[Archived] The Naughties, Or Were They Niceys!?!

[RoversSG]

Favorite player: Jansen

Most irritating player: RSC - just go and stop disrupting our team spirit by going to paraguayan radio every 2 months!

Most important Player: If it's under Souness, i'll say Duff, under Hughes, probably Andy Todd (think he did a great job in Hughes first 2 years), now, it's probably Nelsen

Worst player: Probably the Axe, i have never seen a worse player in terms of passing and skills! Everytime he gets the ball, he freezes like a rabbit caught in the headlights! Worst of all, for a defensive player, he tackles like Paul Scholes!

Favorite moment: When we won the league cup and when Roberts scored against Chelsea in the FA cup semi-final

Worst moment: When we announced we're signing Ince instead of (HTC, Laudrup, BSC....) then followed up when we signed Fowler and Andrews!

Best Match: Either when we beat Man U 4-2 (thanks to Bentley's hat-trick) or the FA cup semi against Chelsea (Am sure that if the match went on for 10 more mins, we'll have beaten them in normal time!). The match against Portsmouth a few months ago when we beat them 2-0 was good too, love that moment when Robbo pulled off that double save and his and MGP reactions reflected my feelings exactly!

Worst match: Most of the matches under Ince and that last match last season where we just need a win to qualify for the UEFA cup and Hughes and the players don't seem to care!

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Best Match: Either when we beat Man U 4-2 (thanks to Bentley's hat-trick)

It was 4-3.

The match against Portsmouth a few months ago when we beat them 2-0 was good too, love that moment when Robbo pulled off that double save and his and MGP reactions reflected my feelings exactly!

It was against Wigan.

[mhead]

Favourite moment.

Bumley vs Gillingham. Invited by Gills fan. Score 0-5 and all 5 scored by 'Super Bobby Taylor'.

Much better feeling than Dingles coming up to Prem.

Seriously...has to be Cardiff and League Cup.

Best goal...the 2 against Fulham(Tugay and Morts) and Morts winner against Bumley in Cup.

Largest Sonic boom...Toogs at Southampton or Reidy at Wigan(hardest shot ever seen?)

[champions1995]

My favourite moment has to be the win at Old Trafford in 2005. It was just an unbelievable feeling, especially since I was there! It was our first win at Old Trafford in 43 years and coming into the game we were 18th with no win or goal in our previous 4 games. I really didn't expect us to get anything, and with it being 3 days before my birthday - it was the perfect Birthday present!

[Driftpeasant]

Hiring Ince was a dumb ass decision, end of, that should never ever have happened. Also to have appointed Shearer before Ince wasnt purely going on sound judgment either was it ?.

What has been built up you cant deny, but you can certainly question going forward, if these are two most recent and alarming decisions that the board wanted and did do and saw fit and correct to do. Plus being swayed by fans on a facebook petition doesnt show a clear strength of mind to me Tris.

I don't know... I think that the fact that the Board LISTENS to the fans is a great thing. Ultimately Rovers as an entity will survive by two things: adequate funding and fan support. The latter often drives the former. John Williams picked the wrong manager, yes. And the one source I have in the English managerial community suggested to me that Ince was crap. But you have a team that took a flyer on another inexperienced manager in Mark Hughes which paid huge dividends. Can you blame JW for going with Ince? When it didn't work out, Ince was quickly sacked, and we got Big Sam. That seems to me to be a Board with good decision making skills, not one leading us down the path of destructions...

Rovers have ended up with a devalued product in need of even more attention than it did before Tris, how many more inbalanced decisions are these guys capable of that are going to wreck the chances of taking Rovers forward in the future.

I'll hold my hands and admit my mistakes but i've not heard anything from these guys admitting their mistakes when it was plain to see that action was needed to fire Ince and his associates, things just dragged on for far too long.

Wha? They fired him. That's what they're supposed to do. If you apologize for him being the wrong hire, you open yourself up to lawsuits, among other things. I think they handled it the right way.

The Board hired a good manager capable of taking us forward, a manager who took another small market Lancashire team to Europe. We're never going to have the money to compete with the Big 4. Honestly as we are now, if we finish 6th-10th every year, beat a Big 4 team or two, maybe have a good Cup run - I'm happy with that. Sure, it'd be great if Abramovich decided that Blue and White was better than Blue, and bought us, dropped scads of cash, and we started competing in the Champions League. But realistically that's not going to happen. I'm fine with us in the Prem, playing in the greatest league in the world. I don't want a Mike Ashley buying us and running us to ruin. We're good where we are - we have minimal debt, are building our fanbase, and we're in the best league in the world. What can you be negative about?

[T4E]

Didn't think this was worthy of its own thread, but here is the updated All Time Premier League Table, with Rovers still comfortably occupying a top 10 position.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-time_FA_P...er_League_table

60 points next season would see us go above Newcastle. Not really much chance of us getting above anyone else, but there's also no one anywhere near getting above us.

Look who's bottom

[Manc Rover]

Didn't think this was worthy of its own thread, but here is the updated All Time Premier League Table, with Rovers still comfortably occupying a top 10 position.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-time_FA_P...er_League_table

60 points next season would see us go above Newcastle. Not really much chance of us getting above anyone else, but there's also no one anywhere near getting above us.

Look who's bottom

The 'Titles Won' column gives me such joy!

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Hopefully Burnley's average points score will be the same this time next year!

[JAL]

I don't know... I think that the fact that the Board LISTENS to the fans is a great thing. Ultimately Rovers as an entity will survive by two things: adequate funding and fan support. The latter often drives the former. John Williams picked the wrong manager, yes. And the one source I have in the English managerial community suggested to me that Ince was crap. But you have a team that took a flyer on another inexperienced manager in Mark Hughes which paid huge dividends. Can you blame JW for going with Ince? When it didn't work out, Ince was quickly sacked, and we got Big Sam. That seems to me to be a Board with good decision making skills, not one leading us down the path of destructions...

Wha? They fired him. That's what they're supposed to do. If you apologize for him being the wrong hire, you open yourself up to lawsuits, among other things. I think they handled it the right way.

The Board hired a good manager capable of taking us forward, a manager who took another small market Lancashire team to Europe. We're never going to have the money to compete with the Big 4. Honestly as we are now, if we finish 6th-10th every year, beat a Big 4 team or two, maybe have a good Cup run - I'm happy with that. Sure, it'd be great if Abramovich decided that Blue and White was better than Blue, and bought us, dropped scads of cash, and we started competing in the Champions League. But realistically that's not going to happen. I'm fine with us in the Prem, playing in the greatest league in the world. I don't want a Mike Ashley buying us and running us to ruin. We're good where we are - we have minimal debt, are building our fanbase, and we're in the best league in the world. What can you be negative about?

Just appalled at hiring novices in the first place with absolutely no coaching qualifications whatsoever for mega bucks salaries - whats all that about?

What possibly can that type of recruitment achieve ?

What is the rationale for their judgement in persueing this, it begs the question do they really know what they are doing ?

The alarm bells have began to ring for me, driftpeasant.

[Driftpeasant]

Just appalled at hiring novices in the first place with absolutely no coaching qualifications whatsoever for mega bucks salaries - whats all that about?

What possibly can that type of recruitment achieve ?

What is the rationale for their judgement in persueing this, it begs the question do they really know what they are doing ?

The alarm bells have began to ring for me, driftpeasant.

No qualifications in terms of badges, yes. But he was, as many other successful managers were, an incredible player in his day. And he did a bang up job managing at MK Dons. Not that that's entirely analogous to managing in the Prem, but he appeared to be an up and coming manager. And honestly isn't one of the biggest complaints we hear from fans that all the English managers aren't being given a shot? That all the managers that go around are retreads? I mean, he kept them up, but was anyone really looking at Roy Hodgson as this amazing tactical genius to keep Fulham up?

So when the club decides to give a shot to a guy who appears to have potential, I don't think that's a bad thing. They realized he wasn't ready (or in my opinion will likely never be ready) and fired him. End of.

That's the sign of a mature and well run organization - you try something, if it works great, if it doesn't work you cut bait at the right time.

The bells still have their muffles on for me.

[roversmum]

I'minclinedtoagreewithDriftpeasant.

Grrrrr just washed my old keyboard and found out someone has spilt coffee over the replacement...

Ince seemed a good bet. He was VERY enthusiastic and he had - so it seemed - done a good job with MK Dons. An alarm bell rang when he made the quip about being in the bottom three but hey, it was a jest -and boy did it come back to bite him.

We've heard rumours about what went on but apparently it was just the tip of the iceberg according to Alan, and what I heard was more than enough for me. He promised to study for his badges, so that was okay, but it seems as if it all went to Ince's head and not only did he not bother to turn up most of the time, he didn't do anything about the badges either.

He wasn't my choice, but then neither was Big Sam - however, boy was I pleased to see Big Sam on the horizon come December. It's all done and gone now, let's look forward to next season. We all make mistakes I'm sure, and we've all made the wrong choice along the way, but when we do, how we deal with the resulting mess is important, and for me the correct decision was made and we've lived to fight another day.

[JAL]

No qualifications in terms of badges, yes. But he was, as many other successful managers were, an incredible player in his day.

And he did a bang up job managing at MK Dons. Not that that's entirely analogous to managing in the Prem, but he appeared to be an up and coming manager. And honestly isn't one of the biggest complaints we hear from fans that all the English managers aren't being given a shot? That all the managers that go around are retreads? I mean, he kept them up, but was anyone really looking at Roy Hodgson as this amazing tactical genius to keep Fulham up?

So when the club decides to give a shot to a guy who appears to have potential, I don't think that's a bad thing. They realized he wasn't ready (or in my opinion will likely never be ready) and fired him. End of.

That's the sign of a mature and well run organization - you try something, if it works great, if it doesn't work you cut bait at the right time.

The bells still have their muffles on for me.

Complete lack of home work or research done on Paul Ince for me, someone bangs on about how good they are and then the hirer doesnt do his homework, sorry simply not good enough.

Calculated risk yes we all do it at some point, hiring Ince and possibly Shearer before was foolish and naieve from the board and above all very costly.

[CrazyIvan]

Complete lack of home work or research done on Paul Ince for me, someone bangs on about how good they are and then the hirer doesnt do his homework, sorry simply not good enough.

Calculated risk yes we all do it at some point, hiring Ince and possibly Shearer before was foolish and naieve from the board and above all very costly.

Please bang another drum, we've heard it all before and we know you don't like John Williams. I'm getting bored of hearing the same old rubbish.