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Author Topic: What should we expect from Wellens?  (Read 12721 times)
DRFC

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« on: Saturday, May 15, 2021, 17:47:45 »

Hello!

Doncaster Rovers fan here. As you may have seen, it appears that Richie Wellens will announced as our new manager on Monday. He made a fair few appearances as a player for us, however as a relatively inexperienced manager I am not entirely sure what to expect from him in terms of style of play, tactical setups, how he operates in the transfer market etc.

One concern that has been raised by Rovers fans is his character. As a player he was somewhat fiery and on a few occasions rubbed people up the wrong way. Is this still the case with Wellens as a manager or has he mellowed with experience?

Also, could you shed any light on his departure from Swindon? From the outside it does look like he pissed off at the first sniff of a pay rise which is a bit worrying considering our recent record with managers, however there's often more to it in these circumstances!

Good luck for the new season and your own managerial search. I am relatively local to Swindon so I always like to see Swindon and Rovers in the same division so fingers crossed for a speedy return to L1!


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Crispy
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« Reply #1 on: Saturday, May 15, 2021, 18:02:30 »

Hello!

Doncaster Rovers fan here. As you may have seen, it appears that Richie Wellens will announced as our new manager on Monday. He made a fair few appearances as a player for us, however as a relatively inexperienced manager I am not entirely sure what to expect from him in terms of style of play, tactical setups, how he operates in the transfer market etc.

One concern that has been raised by Rovers fans is his character. As a player he was somewhat fiery and on a few occasions rubbed people up the wrong way. Is this still the case with Wellens as a manager or has he mellowed with experience?

Also, could you shed any light on his departure from Swindon? From the outside it does look like he pissed off at the first sniff of a pay rise which is a bit worrying considering our recent record with managers, however there's often more to it in these circumstances!

Good luck for the new season and your own managerial search. I am relatively local to Swindon so I always like to see Swindon and Rovers in the same division so fingers crossed for a speedy return to L1!




That isn't the case, turned down several moves before leaving for Salford, but the lack of backing from Power was the reported final straw.

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Pookemon

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« Reply #2 on: Saturday, May 15, 2021, 18:03:08 »

Plusses
- plays to a plan and is tactically aware
- seemed to get the best out of players including ones that had been deemed difficult to manage at other clubs
- entertaining team that scored alot of goals

Minuses
- Recruitment was patchy
- lots of injuries
- fucked off for more money, having said that we are a club in turmoil so can't really blame him.   RW said chairman needed the compensation and there's probably some truth in that.
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DiV
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« Reply #3 on: Saturday, May 15, 2021, 18:03:50 »

I might be in the minority with my opinion on Wellens.

Truthfully it’s hard to gauge.

He got relegated with Oldham who had mad problems behind the scenes.
He rocked up here and did a good job rebuilding in the summer. Nearly all of his* signings were success stories. He gambled on some players with questionable history with injuries but they all came through with flying colours

Got us promoted and we had to rebuild again. On a reduced budget (as did most due to the pandemic I expect) and all his* signing were gash, complete and utter gash. He built this team that got relegated. Despite the fact he left a long time ago his finger prints are on this team.

However,

We are a shit show behind the scenes. I have no doubt Power (our owner) wanted the compo package for Wellens. Even if Wellens had wanted to stay - I think he’d have been forced out.

He definitely had his hands partial tied this season. I don’t think we had one of the worst budgets going though.

He’s never moved down here so I can see the appeal of working a lot closer to his home in Manchester.


If look at his spell at Oldham, here and Salford - winning L2 with us seems to be the exception rather than the rule.


*we have Paul Jewell as DOF so still have no clue who made which signings. Were  they Jewell, were they Wellens?

That probably didn’t answer your questions about what to expect.
He might be really good or really rubbish.
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Nemo
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« Reply #4 on: Saturday, May 15, 2021, 18:07:14 »

More good than bad, he's excellent at analysing the game so post match interviews are quite a lot more than the usual platitudes. Not a big one for involving the kids though, not sure if your youth academy is a big part of your set up or not but he didn't much fancy ours.
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Red Frog
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« Reply #5 on: Saturday, May 15, 2021, 21:43:25 »

Also worth adding he’s interested in the club rather than just the team and will promote community engagement. He’s a good modern coach who reads the game well and had us playing our best football in a decade. This year’s debacle is down to the chairman not having the means to keep last year’s team together.  I had a great deal of respect for him and hope he fulfils his potential with you.
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Jimmy HaveHave

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« Reply #6 on: Saturday, May 15, 2021, 21:48:04 »

As above he done us proud before it rapidly went downhill which was down to the chairman more than Wellens and If you're lucky you will also get Tommy Wright as part of his coaching staff😀
« Last Edit: Sunday, May 16, 2021, 09:48:35 by Jimmy Quinn » Logged

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Flashheart

« Reply #7 on: Sunday, May 16, 2021, 02:09:48 »

turned down several moves before leaving for Salford,


Or so we are told.

And what moves anyway? If I turned down the opportunity to shag Ann Widdecombe, would it necessarily mean I said no due to loyalty to my wife, or maybe that I just didn't want to shag Ann Widdecombe?

DRFC: If he can recreate what he achieved with us last season then you have one hell of a manager on your hands, but there's question marks over whether or not he can do that. Time will tell.
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Peter Venkman
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« Reply #8 on: Sunday, May 16, 2021, 10:04:26 »

The football at times is as good as we have seen in nearly 30 years.

Expect him to sign some duff players he managed a fair few for us, we aren't sure if it was all Wellens doing or partly/wholely Paul Jewell/Ben Chorley but for me he signed some stinkers and some crackers.

The shit.....Tyler Reid, Adam May, Cameron McGilp, Sidy Sanokho, Sam Smith, Admiral Muskwe, Jordan Stevens, Matej Kovar, Joe Fryer.....giving Tayler Curran(ahem) a 3 year deal

The poor....Gabriel Zakuani, Hallam Hope, Matt Palmer, Matthieu Baudry, Jonathan Grounds, Brett Pitman

The good....Rob Hunt, Eoin Doyle, Jerry Yates, Anthony Grant, Paul Caddis, Steven Benda, Diallang Jaiyesemi, Matt Smith, Akin Odimayo, Jack Payne

He signed some good players with injury records which were great when fit which wasn't often, Zeki Fryers, Lloyd Isgrove, Jordan Lyden

He has a plan B but that often isn't good enough and we still get easily beaten by teams we should be beatibg, he is obviously a motivator as we got a rag tag blend of players which be blended into a decent unit getting solid results consistantly.

The bad....he fell out with a few players in his time, Broadbent and Doughty come to mind most.

His substitutions were sometimes too late to affect the game, but he got a few right too in his time.

He is very economical with the truth in pre match interviews, saying one thing and doing the opposite, saying players are not fit and then they are in the team, this is probably mind games to put off the oppo but TBH it never did it just came accross as lying.

Rarely did he himself take the blame for defeat.

He post match interviews used to send me to sleep he has one of the most boring monotone voices and hardly ever gives a straight answer to questions.

It took him several months to get us playing in a style he wanted so don't expect miracles straight off the bat unless he has a good squad of players there who know his passing style.

He will sign goalkeepers who are good with their feet often at the expense of actual ability as a goalkeeper, the same can be said about him signing defenders, he will sign central defenders who can pass a ball long or play out of defence, and teams will learn that and press the defence into mistakes, which our players made, often, rather than hoofing it clear he prefers to play out of defence which is scarey at times and often used to cost us goals.

But when it works its great to watch, a high pressing game with lots of passing and inverted wingers cutting inside which is exciting creating a lot of chances for the striker, given time to get the players in he will be a success for you I am sure.
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hefty toe

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« Reply #9 on: Sunday, May 16, 2021, 10:19:42 »

I would say that Wellens is a good coach. Established a clear style of play - passing football and pressing. Had he stayed I think Swindon would have avoided relegation. He did a good job at Oldham despite their relegation as they had significant off the field trouble. Don't know why Salford sacked him but think he might have had a falling out with G.Neville. Wellens has quite an intense personality like G.Neville.

The area in which he might be less good is the transfer market. A lot of his good signings were players that he had worked with previously (most notably Doyle). He has signed a lot of injury prone players which in fairness is partly due to budget constraints.

If I were a Doncaster fan I'd be pleased with his appointment. He'd continue Doncaster's recent tradition of playing good football.
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Posh Red
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« Reply #10 on: Sunday, May 16, 2021, 10:27:45 »

Clearly a better coach than Sheridan, and if it was a choice between Evans or him then I’d prefer him.

We were not very good with him at the start of the past season, although I still believe we would have stayed out of the bottom four.

But for me, I don’t think I’d trust him again
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Jimmy HaveHave

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« Reply #11 on: Sunday, May 16, 2021, 10:31:39 »

We went to put of the league briefly and had two really good home wins
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TheDukeOfBanbury

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« Reply #12 on: Sunday, May 16, 2021, 10:42:15 »

Excellent Manager - End of thread.
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Quagmire

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« Reply #13 on: Sunday, May 16, 2021, 11:36:01 »

Excellent Manager - End of thread.

Is he though?

Last season was superb, no doubt about it, and the football was great. But he still has to take a lot of responsibility for this car crash of a season.
His recruitment this season was fucking awful, absolutely awful.
He also has a tendency to fall out with players - Vigouroux, Broadbent, Anderson and Doughty to name a few.

I loved him when he was here, but can we really call someone an excellent manager based on a season that was only 3/4’s complete?
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Panda Paws

« Reply #14 on: Sunday, May 16, 2021, 11:51:15 »

Have I missed the public fallout with Doughty? Was it anything more than a rumour that everyone involved said was nonsense?

I think he's a top manager and carries next to zero blame for this season. He had his hands completely tied. Donny are lucky to have him, and he's happy to have them.
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