RECAP: Doncaster Rovers Meet The Owners event - as it happened

A quick summary - but more to come

We’ve tried to provide a summary of what was asked and how it was answered this evening. There will be more meat put on the bones of the big talking points in the days to come.

It’s fair to say it was an interesting night where some frustrations were aired and there was opportunity for responses to be given.

8.18pm - That closes the evening

Thanks are being given and the evening is being wrapped up.

8.11pm - We are being lied to all the time

More of a statement than a question but an audience member goes on the attack against the top table, talking about recruitment and budgets.

GB: “I go back to the point that every penny that has come into this club has gone back into the playing budget.

“The Marquis money comes in over a number of years, the Ben Whiteman money is the same.

“I don’t believe you are being lied to.

“You will not see money leaving the club to the ownership.

“What has come in instead has been the manager’s choice.”

DB: “There was a willingness on our side to follow the manager’s instincts with recruitment and we didn’t follow some of our own.”

8.09pm - What is different about the process of selecting the new manager?

DB: “We certainly intend to go through similar processes that we have before. The reality is that we’ve got one wrong and three right.

“We thought we had chosen the right man in Richie but it didn’t work out. The previous three did.”

8.07pm - When are we going to sort the catering service in the South Stand?

Dean: “We’re in a very difficult time in a hospitality and catering industry. Very few people want to join the industry.

“We’ve got a very inexperienced team at the moment and that is not how I want us to operate.

“We’ve put a lot of time into recruitment and when it does not happen we rely on agency staff. We’re getting inexperienced staff from them.

“We’re working to make it better but it is challenging.”

8.00pm - Why have Doncaster Rovers got the lowest budget in the division?

GB: “We’ve got the 14th highest budget in the league. This is official data.

“We are making additional funds available in January.

“We analyse league position against budget and ours is currently the second worst in the division which shows we are not performing well enough.

“We’re looking to spend money more effectively.”

7.53pm - What division would you like us to be in?

TB: “When Dick and I came into the club, I was introduced to a chap named Sean O’Driscoll who was quite blunt. He asked what money I was going to put in.

“If I knew then what I knew now, I would say that it was more than money. You have to build foundation and a structure.

“It’s no accident that the teams of football in England, some of them have stadiums of 65,000.

“I’m not Bramallovic, I’m just Bramall.

“Since that conversation with Sean, we’ve made huge strides towards delivering a structure that give us those foundations.

“Will I see in my lifetime us competing at the top of the Championship, I doubt it? But we are working towards providing something attractive for someone who may see fit to put millions in.”

7.51pm - What evidence do you have that suggests you can bring the glory days back to the club?

GB: “We have a track record of increasing the playing budget and we are looking at an increased playing budget each year.

“We are in a different position in January than we were in June. If those monies weren’t made available, I think you would be right in your point.

“Football fans judge ambition by budgets. The playing budget has increased by £500,000 this year.”

7.48pm - What are the benefits of Club Doncaster?

GB: “Quite clearly, we’re Doncaster Rovers.

“Club Doncaster is a business model where the three clubs can work together and generate significant monies.

“Club Doncaster is the car boot that raises £250,000 a year.

“Doncaster Rovers in isolation wouldn’t bring in the two concerts, the Rugby League World Cup.

“Club Doncaster brings in seven figures that go straight into the sports teams. That wouldn’t be done without Club Doncaster.

“We’ve got to work harder on Doncaster Rovers having a clear identity, we accept.”

7.44pm - Why did it take until deadline day to release extra funds for a striker?

DB: “The situation on the striker front was that we brought a lad in from Watford and we also had Okenabirhie who we thought was going to be free from injury. We brought Dodoo in as well.

GB: “The deal could not be done before deadline day. Will Grigg had agreed to come to us, we’d agreed a deal with Sunderland but did not want it to be done until deadline day. But Rotherham came in and the player decided that deal had more appeal to him.

“The finances were not signed off on deadline day, they were signed off two weeks beforehand.

“Those monies were carried into the new window with Dodoo signed.

“The manager wanted to wait for the player. There were other strikers available but rightly or wrongly the manager and ourselves were willing to wait for that player.

“It wasn’t a case of wanting to wait until deadline day. We didn;t have a choice.”

7.39pm - What is the ownership model and why is that the case?

TB: “The ownership model is simple. There are three owners, they all own a third and they’re all sat at this table.

“The ownership is with holding company Club Doncaster with three subsidiaries in Doncaster Rovers, Doncaster RLFC and Doncaster Belles.

“We take nothing out. It all comes into the playing budget and if we need to add something to it, we will.

“We believe we have the skills as a board, we can make the football club work.”

7.34pm - Where have the additional funds come from that weren’t available to Richie?

GB: “We were honest in the summer that this was a rebuild season and

“Every month we’ve been paying significant monies off to cover debts. They won’t be needed from January so they are available.

“The company is exceeding financially on all budgets so there is that more money for the budgets.

“These gentlemen don’t take any money out of the club.

“We know we’ll have two concerts, which are six figures each, and they weren’t in the budget at the start of the year. These guys are talking about making those monies available in January.”

7.33pm - Why weren’t Bogle and Williams brought back sooner?

GB: “We don’t take playing decisions.

“Gary has a relationship with Ed and Omar and believes they will be a benefit to the team.”

7.27pm - Submitted questions

Q: What are the current plans for succession to ownership of Doncaster Rovers?

TB: “David and I went through this process with our colleague Dick Watson 14 years ago when we sold Keepmoat. Our children didn’t want it

“Succession planning is not a million miles from our thoughts. We haven’t sat down and discussed what we are going to do.

“Our goal has been to make this club viable so we do not stretch a prospective buyer.

“We three are pretty local and we are the owners - and that does not go for many clubs these days, even in League One.

“When we lose, it hurts here too.

“We try to approach things by reason. Twelve months ago we had more points per game than anyone in the league.

“Darren got distracted - that is the best way I can put it - and we just managed to survive the season.

“We have a way of working at this club and its the same philosophy that works throughout all our interests.

“We want it to survive as a club and do so sustainably so when it comes to succession, anyone who commits is picking up a working model.

“Give us a bit of time and we want to get back to winning football.

“We’ve not tried to sell the business. No one has been to buy it.

“My daughters aren’t interested in football and my grandchildren are too young to get interested at this stage.”

7.24pm - Given how vocal the majority of the fans have been, why did you feel you had given Richie Wellens enough time and why did it take so long?

GB: “We’ve had comments that we’ve been too long or too short.

“The conversations were going on about how to support the manager right up until the Tuesday before the Crewe game.

“The body language of the players and the performance at Crewe tipped the balance.

“We’ve looked to see if there are other factors and not just blaming the manager as the easiest option.”

DB: “We all recognise that performances haven’t been good enough and a change was needed. Unfortunately that was the manager.

“I think Richie was feeling the pressure and so were the players.”

7.20pm - Do you think the transfer policy of signing loanees works? How are we going to be able to build a squad?

DB: “We’ve signed the likes of Close, Williams, Knoyle, Dodoo, Rowe, Olowu. These are signed players, on contracts. There are eight.”

Q: How do we progress as a club if these loan players go back after every season?

GB: “We’ve always said that we’d work to a squad of 23-25 players with around a maximum of three loanees.

“Richie Wellens spoke of the loanees being the cherries on top.

“Loans are players that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. Or there is the try-before-you-buy option that we’ve had in the best.

“During the Covid year, to get through the financial year we probably had more loanees to get through the season.

“Generically, the policy of the club is three loanees and a maximum of five. It gives us the right squad mix.

“The strategy of loans will continue but we will look to work to the numbers.

7.17pm - Another questions

Q: The point is the quality of the signings of the last two managers - we all know that some of them have not been good enough. We’ve got some very dodgy players at the moment.

(Another round of applause)

DB: “We have some seasoned professionals come in. We brought eight new players into the club in the summer which the manager thought was going to make inroads into the performance. Although those players haven’t played up to their abilities, we need to get them up to speed because the manager thought they were capable of playing in this division.”

7.11pm - First question from the public?

Q: What hurts me most is that we’ve lost to some shocking times. Can anyone explain to me how we’ve managed to put together the most ineffective squad we’ve had since we came back into the league?

(This is met with a round of applause)

DB: “I probably want to agree with you on that topic.

“There has been some mitigating factors. We appointed Richie and bless him, he did his best, but we have had some disappointing results.

“It’s a reason not an excuse but the level of injuries we have had has had an impact.

“Against Mansfield we had 11 players missing that would predominantly be making up our senior squad.

“THe manager chose the team and the system we played and it was not good enough so we had to make a tough decision.

“I think we’re all in agreement that results haven’t been good enough.”

Q: Are we hanging our hats on players that weren’t even getting in the side last season. We’re looking for a way to win 12 games in the second half of the season?

DB: “We are trying our best through the recruitment of the new manager and in whatever way we can support recruitment in January.”

GB: “With the recruitment of the new manager, we are looking at the football structure.

“We need to put more resource into how we recruit and not rely too much on the manager.”

7.08pm - How has player recruitment been impacted?

GB: “Recruitment started in the autumn.

“There is a meeting this Thursday and we will be looking to sign off a plan for January, with the approval of the manager when he comes in.

“We will try to please the manager. David for instance won’t insist on a player coming in or anyone playing on a Saturday.

“A few years ago it was absolutely manager-led but it isn’t as much now.”

7.06pm - Why do we offer 12-month rolling contracts and will we this time?

DB: “We will be trying to do a 12 month rolling contract. It’s not unusual in business.

“The benefit to the club and if people are poached like we have experienced, there is compensation.

“It gives the manager continuity and the opportunity to plan for the future.”

GB: “The compensation if the manager is poached is significantly larger than previously. We have strengthened that.

“We have modified it. It’s not literally 12 months going both ways.

“If you put a two-year contract in, after 12 months it’s worthless and doesn’t protect the club at all.”

7.03pm - Question for David Blunt

How is the recruitment of the next manager going?

DB: “We advertised the job a week ago. We had around 130 applicants last week. Gavin and I met this morning and produced a shortlist of six candidates we would like to interview. We are trying to arrange the interviews for next Monday.

“Once we’ve had those initial interviews, we will produce another shortlist and interview again.”

The top table are here

Owner Terry Bramall, chairman David Blunt and chief executive Gavin Baldwin have taken their seats.

Getting closer

And it’s filling up nicely. Looking like a particularly well attended night.

An interesting evening ahead

For the first time in two years, Rovers are hosting a Meet The Owners event. And not since during the aborted Sequentia Capital takeover attempt has a Meet The Owners night fell at such a tumultuous time for the club.

The search for the next manager/head coach continues in the background and will no doubt be a hot topic of discussion throughout the evening.

Chief executive Gavin Baldwin, chairman David Blunt and owner Terry Bramall are all due to be on the top table to face questions from the gathered audience and those submitted online.

All three have come in for severe criticism from a section of the club’s support for the manner in which 2021 has panned out and it will be interesting to see the level of scrutiny which the trio will face this evening.

Assurances are likely to be sought over the future direction of the club with Rovers facing a fierce relegation battle over the next five months.

I’ll be on hand at the stadium throughout the event to bring you as many of the talking points as possible, so stick with us - and don’t forget to REFRESH regularly.