Ryan would be happy for Rovers to receive less if they go back up

ON the eve of this season, John Ryan thought the best Doncaster Rovers could hope for was to finish in the top 10.

As someone renowned for his optimism, the Rovers chairman’s verdict perhaps best summed up the difficult summer that the South Yorkshire club had endured.

Relegation from the Championship had wiped around £6m off income streams, meaning manager Dean Saunders was forced to slash the wage bill by almost two-thirds.

The need to get the biggest earners off the books had also forced the Doncaster manager to play a waiting game when it came to bringing anyone in, which is why most of the former Welsh international’s signings had not arrived until the final few days before the League One campaign got under way.

Fast forward seven months, however, and Rovers are flying high at the top of the division. Ryan is understandably delighted by the turn of events at the Keepmoat Stadium with the Doncaster chairman believing five more wins may be enough to clinch automatic promotion.

“To find ourselves top of the division at this stage of the season is a wonderful surprise,” said the club’s chairman of almost 15 years ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Scunthorpe United.

“I’ll be honest with you, before the season started, I thought the best we could hope for was a 
top-10 finish. And I consider myself something of an optimist when it comes to Rovers.

“So, the season we have had so far has been great for everyone at the club, all the more so because the drop from the Championship to League One is a difficult one.”

The harsh reality of life in the third tier quickly became apparent to Doncaster, whose central payments from the Football League had fallen dramatically following relegation.

Thanks to Saunders’s transfer dealings, however, and the continued financial support of majority shareholders Ryan, Dick Watson and Terry Bramall, Rovers managed to emerge from the summer in decent shape.

Even so, as the 2012-13 campaign was about to get under way, Ryan made an impassioned appeal through the pages of the Yorkshire Post for parachute payments to be introduced for sides dropping out of the Championship.

Rovers may, on current form, be in with an excellent chance of kicking off next term back in the second tier, but that has not changed their chairman’s view on the need for a fairer system.

He said: “We have found it very difficult and it has once again fallen to myself, Dick Watson and Terry Bramall to support the club. That is with us having got the wage bill down from £9m to nearly £4m.

“We had been hoping to get it down even further to £3m, but that just hasn’t been possible.

“It has made things difficult and the introduction of parachute payments would undoubtedly have helped.

“It isn’t about Doncaster Rovers, it is about every club. There are a few other clubs in trouble right now, including Portsmouth, Coventry and a couple of others in League One.

“Plus, look at Wolves, who are second bottom of the Championship. I understand they don’t have any relegation clauses written into their current contracts, which could cause all manner of problems if they go down.

“At least we had all but one of our players last season who had a clause that saw their wage come down in the event of relegation. That was a big help but, even then, it was a struggle.

“On this matter, my mind wouldn’t change if we do manage to get up. We would, of course, be a beneficiary as our funding would rise. But, nevertheless, I would still want to see the system made fairer for everyone.”

Ryan’s concern about the problems facing League clubs right now extends to the thorny issue of parachute payments paid to teams relegated from the top flight.

At the moment, clubs demoted from the Premier League are paid £48m over four years, but the new television deal that comes into play next term will see that sum soar to £60m.

Under a proposal discussed this week, £23m of that will be paid in the first year – up £7m from the current set-up – and Ryan believes there is a danger of the Championship suffering as a result.

He said: “It can only distort the competition. All I can see happening is the Championship becoming more like the Premier League, in that you will know before a ball is kicked roughly where a team is going to finish.

“That isn’t the case at the moment, as we see with the results that happen week after week. But that could all change.

“Let’s take a club like Barnsley, for instance. They are run efficiently and either break even or make a small profit each season, which is what every club should be aiming for.

“But, soon, they could be operating on a wage bill of, say, £5m in the Championship when a team fresh from relegation could have a wage bill of £30m. That’s not competition.

“Instead, the money should be spread more evenly through the Football League. At the moment, the money is split 80 per cent Championship, 12 per cent for League One and eight per cent in League Two. To me, it would be much more even to make the split something like 60-22-18.”

As pressing as Ryan believes change to the League’s funding remains, his priority right now is Rovers and their quest to hold on to pole position in League One.

The Doncaster chairman said: “Our position is testament to the great work that has gone into our season, starting with Dean and then on to both Brian (Flynn) and (assistant) Rob Jones.

“Losing a manager can be difficult, but we had a seamless transition.

“Even when we lose a game, we invariably bounce back. It shows that we made some very astute signings in the summer, probably best epitomised by Rob Jones and Dave Cotterill.

“Dean was only able to make a lot of his signings towards the end of the summer window, but, in the main, they have turned out to be first class.”

The current crop are looking to emulate the Rovers side of 2008, who ended the South Yorkshire club’s five-decade wait for a 
return to the second tier of English football.

Asked how he felt the team who triumphed at Wembley in the play-off final against Leeds United compared to Flynn side’s, Ryan replied: “This team is different to that of 2008. I would say we are stronger physically and the dressing room is full of tough characters.

“On the other side of the coin, I think that team had a bit more finesse and style, particularly in midfield. But, in terms of having a team designed to get out of this division, I believe we have the ideal team this year.

“(Leyton Orient manager) Russell Slade said something similar recently. He thought we were the benchmark in terms of what a team needs to get out of this division.

“Let’s just hope we can now finish the job. I personally think we need five more wins to get automatic promotion and I know Brian, Rob and the rest of the team will be giving everything to do just that.”