John Ryan walked solemnly behind the coffin as it made its way through the streets
of Doncaster. Wreaths were laid at the gates of Belle Vue stadium. Doncaster Rovers’
Football League status had died, and the club were not just on the brink of Conference
football - but extinction altogether.
Chairman Ken Richardson had bled the club dry. All but three professional players were left
on the books, but that wasn’t all. Two years previous, Richardson had paid some goons to
torch the main stand at Belle Vue in the hope the insurance money would cover the club’s
debt. An act he would later atone for at her Majesty’s pleasure.
In scenes reminiscent of a Robin Hood script, a teary eyed member of the procession begged
Ryan to save the club: “Is there anything you can do?” – twelve years on, and the man who
made a career enhancing assets in the cosmetic surgery business has clearly done more than a
bit of nip/tuck on Doncaster Rovers.
“It’s been a labour of love,” starts Ryan, “When I took the club over in '98 it was on its
knees. Richardson had been sent to prison, he'd burnt the stand down and we were in non-
league football so it's been a long journey back but I said I'd like to see the club back in the
Championship where I first watched them in the fifties and it's a great feeling to think that
we're back there now.”
I meet the outgoing and exceptionally friendly Ryan outside Bristol City’s Ashton Gate
ground, where despite losing 1-0, Championship football looks set to stay in Doncaster for
another season. We’re stood next to his monolithic Bentley with its personalised number
plate, and the sun shines down on the chairman and I, just like it has done for the Rovers for
the last decade.
A self-made millionaire and lifelong Doncaster Rovers fan, Ryan had long dreamt of
being involved with the club he had watched from the terraces from as young as seven. He
pioneered cosmetic surgery in Europe and turned a small 1970’s company called Transform
into a multi-million pound business within twenty years, before selling up and taking the lead
role in the Rovers’ incredible story.
“Well, I was a director from ‘89 to '94 and Ken Richardson came in and I couldn't stomach
him so I left. Then in '98, when the club was finished, I went to the last game against
Colchester at Belle Vue thinking that was the last game I'd ever see of Doncaster Rovers. As
things transpired, I managed to buy the club and the rest is history.”
Buying the club for £50,000 might be considered a steal, but the task that lay ahead for Ryan
and the Rovers was colossal. Starting the next season in the Conference, the team’s first
game was away at Dover Athletic, but the problem was, Doncaster didn’t have a team. After
picking up players at various lay-bys and service stations along the way, Ryan recalls seeing
his mercenaries beaten 1-0: “Well in a way we were pleased we got a team out. We lost 1-
0 but we were celebrating losing 1-0 because we didn't really have a team! I nearly had my
boots in the car myself!”
If the fans had thought Richardson was a madcap chairman, imagine the whispers around
South Yorkshire when Ryan told them that he would take the club not only back to the
Football League, but into the Championship within ten years. Not only that but he promised
them a trip to Wembley returning with the resulting silverware and a new stadium. It took
Rovers five years to crack the Conference, but League Two was won in their first season
back in the League, going up as champions. The trophy cabinet had a purpose once more.
As Ryan acknowledges some Rovers fans that walk past and say hello, I ask him if he was
surprised when his team won League Two more than convincingly. “No, I expected it!”
he exclaims, “I told everyone to get money on at 33/1! The outsiders for the League were
Carlisle, York and Doncaster. Carlisle and York went down to the Conference and Doncaster
won the League. I always thought we'd get promotion because we made some great signings.
We brought in Leo Fortune-West, Michael McIndoe and Greg Blundell and John Doolan. So
I always thought we were going to do well, and we did.”
Along the way, Ryan also managed to fulfil a childhood dream of his and broke a Guinness
World Record in the process when stepped out on the pitch as a player, a month shy of his
53rd birthday: “I am the oldest professional footballer. I played for Doncaster Rovers against
Hereford United, I started warming up and we were losing 2-0 and by the time I went on
it was 4-2 to Rovers. No one wanted to be subbed for me!” He smiles as he recounts the
memories of that day and his motivation for doing it: “I always wanted to play for Rovers
when I was young and I thought well... why not? I only had two or three minutes and I didn't
even touch the ball, but I can say I played!” And hastily adds: “With a hundred percent
record!”
The thing about John Ryan is that he isn’t looking to make a quick buck from a club like
so many in football at the moment. In fact he is quick to point out that “that was never the
intention. I doubt anyone will make any money out of Doncaster Rovers, I certainly haven't
and I don't know anyone else that has!” He just wants to see his hometown team back where
they should be. In 2008, after four seasons in League One and a trip to the Millennium
stadium where the club won the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, the team found themselves facing
Yorkshire rivals Leeds United at Wembley. The trip to North London, as promised, ten
seasons after Ryan took them over.
When asked what his highlight of the last decade has been, Ryan instantly replies “Beating
Leeds at Wembley, I don't think anything can beat that.” For that was the game that saw his
beloved team finally take their spot back in Championship with a 1-0 win against all the
odds. So what is the secret behind this success?
“Stability,” he says, as if the answer is obvious, “In all that time we've had two managers.
Sean O'Driscoll's been with us five years and before that we had Dave Penney who was with
the club for about eight years. We've had a lot of stability on the management side and the
board of directors and also the players. Although we've had to turn players over as we go
up the leagues, a lot of the players have stayed with us for a period of time and I think that
stability means a lot in football.”
He is quick to add in that “It's the power of positive thinking,” before reiterating the
exceptionally ambitious ideas that probably caused a few to snigger in the bars around
Doncaster: “I thought we could do it. I said it right at the beginning that I would get the club
back in the Football League at that stage and not only do that, but I would get them back to
the second division which is now the Championship. I said we'd get a new stadium and that
we'd appear at Wembley and we've done all that... and Cardiff as well, just to top the lot.”
Positivity is the key at Doncaster and this is reflected in their beautiful style of football that
has won them many plaudits on the rise to the top. Dubbed ‘The Arsenal of League One’ at
one stage, Sean O’Driscoll has the Rovers passing the ball, moving it forward quickly and
that style has ultimately kept the team at this level, where they might not compete financially
with their peers but their on-pitch antics are described by their proud chairman as “a joy to
watch.”
As a new breed of youngsters are turned to the Keepmoat Stadium and attendances grow with
the Rovers’ reputation, Ryan has a huge amount of respect for the fans of this club who could
so easily go and watch other Yorkshire teams in the form of Leeds and the two Sheffields.
One set of fans, the Viking Supporters Co-operative help raise money for the club with raffles
and auctions and in return are offered a certain degree of transparency between the board and
themselves. Ryan attends regular AGM meetings in return and is well aware that many in his
position wouldn’t necessarily see it their duty to mix with the great unwashed, regardless of
the money the fans put into their clubs.
“I think it's very important,” he begins, although there are a few technicalities in the
relationship: “It's not always possible when you're going after players, because you don't
want it released on a message board that you're after so-and-so because you could lose the
player but the reality is that the fans have stuck with us over the years and I think they've
been incredibly well rewarded because we've had so much success.”
Possibly the greatest coup for the club was the signing of Billy Sharp from Sheffield United
last summer after a prolific spell on loan at the club. Ryan and the rest of the board dipped
into their own pockets to raise the club record £1.15m fee for the striker. Knowing Sharp
could be the difference in Rovers’ fortunes this season “JR”, as he is known by the fans,
lauds it as his best bit of business: “I persuaded my partners in the business to put the money
up to pay for Billy Sharp and it's been a great investment. 16 goals in 28 games,” before
adding: “If he'd been playing today we'd have won that game.”
Sharp’s omission today has been the icing on the cake for what has been a torturous
campaign for Donny, who had initially started so well and Ryan exudes further belief in his
side as he explains where it all went wrong: “If it wasn't for the chronic injury list I think
we'd have at least been in the top ten or maybe the top six. On New Year’s Day when we
beat Scunthorpe 3-0 we were looking good for the play-offs. Since then we've had 14 players
injured. You just can't legislate for that.”
So is John Ryan looking to re-evaluate his ambitions for Doncaster Rovers? After this
whirlwind decade, why should he stop now?
“I'd like to see us in the Premier League, obviously, but I wouldn't be so miffed if we were
still in the Championship because I think the Championship is a great league.” He says before
suggesting that Doncaster might have a couple of years at this level still, if the giants keep
crashing down from the Premier League: “It's difficult for us in the Championship because
our gates are relatively small but football is a difficult game and it's a very competitive
business, especially in the Championship.”
One thing is for sure, with Ryan’s past record, you wouldn’t want to rule out the Rovers in
the race for the Premiership under the guidance of a man who is just giving something back
to the club he has loved since childhood on what he tells me is: “One of the most incredible
journies in football”. I ask for his thoughts are on chairmen who want to try and turn a club
into something they can profit from: “Good luck to them,” he says “Some of them do it but
the vast majority don’t.”
And what of someone trying to do another Donny? To emulate the success of John Ryan
and take over a team on the brink of extinction and to turn them into a respectable club, run
without debt with a trophy cabinet glimmering with the bounty of twelve prosperous years.
Ryans advice is simple: “Don’t!” He chuckles, “Lightning doesn’t strike twice!”
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