Rolling of the Dice Tone Death

Why is selling either a debacle ? Please explain. All players have a price and if Young is in demand why would we risk playing him and losing that fee ? Likewise Lewis, if a club want him and are prepared to pay us a handsome fee then why refuse.

All players have a price, if it's right for us, we should sell. no-one is irreplaceable.

 

Of course it's not a debacle. We've had god knows how many managers in the last seven years, not one of which has been able or given the time to set his own plan, apart from Hughes who set it, didn't like it and ripped it up twice.

If selling Young & Lewis is what we need to give GA the funds and room in the squad to build us up from nothing, then we should give him the chance to do so. The biggest problem at this club is short termism and that can only be resolved by accepting that we might not get instant success and allowing time for a full reset, not the partial half arsed attempts at a reset that Bowyer, McCall, Collins, Hopkin, Trueman, Adams & Hughes all tried out (and failed).

First and foremost, get to 50 points this season, then let GA properly rebuild in the summer. Knee jerk reactions at the sale of our best player (Lewis) and one who has never proven himself in a Bradford City Shirt (Young) will never solve the problem.

At the back end of 1998 we looked poor and disjointed, but jewell was given the time (and the money) to add a bit of quality in key areas and we kicked on. The majority of which was with players that were already here.

 

So clubs can't put bids in as that's a "debacle"?

If someone comes in with stupid money for both, we turn it down?

You should go and listen to Barry Fry, based on how they handle bids for their players - it'll turn their hair white. They seem them purely as commodities.

Peterborough, sell the line to youngsters who join them - that they will develop them in such a way that they will end up millionaires from transfers to other clubs. i.e. they see themselves as a selling club which then enables them to grow.

So Rupp/Sparks have kind of started that approach and "it's a debacle".

Probably Rupp does need to go, because he could lead us to three consecutive promotions and still some fans would moan.

 

Perfect post

 

In the late 90s Geoffrey Richmond sold Richards, Goalkeepers Ward and Schwarzer all for profit and fans then said “that’s it I give up”. It’s part of football especially in the 4th division and let’s face it ever since Lewis got unsettled with the Barnsley bid he’s not been as consistent.

 

First of all it’s all hypothetical both are still here. Secondly if Young moves it’s down to him we didn’t bring him back for that unless GA is telling untruths. As For Lewis he hasn’t quite been the same this season and providing they have an adequate replacement lined up the money could be used elsewhere. However don’t let that get in the way of more club bashing

 

Jesus, if you think 7th in league one to 14th in league two is one of the biggest declines in football, thank god you were around when Carlisle dropped from the top of the football pyramid to the bottom of division four in the 70s

 

Have Lewis and Young both gone or something?

Is it "apathy" if we get £800K for the pair and, say, 75% of that is put in the transfer pot. After all Rupp insists we must be self sustainable and whatever the club earns is theirs.

You can't always blame the owner. We've given every manager since they joined decent budget - where they all been Top 7 for that division and lately more like Top 4. If we'd given each manager nothing and Rupp took away everything to refinance himself - I'd agree.

Rupp had nothing to do with Hughes having a meltdown and changing a system that worked to one that didn't and then demanded panic buys, who have easily been the worst signings in about five windows, did he?

We could do an awful lot worse than Rupp. The question is who's best to improve us. And I think it's him with Sparks. Admittedly, about four seasons was wasted. But he made sure we were OK during Covid and so I think the structure put in place when Sparks came in, should be given time.

If it took 9 years for Amazon to make a profit, I think we can see that it's not easy turning around businesses - let's be honest he got sold a pup by Lawn/Rhodes as we had no assets to speak of.

For me the decline stopped the minute they took on Gent and had a proper structure that they are now adhering to. Last season 6th place was our best D4 place since 1982. Let's see how this season ends, before moaning about how terribly run we are.

And yes, last Saturday was terrible!!

 

I wonder what the early pay off for Hughes cost??

 

Heard, rightly or wrongly, that he took nothing.

 

Fair play to him, if true.

 

Apart from the Rupp bit I agree, the sooner he goes and we get enthusiastic owners in the better. As for selling players that's just part of football. As much as I like Harry we've sold better keepers than him and moved on. Same with Young, it's clear Alexander needs to bring in his own players and without money from the owner we have to raise our own transfer funds. If it means we end up with a different squad then so be it, cos it's clear this one isn't quite good enough yet.

 

^^^^^
This.

“Football club sells player to another football club” is hardly groundbreaking.

We’ve sold bigger names and better players in the past and will do in the future.

Hopefully the funds go to give GA the players he wants and more importantly, suit his style.

 

I'd rather have a pragmatic owner than an enthusiastic one. We had enthusiasm with Richmond and once all the financial dust settled we were no better off than when he took over - perhaps worse.

There's a very good WOAP article which you might have read, that sums up exactly why I'm fine with him.

https://widthofapost.com/2023/11/23/the-relative-stability-of-modern-day-bradford-city-and-the-long-term-challenge-of-reviving-the-club/

I'm not interested to been indebted to owners who 'give' us money - as when they sell they always want it back anyway

 

As an owner he's down absolutely nothing bar cover the mistake his business associate made. We are 14th in league 2 with probably another wasted season.
Believe me we deserve better than that.

 

Mark Schwarzer comes to mind. We sold him to Middlesbrough for £1 million.

 

Your summarisation of our history is correct.

But unless, we've got someone spectacular lined up, we could still do a lot lot worse than him.

His error was been duped by Rahic. At least though he's trying to atone for his error.