O'Toole said: "It was a tough decision for me to make. I know that some people will not believe that, but, at the end of the day I have to do what I feel is the best thing for my career. I do feel bad about the fact that I am leaving the club just after we have been relegated and it was in the back of my mind to want to put things right. Things aren't always that simple though. And after thinking about it long and hard I reached a decision that playing in the Conference, unfortunately, was not going to be right for me." "I want to thank everyone for the way they have treated me during my time at the club. And I also want to wish everyone the best in the future. I hope the majority of the supporters will understand that I am just trying to do the right thing for myself and my family. I know that some of the supporters will be disappointed that I have decided against staying and there will be some bad feeling towards me. That's fair enough. I can understand that, too." "I would imagine there will be a lot of changes at the club. Everybody talks about how hard it is to get out of the Conference, but I would say that Darrell is the right man to take things forward over the next couple of seasons. It was a tough job for him over the final eight games of the season because we were in the middle of a sticky patch when he took over. He showed a lot of hunger and enthusiasm for the job. There is no doubt in my mind that he will bounce back and get the right people in to take the club back to where they should be." Taken from the Post.
IMO the conference is perfect for him he couldn't even get in a League 1 team, good riddance to him and his attitude most over rated Rovers player ever.
That's pretty harsh! He looked one of the better players in the division and was Man of the Match quite a few times as well as being top scorer. His opinion of himself does not quite match reality, but he's definitely a decent player. I think both Bristol clubs are pretty tough to please to be honest and that's why quite a few players do much better when they leave.
Up till now I have thought his guy had a point, yes if he was surrounded by better players things might have been different. He was the high scorer in a relegated team. He was on suspension more often than not and to be perfectly honest he could have had another 4 goals against teams which would have been the difference between loss / draw and getting the 3 points for a win. Now I'm not putting the blame solely on him but he did not help the cause. Ward was wrong to chase him so hard considering he knew what he was like. Also giving out another 3 year deal was bad enough but to have a release clause that could be triggered with relegation is criminal. The fact that Ward and Higgs allowed those conditions shows how out of touch they really are.
That's very true - how the **** was he allowed a release clause in case of relegation in his contract?
i was a fly on the wall at the time this was added to o'tooles contract. it went down like this.... ward: "so here is your 3 year contract. all you have to do is sign at the bottom." o'toole reads through the contract. he has the biggest smile on his face (as you can see http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73129000/jpg/_73129554_o'toole_sg.jpg) as it states in the small print he is allowed to belittle players and the club when he wants. o'toole: "umm i want to add a relegation clause in this contract otherwise i wont sign it." ward: "ok, let me ring and check with the board!" ward gets our his phone.... http://blog.dialaphone.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/oldcellphones3_18_06_08.jpg ring ring... higgs: "yes mr ward?" ward: "o'toole is happy to sign the contract if we add in a relegation clause. will you sanction this?" higgs: "well relegation is not an option, so yes, it wont be needed anyway so go and add that clause to his contract to shut him up." higgs hangs up. ward: "ok o'toole, i will get my pink crayon out and add it to the contract, you got your relegation release clause". o'toole: yay, im so excited to be here (cant you tell http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/...es/276309/Article/images/19573028/5104819.jpg)
