I just wanted to remind everyone of these comments to Doncaster Rovers supporters by their Chief Executive.

[urlhttp://m.southyorkshiretimes.co.uk/sport/local-sport/gavin-baldwin-our-plan-to-preserve-doncaster-rovers-1-6425463[/url

And actually Stand-offish, weren't actually told that re playing budgets. What we were told was that it was the biggest budget to date.

How certain are you of that?
I know I may get branded a 'club apologist' by some on here, but to be honest, I kind of don't give a flying toss...
I've spoken to people involved with the club who said that the budget on offer to Cooke this year was far bigger than anything the club has ever operated with (I know a figure, but cannot say what it was), and that he has chosen to develop the squad this way and try and build a sustainable future for the club, rather than going all out and ending up in a similar position to what we have been in previous years. There are names I've heard mentioned that have been offered to the Dons for next season that are far and away bigger names than most we have at the club at the moment, and thats as a result of the way that the club is being run under the instruction of Hall and Cooke.

But what will be the point if we are in League 1 next year.

I thought you'd said previously you weren't watching us next year anyway?

I won't be. But I at least expected the team to be competetive this year.

The club obviously thought that their long-term plan was the best way to go. Recruiting youngsters now with a view to them developing into good players later.

From what we've been told, the club [uchose[/u to go down this route. It was announced that we had the biggest playing budget in the history of the club. We can only assume they [uchose[/u not to spend it, perhaps with Donny's thoughts in mind to invest at a later time.

Implicating the Rovers in all of this seems pure speculation. Would John Scarrow, Carl Hall, and Paul Cooke be happy to have their hands tied behind their back? I think not!

The club will never be able to reveal the total extent of their budget spend to us, and consequently will never be able to totally dispel the rumour mill with regards to any potential Rovers' interference. We have to believe that the people who are running the Dons are happy with the club's finances or else we would have heard rumblings at the fans' forum to the contrary.

The Dons (as a club) either believed the current squad was good enough to stay up and didn't need strengthening, or they were prepared to rely on DR players from Hull to plug our gaps.

It is critical that we stay up this season in order for any future plans (as mentioned by Donny) to come to fruition. We do have a good team in charge at the Dons. It doesn't mean they always get it right. None of us do, but we need to support them and do our very best to turn the bad start around.

Sadly as it stands at the moment we are going to have a young team who are likely to be relegated and could spell some very tough times for the club.

Its not about spending massive on a full squad of "stars" its about signing quality in the right positions S-O gave good examples in Snitch and Scott and I'd add Waterman to that bracket to (just doesn't seem to get enough game time).

I keep mentioning the Rovers as we were promised that the "merge" into Club Doncaster would only benefit the club and thus far I as a supporter am yet to see anything that has improved in fact that and the sharing with the Eagles seem to have lead to a reduction in quality for the long suffering Dons fan as evidenced on here by other users comments.

You have to speculate to accumulate, at the moment our survival in this division is dependent on a random assortment of players in positions we don't need from Hull, I don't see how these enhance our team they just rock and corrode the team spirit of those who put in the hard work in training and just get swapped out for a random from Hull.

I also have to question the judgement of signing two players with long term injuries, I think in the case of one we were sold a pup.

The quote of a larger budget than ever before is just management speak it could just be 1p more than previous, and in what iteration of the Dons are we talking the current setup or before, as I think the Singe's all stars cost more than the current team we are putting out. So in that statement while accurate needs to be taken within the context of "which Dons" they are referring to.

I would even say the Hanley's Dons had a higher playing budget than the current seem.

Some good & justified points.

COYD

We won't go down, I'm confident in that, won't be the season we were hoping for, some big scores coming probably, but we'll be ok.

I think that could be termed the "Aston Villa" mindset or sticking to RL the Bronco's/Bulls mindset.

[iThe owners are very clear that I have to present them with a strategic plan every three years. The main basis of it is Club Doncaster.

Club Doncaster can mean many things, but ultimately it means my job is to drive more revenue into the Keepmoat Stadium and into this club to improve the playing budget, which gives Paul Dickov the best possible chance of obtaining the highest possible position in the league. The business plan is not about the owners taking money out of the club. It’s about getting more money in. The first step was taking over the Dons.[/i

I haven't previously seen that. However, there is no doubt that it can be interpreted as 'We took over the Dons to give Paul Dickov more money to spend'.

Worrying!