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O’Driscoll is sacked by text as Rovers turn to Saunders
Dean Saunders Doncaster Rovers' new manager with the club chairman John Ryan. Picture by Chris Lawton.
DEAN Saunders was unveiled as the new manager of Doncaster Rovers yesterday after Sean O’Driscoll was sacked via text message.
Saunders agreed to quit Wrexham late on Thursday night following a meeting with Rovers chairman John Ryan and vice-chairman Dick Watson.
Chief executive Dave Morris was told to contact O’Driscoll but, after getting no reply, left a text which O’Driscoll discovered at 6am.
Rovers issued a statement shortly before 7am yesterday confirming that Driscoll and his assistant Richard O’Kelly were now on ‘garden leave (sic)’.
It is understood the pair had emptied their desks before Saunders arrived at Cantley Park to take his first training session.
“We made the decision at midnight and tried to get hold of Sean,” said Ryan. “I got Dave Morris to contact him and he got hold of Sean about 6am. We did it in the best way we can – but there is never a right way to deliver bad news.”
O’Driscoll, 54, spent five years as Rovers manager and secured Championship survival three times after winning promotion from League One.
Results, however, had dipped alarmingly since March and the club will equal a record of 20 consecutive league games without a win today if they fail to beat Crystal Palace at the Keepmoat Stadium.
Ryan issued a vote of confidence to O’Driscoll on Monday but the pair held further discussions as the week progressed which led to a parting of the ways.
According to Ryan, O’Driscoll had been showing signs of strain as the club sat bottom of the Championship table with only one point from the first seven games of the new season.
“Football is a short-lived thing and it can change literally from day to day,” said Ryan. “To be honest, I think Sean was under a lot of pressure. He may even feel relieved now. It was a very difficult decision but, in my heart of hearts, I knew something had to change.
“I had a meeting with Sean recently and he was a man who I felt was under pressure. Any manager is under pressure – but when they haven’t won for 18 games that really is a cataclysmic sequence of results.
“In all fairness, I backed Sean for five years and, continued to back him,” added Ryan. “He was the longest serving manager in the Championship but I felt maybe he was coming to a stage where he was finding things a bit tough. Everything has its day, I suppose, and maybe he needed a change.
“Don’t forget Sean could have left us on two or three occasions – to Sheffield United, Burnley and one or two others – and I thought he might have gone this summer. But I am sure he will get another job very soon.”
Saunders, a former Welsh international who played for clubs including Liverpool, Sheffield United and Bradford City, has spent the last three years managing Wrexham who narrowly missed out on promotion to the Football League last season.
He worked under Graeme Souness as a coach at both Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United and was assistant manager of the Welsh national side under John Toshack.
Ryan feels his personality, which contrasts sharply with that of his predecessor, will ‘invigorate’ the club.
“The whole club needs a lift,” he said. “The club needs invigorating, that’s the word, and I don’t think there could be anyone better to invigorate our club than Dean Saunders. He is a bubbly, lively character who has got everyone laughing and maybe we needed a few more laughs.”
Now 47, Saunders has signed a three-year deal with Rovers and will be assisted in the dug-out for today’s game by Academy director Mickey Walker.
“It has been a whirlwind,” Saunders admitted. “The meeting didn’t take long – I agreed everything with the chairman and then went back to my room and watched a couple of the games and fell asleep about five o’clock in the morning! I need a good night’s sleep so I can come out fighting on Saturday morning.
“But I am grateful to the board and the chairman for putting their faith in me,” he added. “The previous manager did a brilliant job here but, obviously, they have hit a bad patch and I’ve got to come in and try and lift them. It’s a great opportunity and I am confident that I can get the team moving in the right direction up the league.”
“There needs to be more end product, more presence in the box, more crosses and more bodies going in,” he said. “It’s not all about just passing and looking the part – when things are not going well you have to roll your sleeves up and fight too.”
Striker Jon Parkin will make his Rovers debut today after arriving on loan this week.
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