100 days of the Wael way

Very interesting times ahead I really hope Darrell stays and builds on what he's done so far but if not in sure the new regime will have it covered. We are in a better position now than we've been for many years and think its time for everyone to calm down a bit and see what happens its far to early to start panicking about things just yet

TO clean up a common expression used in Hollywood blockbusters, for Bristol Rovers president Wael Al-Qadi "Stuff just got real".

The owner of Bristol Rovers has been at the helm for just 100 days and could never in his wildest dreams have imagined things would have gone so well.

He's watched his team transform themselves from play-off possibles to promotion certainties, been carried shoulder-high down the Gloucester Road by delighted Gasheads and been praised by all and sundry for his level-headed approach to running a football club.

Yet in all honesty, apart from a few well-chosen words and some promises that have yet to come to fruition, it would be hard to find anyone who's had a similar lucky streak after acquiring a new business.

That is not to say that Mr Al-Qadi doesn't deserve his luck. When he arrived at the Memorial Ground like a bolt out of the blue back on February 19 there was a lot of off-the-field speculation that threatened to spill over to the team.

The players couldn't help but hear stories of the on-going battle with Sainsbury's over the proposed sale of the Mem which wasn't going well. Not only that but the club had been saddled with a high-interest loan payment to appeal the court ruling.

I don't think it would be far off the mark to suggest that if Mr Al-Qadi hadn't turned up when he did, the club would be stranded up the Avon without a paddle.

Clearing the debts and promising to pursue Rovers' dream move to a purpose-built stadium at the University campus near Frenchay helped to ease worries and meant Darrell Clarke and his men could concentrate solely on the business of winning promotion.

And it wasn't just the money issue that seemed to relax the club. Many new owners are like kids in a toy shop, wanting to tinker with everything and pull things apart just to see how they work without any idea how to put them back together again.

From the word go it was obvious that Mr Al-Qadi and his carefully selected team weren't going to mess with anything. They went about their business guided by the well-used mantra "If It Ain't Broke Don't Fix It" and assured everyone associated with the club - staff, management team, players and fans - that provided things were going smoothly they weren't about to step in and change anything.


It's something that the likes of Blackburn's Venky's probably wished they did when they first took over. How much would they give for a Sam Allardyce at the helm right now?

The great thing about Mr Al-Qadi and his chairman Steve Hamer is that they both seem approachable and open about their intentions. I'm sure their steady hand on the tiller over the first few months gave manager Clarke in particular the lift he needed with the business end of the season approaching.

The fact that Mr Al-Qadi took trains like normal fans to places like Stevenage and York (albeit travelling first class) placed another tick in another box, and at last it seemed the horrible them-and-us scenario which had been allowed to fester between fans and board had finally been removed.

We were one club again – a point rammed home when hatchets were buried and certain long-standing Gasheads who had been out of favour were invited back into the fold.

The whole thing came to a stunning climax on that famous Saturday just under a month ago when Lee Brown struck a winner against Dagenham two minutes into injury time.

In the subsequent pitch invasion fans stood below Box 1 cheering the new owner to the rafters in stark contrast to the scenes two seasons earlier when a lynch mob gathered in the same place after the club dropped out of the Football League.

Still, as I said at the start of this article, things are about to get very real for Mr Al-Qadi. Not only is our top scorer Matty Taylor being hunted by bigger clubs but this week Leeds made an approach to the club about poaching the manager.

What happens over the next few weeks and months – culminating with the new season in League One – is likely to tell us a lot more about Mr Al-Qadi than anything we have learned so far.

I assume you've already got your coat !!