| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A 17:05 - Apr 27 with 9172 views | RochdaleAFC.com |
 Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A 27th Apr 2023 17:03Author/sports journalist and Dale fan Mark Hodkinson has written for The Times for more than 20 years. During that period he has spent full seasons at Manchester City and Barnsley as a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ reporter for the paper. He has written five books about Dale and mixed with many of the protagonists in and around the Crown Oil Arena, on a professional and personal basis. We couldn’t think of anyone better qualified to offer a personal insight on all that has happened at the club in recent years. It’s a (very!) long interview but a fascinating read for Dale fans  2
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 17:58 - Apr 27 with 7650 views | IOMDale |
Absolutely brilliant work getting Mark to do that interview, well done lads.
I won’t know a tenth of what Mark (and others) are privy to but I echo his sentiments almost entirely. I’m worn out by it all but as 49th and others have pointed out, it’s now, when we’re most exhausted and sick of it all, that we have to push on and ready ourselves for a huge summer.
Richard & Simon don’t come across great in terms of ignoring genuine offers of help but they’ve no doubt had an awful lot on their plate… |  |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 18:36 - Apr 27 with 7519 views | 442Dale |
The club have got to acknowledge that weariness amongst the most hardened and supportive of fans and actually prove with actions that they want to help people feel that things will get better.
This week certainly hasn’t done that and it’s actually having the opposite effect, as was very obvious at the Trust meeting last night.
How the club react to each and every point raised at these meetings will tell us everything we need to know. Any attempt to be clever, deflect or ignore will send out an obvious message to the Trust and the entire fan base. For all their previous efforts, which are rightly praised, those involved down at Spotland are now at a crossroads.
It’s on them if they want to follow the direction those weary supporters are still trudging down in hope. Because it’s the one that’s signposted ‘Wanting the best for Rochdale Football Club and its supporters’. |  |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 18:40 - Apr 27 with 7493 views | D_Alien |
Quite simply, the best article i've read on this messageboard
Every point made just feels instinctively right, even though it's opinions - albeit vastly knowledgeable & experienced ones
I'm not going to comment on the opinion expressed regarding the club statement, since i'd just be repeating what i said in my previous sentence |  |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 19:22 - Apr 27 with 7327 views | Cedar_Room |
Absolutely fantastic article. Mark speaks an awful lot of sense and it’s hard to argue against any of his conclusions, even from a position of having much less inside information than he is privy to. His sentiments about relegation out of the league feeling like a line in the sand really echo my own thoughts - the one thing we could always be proud of was our unbroken spell in the league and even if by some miracle we bounced straight back next season, that’s something we’ve lost now forever. I hope the complete changes he advocates for, on and off the pitch, do indeed come to pass and this awful feeling surrounding the club starts to lift. |  | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 19:33 - Apr 27 with 7280 views | judd |
I spotted a spelling mistake. |  |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:01 - Apr 27 with 7173 views | blackdogblue |
Who was that between?? |  |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:03 - Apr 27 with 7158 views | RippDale |
A brilliant read and highlights the gradual decline. It is now that the vast football knowledge and insight of people like Mark should be sought and egos left aside | | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:16 - Apr 27 with 7098 views | Walboro |
What an excellent read. Whilst also supporting the club for 50 years I know where he is coming from it’s like being in a boxing ring as a supporter at the moment you can only take so many punches every week and then you stop enjoying it Over the last 3 years it’s started to become a chore going to the matches it’s no longer enjoyable. Will I be there on Saturday of course I will Will I be there next season I don’t know I feel punch drunk and can’t wait for the season to end. | | | |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:38 - Apr 27 with 6990 views | Yorkshire_Dale |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 19:33 - Apr 27 by judd |
I spotted a spelling mistake. |
Typo in the penultimate sentence of the article.......Y/N, Judd? | | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:46 - Apr 27 with 6965 views | Clivert |
A real eye opener to the goings on off pitch during the 21/22 season for those of us who aren't ITK people and I think that Mark perfectly summed up the BBM situation from back then.
Mark's answer to the last question perfectly sums where I am at the minute, it's become just a social thing for me where I see my mates and family in the same place for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. The next few weeks are crucial for me now, the right board and the right manager need to be in place ASAP just so I can decide whether or not I fork out £300 or so that I could put to good use elsewhere on a season card and I wonder how many other long standing season ticket holders are in the same boat? [Post edited 27 Apr 2023 21:18]
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:51 - Apr 27 with 6946 views | Rodingdale |
A good read and as others have said rings true with the added personal perspective. But it’s also quite a reality check - yes we are where we are; but we are left with a Board adopting a siege mentality - and I’d agree the recent ‘cards on the table’ communication is superficial openness which actually comes across as quite aggressive - “We are in charge, we have spent all this money and we’ll decide what happens next”. Subtext we know best and are not interested in the help of others.
442 alludes to weariness coming across at the Trust meeting - I’m a couple of hundred miles from Rochdale these days so couldn’t make it, I will however be, yet again, on a very expensive unreliable train on Saturday for one last time - I think whether I renew my ST next year will be dependent on having new leadership in the club. | | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 21:13 - Apr 27 with 6838 views | Dalenet |
I guess many of us feel the same. The line in the sand is one we will need to walk across if the club is to survive. But watching us has become a chore and it ruins my weekend. As somebody that needs to make a 300 mile round trip to each game, and still has a season card, I have a big choice to make. I don't know whether I can make such an effort to watch non league football. A few months without may well allow me to sober up. But like others have alluded, we need to see some positivity coming from the club ahead of a new season. | | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 21:28 - Apr 27 with 6749 views | isitme |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 21:13 - Apr 27 by Dalenet |
I guess many of us feel the same. The line in the sand is one we will need to walk across if the club is to survive. But watching us has become a chore and it ruins my weekend. As somebody that needs to make a 300 mile round trip to each game, and still has a season card, I have a big choice to make. I don't know whether I can make such an effort to watch non league football. A few months without may well allow me to sober up. But like others have alluded, we need to see some positivity coming from the club ahead of a new season. |
A big thanks to Mark and whoever took the time to interview him and write it up. This is an excellent, if at times worrying read. |  | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 21:51 - Apr 27 with 6630 views | EllDale |
Extremely insightful.
Gets to the bottom of a lot of things.
Unfortunately I’m feeling the same way about renewing my season ticket for the first time in years.
There’s no early bird offer to tempt me to buy one straightaway so it may well be a case of wait and see.
Just desperate for anything remotely like good news coming out of the club at the moment. | | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 22:31 - Apr 27 with 6426 views | R17ALE |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 21:51 - Apr 27 by EllDale |
Extremely insightful.
Gets to the bottom of a lot of things.
Unfortunately I’m feeling the same way about renewing my season ticket for the first time in years.
There’s no early bird offer to tempt me to buy one straightaway so it may well be a case of wait and see.
Just desperate for anything remotely like good news coming out of the club at the moment. |
Good point about the early bird. This Board feels like it delays everything. Common sense says they should have offered early birds a deal in March which many would have snapped up. This is their naivety showing through. Their altruistic benevolence is a magnificent legacy. Their nouse isn't.
Can I also echo the comments elsewhere, that personal abuse of our Directors is shameful and is a stain on the gooduns who support us. I hope the Directors are not taking teenagers' outbursts on their shoulders. It's the equivalent of young brats throwing snowballs at passing cars. The real fans understand what's what, but we also despair in more measured ways. |  |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 05:36 - Apr 28 with 6122 views | pioneer |
My reading of the excellent interview is that personality issues emerged quite a long time ago and probably while we were still doing well.
This is so very sad, that egos were allowed to disrupt a fantastic period in the clubs history. I suspect there is still a lot of that around.
Yes we all have different opinions and perspective but whatever level of our involvement at the club, fans, administrators, players or directors, it should always be club first.
I certainly hope that potential new investment will not be held up by the current board expecting to get their money back on the shares they bought. I dont think anyone ever bought shares in Dale with that expectation. | | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 11:31 - Apr 28 with 5582 views | Peaky |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 05:36 - Apr 28 by pioneer |
My reading of the excellent interview is that personality issues emerged quite a long time ago and probably while we were still doing well.
This is so very sad, that egos were allowed to disrupt a fantastic period in the clubs history. I suspect there is still a lot of that around.
Yes we all have different opinions and perspective but whatever level of our involvement at the club, fans, administrators, players or directors, it should always be club first.
I certainly hope that potential new investment will not be held up by the current board expecting to get their money back on the shares they bought. I dont think anyone ever bought shares in Dale with that expectation. |
Really well written Q and A. The Rochdale family really need a significant lift right now. Something to inspire the weary. After the biggest fight off from takeover in the clubs history to losing league status, we need something to look forward to and some positivity. So many people care about the club and surely there has to be some light at the end of this tunnel. Don’t stop believing in the sign Mark. | | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 12:15 - Apr 28 with 5455 views | KnavesmireBob |
Superb article. Superb comments on this thread. RAFC and everything we stand for at its best. We have enough of the right people amongst us to turn this ship around, we just need the right leader to galvanise us and make it happen. | | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 13:52 - Apr 28 with 5238 views | electricblue |
Great read and some wonderfull insight from Mark... |  |
| My all time favourite Dale player Mr Lyndon Symmonds |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 16:09 - Apr 28 with 4967 views | FrankDale |
Excellent piece and very well written.
Sadly reconfirms my own thoughts on our current board and situation. | | | |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 17:06 - Apr 28 with 4838 views | tony_roch975 |
Thanks to Mark for an honest, knowledgeable and balanced perspective. Hindsight is of course an excellent skill, as Mark acknowledges, but his analysis chimes with my own feelings.
The vacuum caused both by Covid and the lack of Board overview exacerbated a problem whose origins date from much earlier — opportunities to make hay (attract appropriate outside investment) were missed when the sun (of Hill & CD) shone. Perhaps conscious that ‘the two promotions secured by Keith Hill came at too high a price’, CD’s early attempts to attract outside investment made sense, if only they had been discussed and debated over time with fans.
However laudable his initial aims, Bottomley ended by making serious errors, but he isn’t the ’the devil incarnate’ and his removal hasn’t really ‘solved’ anything.
3 other points by Mark stand out.
Losing the Club’s ‘ badge of honour’ of unbroken FL membership is clearly painful and previous threats to the Club & Ground has made fans ‘incredibly sceptical of outsiders, to the point of neurosis’.
The world moves on — when I started supporting my local club (not Dale), I walked to the team’s training sessions with the left back who lived a few doors down our street; had my hair cut by the same barber as the Club’s keeper (yes, there was just one) and went to see a big CF hammer the ball, along with all and sundry into the net. Those days are gone, yet Dale has ‘clung too steadfastly to an out-dated business model’.
Clearly if fans want to maintain that scepticism it would be perfectly coherent to be aiming for a locally owned football team, but (with the likely crowd size and accepting the relative poverty of our town) that would probably mean a 6th or 7th tier, semi or even non-professional team.
If fans want a fully professional club with a realistic opportunity of competing in the National League (never mind promotions) then outside investment is the only way. But that means having to compromise on the ‘pure’ fan owned ideal — to not be ‘unrealistic, out-of-touch and paranoid’.
The ‘internicine’ personality clashes around the BoD are disappointing (if not unsurprising) and clearly a new approach is needed — on and off the pitch. I share the desire for new brooms and equally we need to be wary of not allowing characters who ‘crawl to the light’ to dominate. The arguments for the CD consortium are strong, especially to assuage the ‘outsiders’ neurosis, but I have an old fashioned belief in loyalty and integrity over personal gain — personally I’d want to be convinced by hearing from CD why he sold his shares and how he now views that decision.
I’m with Mark, football is supposed to be fun. Maybe it’s because I’m an incomer, but enjoying entertaining football (intricate passing, pacy wingers who can beat a man…. and still the odd hammered header from a big CF) is more important to me than any idolatry or ideology. | |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 19:29 - Apr 28 with 4547 views | judd |
"However laudable his initial aims, Bottomley ended by making serious errors, but he isn’t the ’the devil incarnate’ and his removal hasn’t really ‘solved’ anything."
Seriously? | |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:16 - Apr 28 with 4430 views | D_Alien |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 19:29 - Apr 28 by judd |
"However laudable his initial aims, Bottomley ended by making serious errors, but he isn’t the ’the devil incarnate’ and his removal hasn’t really ‘solved’ anything."
Seriously? |
I think he was just alluding to the fact that our financial position hasn't really been 'solved', although obviously we're hoping to hear something about that before long | |
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:22 - Apr 28 with 4396 views | judd |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:16 - Apr 28 by D_Alien |
I think he was just alluding to the fact that our financial position hasn't really been 'solved', although obviously we're hoping to hear something about that before long |
I don't care about any allusions, it's the soft soaping of that tvvats reign that has fooked me off, starting with Marks view although, upon reflection, and in fairness to Mark, he does also point out at least one hard boiled fact why this stain should be seen as more sinner than sinned against.
An employee on a final written warning as announced at the AGM is not someone who is a victim of vexatious fans with an agenda.
For an absolute start. [Post edited 29 Apr 2023 9:45]
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| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:26 - Apr 28 with 4373 views | D_Alien |
| Rochdale's Relegation: Mark Hodkinson Q&A on 20:22 - Apr 28 by judd |
I don't care about any allusions, it's the soft soaping of that tvvats reign that has fooked me off, starting with Marks view although, upon reflection, and in fairness to Mark, he does also point out at least one hard boiled fact why this stain should be seen as more sinner than sinned against.
An employee on a final written warning as announced at the AGM is not someone who is a victim of vexatious fans with an agenda.
For an absolute start. [Post edited 29 Apr 2023 9:45]
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As you know, i'm in complete agreement about Bottomley
I'm just making the point that Mark's comment may have been taken out of context | |
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