Whats the view on Dolan?????

Hello all, just looking for a straw poll of opinions on Dolans stewardship

are we happy with:

The FAI row over Grants for Richmond Park
Marney saga
Saint Francification of the Club
Playing Squad
Tactics to date
Spats with players and ex players
Spats with fans

Should there be a meeting called to discuss these issues? Should we demand his resignation?....is it essential? Would it make it worse?

I honestly don't have answers to any of the above but I want to see what any other pats fans out there think about it?

Please post your views

I'm not a Pats fan, can I make a comment?

adam

ok

1)
It's not an exaggeration to say that he is now standing between this Club and any further development work on the ground. We don't have the money to rebuild the ground ourselves, and are entirely reliant on FAI funding. His constant, and often quite personal, disparaging remarks about FAI officials reached their nadir last week when he lashed out at the FAI on the day they made a remarkably lenient judgement in our favour, thus making sworn enemies out of our only 'friends' in the FAI setup. The lesson will be lost on nobody there now - I'll bet Roy Dooney's wishing he had tenpence for every time he's heard the words 'told you so' since last Thursday.
Another aspect of this matter which is testament to the level of actual Control Pat exercises at the Club is the fact that he should never even have been commenting on the matter in the first place. Phil Mooney is our FAI Representative and it is he who should be making any FAI-related statements. Will Pat be brought to book for speaking on a matter beyond his remit? Will he fiddlesticks.

2)
Not Pat's fault that the registration was done wrong as such. From my understanding it would be Secretary Phil Mooney who would have made the error. The Club should set in place a mechanism to ensure there's never a repeat, but the fact that this ever happened in the first place indicates a poorly managed registartion procedure at the Club.

3)
Very worrying. My main gripe is the way this was done, we're forever being told it's 'Our Club' yet there was no consultation with supporters on what was obviously a vital issue. Pat is MD of the Club and has to take primary responsibility for this. Tim was very ill for most of the time this would have been negotiated and I can't believe he'd have been heavily involved in negotiations, though obviously he'd have known what was going on and presumably approved. We also now have a Director of our Club who has been quoted several times saying we will be called Dublin Saints within a few years. The present administration has shown its complete antipathy to supporters' concerns and if let get away with conducting a merger in this manner will feel it has the power to do whatever the hell it damn likes without anybody raising a whimper. The merger is far from done, the two businesses have yet to be merged and really that is the point at which a merger takes place.

4)
You have to judge this over the time since he came back as manager in Jan 2000, and take into account the fact that we don't have the calibre of players now that we used to. Generally, a Dolan team will be committed. I've rarely seen us go out and not try damn hard to win. However, we've been outsmarted tactically with increasing regularity as this team and its formation becomes better known. It has to be said that when things aren't going well he seems to absolutely panic and stop doing even the simplest things right. In summary, a Dolan side will give you heart and guts, but any half decent side that does its homework seems to be able to contain us at least.

5)
Completely out of order. Will definitely discourage players good enough to choose from a few top Clubs from joining this one. They won't have to put up with this crap from Mahon, Ricko or Keely, so why come here? Ditto our better current players when their contacts expire. We also have a right to expect our manager to have some sense of professionalism, which entails respecting somebody's past achievements and commitment to the Club, and there were none more committed than Stevo, who incidentally, was there with Packie to support US.

6)
Completely unacceptable and a sackable offence at this stage. Whatever about when these antics started last year you might have made the excuse that he wasn't aware it would cause such offence - he was told in no uncertain manner at the Aishling that they did. That he persists with this infantile carry-on is proof nobody at the Club is taking him to task for it - hardly surprising when that's the MD's responibility.

Pros of Dolan going:
Most likely a better organised team.
A fresh start with the FAI for vital funding.
A more budget conscious MD.
A far healthier supporter/Club relationship.
A far healthier player/Club relationship.
Actual delegation of tasks to Club officials appointed to perform them, with their talents being fully utilised.
Hopefully a far more accountable mentality from the board (note - his departure ALONE won't guarantee this).
And end to tactless, infantile outbursts emanating from the Club.

Cons of Dolan going:
Loss of a very good commercial manager.
A sad way to see somebody who has given so much to help this Club leave.

The former so far as I can see is the only valid argument for keeping him at the Club now. He still brings in thousands of pounds in sponsorship etc every week and we cannot afford to be without this money. However, whilst good commercial management isn't a job that just anybody can do, nor is it a job that nobody else could do. Look at our main Dublin Rivals, they've no Pat Dolan on their payroll but their Commercial Depts are at least on a par with ours, and the deal Bohs got from Adecco was worth far more than anything we've ever got.
I believe there's more wrong with the set up of this Club than simply removing Pat is going to solve, as it wasn't himself who put him in a position where he exercises so much control over Club affairs. This would have to be addressed upon any departure, or we'd all be here in a few years saying 'Who does Branigan/Glynn/Duncan/whoever think he is - he can't pick a team, balance the books/drive a bus' etc.
Nobody can deny Pat has done sterling work for the Club. He gave us a commercial outlook at a time when Irish football had never heard of it and undoubtedly the money he brought into this Club transformed it, and quite possibly saved it from extinction. But the good guest always knows when to leave the party. Certainly Kerr went at the right time, and really it would have been better for everybody if Pat had graduated to serving the national interest too. As it is though, that's not going to happen now. He's made too many enemies in high places for that. Those same enemies are going to have the knives out for us so long as he's here. It'll be a sad way to end what on the whole has been a relationship that's been good to both Parties, but a fact's a fact. The man is a liability. There was a time when he was simply irreplacable here, but not now. He was heavily criticised for the way he was conducting his affairs down at the Aishling Hotel last year and has taken no heed. He must go.

Gaz