Jake Young

Brazilians are usually at the front Dave

 

Most would agree we would never have got to where Richmond took us with the old regime's prior to him taking over the club from David Simpson so neither you or me could forcast what would have happened, what we do know is we paid a very high price during his tenure at Valley Parade, but at the time loved everything he brought to the club.
I remember very well everything about that era, far to well waiting outside the then City shop now the Million to One School with Mark Neal Patsie Hollinger and several more trying to get a glimpse or word of anything positive from those trying to strike a deal with the administers, and wondering if we would have a club to support,what he did for our club was unbelievable but one side of the debate cant' be quoted without the other side, without doubt he did something we never believed at the time could be achieved and gets credit for that.
Dont think were going to agree on this one.

 

So it must be true .

 

We wouldn’t have been fine if ITV digital hadn’t gone bust that was just another nail in the coffin. Unaffordable dividends, excessive players contracts ,unnecessary ground development. It was Richmonds hubris that bankrupted the club. Had he left Jewell to bring in affordable players and let the club grow gradually with reasonable dividends then we would have been fine.

 

We'd have ended up back where we are now, it would have just taken longer in my opinion.

 

The problem we had was everything at the club was leased. We had no assets to sell when we went into admin. Hadn’t we borrowed about 7.5 mill to do the stand? Think we had about 38 mill debt going into admin 1 didn’t we?

Ageing players on inflated wages that other clubs could never match. The two Wednesday defenders, Petrescu, Carbone etc.

ITV digital collapsing didn’t help. But to be honest, I think the minute Richmond fired Jewell, that was the start of the slippery slope. We replaced a superb manager with a puppet coach, and Geoffrey went wild recruiting that summer.

 

Gordon Taylor of the PFA who attended a supporters meeting during the crisis after loaning the club a substantial amount described City’s predicament as the worst financial crisis he’d ever seen. I think the Leeds Utd crisis beat it a few years later,

 

It’s peanuts compared to the debt some clubs and owners carry!

 

We'd have ended up back where we are now, it would have just taken longer in my opinion.

Be a shock to think how much those stands would cost to build these days. No way would we be able to afford even one of them

 

When Jordan Pickford was at the club Mark Prudhoe who was the Sunderland goal coach at the time came and watched him most home games and we got talking about his time at the club, he said exactly that, once the team that had stayed up was dismantled by Richmond the whole heart of the club went, that previous team would have run through brick walls for the cause again.
One interesting thing he said was during his short career at Valley Parade he never played in a home game, and that Stuart McCall with all he'd done to help achieved success for Bradford City was way down the salary ladder, I assume by that he meant with regards the signings of Carbonie, Ward, Myers, Wetherall, Halle, Petrescu, Hopkin, Collymore.

 

Doesn't surprise me. They won't let us have bragging rights about anything.

 

I remember the day we signed Benito Carbone. Geoffrey Richmond had been doing a few teasers about the biggest signing ever for the club, then the signing was announced along with the proud assertion he was on £40k a week. We were suddenly in for £8m when we had barely stayed up. Right then I thought we were in trouble.

 

Crazy when you weigh up their contributions.

I think Ashley Ward was on circa 18k a week, Carbone 40k. At that time, Man Utd’s highest earners weren’t on much more apparently - even Becks!

The money at the top today even more sickening!

 

But didn't we enjoy the press conference and the fanfare that came with it, when we had to loan him out Leeds were reported to be interested in him until they heard what he was earning each week I believe the quote at the time was if they took him on loan he would be the highest earner at Bellend Road .

 

Mark said he went in to have a word with Richmond with regards to what he was on at the time I'm sure Mark said £8k a week, so if those guys I posted were above that you can see why were heading for the rocks.

 

Crazy.

Jake Young was probably taking his first steps around then.

****Keeping on topic*****

 

Anyone know where I can find the Jake Young thread?

 

Page 66..............................

 

It has got a slight injury, no one knows quite where it is but it may be bought by the end of January.