I think that when it comes to Bristol Rovers, I will in future need to keep my views and feelings, such as they are, to myself. There was a time when I cared to passionately about ‘my’ club that I would argue until the cows came home – and often beyond – about what should and should not happen, about who was wrong and who was right. Where did it leave me? Today, I am on the outside looking in, still interested in what’s going on at the club, but certainly not remotely keen in getting involved even in watching the team. The argument about the future of manager Darrell Clarke is but the latest pointless spat/debate, call it what you will, I have been involved in. To set the record straight once and for all, I’ll say my bit and leave it at that; possibly forever but then again, never say never again.
Clarke has brought BRFC back from the humiliation of non league football. He brought the club two glorious promotions and now they are back in League One where historically they belong. This season, the team is seriously struggling with only two wins in thirteen games. This, on the face of it, is both relegation form and sack-the-manager territory. Looking at social networks and talking to Gasheads, that’s hardly an uncommon set of views.
As I understand it, the team is not performing. People are saying that the manager has signed poor players and they are playing poorly. Rovers have sold the goals, which is hardly unusual in football, and are now in the bottom four. My reaction is to ask why this is.
My view – and bear in mind I have not seen the team play this season – is that Clarke added to the squad this summer during a last minute shopping expedition in Poundstretcher. Whilst his record in the transfer market has hardly been stellar, it was good enough in the past for Rovers to earn two promotions and sustain League One football. The question is this: has Clarke been adequately supported by the owners? If you think the answer is ‘yes’, then you probably want him sacked. If you do not think he has been adequately supported and, indeed, hung out to dry, I suspect you hold a minority view, one with which I have some sympathy.
Clarke relies on a siege mentality. It’s backs-against-the-wall, the world-is-against-us. His ideal player is someone who will run through a brick wall for him. Star players and big names are anathema to the manager. In that scenario, given the right players, it works. Is it just possible that the players signed recently do not conform to those requirements?
And then, what’s happening off the pitch? A miserably compliant local media asks no questions of the compelling speculation that the club is to be sold. There is also considerable speculation that the club is in a mess, not just on the field, with words like ‘prehistoric’ being bandied about when it comes to club structures and organisation. Are the Al Qadis, the Jordanian owners, running the club well, along with their well paid place men? Not everyone believes they are. If there is chaos ‘behind the scenes’ do you believe it will have no impact on the playing side, especially if it impacts on their day jobs?
These are the questions around which supporters will come to their conclusions. Or maybe they won’t, hoping instead things will eventually sort themselves out.
I am not going to get into a debate about where Bristol Rovers goes from here. I have wasted too much of my life banging my head against the brick wall of how the club has been (mis)managed over the years. I happen to think the problems at BRFC go way deeper than the selection and tactics of the manager and that the on the field issues cannot be separated from what’s happening off it.
As an old friend of mine rightly put it recently, ‘we know how this ends’ when the team goes into freefall. The manager pays the price. I could be completely wrong and find that every single problem at BRFC was down to the manager. But what if I’m not?
