Exclusive: Ryan’s future hangs in the balance

THE position of Doncaster Rovers chairman John Ryan is in doubt this morning following a key meeting regarding the club’s future earlier this week.
John RyanJohn Ryan
John Ryan

The shock development comes just two days after the Yorkshire Post revealed that a meeting between Irish consortium Sequentia Capital and a representative of the club’s majority shareholders was to take place on Tuesday – amid speculation that a revised deal could be brokered.

Rovers officials were quick to deny suggestions they had received a fresh offer from Sequentia, who saw a first offer to take over rebuffed at the end of the summer. Ryan publically backed Sequentia’s bid after approaching their representative Kevin Phelan in June with the long-serving Rovers chairman keen to bring in new investment to the club following promotion to the Championship.

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But despite Sequentia agreeing to invest and signing a heads of terms agreement at the end of June to potentially take over, the deal was rejected due to a boardroom split on the eve of the new season.

The consortium, bankrolled by a wealthy Belize tycoon, had pledged to spend upwards of £20m to help the club and Ryan achieve their Premier League dream – if their bid was successful and approved.

Ryan’s fellow shareholder Terry Bramall, one of three majority shareholders at the Keepmoat Stadium along with Dick Watson and Ryan, favoured a second, alternative consortium, who went on to later withdraw their own offer after studying the books in September.

Tensions between Rovers’ major shareholders have been fraught since the summer, with Ryan understood to have been worried about the direction of the club for some time.

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Ryan’s ideas of progress appear to conflict with those of his fellow major shareholders, with Ryan having been desperate for the Sequentia deal to succeed.

According to sources, the long-serving chairman is particularly unhappy at the recent club decision to press ahead with plans to take over Doncaster RLFC, who share the Keepmoat Stadium with them.

Ryan’s preference was to invest funds into helping Rovers manager Paul Dickov boost his squad, with the South Yorkshire outfit heading into Saturday’s Championship derby at Barnsley on a worryting run of three straight defeats – and just one point and two places above the relegation drop zone.

The news that the future of Ryan, who has been club chairman for 15 years, is unclear will represent an unwelcome and deeply concerning development to Rovers supporters, with the flamboyant 63-year-old having presided over the most successful era in the club’s 134-year existence.

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When Ryan took over at his boyhood club in 1998, Rovers – fresh from setting records galore in exiting the Football League in a season from hell in 1997-98 which saw them lose an incredible 34 games and amass just four wins – were entrenched towards the bottom of the Conference with a crumbling stadium.

Doncaster-born Ryan, with the help of the likes of Ian Snodin, Glynn Snodin and Mickey Walker – and later Dave Penney and Sean O’Driscoll – breathed new footballing life into the club and the town with Rovers regaining their place in the Football League on a famous spring afternoon at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium in May 2003.

That proved the calalyst for more meteoric achievements, crowned with Rovers’ being promoted to the Championship for the first time in half a century on May 25, 2008 – when they beat Leeds United in the League One play-off final in front of a Wembley crowd of 75,000.

During his reign, Ryan – unavailable for comment yesterday – has sampled four promotions, a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final success at the Millennium Stadium in April 2007 as well as helping orchestrate a successful ground move, while investing millions into the club in the bargain.

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Ryan’s last promotion arrived following an incredible finale at Brentford on the final day of the 2012-13 campaign, when Rovers lifted the League One title.

But Ryan’s hopes that the club could make a significant impact on the Championship, by way of major summer investment through the Sequentia takeover, have failed to materialise.

As it stands, manager Dickov’s playing budget is among the lowest in the division, with his squad depth further exposed yesterday by the news that captain and influential centre-half Rob Jones is set to be out for two months with a neck injury.

Jones, named in the League One Team of the Year last term, has been diagnosed with two bulging discs at the base of his neck, which have trapped a nerve and have caused problems during games.

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The 34-year-old has been told to spend some time in recovery before he is re-assessed and allowed to get back to training.

The news couldn’t have come at a worse possible time for Dickov, also without another experienced centre-half in Jamie McCombe and facing a mini-crisis in the heart of his defence.

Dickov, frantically working to bring in a loan recruit ahead of Saturday’s key trip to Oakwell, could be forced to pair either Luke McCullough or fellow rookie teenager Liam Wakefield with Bongani Khumalo if he cannot bring in a centre-back in time.