Quote: Milky121086 "Nobody truly knows what went on at Rovers between Smith and Lakin so id take what you've heard with a hefty pinch of salt, i know people close to the club and one family member who has worked at Rovers for over 12 years and they have nothing but positives to speak of when it comes to TS and say very much the opposite in regard's to the reason he left. Furthermore you miss the point... Regardless of whether TS has minor, major or complete control of all things recruitment at FC hes working with two arms, two eyes and two ears tied behind his back, the sheer lack of funds available and the disparity between the players we lost (nothing we could have done about any of them IMO) and those we were able to bring in due to the money constraints from above gave him very little to work with. You talk about Reynolds and Milnes but whose to say either would have wanted to take a pay cut as that's what they more than likely would have had to do. Its black and white (pardon the pun) If Smith had the money to work with that Peters, Wellens etc had to work with we could be looking at 3 or 4 top level SL players to add to that current crop and sometimes that's all it takes as if you stick Ryan Hall, Tyrone May, Parcell & Minchella for example into our current side we would be transformed, hes working with whats hes got right now and whilst i don't agree with all decisions (Cummins coming in etc being one) i feel it only right to give him a long term opportunity to do what hes done at EVERY club and that's turn things round. You are very quick to forget that everything rovers are reaping the rewards for now, he laid the foundation's of. Don't let your red and white glasses cloud your judgment of what he did for you.'"
He did do some good for us, we played some free flowing stuff and it was entertaining, it was also really flaky as well, our defence was flimsy and we attacked with no real structure but relied on the flair players we had to create xthings off the cuff, heads up rugby so to speak. Our recruitment was patchy as well for every SKD we had a Vete, every Kane Linnet there was a Takarangi. Kyle Trout just sends shivers down the spine. The odd one was Sims, he seemed to make an example of him and refuse to play him for any minutes, he wasn't great but he improved massively once Maggsy took over. Our play is night and day different under a new coach, yes we have better players and resources now but we also have a structure we play to, its a bit less exciting but i'll take that anyday. In essence if you have a club that doesn't have the quality or resources to get that quality for whatever reason then I'm not sure Smith has the answers, its job he's never done, every club he's been at has had improved investment and Leeds just had money and a ridiculous crop of kids coming through to add to that quality. thats my red and white specs off view.
