Jim Chimmerney
Can hear the 'Cod Army' roar from his back garden
From FANHOUSEUK;
If he harbours serious ambitions to further himself and to perhaps one day manage in the Premier League, Sean O'Driscoll must leave Doncaster Rovers and grab Sheffield United's offer with both hands.
Canny Rovers chairman John Ryan has taken the moral high ground by granting his manager for the last four years permission to talk with their South Yorkshire rivals, rather than be seen to be attempting to stand in the way of the 53-year-old.
It's a smart tactic, but O'Driscoll needs to call his bluff by agreeing to succeed Gary Speed. There's an awful lot of work needed to be done to transform things at Bramall Lane, and the sooner he starts, the better.
In short, O'Driscoll has taken Doncaster as far as he can. After winning promotion through the League One play-offs in 2008, to leave them in the top half of the Championship just four points shy of the play-offs is the stuff of minor miracles, for a club who at best should be in the top eight of League One given their crowds, status and history.
The first step would be the hardest, it being a backward one, with United languishing in 20th, four points clear of danger. He has to look beyond that, and has shown enough foresight already in his career to suggest he will. There may be a certain amount of turmoil in the red half of Sheffield, but that just adds to the challenge, and the rewards if he gets things right. O'Driscoll would be tapping into far greater potential than he could ever hope to have at the Keepmoat Stadium. Even given their appalling start to the season allied to Arctic weather conditions, there were still over 17,000 at Bramall Lane to see the much-needed victory over Swansea under caretaker manager John Carver - almost double Doncaster's average for what has been one of the best runs in their history, a third consecutive campaign in the second tier.
Rovers' demand for in the region of £500,000 compensation shouldn't prove a stumbling block, as the Blades received a tidy sum from the Welsh FA for Speed, who jumped ship after a distinctly under-whelming four months at the helm. The Bramall Lane board must have thought Christmas had come early to receive money for a manager who had he not improved things pretty quickly, they would have had to consider sacking.
Not since Newcastle inexplicably paid a hefty sum to Blackburn to take the hapless Graeme Souness, who was on the brink of the sack at Ewood Park, has outside interest in a manager been so welcomed.
"It will be substantial (compensation)," Ryan insisted, if his ploy to prevent O'Driscoll becoming United's third permanent manager this season backfires. "If Sheffield United don't pay, they can forget about taking our manager because Sean leaving us in mid-season would put us in a very difficult predicament.
"I've given Sean permission to speak with them but I don't think anything will happen this side of Christmas. I've spoken to Sean and I'm confident that he'll stay. Further attempting to cast doubts into the mind of his manager, he added: "We have a better chance of getting promotion and we're willing to back our manager to the hilt. I don't know whether Sheffield United's fans would give him enough time."
Either way, O'Driscoll will be in the dugout at Bramall Lane on January 3, when the clubs meet in the Championship, Rovers looking to achieve the double over their local rivals.
Having proved impervious to Burnley's advances before they unwisely appointed the hopelessly out of his depth Brian Laws to fill the void left by Owen Coyle 12 months ago, a similar course of action from O'Driscoll would hint at a lack of ambition - or bottle - or both in his unwillingness to leave his Keepmoat comfort zone for a fresh, bigger challenge. If he only does it to spare long-suffering Blades fans the hope-draining appearance of perma-tanned Phil Brown as their next manager, that should be reason enough.
Fair enough he has a history of putting down roots at a club, as 17 years and 750 games as a player and manager at Bournemouth might suggest. But he will be acutely aware that there's only a brief window in any managerial career where your stock is so high that clubs actually come calling. Otherwise, it's back to hopefully submitting your CV with the 30 other canditates who're attempting to get back on the merry-go-round. When on this occasion that club is three times the size of the one you're at, you owe it to yourself to give it a crack to see how far you can take it.
He could accept it and end up being sacked at the end of the season, but at least he'd have given it a try and not been undermined by that nagging doubt of what might have been had he not opted for the 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' course of inaction on which Ryan clearly pins his hopes.
As the likes of Colchester, Southend and Grimsby - all clubs of similar stature to Rovers - have all recently shown, a minnow's time at a rarified level always has a certain shelf-life before finances catch up with them and they head back down from whence they came. Time to get out Sean, or you will live to regret it.
If he harbours serious ambitions to further himself and to perhaps one day manage in the Premier League, Sean O'Driscoll must leave Doncaster Rovers and grab Sheffield United's offer with both hands.
Canny Rovers chairman John Ryan has taken the moral high ground by granting his manager for the last four years permission to talk with their South Yorkshire rivals, rather than be seen to be attempting to stand in the way of the 53-year-old.
It's a smart tactic, but O'Driscoll needs to call his bluff by agreeing to succeed Gary Speed. There's an awful lot of work needed to be done to transform things at Bramall Lane, and the sooner he starts, the better.
In short, O'Driscoll has taken Doncaster as far as he can. After winning promotion through the League One play-offs in 2008, to leave them in the top half of the Championship just four points shy of the play-offs is the stuff of minor miracles, for a club who at best should be in the top eight of League One given their crowds, status and history.
The first step would be the hardest, it being a backward one, with United languishing in 20th, four points clear of danger. He has to look beyond that, and has shown enough foresight already in his career to suggest he will. There may be a certain amount of turmoil in the red half of Sheffield, but that just adds to the challenge, and the rewards if he gets things right. O'Driscoll would be tapping into far greater potential than he could ever hope to have at the Keepmoat Stadium. Even given their appalling start to the season allied to Arctic weather conditions, there were still over 17,000 at Bramall Lane to see the much-needed victory over Swansea under caretaker manager John Carver - almost double Doncaster's average for what has been one of the best runs in their history, a third consecutive campaign in the second tier.
Rovers' demand for in the region of £500,000 compensation shouldn't prove a stumbling block, as the Blades received a tidy sum from the Welsh FA for Speed, who jumped ship after a distinctly under-whelming four months at the helm. The Bramall Lane board must have thought Christmas had come early to receive money for a manager who had he not improved things pretty quickly, they would have had to consider sacking.
Not since Newcastle inexplicably paid a hefty sum to Blackburn to take the hapless Graeme Souness, who was on the brink of the sack at Ewood Park, has outside interest in a manager been so welcomed.
"It will be substantial (compensation)," Ryan insisted, if his ploy to prevent O'Driscoll becoming United's third permanent manager this season backfires. "If Sheffield United don't pay, they can forget about taking our manager because Sean leaving us in mid-season would put us in a very difficult predicament.
"I've given Sean permission to speak with them but I don't think anything will happen this side of Christmas. I've spoken to Sean and I'm confident that he'll stay. Further attempting to cast doubts into the mind of his manager, he added: "We have a better chance of getting promotion and we're willing to back our manager to the hilt. I don't know whether Sheffield United's fans would give him enough time."
Either way, O'Driscoll will be in the dugout at Bramall Lane on January 3, when the clubs meet in the Championship, Rovers looking to achieve the double over their local rivals.
Having proved impervious to Burnley's advances before they unwisely appointed the hopelessly out of his depth Brian Laws to fill the void left by Owen Coyle 12 months ago, a similar course of action from O'Driscoll would hint at a lack of ambition - or bottle - or both in his unwillingness to leave his Keepmoat comfort zone for a fresh, bigger challenge. If he only does it to spare long-suffering Blades fans the hope-draining appearance of perma-tanned Phil Brown as their next manager, that should be reason enough.
Fair enough he has a history of putting down roots at a club, as 17 years and 750 games as a player and manager at Bournemouth might suggest. But he will be acutely aware that there's only a brief window in any managerial career where your stock is so high that clubs actually come calling. Otherwise, it's back to hopefully submitting your CV with the 30 other canditates who're attempting to get back on the merry-go-round. When on this occasion that club is three times the size of the one you're at, you owe it to yourself to give it a crack to see how far you can take it.
He could accept it and end up being sacked at the end of the season, but at least he'd have given it a try and not been undermined by that nagging doubt of what might have been had he not opted for the 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' course of inaction on which Ryan clearly pins his hopes.
As the likes of Colchester, Southend and Grimsby - all clubs of similar stature to Rovers - have all recently shown, a minnow's time at a rarified level always has a certain shelf-life before finances catch up with them and they head back down from whence they came. Time to get out Sean, or you will live to regret it.
