Oxford 0 v 2 Rovers

[JJH]

MApp has turned a club going nowhere into a club moving forward. Consistently signing talented young players and improving the team (playing good football) whilst making a significant profit on transfers. If that is underwhelming then who would you actually want?

Anyway, I don't want him going anywhere else.

Wouldn't mind Darrell Clarke tbqfh

 

[Indian Dan]

Setting your sights low there, JJH. Isn't it about time you lot pushed the boat out and employed a decent, proven manager instead of these one club wonders

 

[Robie]

Anyway, it's 3 points and on to Southend next weekend. U's have the upper hand in terms of games in hand and where they could end up come the end of the season, but there are no easy games in this league.

Yes there are.

 

[07.05.16]

Yes there are.

Yeah, you lot and Northampton. Only 2 teams we've beat twice so far.
-Just remembered we also beat Swindle twice.

 

[miagsygas]

I could see why a championship club would want a guy who's got four promotions in five seasons as a manager over a guy who's flopped in every club he's been at bar one.

 

[JJH]

Setting your sights low there, JJH. Isn't it about time you lot pushed the boat out and employed a decent, proven manager instead of these one club wonders

Rowett would've been the ideal choice mate, or Pardew, but don't think any of them would come near us currently. We've left it too late.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

I could see why a championship club would want a guy who's got four promotions in five seasons as a manager over a guy who's flopped in every club he's been at bar one.

The problem with twisting the facts like this is that you'll look silly in the long run.

 

[miagsygas]

The problem with twisting the facts like this is that you'll look silly in the long run.

"Decent, proven manager"

"One club wonder"

 

[JJH]

"Decent, proven manager"

"One club wonder"

In fairness, I believe that Clarke is perfectly suited to Rovers and I think he'd be daft to leave currently. I also think you'd struggle if he left; he seems to be able to squeeze everything out of incredibly average players. If you look through your squad, you have a loan goalie with a 40 year old as back up, your best centre half is a loanee, you're playing players like Sinclair and Clarke who've had their fair share of criticism in the lower leagues but seem to be consistently performing, no real goals upfront now Taylor's gone but obviously that bit of spark in Bodin.

Not being disrespectful at all, more paying credit to the job that Clarke's done. A much better manager than Appleton if his brief managerial career is to go by, and if we go for Appleton you can guarantee yourselves six points next season.

 

[Indian Dan]

"Decent, proven manager"

"One club wonder"

We've all seen them before - a successful manager with his first club where the fit for both club and manager is perfect. This, obviously, raises his profile and he gets enticed by a bigger club where he falls flat on his arse. Eddie Howe springs to mind

 

[GEORGE]

Yes there are.

Well for us there is one only 30 miles up the M4

 

[miagsygas]

In fairness, I believe that Clarke is perfectly suited to Rovers and I think he'd be daft to leave currently. I also think you'd struggle if he left; he seems to be able to squeeze everything out of incredibly average players. If you look through your squad, you have a loan goalie with a 40 year old as back up, your best centre half is a loanee, you're playing players like Sinclair and Clarke who've had their fair share of criticism in the lower leagues but seem to be consistently performing, no real goals upfront now Taylor's gone but obviously that bit of spark in Bodin.

Not being disrespectful at all, more paying credit to the job that Clarke's done. A much better manager than Appleton if his brief managerial career is to go by, and if we go for Appleton you can guarantee yourselves six points next season.

I agree in that I think we would suffer somewhat if DC ever left, he's certainly the best Rovers manager in my lifetime and will go on to bigger and better things. We will then see the real intentions of the board and there has to be some doubts in this, even if you like them, because so much is unknown.

This being said, I think it the individuals at this club are highly under rated specificialy because they're not well known names and because of where they've come from. Ollie Clarke, as mentioned, has become easily one of the first names on the team sheet. DC has definitely improved him from a talented player who lacked consistency to a talented player who is putting in MOM performances week in, week out. Will he suddenly lose that because a manager goes? I'm not so sure. We have a lot of talent in this squad and I don't care how good the manager is, I doubt we'd be in the position we are without decent ability, especially with the teams we've matched in recent weeks.

We've all seen them before - a successful manager with his first club where the fit for both club and manager is perfect. This, obviously, raises his profile and he gets enticed by a bigger club where he falls flat on his arse. Eddie Howe springs to mind

Firstly, not the first club DC has managed.

Secondly, I'll take the Eddie Howe comparison if you're sure that's the one you want to go for.

Thirdly, what's your excuse for Appleton flopping everywhere else he's been, as the only things I can think of is that he's just found the one club he can be successful at where the fit for the club and manager are perfect or that the spells at Pompey, Blackpool and Blackburn were only failure because it coincided with his recovery from steroid addiction

 

[joethegill]

We've all seen them before - a successful manager with his first club where the fit for both club and manager is perfect. This, obviously, raises his profile and he gets enticed by a bigger club where he falls flat on his arse. Eddie Howe springs to mind

Hardly fell on his arse, Howe had around the 40% mark win ratio when at Burnley, that's not bad.

 

[Indian Dan]

I agree in that I think we would suffer somewhat if DC ever left, he's certainly the best Rovers manager in my lifetime and will go on to bigger and better things. We will then see the real intentions of the board and there has to be some doubts in this, even if you like them, because so much is unknown.

This being said, I think it the individuals at this club are highly under rated specificialy because they're not well known names and because of where they've come from. Ollie Clarke, as mentioned, has become easily one of the first names on the team sheet. DC has definitely improved him from a talented player who lacked consistency to a talented player who is putting in MOM performances week in, week out. Will he suddenly lose that because a manager goes? I'm not so sure. We have a lot of talent in this squad and I don't care how good the manager is, I doubt we'd be in the position we are without decent ability, especially with the teams we've matched in recent weeks.



Firstly, not the first club DC has managed.

Secondly, I'll take the Eddie Howe comparison if you're sure that's the one you want to go for.

Thirdly, what's your excuse for Appleton flopping everywhere else he's been, as the only things I can think of is that he's just found the one club he can be successful at where the fit for the club and manager are perfect or that the spells at Pompey, Blackpool and Blackburn were only failure because it coincided with his recovery from steroid addiction

Come on, Clarke's only had one previous job at Salisbury - perhaps I should have said first league club. He's only proven at Bristol Rovers and that's my point. It'd be a huge punt for a bigger club to take where expectations are higher, more money to spend and higher profile players to manage.

As much as I don't want credit Appleton with much, his previous clubs have all been basket cases. But again, he's only proven at Oxford in the lower leagues and like your Clarke has benefitted from being at a club which was a biggish fish in a small pond.

 

[Gassy]

Come on, Clarke's only had one previous job at Salisbury - perhaps I should have said first league club. He's only proven at Bristol Rovers and that's my point. It'd be a huge punt for a bigger club to take where expectations are higher, more money to spend and higher profile players to manage.

As much as I don't want credit Appleton with much, his previous clubs have all been basket cases. But again, he's only proven at Oxford in the lower leagues and like your Clarke has benefitted from being at a club which was a biggish fish in a small pond.

Tbf, his first full season was in the conference. Rovers being the in the conference is similar to Leeds/Villa being the Championship. Huge pressure and a first in both clubs' history when first relegated there.

For his first "football league" team, he had absolute massive pressure, especially when he actually took us down. If he didn't get it right, his FL career could have been over before it really began.

Whilst I actually agree that DC has really had 1 FL club (Salisbury were demoted something like 3 divisions so it was a few "easy" promotions there for DC), he has still done an incredible job and long may it continue. The board need to match his ambitions massively if we want to grow with him.

JJH is also right, he really squeezes the maximum out of every player, but also develops them too. I didn't think Ollie Clarke was that good in the conference, now he's suddenly one of our 1st names on the team sheet.

Either way, long may it continue!