequentia were to take over the club, they have said they only want one man in charge of the club, and that is John Ryan. I don’t think we have seen the last of him just yet... Most of the fans want the deal to go through; it’s easy to see that the current shareholders are struggling to get the club any higher than they already are. And with the new investors Sequentia wanting to invest up to £20m into the playing squad, and to put up the money for a brand new training ground for the club, it’s easy to see why most of the fans want the deal to happen. Even more so now they promise to bring John Ryan back as chairman. Short, medium and long term aims and ambitions for the club, is it always going to be about staying in the Championship? JW Certainly the short term aims for the club is to survive this season. I spoke in a previous question about how tough the league is this season and how difficult it is to get results. (Maybe not so difficult for you lot at QPR!!) Medium aims and ambitions would be to get the takeover from Sequentia and slowly build the team up, making ourselves comfortable and competitive in the Championship. Couple of loanees with QPR connections. How has Federico Macheda done (he was dreadful for us) and what have you made of Yun Suk Young so far — before his injury at least? Freddie Macheda has been superb. We have always missed a quality striker ever since Billy Sharp departed for Southampton two seasons ago. When the news first came in about Rovers signing Macheda, many fans (including myself) were not sure what to think. Yes it was a big name and he has shown quality in the past, but looking at recent times, what if he was a flop again? We were to be proved wrong. With Freddie Mac you can clearly tell he has quality. Maybe not in the Premier League with QPR but I think he may have found the right league for him now in the Championship. Scoring three goals in five games Macheda was an instant hit at Doncaster earning us a vital 1-0 win again local and relegation rivals Sheffield Wednesday almost single handily. Unfortunately an injury has kept him out for four weeks, but he promised to return to Rovers once he was fully fit. Now after four weeks he has kept his promise and returned to Rovers apparently turning down up to six or seven other loan bids from top championship clubs, the most talks about Nottingham Forest. Now that he is back I am looking forward to watching him again and hope that he can perform as well as he did in his first five games. Yun Suk Young looks a confident and bright player. I watched one of the games he played in, the 3-1 loss at home to Brighton, and he was arguably along with Mark Duffy the best player on the pitch for Rovers. Playing at left back, although for pretty much the whole game he was playing both left back and left midfield, taking up two positions at once, constantly overtaking the lazy David Cotterill on the wing supplying crosses and creating chances, I was very impressed and gutted when I heard about the injury just a few days later. Overall looks a very tidy player and still only very young, great potential. Links >>> http://www.doncasterroversfc.co.uk/>Official Website >>> Viking supporters association — message board >>> Doncaster Free Press — local paper >>> http://www.doncasterrovers.co.uk/>Doncaster Rovers — unofficial blog >>> http://www.doncaster.vitalfootball.co.uk/forum/category-view.asp>Vital Doncaster site and forum >>> http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=184>Doncaster Mad — site and forum >>> http://vivarovers.wordpress.com/>Viva Rovers — historical blog Tweet @loftforwords, @wraggrtid Pictures — Action Images Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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