Eunan to Swindon

[SteveDeckchair]

That and 'moon-gate'!

[ferrarilover]

Eunan will not find himself at Rotherham. Let's take a look at what Rotherham offer:
Money - Yup, loads and loads, but if Eunan was motivated simply by money, he would have signed for a Championship side 10 months ago and taken five grand a week to sit on the bench.
A 'massive' new ground - Lovely. I've always wondered just how much of a draw this is at our level. Granted, the chance to play at Wembley and Old Trafford is lovely, but let's not go overboard, the New York Stadium is a bland concrete bowl with a measly 12,000 seats in it, it's hardly the Nou Camp, is it... I wonder if Rotherham will fill (or even realistically come close to filling) their new ground? Their average this year was 3498, which is a fine effort given their circumstances, but are they REALLY going to get an extra 6000 home fans every week for the sake of being a few miles closer?
The prospect of Championship football in two years - Yeah, just like you were going to do at Crawley, eh fat boy? We have seen it work this year (by the skin of their teeth) with Cheaty, that money can simply buy you out of this division, but judging by the standard of L1 now, it's going to take an absolutely astronomical sum of money to get promoted from there to the Championship (Fat boy can't do it without more money than every one else, that is universally accepted). In addition to this, there is a world of difference between getting to the Championship and staying in the Championship. If clubs the size of Nottingham Forest (with their 22000/week) can struggle, what hope will there be for Rotherham. They'll have to spend vast sums to get promoted from L1 (millions, if not tens of millions, if they want to do it first time round), then another £10,000,000 to extend the ground so it can hold a reasonable number of people for a sustained Championship bid, or get by on a sell out 12,000/week.
Is the owner REALLY sufficiently rich and sufficiently mental to spunk what will be approaching £25,000,000 on Rotherham United, just to get them into the Championship. Alright, they'd be worth a few quid once they were there, but it's a vast, unsustainable gamble on his part. Nobody who is successful in business (so successful they have £25,000,000 to throw away chasing a silly dream) would touch it with a barge pole.

In short, no, Rotherham won't be playing Championship football three years from now, even if they are playing it two years from now. Equally, no, Eunan will not be moving to Rotherham, because he is not a complete fool, and nor are those who advise him.

Matt.

[Dave]

Look we are right in the middle of silly season, the W-M-N had Ellis signing for Plymouth last week, Rotherham are splashing cash on project promotion, and no doubt will be linked with every high profile league 1/league 2 player, so lets no fly of the handle because of some silly local rag rumour, which may or may not be true.

That said if Rotherham did make a bid that matched our club's valuation, do not rule out Eunan O'Kane going there, never say never to anything in football, Rotherham have a fairly recent Championship history, their new stadium already has permission for an extention to take it up to 16,000, they are club on the up, and will return to the championship, with in a few season's whether that be 2 or 4 who know's, Rotherham are estimating season ticket sales around the 4500 mark, therefore should be playing infront of 6500 plus crowd's.

Eunan O'Kane would not for one minute stop and think oh their assistant manager dived in agame against Torquay 18 years ago, nor would he look at any negative press surrounding Evan's, O'Kane will do what he think's is right for his future career, and if that was signing for Rotherham, don't doubt for one miute he would, that said I do agree think he know's he can do better , and would hang on for a better move.

[royalgull]

Matt there is so much wrong with your post I honestly don't know where to begin mate.

"Just like you were going to do at Crawley?" They've gone up back to back seasons. There's only so far that club can go and they have 400 fans, ask why Evans would have left there? He knows whats coming and he knows that club has peaked.

"it's going to take an absolutely astronomical sum of money to get promoted from there to the Championship" Really? Stevenage made the playoffs this season, they are a smaller club with less resource than Rotherham and Crawley.

"the standard of L1" I would say will be a lot weaker next season. Just looking at the betting Bournemouth are 3rd favourites and Swindon 4th, they aren't that good. Sheffield Utd are the stand out side, the 3 coming down from the CHamp this time are all in financial chaos with no guarantee they will be up there. Huddersfield, Sheff Wed and Charlton are all massively better than those 3.

Rotherham have been in the Championship before, recently in fact for a few years with a 1/4 of the resource and facilities that they will have come August 1st. You only have to look at Shrewsbury who I'd rate as a similar club to Rotherham, to see what a new stadium can do. It galvanises the local public, it brings in new fans that may have been put off by the old grounds and often has other things like cinemas and hotels all part of the new 'complex' all generates money.

Obviously these people at Rotherham have a few quid, Evans love him or hate him knows how to win at this level and he knows how to get people on board. Ultimately if they came up with the money we felt was acceptable and they chucked a load of money in front of Eunan why would he stay here? There is no guarantee Rotherham will win promotion to the Champ in 2 or 3 years but they have got a damn sight better chance of doing it than we have. I think it would be a shame to see Eunan go to another League 2 club, he's better than that and I'm not sure it would help his development but much stranger transfers have happened before, I wouldn't be surprised, just like I wasn't when Zebroski et all packed up for Bristol Rovers last summer.

[Dave]

Interesting link....http://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/football ... -1-4596368" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ferrarilover]

Matt there is so much wrong with your post I honestly don't know where to begin mate.

"Just like you were going to do at Crawley?" They've gone up back to back seasons. There's only so far that club can go and they have 400 fans, ask why Evans would have left there? He knows whats coming and he knows that club has peaked.

They have, but then, so have Dartford, no one has mentioned it, since it's not relevant. Exeter did the very same thing, look where it got them.

"it's going to take an absolutely astronomical sum of money to get promoted from there to the Championship" Really? Stevenage made the playoffs this season, they are a smaller club with less resource than Rotherham and Crawley.

And well done to them for it, but they were, in reality, a world away from actually getting promoted. They were the surprise package and managed to do well last year, but they won't sustain it (I don't think).

"the standard of L1" I would say will be a lot weaker next season. Just looking at the betting Bournemouth are 3rd favourites and Swindon 4th, they aren't that good. Sheffield Utd are the stand out side, the 3 coming down from the CHamp this time are all in financial chaos with no guarantee they will be up there. Huddersfield, Sheff Wed and Charlton are all massively better than those 3.

Because the odds on promotion in May are definitely the best way to judge the strength of a division. Us and Chelts were among the favourites to go down this season, and Bradford and Rovers were nailed on to go up, it means nothing. Bookies know as little about the future as weather men.
L1 is still a decent division at the top and it will take big bucks to compete at that end. To guarantee winning it at the first attempt (so far as is possible) will take more and more money as time passes. How long will it be before we start to think of million pound transfers in L2 as the norm, not long the way things are going. Regardless, Rotherham won't be in L1 next season, so it really doesn't matter about the quality of the division next year.

Rotherham have been in the Championship before, recently in fact for a few years with a 1/4 of the resource and facilities that they will have come August 1st. You only have to look at Shrewsbury who I'd rate as a similar club to Rotherham, to see what a new stadium can do. It galvanises the local public, it brings in new fans that may have been put off by the old grounds and often has other things like cinemas and hotels all part of the new 'complex' all generates money.

I made a vague concession to this in my post, but can you honestly see them jumping from 3.5k/week to 10k/week? I bloody can't. There's no way 6,500 people refused to drive the 4 miles from Rotherham to the DV stadium, or didn't like it for being so empty, or whatever their reasons might be. 2000 perhaps, but not 6500.

Obviously these people at Rotherham have a few quid, Evans love him or hate him knows how to win at this level and he knows how to get people on board. Ultimately if they came up with the money we felt was acceptable and they chucked a load of money in front of Eunan why would he stay here? There is no guarantee Rotherham will win promotion to the Champ in 2 or 3 years but they have got a damn sight better chance of doing it than we have. I think it would be a shame to see Eunan go to another League 2 club, he's better than that and I'm not sure it would help his development but much stranger transfers have happened before, I wouldn't be surprised, just like I wasn't when Zebroski et all packed up for Bristol Rovers last summer.

Evans hasn't got a clue how to win at this level, all he knows is how to spend more money than anyone else. That's like claiming to be a fast driver because the F1 car you were driving was faster than all the BTCC cars you were racing against.
Money isn't a motivating factor for Eunan, if it was, he'd have gone to a Champ club 18 months ago and picked up £5000/week for warming the bench. Eunan knows that contrition now will pay massive, Premier League shaped dividends in the future. Rotherham will signal his intent as a lower league mercenary to clubs further up the ladder and reduce the interest in him. Bigger clubs will know that they can have him off us for reasonable money, they also know that, if fat boy gets his dirty hands on him, they'll have to pony up £1,000,000 for his services, so will look elsewhere. If I know it, so does Eunan and the people who advise him.

Yup, they might have a better chance than we do, but then, there are probably 50 clubs who have a better chance than Rotherham, half of which would happily sign the lad, so why go there?

You can't compare last years Rovers situation because they are different in a number of key areas, but you know this already and so does everyone reading this, points for throwing it in there though :~D

I really see no attraction in Rotherham. I can see why DanLed or Lathrope or that type would end up there (just as examples, nothing more), but Eunan is better than that club, better than this division and better than that manager.

Matt.

(one for the buffs, can anyone think of a player who defected from us to another club in our division [the division we were in at the time of the defection] who is doing better than we are now? I can only come up with Nicky Wroe, left L2 TUFC for L2 Shrews and is now in L1 with Preston)

[royalgull]

Rotherham have more finance, a better infrastructure than Exeter and have played in the NPC before unlike Exeter.

2 games isn't really a world away. In recent years P'Boro, Scunny, Barnsley, Gillingham, Southend, Walsall and of course rotherham ahve been in the CHampionship or are still in it. Similar clubs, it doesn't cost fortune to do. Stevenage won't sustain it, they'll be like Exeter because they don't have the finance, facility or support to sustain it. Rotherham have 2 of those now and the 3rd can be worked on with success.

I've never met a broke bookie. How long before million pound transfers in League 2? Years and years and years away apart from fly by night clubs like Crawley. The rest of us haven't got a pot to piss in. Generally the teams with money do better than the teams without. The top 3 last season all had huge budgets compared to the rest of the league. As it stands I'd be amazed if Rotherham don't finish in the top 3 next season, top 7 at worst.

Not straight away but Rotherham's crowds will be up drastically next season. Combination of people getting behind what is seemed to be an ambitious club in a new stadium back in their home town. If they go well it's not unrealistic for them to get 10,000 or close to for a few games next season.

I can't stand Evans but his team won promotion (for the 2nd year running) and him leaving was the reason we even had a sniff come the last day. They would have been up weeks before that if he'd stayed. For every quite genius video of the players singing about him leaving you just have to look at the number of them that follow him around everywhere to know what they really feel about him. If Rotherham is the only offer on the table then we might have no choice in the matter. Would rather he went to a Champ club but if none want him then it doesn't matter what we'd rather.

We've seen it with other players at other clubs, Luke Rooney leaving Gillingham to go to Swindon immediately springs to mind, Zebroski to Bristol Rovers and there will be others. If the player thinks the grass is greener they'll be off. If Eunan has any ambition as a footballer it won't be to play for Torquay for his whole career, if no clubs from a higher league want him or can't give him the guarantees he needs (regular football) he may feel that promotion to those divisions may be his best route of getting there. If he's offered more money to go to Rotherham and they come up with a big offer I wouldn't be surprised to see him go as for me they have a much better chance of getting there before we do.

[CP Gull]

I see that Rotherham have sold their top scorer last season Lewis Grabban to AFC Bournemouth, probably for a fee in excess of six figures I would imagine. What that could mean is that they are now in a position, if they weren't before, to perhaps test us with a substantial bid in the course of the next few days.

That said, there is of course still Swindon who may also be tempted to make a bid as well now that Di Canio has sorted out the extension to his contract and seemingly has the backing of the board to bring in 6 or 7 players that will be needed to challenge at the top of League 1 next season in their bid for a second consecutive promotion. That is the sort of talk that will no doubt go down very well with the Swindon fans, less so with Billy Bodin though who surely will be even further away from that coveted starting place that he wants! It could well mean that Swindon follow up their interest in EOK though and once his Eire U21 involvement is over I have a feeling that Lingy might start to have his resolve tested this summer much in the way he predicted.

[ferrarilover]

Hmmm, perhaps Rotherham don't have quite so much money as we think. At Cheaty, the fat sex pest was able to beat off the advances of Championship clubs, at will, to sign players from there. It was only when it became clear that Cheaty was a money well running dry that he was forced to allow the sale of Tubbs and the other one. Even then, the Cheaty board only sanctioned the move once the pair were worth in excess of £1.5m, not the measly couple of hundred grand that Grabban has gone for. He stated most vociferously upon his in statement as bellend-in-Cheif at the New York Stadium that Grabban was part of his plans for next year and that he would be staying. Interesting also that he has gone to AFCB, perhaps a swap or loan deal involving Tubbs is on the cards? If not, I can only reasonably conclude that they aren't nearly so rich as we might have all believe.

Matt.

[CP Gull]

According to Evans they aren't in for Eunan, so that's one out of the running it seems.

Actually the quotes made by him (Evans) here about Eunan are quite possibly the most generous utterances I've ever heard from him and for once he is spot on in his assessment!

http://www.rotherham.vitalfootball.co.u ... p?a=283734

[chippygull]

Indeed
http://www.sportinglife.com/football/cc ... e3&BID=422" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But I still can't stand the FAT TW@T

[Richinns]

Still don't trust him not to be trying something in this. No morals maybe up to something!
Has anybody got official confirmation there is a buyout clause in his contact? Has been discussed but never revealed completely?

[CP Gull]

Still don't trust him not to be trying something in this. No morals maybe up to something!
Has anybody got official confirmation there is a buyout clause in his contact? Has been discussed but never revealed completely?

Well it depends if you regard Sky Sports or the Irish Sun as "official" I suppose! If you look back through to the beginning of this thread then that is where the suggestion that a release clause exists was first mooted. It also backs up what I had heard.

To be honest, if the only REAL interest in signing him this summer is from the likes of L1 new boys Swindon and L2 Rotherham then the sort of figure being mentioned (c£200k) is probably the best we could realistically expect as there are certainly not too many clubs below Championship level who could afford that sort of outlay. We have to hope that EOK stays put and we get another season out of him and that he gets his big move and we get really decent money for him next summer ... which is exactly what Martin Ling has said he would like to happen.

[oliemarles]

http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/sport ... _of_talks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“O’Kane is a good player but we never asked him. There is not interest. He is a good player but not even at the moment or in the future because already in this position we have players - one very nearly to sign and one nearly to join.” - Paolo Di Canio

[tufctillidie]

According too SkySports, Creepy have had a bid accepted from us for Eunan.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news ... ey-s-radar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If he does move on, i want him too move any where but creepy, Hopefully this is another cock up by SkySports, seeing as most of the dribble they post is incorrect.

Matt