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Post by warehamgas on Dec 21, 2016 14:52:02 GMT
Watching Bournemouth as a neutral I can see what so many are saying about the PL but can agree with gasincider as well as to wanting Rovers to be there. I want the best possible future for us and the aim of the PL needs to be there. We need to make progress every season if we can and perhaps, just perhaps, we might get to the next level. If we needed one point from the last 2 matches to get to the PL then of course I and I suspect everyone else would be cheering like hell to get us there. We would worry about the consequences later I suspect! But I would want us to keep our club and still have remnants of ragbag Rovers! I prefer the match day experience at Rovers every time to that of Bournemouth but that's to do with the emotional pull that your team has over you. Changes to kick off times really annoy me, perhaps they shouldn't but they do, and I've found that not always knowing well in advance about the changes really annoys me. Yet when I say to people I sit with about the way fans are treated and the changes they just shrug and say we're PL so we have to do it. As gasincider says it's just my view and I'm probably not in tune with many about it. Perhaps it's my age!! Whatever, always UTG!
ps good op wiaww. Got some good replies as well.
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Post by wiaww on Dec 22, 2016 10:45:00 GMT
It's all great and good to say 'remember where we were two years ago' So what? It counts for nothing now. If we go down this season, the last two years won't be flitting before my eyes. To create a great football club is all about evolution, just as Al Qadi said, and reiterated by Steve Hamer. If you are happy with where we are, bully for you. I'm not. I've seen all this before. We have spent most of our history at this level. Is that what makes you happy? Well not me. This club has to keep on progressing or it will stagnate and die. I've seen enough crap thank you very much to last a lifetime. I hear some of you say ' I just want us to beat the sh** in the championship'. Yeah, that would make me happy for a few days, but that's it. Also, ' I want us to finish above the sh** in the championship'. That would make me happy for a few months. What the f**k. I want to be happy for years on end. I want the Premier League. If Swansea, Bournemouth, Wigan etc can do it, I'm bloody sure we can. That's why DC said not so long ago that he wanted the championship in three years. He turned down the chance to manage Leeds. Alright we all know that club is a basket case. But it was still a high profile well paid job. That told me that our owners had the ambition here to make him turn that job down, and it would be great if MT also had the same ambition. If he doesn't so what. There are other strikers out there. The point is that the Premier League has to be the target. Anything less is a total lack of ambition. It will take time, and we are all getting older, but it has to be the target. It looks like the training ground is settled. Now the UWE has to be assured or it's all for nowt. Of course it counts for something now because two seasons ago we were there and now we’re here. That is the definition of progress. If we go down this season, if we go up this season, if we finish midtable if, if, if. The facts are we are 11th in League One with five points between us and the play-offs, so yes, I am happy with where we are, and yes, bully for me. But does that mean I don’t want us to progress? Of course not. I want to see Bristol Rovers at the highest level possible but I’m trying to be realistic about how that can be achieved. Like you say, we have been at this level for most of our history, so is it fair to expect Darrell Clarke, the current squad, Wael Al-Qadi, Steve Hamer - or anyone else for that matter - to be able to change that over half a season? Of course it isn’t. We are still on an upward trajectory and yes we’ve hit a (decent sized) bump in the road but that doesn’t mean the wheels have fallen off. As said by someone previously, trends need to be measured over years and there will be ups and downs but that’s part of evolution. Sometimes things don’t work and so you roll back to a previous incarnation and try something slightly different and if that works you carry it forward and adapt from there. Everyone bought in to this “evolution not revolution” idea but now that we’ve hit a snag people it sounds to me like actually a lot of people would like some revolution. Perhaps Premier League has to be the target, perhaps it doesn’t, it all depends on the individual but as far as I’m aware each and every one of us would like to see Rovers in the Championship and the vast majority of us are happy that DC has a three year plan to get us there. As far as I’m concerned, if you step back and look at the bigger picture, I don’t see how we’re not still on target for that, do you? 'I was lucky to make it to 100' - Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke on 1000 days in charge
Clarke succeeded John Ward on March 28, 2014 as the former board attempted one last throw of the dice to try and keep Rovers in the Football League. After failing to keep Rovers in the Football League over the final eight games of the 2013/14 season, Clarke rebuilt the squad and has secured back-to-back promotions in the two seasons that have followed since. Rovers are currently placed 13th in League One, but Clarke joked: "I was lucky to make it to 100!" He added: "To get to 1000 days is certainly a long time in terms of football management these days, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I have a great backroom team and have had the pleasure of working with a very good squad of players over the last two-and-a-half-years. "I said when I took over that this club should be competing in the top half of League One. If someone had said we'd be where we are now in less than three years considering where we've come from I'd have asked for them to be carted off by the men in white coats. " We've had some disappointment in the last five or six weeks where the performances haven't quite matched our usual standards and we are working hard to recover that over the Christmas period. But we've had some great success that will live long in my memory. "It has been an unbelievable 1000 days when you think about what we have achieved. I've learned a massive amount and I am still learning every day. You are always learning in this job because there is always a different situation to manage every day."There have been big challenges to overcome, especially after hitting rock-bottom following that defeat against Mansfield and the relegation that followed. We were at our lowest point and that we managed to bounce back at the first attempt makes me feel as though I can handle anything that football management can throw at me."
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