I'm all for home grown talent and giving youngsters a chance but i honestly think our recruitment for without doubt the toughest championship standard to date has been shocking, i like others rate cooke as a coach very highly and hope he's here a long time but whilst we will do enough to starve off relegation ive got a feeling its gonna be a long season ahead! COYD

And there lies the problem. The main board (of Patienceform - Doncaster Rovers) and in particular their Chief Executive. We have signed a squad on the cheap, and it is costing us badly.

Paul Cooke wanted to sign a number of players but wasn't allowed to because of the budget imposed on the Dons this year. This is despite securing the 4th place prize money and a (supposed) increase in sponsorship income.

I did try asking about both of these at the fans forum but didn't get an answer.

You do have to wonder if Mr Dickov's signings over the past season and flurry of activity in January were funded by the Dons winnings and Eagles money.

Don't forgot the monies from dons for life was supposed to be for player recruitment and it not happening plus what eagles are paying and the prize monies from last seasons adds up to a lot as far as I see it we have no extra expenditure , I said from before friendlies that we would struggle big time and so we are and will continue so ,we have seen the other clubs all sign top class players so we have been left behind big style ,oh forgot to mention the season tickets sales to be included , only going one way

Well we were told at the fans forum that our budget was as it should be given our winnings and that the Rovers have not syphoned any off ... and I have no reason to doubt that at all.
Let's face it, if it ever came out that they were doing something like that, even if they own us and can, the Dons would be finished.
So we can conclude that we have spent poorly or we have kept a reserve or both.

The players that don't play and so don't get match fees ... do they get some sort of basic retainer, if so how much?

Apart from Cookey, Snitch and Scotty (now a class Scottish international), we have no 'names'.
No disrespect to the lads, I admire anyone who plays such a hard game.

Hunslet could afford Andy Kain, but we couldn't, and although he might not have wanted to come here anyway, we didn't have what he wanted. There can't have been enough money left or we would have bought him.

I'm left feeling that the lads must be on a bit more money each, because apart from a few additional players (lads really) I can't see where the money went.
COYD

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

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

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 chose 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 chose 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.