Expectations of McCall this season?

Not really, Man Utd currently have a fans favourite as manager and outside of Utd we all know he shouldn't be their manager, they currently are 8th in league and an embarrassing 38 points from the top but many Utd fans are happy to plod along with him. When you've a fans fav it as manager it does give them more time.

 

Sorry Fordy isn't that exactly what I said. Under McCall mediocre will be accepted and even excused when it wouldn't be under 99% of other managers. Very similar to Ole in your example.

As somebody who wants to see the club move forward rather than plod I struggle with the outlook.

 

100% agree.

I’d add Vaughan to your list because I think we’d probably see the best of him under McCall.

Sadly we have some under contract that we really could do with getting rid of.

Under contract for next season:

Hornby
A O’Connor
P O’Connor
BRE
French
Staunton
Wood
Longridge
Pritchard
Vaughan
Novak
Guthrie.

 

That's not too bad. Saddled with a couple of duff Bowyer buys, but they shouldn't be too expensive. Plenty of room for manoeuvre in terms of squad space and hopefully budget.

 

Did ‘McCrap’ get jiggy with your missus or sommat. You really are a miserable beggar, straight on the poor guys case. Piss poor post tbh.

Bowyer has signed some pretty average players, I will give MCCall some time, just as Bowyer had, and just like most sane supporters will do.

 

The boardroom think these are clever moves but like at Utd the fans will aim their frustrations at the owners or CEO.. this is what Bradford City needs. Fans need to be looking at the direction the owner and CEO are taking the club.

Hopefully, things will go well but if it doesn't Rupp and Rhodes will be getting it as McCall won't.... I think a certain Mr Edin knew this..

 

I agree with that as well.

Another reason that it worries me.

Fans turning on owners never works. Owners sell clubs because it makes financial sense, not because Barry from Brighouse decides to sing a song.

McCall doing well brings us all together, McCall doing badly makes the club more divisive than ever.

 

Yeh I guess that Hornby and Longridge will want to move on anyway.
The others can be kept.

 

To be fair, the owners can actually take action right now to make sure fans understand their long term ambitions and that we have a succession plan should Stuart not work out or should he leave at the end of his contract in 18 months.

They could appoint a director of football or similar, or outline a forward thinking transfer policy.

Or, they could just hope Stuart works out and if he doesn't, pick somebody else to pin their hopes on with little rhyme or reason.

 

If they appoint a DoF (which I'm neither for or against at this stage) and it goes badly how quickly do you reckon it would be before it was said that McCall was undermined again?

4th time lucky though!

As for succession plan or long term thinking. We don't have one so they can't talk about it. Literally one season at a time just as it's always been with Rhodes at the helm.

 

Spot on and this is why I think it's a weak appointment because it's aimed to sell season tickets but if it goes wrong then the owner and Rhodes will get it badly from fans.

Expectations are going to be higher on and off the field. Fans won't take excuses about this cost this to do extra.

The appointment had short term thinking behind it but I am hoping it gives us time to build or Rupp to sell. We can't keep standing still like we are doing.

 

100% this..

 

But then the answer to that is time? any manger that comes to this club can't win the "single games, the ones that deliver the prize" on his first game? even League cup is in mid august. Would you change your tune *if hypothetically* McCall won the PO final at the end of this season?

 

Fair question - appointing a DoF is going to be a critical decision, as he would effectively oversee the direction of the football club from a more secure position than a manager, and a more knowledgeable position than Rupp or Rhodes.

If they appointed a DoF that suited Bowyer-ball, that would be a disaster.

Perhaps it needs to be Stuart himself when his current run as manager ends - but would he have ambitions of trying again elsewhere? Either way, we need to nail our colours to the mast. What is a 'Bradford City' performance? Is it attacking football? Hoofball? Blood and thunder? Calm, accurate passing game?

One thing we know is that even under Rahic, who at least had a plan (as abysmally executed as it was), he had no idea what style he was demanding from his managers. His appointments were as scatter gun as Abbott's recruitment, and it feels like it's been that way since Parky left.

 

Dude, you’re calling him ‘McCrap’ and your only mdefender is Park Bantam. You don’t have a leg to stand on.

anyway - my expectations of McCall?
This season - improve performances, make it an entertaining pass time again going to games again, if we get results and end up in the play offs? Well that’s fantastic. A promotion via that route would be pretty spectacular. If not no bother, aslong as the signs are there that we’re going forward.


As for next season, I’d expect a top 7 at minimum. But really we’re looking at a promotion push - top 3.
If he fails to deliver a top 7 finish he’s failed.
I’ll not say not getting promotion is a down right failure, because the play offs are a bit of a lottery but it would be disappointing.

 

I agree with the general sentiment but don't think we need a DoF to do it. Rhodes just needs to figure out what good looks like and stick to that path giving each broadly similar manager enough control to do the job. I agree that swapping from one style to the next is counterproductive but you don't need a director to see that, just consistency in decision making.

Oh and please. Let's not talk about it being Stuart. If he does well then he stays on as manager, if he does badly then the last thing we needs his him hovering above whoever's we choose as manager.

 

The reason I think we could do with a Director of Football is because while Rhodes COULD oversee the broad sticking-to of a plan, why should he be tasked with it? Rhodes isn't financially tied to the club, but seems to be pretty good on the business side of things, but I always got the feeling Lawn was the hands on chairmen under the previous regime, and he got a lot of things moving in the right direction.

Obviously Lawn isn't at the club, and a DoF is going to be even better placed than him to lead the club forwards from a purely footballing perspective.

I genuinely don't think it's in Rhodes' remit (or skill set) to ensure consistency in terms of managerial appointments or transfer policy.

 

He's quite obviously picking managers at the moment though.

If you want to day that we should get someone with more football knowledge than Rhodes to do that but we're getting close to the stage of having too many chiefs and not enough Indians if we have both.

 

Anyway. Dennis has already separated this thread out once for it going of course and we're doing it again