Plus ca change

Back in the grim days of 2000 we signed Steve Walsh. Walsh was unsure about it because he didn't feel he was fit. But, to our cost, someone decided he was fit enough and we signed him anyway.
Back in the grim days of 2005 we signed Bill Owen - much to his own surprise. He also passed a medical - but never appears to have been fit since.

So, are the same medical staff that passed Walsh the ones that passed Thorne?

Are our medicals stringent enough? When was the last time anyone failed a medical with us (I can't remember it ever happening - can you?).

How do we assess new signings' fitness, and physical capability to do the job? Because looking at some of our recent signings they don't appear to be physically up to the rigours of Championship football even when fully "fit". I would put Robinson, Etuhu, Thorne, and probably Crofty in that category.

What exactly do our medical staff do? At the start of last season - even from the stands - it was apparent that Huckerby was struggling physically. Months later it emerged that he had been suffering from glandular fever which the medical staff had not spotted. A year before, and just after playing a game, Gary Holt nearly died on the coach home. This, presumably, was a bolt from the blue for the medical staff too. Who is responsible for monitoring player's well-being?

Last season Reynolds advised Ashton not to play - but he did anyway, and exacerbated his injury. Robinson played against Preston and exacerbated his rib injury. Huckerby played injured (for just a few minutes) at Coventry - with inevitable results? It can't be right that someone whose sole medical qualification is playing left-back for Sheffield Wednesday (or in Celtic's midfield for that matter) can be making those decisions.

Doncaster has decided that discussing the problems of the past is a waste of time now that Worthington - the man in whom he and the board placed so much faith - has gone. Not so, whilst we still have the same scouts, and the same medical staff, and whilst the board continues its policy of taking no interest in transfers, it is inevitable that Grant will make the same sort of blunders that Worthington did. And we really don't have the money to waste any more.

In a few month's time we'll find out how much Doncaster gets paid for not attending to these matters. In the meantime he can get on with thinking about more important things - like, if we put a little more swede, and a little less beef in the pasties can we boost catering profits by twenty quid over the next financial year?

Posted By: Kelly Monteith, Jan 16, 11:10:03