So who would you want us to get then, bearing in mind that the majority of out of work managers are out of work because they were sacked for failing to produce consistent performances at their previous clubs.

Speaking of lack of consistency, which you often do, in reality 18 or so of the clubs in every division suffer from a lack of consistency otherwise they would be in the top six wouldn't they.
Gary Johnson and Danny Wilson got relegated last season with us and they are in no better position than we are even though they are both vastly more experienced than PD.

Hound: SOD's Rovers were not always consistent(ly good) in results, but they were in the way they played. There was hope. You may still feel that there are grounds to be hopeful with Dickov, but I don't.

It is arguable that a significant number of managers in all Leagues are succeeding given their resources. (Their Boards of Directors may not agree of course.)

I opposed the sacking of both Dave Penney and SOD and although it was before I discovered 606 I cannot recall ever calling for the dismissal of a Rovers' manager before (the Richardson era apart) going back to the 60s, the point being that I do not lightly call for managers to be sacked. Obviously it did not help that I did not agree with PD being chosen originally and although I believe that I was prepared to give him a fair chance, others are obviously more patient than I am.

Going off subject slightly, SoD's case is different.
He had been successful with the Rovers but in his last year, although we played some pretty football, in reality there was not much hope.
We very rarely looked like scoring and when we went behind we never felt as though we would come back into games.

In PD's case, this season i do now think we have a very good chance of finishing in the top half of the division as the strength of the squad has improved in the last 2-3 weeks but i don't see us getting into the top six.
I am not alone in thinking this.

Also, when we go behind we do look like we have enough players in the team who are capable of scoring a goal to get us back into it.

I will repeat myself for the umpteenth time when i say that when the season started almost all of us on here said we would be happy with a mid table finish.

We shall see Hound. I think that Rosenior's opinion on the BBC (which will be rather less informed than most of ours) that top 6 should be the aim is what I would have set as a target at the start.

When they next play though I'd be interested in your observations on the team-play which is one of my main criticisms. If Butler is a genuine leader, can he, like Rob Jones, begin to get the defence playing as a unit?

He did against MK Dons.
I saw and heard how he organised the defenders.
I obviously wasn't at Bradford but reports suggest that he did it there as well.
He will be missed when we play Sheff Utd soon.

Roseniors point on Saturday was that we are possibly in a false position given that we have played two games less than most of the teams in the division.

My point is that just three points from the games in hand would see us safely in mid table and two wins if we could get them would see us just two points out of the top six.

I would have Deano back like a shot.
He did a good job at Wrexham and a great job at Donny. I have listened to him a good few times on Sky and really respect his views on defensive and attacking strategies as well as the psychological understanding of individual performances. I know he didn't get many brownie points for attractive football but the team finished top with what were largely reject players.
As far as I am concerned his only "fault" was ambition.
Without ambition you are wasting your time in football!

Totally agree Dr!

Dickovs not good enough to lace Deano's boots! What Saunders was left with after our relegation was not even bare bones yet he didn't crow about it he got a team and a squad together with just a couple of weeks till the season which ultimately got us the league.

If Dickov had as much as half the know how we'd still be in the championship now. Dickov could lose every game till the end of the season but the same old "he didn't have a pre season and a failed takeover hampered him" will keep coming up time and time again for his failings.

Azza, surely you remember Saunders' post match interviews.
After a defeat or a failure to win he would regularly say stuff like "well that didnt work today so we will try something else".
He got slaughtered for those type of comments by some on 606 and people often said they didn't understand how we had won a game after getting outplayed.
It is funny how nostalgia always works in favour of the departed.

You won't find one from me re Saunders I liked everything about him, he was very honest about how we played non of this blame x y z every week like Dickov. I do genuinely feel he's the worse manager we've had since being back in the league!

As I remember, when DS was making the comments about trying something else, it was in the Championship. That season was a car crash waiting to happen, when DS took over the car was a right off. On top of that he was left with a clueless group of players handpicked to play a style that was alien to DS. Then there was the master plan of ex stars that made things worse.
In League One he devised a style of play to suit the players he had. In other words he got more out of the team than sum of it's parts.
That is what good managers do!

It was interesting to look back and see what we all did actually say when Saunders replaced SOD and when Dickov was appointed.

Surprisingly most people, even those like me who was bitter about SOD's sacking were impressed with DS's enthusiasm. Dickov's arrival was less well received, although I actually recorded my approval of the apparent thorough process which put him in place and criticised those who seemed to be condemning him without giving him a chance. That surprised me.

I also looked back on my quoting DS on Trial and Error. I actually said: "I get a little worried when DS says "If that doesn't work we'll try something else" and I wonder whether this trial and error approach also extends to players." This was in the context of the vast squad of loanees which we had during The Experiment.

So in my case, history shows that I have been largely open-minded about managers, rather than the opposite.

Oh and finally I said of Dickov in May 2012 "I have listened to a lot of managers over the years and PD comes over as confident realistic and sensible."

He still does of course, but will his actions ever match his words?

I was amused by this from http://bantamsbanter.com/latest-news/debreif-bradford-city-1-2-doncater-r/
"Doncaster Rovers are a poor team. Granted they scored two really good goals from 4 shots on goal in total but the engine fire that fuels the team clearly comes from their gaffer. Paul Dickov is evidentially what drives the players to go out to try and play football whilst he struts around the technical area like a man who’s done extremely well selling scrap metal, wearing so much Brylcreem that he could quite easily slide his head through a letter box."

It should say Don, The engine of there team clearly doesn't come from their gaffer, instead its the class of players out on show week in week out who Strangely enough find themselves languishing towards the bottom end of the table!

It just shows how people with an unbiased view see perceive things.
The article also says (about the Bradford team) that "we have a good bunch of players but clearly something is amiss, a lack of confidence maybe?"
The writer goes on to say that their defence is disjointed and that their players just don't connect.
He complains that their team doesn't have a player capable of lifting them after they have conceded a goal and is peed off by his team throwing away what looked like being a winning performance.

At this point i (hound) could say "isn't it the managers job to formulate a system and an attitude to do this" - but i won't.

You know what, it looks to me as though it could have been written by someone called bradaldo. <>

Hound, are you Dickov in disguise?