DRFC Saunders - I will not be raiding my old club

Former Doncaster Rovers boss Dean Saunders says he will not be returning to the Keepmoat Stadium to try to tempt players to move to his new club Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Saunders left Doncaster earlier this month to take over at the championship side and he has been quickly linked with moves for players he left behind at the Keepmoat.

Leading goalscorer David Cotterill was linked with a move to Molineux in midweek and Saunders says he does not intend to sign any of his former players, admitted he wants to see the club succeed.

Speaking on Radio Sheffield, Saunders said, "I have walked into the job at Wolves with a squad of forty players. The Wolves chairman has asked me to reduce the wage bill and lose some players.

"I will be shedding players rather than signing them. I would not like to take any players of Doncaster. I want to see them do well. The first thing I asked when I came off today was, how did they get on?"

Saunders joined Doncaster in September 2011 with the side at the foot of the championship after picking up just one point from their opening seven games.

The club experimented in the transfer market, using football agent Willie McKay to bring in big name players, who were out of favour at their current club or free agents, in an attempt to put them in the shop window by playing games for Doncaster.

Doncaster brought in the likes of El Hadji Diouf and Pascal Chimbonda but the experiment failed as they finished bottom of the championship.

Saunders had to build from scratch in the summer, with the big names all released as well as having to sign almost all of the big earners at the club. "I have real sadness inside me for having to leave the players who I had spent months trying to persuade to sign for the club for less money than they were worth. I was asking them to hang on. Rob Jones is an example, I was asking him to hang on because we had to get players out before we could get any in and he trusted me.

"I signed nearly the whole of the back four the week before the season started. We got off to a flier and I just hope now that they can keep it going. It looks like they are with a great result against Orient and they have a good man in charge.

"The group of players at the club are fantastic and I never had any trouble with any of them," Saunders continued.

After a tricky first season at the Keepmoat, Saunders won the admiration of the fans and he left with the club in the second automatic promotion place in League One and on the verge of an away club record, having gone eleven games on the road without defeat. Saunders praised the fans and admitted he was sad to leave. "I would like to thank the fans for the way they supported me and the players and I am sad to leave them all."

Since his departure, Rovers have broken the club record on the road with a 2-1 win at Stevenage and they made it back-to-back wins for new boss Brian Flynn with a 2-0 home win over Leyton Orient on Saturday.






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