Salary Cap

Cambridge? Toffs and snobs? Have a word will you, are you 12? How are people in Cambridge different to anybody else?

 

Last season our defence was sound enough still a player short in there
We have Vaughan in there to score goals with a choice of players to play off our big problem last year was midfield and we have brought back the best of it and added to it we have a team to challenge if we can make a couple more decent signings

 

Leeds and Manchester are thankfully very commutable, we won’t have a problem recruiting at this level in terms of drawing players in. It’s more will we scout the right ones that’s the worry. If I were a player and money didn’t come into it, stadium size/crowds/location would be the next things on my list. I’d rather play at Valley Parade or Macron than the rest of the dumps at this level. These are 4th division players, opposition clubs were taking pictures of the stadium before games last season, to say club size/crowds won’t come into it is naive at best. Most at this level won’t get that sort of chance again.

 

Think the defence - still needs work - based on last season - too many mistakes in it, backing off for example on occasions that resulted in us conceding. Hopefully a stronger midfield will help out.

 

Our defence was shot to pieces when lockdown came, we were conceding chances and shits at goal at an alrming rate. Only one to emerge with any credit was Wood, the others had poor seasons. Had the season carried on we would have ended up with a negative goal difference.

 

What's the world coming to Rod, when you can't call someone from Cambridge a right posh tw@t.

 

Who denigrated the people who live in Bradford? It is a poor City, one of the bottom 15 in the country, it’s not an attractive place to live or invest compared to say Leeds. House prices are largely static in the last 15 years, unemployment is about 50% above national average. Like it or it, for a young professional Leeds and Bradford are more attractive places to live.

 

Changed over the years has Bradford. I'd remember a warm summers night like this and Bradford would be heaving with a great nightlife. Quite sad now if I wanted to go for a drink or a meal I'd go to Halifax or Leeds. The poor place gets worse every year, any route out of the city centre is like the land that time forgot. A city dying on its arse.

 

Bradford Council like the Bradford City love playing the poor card.

The poor card like this in the paper https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/18636937.bradford-housing-association-raises-concern-future-affordable-housing/

Bradford enjoys keeping the value down. Well these people

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/18634190.planning-shake-up-save-bradfords-greenfields/

Can all go do one because I am hunting land down and I am going to build, build, build and my houses won't be cheap.

Assets!! I bet Rhodes and others connected with the club don't live in Bradford.

It's a city that doesn't help. I have questioned why fans just let the club not buy assets. Do you think Rhodes lives in a back to back? Assets are vital to a football club.

The T & A is a disgrace of a newspaper as well. No one should buy it. It seems like it try to sell on negativity about the area and wants to bring the City down. Never talks about the nice areas of Bradford like Baildon, Clayton, Wibsey, Queensbury, Skipton, Silsden, Appleybridge, Saitaire etc Just on the dumps and negative stories.

Some 1m houses in Appley Bridge but I know Appley Bridge tried to be an LS postcode and disconnect itself with Bradford.

Bradford is a mess. It needs a @Park bantam mindset to build it up but the club doesn't help it either by doing nothing!

It's a city that likes to sit in its own shit.

 

But the City of Bradford is poor, it’s rundown, lacking in investment, has high unemployment and is low in skilled employment opportunities. Those are facts. It doesn’t denigrate people who live there, Bradford has some wonderful people, it has been shit on by successive governments, a dreadful appalling council and the shift of its primary industry to the Far East. Look at other similar cities, Coventry has lost the car industry, a lot of the NW their textiles, huge parts of the North their coal industry and so on. Hugely deprived areas and many of them in general relatively undesirable places to live and no reflection on the locals but IMO deliberate mismanagement by UK and local government. Cornwall is a beautiful place but utterly reliant on tourists after mining and fishing have gone. Bradford, Grimsby, Hull, Barrow, Coventry, Bolton, St Helens, Sunderland, the Welsh Valleys they all lost their primary industry and live in the shadow of wealthy neighbours who attract the jobs and investment. No reflection on the people but appealing mismanagement by successive governments.

It’s not a criticism of the people who live there, but a fact that they are poor areas and largely but not exclusively undesirable places to live or invest in.

 

We had a decent defensive record midfield was the problem O’Connor was probably player of the year and Wood and O’Donnell had good seasons no doubt we will soon have another right back and P O’Connor and BRE are adequate we have a defensive midfielder now in Sutton and two what look like Attacking midfielders

 

You only need to read McCall's comments on the salary Cap not once did he mention investing in training ground, scouting our anything that will benefit the club or city.

As a player I wouldn't want to join an unambitious club that has no off the pitch plans or direction.

It's no wonder the Akpans of the world join and give no shits because the on and off the pitch ambition isn't there.

 

Sorry Park thats just not true. Anthony O'Connor played well at times but also made various mistakes which he berated others for. Wood was solid throughout but the rest of them were poor. We finished in 9th and were going backwards quickly. You can't have forgotten the Mansfield or Oldham away games or the Salford away game where we were truly pathetic. Its still the same failed unit minus two atrocious right backs.

 

Of course there was some bad games but we had excellent home record and overall a decent defensive record with plenty of clean sheets

 

Do you really think the squad is worse than last season? Akpan won't be playing for one.
The league was rubbish last season, did you not see the play off games?? Awful. I dont see anyone adding massive quality and with cap in place I don't see that changing.

I've said on earlier posts why I think we'll improve, energy in midfield to drive us forward which we have been lacking and good coaching.

We finished 9th, 3 months or whatever you're knit picking at, the point is that we were fairly close and we were woeful.

 

The point was that Bradford is a cheap place to live and therefore would be attractive to footballers. My point was it’s not that attractive for young footballers because it’s a poor city without a great nightlife and nice areas to live compared to Leeds and Manchester. That other places are equally disadvantaged doesn’t enhance Bradford, it means we need to have another reason to attract talent.

 

I think you’re harsh judging the play off games. Cobbled together at the last minute with teams who had hardly kicked a ball in months in anger. Was always going to be poor in quality.

I’d say if the season finished we wouldn’t have been close as 9th. But anyway we can’t see that now so it’s pointless.

I just don’t see where the big improvement is going to come from. The only striker we have who’s half decent is vaughan. Be interesting to see what we get out of him but otherwise we have an aging Donaldson who had his injury problems so expect that to continue. A poor Guthrie. Novak who will do ok but not sure if he will get much more than 10-12.
Short on width. Ismail is never fit and Pritchard is he a winger I don’t know? Where’s the creativity gonna come from?

midfield pairing look good on paper but think they will get bogged down once teams find us out.
Defence is average at best. Need a good right back as we haven’t improved it anywhere else. Only left back I’d be confident in if Wood stays fit. Goalie is sound.

So yeah I’m worried about our squad. Whether we were close or not last season it doesn’t mean we will be close again. it’s ok saying the leagues poor but it’s always poor. We struggled to get out of it under parky and McCall never got close in his other spell here.