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Reply | 26/27 squad
at 16:25 18 Jul 2026
I thought that might trigger a few people but there is no comparison to be made between our current situation and the one from up the road..Our owners are seriously engaged, they know how to build businesses based on developing the foundations, taking measured steps and knowing what the finished product looks like and operates like. They have and are putting serious people in place to do well- defined jobs to high standards.. The other lot simply tried to buy success, no foundations, no vision of sustainability. Thankyou for helping me to describe the big difference between the two approaches.. not my original motivation but a useful provocation. In a nutshell our approach isn't flashy or based on sensationalism, it is perhaps slower , but it is considered, deliberate and designed to last, it may require us to be patient, but better that than boom and bust...." by the inch its a cinch" |
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Reply | 26/27 squad
at 13:02 18 Jul 2026
I think the make-do and mend days are behind us. We are moving towards a new level within the club which will positively effect the quality on the pitch. The plan now has increasling levels of certainty, our own training ground, an increasing crowd - base, carefully thought through, timed, steps, each taken in turn, each a turning cog in the machine. Playing quality being carefully improved, a new Academy, players leaving for higher levels who will contribute financially perhaps for a decade or more.
Better players, better infrastucture, more supporters, a machine that feeds itself and improves relentlessly. As players reach their natural level they will be replaced by players capable of reaching the next one. There will be no more fire sales, no more selling the family silver for peanuts, we are moving into the position where we can say "no" to low-ball transfer offers and wait until our valuations are met. Enjoy the ride, it might be the most fun we have ever had..
This is a club on the front foot, confidence is returning, or perhaps more accurately, arriving in a way we have never seen before. It will take a while longer to reach its full potential but there is no need to look over our shoulders, we are rapidly becoming the club we all dreamed about. Winning is a habit, expectations have changed... |
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Reply | FC United 2-0 Dale
at 23:18 14 Jul 2026
Some Prem club is going to buy Mateus Mane before the season kicks off, Wolves are asking £35m Man U, Liverpool are said to be interested and now Newcastle who are perhaps looking at the gap left by Gordon...noone has met the asking price yet but these seems to be in competition for his signature... The big question is " are we in for 10, 15 or even 20% "? At 10% , £3.5m would certainly help the recruitment a bit. |
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Reply | Wayne Evans , dead at 51.
at 19:11 7 Jul 2026
Brainfart... its an age thing.... didnt spot the date and didnt think I knew... |
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Thread | No subject
at 18:54 7 Jul 2026
[Post edited 7 Jul 19:05]
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Reply | New home kit
at 20:02 3 Jul 2026
From CAB minutes 9th March ...
"Kit Designs Season 2025/26
Samples were handed around the group of both the home and away kits for next season. Feeback was taken regarding the badges and colours of shorts etc.
A smaller sub-group formed from CAB members may meet again to review some other samples."... minutes from March CAB meeting
(The last CAB meeting was in early June, )
My recollection from March was that they were presented as material samples , colours and badges rather than final designs, The proposed May meeting was pushed into June because of Wembley so I guess they were finalised in-house around the start of June....personally I hate collars on football shirts...but I dont the recall the conversations getting that far back in March other than there could be a chequerboard design on the neck and arms. The biggest concern seemed to be regarding badges being encapsulated in plastic or not ( for lack of a better description), the colour of the second strip and shorts for both kits... I think the cancelled May CAB would have been a better opportunity to finalise the choices , but it didnt happen.... |
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Reply | Cian Hayes
at 18:09 2 Jul 2026
Mani D will think all his Christmases have arrived at once....Now we need a Right Back to feed Hayes down the line... He will put Rodney under some pressure too as he could easily play at 10 ... I wonder what his time at Peterborough has taught him? |
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Reply | I know things take time....
at 19:04 25 Jun 2026
Full EFL contracted/ released list:
https://www.efl.com/news/2026/
Its 125 pages so a long scroll, the players released list is at the end of the list , somewhere around page 100.
Andy Cannon, Andrew Tutte, Jamie Allen , Eoghan O Connell .. all available.....( just in case someone wants to get the band back together....) |
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Reply | World Cup anyone?
at 09:37 24 Jun 2026
Pedestrian .. no snap, no bite, a couple of presentable opportunities that would have been taken on any Saturday afternoon, but last nights team didn't seem to want to put themselves in the do or die positions..
The forwards were not getting any decent service for lack of movement and the distribution from the back when it did come was sloppy. Midfield was generally too deep.
I thought the referee was out of his depth too, lots of overly robust pushes and shoves that needed stopping early in the game but which went unpunished and gave Ghana the green light to keep doing them...
Still, a point is a point. |
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Reply | Now confirmed.
at 23:06 18 Jun 2026
We are also going to have to fill up places in the Academy at some stage, I guess whoever becomes Academy Manager will have to do that, but there may well be be some players who are almost ready for first team football in that group...maybe even some younger players in the division we have just left who with more / better / regular coaching could make the grade...I wouldnt underestimate the talent in the NL, I was impressed by the lad Woodman who played against us for Wealdstone... |
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Reply | RochdaleAFC.com Podcast - Episode 100
at 12:04 17 Jun 2026
The problem is that the amount of money that the shareholders can commit to the club for buying players is limited by the EFL by what is called the "salary cost management protocol "which in turn means that crowds, transfers etc. are increasingly important elements in the club's ability to move forwards.
All EFL members are not equal, the TV income is heavily weighted towards Championship clubs, as are the voting rights of member clubs... The only solution is to increase the earnings of the club, hence the push to improve crowds, bars, catering, shop etc. Only 50% of tis income can be spent on players salaries....Put simply, the club has to earn money in every way it can from its own resources if it wants to progress beyond the lower reaches of the EFL.
AI view.."Leagues One & Two (Salary Cost Management Protocol): These tiers use the SCMP system, which directly ties spending ( on players wages) strictly to a 50% cap of club turnover. It completely excludes transfer fee amortization, focusing purely on ongoing wage bills"....
In the 2026/27 season, EFL League Two clubs receive approximately £1.5 million each in guaranteed central distributions. This total is a baseline figure that combines the basic award (a share of the EFL broadcast rights) and solidarity payments from the Premier League.
Breakdown of Funds
Guaranteed Central Award: Around £1.5 million per club is distributed to all teams in the division, regardless of their final position in the table.
Merit Payments: Additional funds are awarded on a sliding scale depending on where a club finishes in the league table at the end of the season.
Facility Fees: Clubs receive supplemental broadcast fees (up to £100,000 per home match) if their games are selected for live television coverage or streaming. |
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Reply | Bowlee Training Facility
at 14:43 14 Jun 2026
Apparently , players lunchtime food will, in future, be cooked at the COA and transported to Bowlee, hence the new kitchens being installed at the COA , its expected to save around six figure sum per year vs the costs at Platt Lane..
Many of the new developments will be self- financing, thus reducing cost significantly over time.... all the food outlets at the COA are being upgraded and made more efficient too... |
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Reply | Ian Watson Set To Become New Rochdale Manager?
at 23:25 12 Jun 2026
So at the moment we have 13 players under contract..Watson has the option of signing another 9 maybe 10 if the Rodney to FGR rumour has any substance.. He apparently wants to play at a high tempo, so we have to assume that the substitute bench has to be capable of jumping straight into the game (5 subs from 7 on the bench), particularly considering that games often run to 100 minutes plus these days, the bench is going to have to be as capable as the starting 11. Two of the players he brings in will have to be keepers, so 7 outfield players maybe 8 if Humbles goes out on loan again...Tricky to get the mix right and not much room for passengers, I assume we will use the loan system to an extent. But I think the new boss has some busy days ahead... |
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Reply | Ian Watson Set To Become New Rochdale Manager?
at 15:31 11 Jun 2026
Seems like he was on the Boards shortlist from the moment McNulty decided to let it be known he was moving on...Well done the Board!
Also good to hear that his phone is already ringing , agents, players, well wishers etc.
And now we wait to see what unfolds in terms of new signings... let the rumour mill begin! |
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Reply | Dave Challinor
at 17:28 7 Jun 2026
Why shouldn't the board have a prefered style of play? Especially when the contracted players have been so remarkably successful playing a distinct way? If we were failing miserably it would be suitable to change..but right now? Why would we throw the baby out with the bathwater and change the whole ethos? You could probably argue about having a plan B but you also need a flexible squad capable of implementing that change. Will City change tack now Pep has gone, I doubt it, do Liverpool regret giving Slot a free hand, probably?
L2 will be akin to playing the top 3 or 4 teams in the NL nearly every week, but then we did OK against those teams last season. Yes, we need 9 or 10 new players who are capable of playing regularly and are an upgrade on those who have left but they too will want to know what the system will be and where they fit into it......
Lower league football is not complicated... set a system, run it through the whole club, get really good at it...Think Toyota and Honda. Everyone knows their jobs everyone understands each others jobs, fewer mistakes, higher quality, seamless progression from academy to first team, easier recruitment.. trust the data. Use the data to fix problems....
Deming on Data
"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion."(Often cited as his most famous quote, emphasizing that decisions must be grounded in facts).
Purpose of Collection
"Data are not taken for museum purposes; they are taken as a basis for doing something... The step intermediate between the collection of data and the action is prediction." |
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Reply | Dave Challinor
at 15:36 7 Jun 2026
The Board will build a list of attributes including preferred style of play, experience , win%, experience of bringing players through from the Academy, etc etc. This will have been passed to MRKT who will draw up a list of possibles, the Board will draw up a short list for interview from the MRKT list.
Hopefully they will have a developed interview technique designed to prise out critical information and a sense of the candidates involvement in any success their previous / current clubs have enjoyed. (often the use of "I did" is more telling than "we did" ...Telling stories in the first person implies ownership, and points to personal experience and involvement).
Don't forget, Cameron's Brother, Edward, works in recruitment albeit in the oil industry , I imagine he has offered some ideas about the process. |
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