Most liked posts in thread: Grayson deal nearing close

If you think we can do better, with our current set up and expectation then you're deluded. We need a manager that can hit the ground running and for that they need to have an advantage over the other ones, which Grayson will have simply during the last ten seasons at the level we're aiming for (play-offs of L1 to respectability in The Championship) he's ticked every box

Any fan daft enough to judge him on this spell and hence think he's rubbish, is probably one who thought Jewell and Parky should have been got rid of in April 1998 and 2012 respectively - after equally uninspiring first part seasons. However, I backed both as they had made subtle changes to the attitude of the players, which would become their blueprint for future successes

As for the entertaining footie Stuart gave us. This season I can only think of the Bristol Rovers and Oxford matches that justify the tag. Donny Rovers for instance, spent 80 minutes in an abject lesson of incompetent finishing. And it was great to see us attacking Fleetwood - problem is we lost 3-0.

I remember everyone sticking it up to Parky and saying glad that his rubbish footie had gone, but some us did point out even though it was nicer to watch - it rarely got you out of L1

No teams with our budget play riveting footie. Preston fans were more than happy with what Grayson delivered, yet some want to write him off simply because he is one of a dozen Sunderland managers to fail under their hostile regime

Please let's get real

 

Good post.

The wishy-washy fantasy of 'good' football never really appealed to me. Unfortunately, the atmosphere has been dead as a doornail for the vast majority of Stuart's tenure (and it's carried on under Grayson), and I think actually the poor running of the club combined with the sacking of a legend has been the perfect excuse for many to quit on the club.

What brought fans in was success; nothing more, nothing less. Phil Parkinson brought unparalleled success in his time at City, and that was represented in terms of crowd numbers. Many said it was the cheap season tickets, but it doesn't look like it now, does it?

People WANTED to watch Phil Parkinson's Bradford City - absolutely no doubt about it - but some were convinced the football was a turn off. No, pretty football is irrelevant. Effective football is infinitely more important, and I agree that Grayson can potentially bring that. It's not a guarantee, of course, but I hope he can.

Trust me, if he gets us promoted playing long ball, we'll sell out next season, or damn close to it.

"Entertainment" isn't freeflowing, ineffective football. "Entertainment" is blood and thunder and winning accolades.

 

Spot on. At the end of the season SG will have been here 13 matches and we can totally disregard the first 6 as that's how long it too those thick numbskulls on the pitch that Stuart had gone and they needed to knuckle down.

Judge Grayson on the results in the last seven matches of the season and even if we lose at Scunny he's picked up more points in the month since 10th April than the club got in the preceeding three and a half months.

The play offs were lost between 2nd Jan and 10th April and no-one can blame Grayson for that.

 

If Grayson is staying I'm reading that as a major positive. Partly because he has the record to show he can cut it at this level but mainly because it must mean he is going to get decent resources

 

McMahon gets a lot of unfair stick in my opinion - I really like him. Thinks he’s a very useful player for us.

 

Is it just me or is anyone else thoroughly bored with this
Either sign and do the job or do one

 

I don't know if they were over confident right at the start but getting to the playoff final last year certainly exceeded their expectations as they were expecting a mid table finish. I think that might have made then think 'this is going to be easier than we thought!' and made Edin in particular start to believe (wrongly, very wrongly), that he is more of a footballing genius than he first thought.

 

Disagree with Warnock.

When Scunthorpe have fewer players on more money, and Shrewsbury had 5 of their best players on loan and an overall squad of 33, money isn't the be-all, end-all. It is for the top two, certainly, and Sunderland are already promoted champions in my eyes - but to be a play off side, you need to know what you're doing.

Sadly, there has been zero consistency with regards our 'plan', the vision of the style of football we wanted was pissed all over when Grayson replaced McCall (talk about polar opposites), and even when admitting mistakes have been made, the owners are still blithering about our youth policy and resale value.

The development squad initiative will get us relegated before it gets us promoted.

See also: Crewe Alexandra.

 

At the same time though , why would he want to clarify a few things if he definitely wasn't staying? The video can be interpreted in whatever way you wish to interpret it, he's not given much away.

 

A few people have been putting “Gregg”. It’s “Greg”. He got nothing to do with the chain of baker’s shops as far as I know.

 

It's a really bad sign if he doesn't stay on imo, it shows they are not prepared to give a proven manager the tools he thinks he needs to make us serious contenders, Grayson had identified all the problem areas he thought needed attention, so not only do we have to find another manager which could take weeks the new guy will have to do all the work grayson did in identifying what needs addressing which again takes time, doesn't bode well for me.
If the owners are saying lessons have been learned why isn't Grayson staying on......

 

There appears to be far too much emphasis regarding the so called development squad by our owners which I personally don't agree with.
We should concentrate on bolstering the first team squad with monies available not speculating on a resale strategy involving so called talented youngsters who take time and money to nurture.
There's no substitute for experience in my book, not at our level anyway.

 

I know that unless Grayson, Rahic, Rupp or Mason are registered here nobody on this forum knows anything regarding the situation.

 

Far too early write off Bruenker in my opinion. In my view he’s been growing and in confidence and starting to show early signs that he could be a useful player for us.

For example his positional awareness seemed much improved to me.

 

I don't know the answer to that but my instinct tells me that if he does stay, it will be more down to the fact that a better offer hasn't materialised for him rather than that we are his first choice.

 

It helps when they have triple the budgets of the others.

 

Aye.

They want us to know they've "learned from their mistakes" without actually telling us which mistakes they feel they've made...

Was sacking Stuart a mistake? Hiring Grayson? What kind of manager will they appoint next? What direction are we going in? Was the footballing style a mistake? Was youth a mistake? Is the development squad a mistake? Was Abbott as head coach a mistake? Is the head coach role itself a mistake? Is it a mistake not to plough all resources into a first team of 25 or so players? Was the wage budget a mistake? Or just the individual wage policy? Were the mistakes behind-the-scenes? Was being hands on the mistake? Was pissing off the fans the key mistake? Which mistakes precisely do they believe pissed off the fans? Was stating expectations and making promises a mistake? Was the cheap season tickets a mistake? Were the deadlines a mistake?

You could question anything at any club, we're no different; but I don't really know now what direction the owners wish to go in? If it's youth and resale value (still), what mistakes exactly did we learn? If it's putting all the power back in the hands of the manager, what did we learn about the previous direction, and how far will we go to rectify such mistakes?

Whether we extend Grayson's deal or not, there are hundreds of questions. Grayson stays, the set up goes to Hell, because he's not the manager, never was, and never will be. Grayson goes, the next appointment suddenly becomes incredibly interesting in terms of style, confidence in young players, ability to coach, and perhaps more crucially, overall ability to identify credible targets that improve us for the season ahead, not potentially improving us five seasons ahead. The question is also, why Grayson anyway if we're just going to plough ahead with the policies from the last two seasons?

While some people are just happy to hear "we've learned from our mistakes" and can then wipe the sweat from their eyebrows, I'm more puzzled than ever.

What are we doing, what are we trying to achieve, how, and with who?

 

I remember the successful teams of 87/88 and 98/99, they played the best football i've ever seen City play. Parky gave this club its mojo back and gave us progress every season but i would never put his football anywhere near the teams of 87/88 or 98/99. Thats not to decry his achievements though. I do agree with you that Parky worked with a style that suited his players, if he had tried playing freeflowing passing football they would never have got promoted.