T&A Bradford City owners Stefan Rupp and Edin Rahic blamed for slump by fans in poll

Apologies. I actually just re-read and realised my error. Agree with your comment, but let's be honest you are pretty sympathetic with McCall as opposed to Rahic on this - I did read your original interviews with him

 

anyone that watched us and knows anything about football is pretty sympathetic with McCall on this, to be honest.
it was a ridiculous sacking.

 

“And his Collins plus fitness coach farce - have been monumental in terms of incompetence. We could tell after the first defeat that Collins management skills were learnt on PS4 FIFA 2011 - it then begs the question how a person of Rahic's skill could be so taken in by him” @banbrotam

Please enlighten me as to Rahic’s skills?

 

How on earth can you say that, when other managers in our league who were our direct rivals were sacked for points sequences that were the same or not as bad?

 

you know as well as I do that it wasn't down to football that McCall was sacked. there was more to it.

if anyone is distorting the truth to suit their argument or agenda here its you.

 

I think it was the PS3 version to be fair

 

(Fouled up the first one. Apologies about the misquoting.................)

I like the fact that the T&A like City Gent and WOAP are not sitting on a fence - their dislike of Rahic is now shown in their bias against anything they do

Two examples

1. The question in the T&A is loaded for a negative answer. Even me, the Rahic fan boy, is not going to say 'yes' when asked if they are the best to run the club. How the hell can anyone answer yes to that - when there will always be better, albeit and crucially not available. "Would you prefer the previous regime back rather than this one", would have been a far better question
2. Funniest spin of the year is Harrison of City gent trying to convince that McCall was sacked for 'non footballing reasons' when he'd just lost 7 out of 9!! I find it irresponsible of him that he refuses to acknowledge that results played a large part. I'm fine with him wanting change - just please don't distort the truth to suit your argument
3. And we keep getting told by WOAP that Rahic and Rupp need to admit their mistakes. But they've already done this. Does Rahic need to issue some kind of weekly apology?

But the cat's out of the bag. We're now a club like Blackpool / Sunderland / Charlton / Newcastle etc who won't rest until we get the change apparently 'the fans demand'. Months of fans thinking they speak for the likes of me, when they say 'we want change'. Months of abject misery, that simply makes us less attractive to join as a club and more likely to fail even more than we are now

 

I don't get you. Are you telling me if he wins 7 out of 9, he still gets sacked?

 

I was sympathetic and still am – I’m not going to apologise for that.

I took an objective view that whilst McCall was not blameless, the collapse in January was due to a wide range of issues that were linked to the leadership at the top. Some stuff at the time wasn’t in the public eye and still isn’t (eg what really happened with Luke Hendrie), others like the lack of recruitment activity during the middle of an injury crisis were obvious to everyone. We had a chairman bragging about trying to sign Keiffer-Moore and we ended up with Kai Brunker. Let’s be honest, someone didn’t do their job properly.

My opinion was that the club needed to come together and rally behind McCall during January. We were going through a tough time, but his largely exceptional record over 18 months (best winning ratio for 30 years, only out the top 6 for three games of his tenure), coupled with the fact he lost half of his team in the summer of 2017, meant I think he deserved backing. I believe he would have turned around results.

I think the Phil Parkinson years showed us a lot about how to be a successful club. Not because of the cup runs blah blah, but because in and amongst the achievements of PP we had lots of difficult moments – long winless runs, poor signings and people demanding a change of manager. But we had a resilience and an ability to get through those downturns and come out the other side stronger for it. That is the biggest thing we’ve lost. Whilst McCall was a different manager I think he had learned a lot from his first spell and was much better at managing set backs. After all, the final run of 7 defeats in 9 was the first time we’d lost back to back games under his tenure. I just think he deserved time to turn it around. And if we had taken the same stance with PP in the years before that, we never would have had those achievements.

I don’t see a single aspect of how the club is better off for sacking McCall. The form nose-dived, the atmosphere around VP soured, and we finished nowhere near the play offs. Now we’re bottom of League One. Whilst Tony McMahon is no hero of mine, I thought his comment on Tuesday that McCall was the glue keeping everyone together was interesting.


The whole Rahic debate is not purely about the sacking of McCall, but I think history will show it was a pivotal moment. But for what it’s worth I don’t think I mentioned his name once when the T&A journo rang up the other day, so your particular issue might be with others.


Cheers

 

You couldn't just say "Apologies" and leave it at that, could you ?

 

Jason has put it far better than I can or am willing to.

you know what I'm saying, and you know the truth of the matter, you are being purposely obtuse.
anyone who is anyone in football said it was a ridiculous decision at the time, that is still true, even more so with the benefit of hindsight.

 

He might know other coaches he could get if he had a competitive budget for coaches wages?

Will have done badges with people etc. Doesn’t have to be his Livingston boys when people say he needs a backroom team

 

Didn’t realise you’d posted this and posted something similar below.

Agree

 

I'm not convinced we'd be much better off if McCall had stayed and he was still with us now. For me his problem, is the usual one and he had it when we were in L1 and it's getting the midfield right to protect the defense. Scunthorpe are conceding and losing more since he went there. It's not impossible to imagine the January sequence continuing

I respect McMahon's opinion, but a manager has to work under whatever his Director's philosophy is. Too often, we got the impression on here that Stuart simply didn't like working under the Rahic regime. And who would blame him? But in that case - leave.

I've stated before, that his staying with us after the play-off final was, with the wonderful benefit of hindsight, a big error

One of my biggest criticisms of Rahic is that he should have had the courage of his convictions and got rid at that time if he felt it right. It's never stops Abramovich!! The sacking of Di Matteo in 2012, must still be the most ruthless sacking of all time

Would McCall have flourished given the freedom that Hopkin now has - I don't think so

Incidentally, maybe the naughty T&A have lifted some quotes you've given from the past, because you are quoted discussing Rahic (unless I've misread again!!)

 

No Sorry, but I'm as pig headed as everyone else on here. I want to get my say in!!

 

Can I just point out that Edin and Rupp are TWO SEPARATE PEOPLE.
Is driving me mad the way people, including the media, seem to think they're a single conjoined entity.

 

rahic needs to feck off. not just retire from team affairs. come on.

 

Ricc I get where you're coming from, but please don't say things like "anyone who is anyone in football said it was a ridiculous decision at the time" when you mean that those who agreed with you.

Did Simon Grayson think it was a bad decision. I'd guess not, given he joined us and received far worse treatment at Sunderland

Like it or not the main reason for his sacking was results. Anyone arguing this is simply crackers. I'll go with it been harsh and I'll go with other factors influencing the decision - but the main reason was results and you cannot deny that. I mean do you remember that Wimbledon match?

 

Lads a halfwit, wouldn't know his arse from his elbow. Anyone with any support left for Rahic must be viewed by the norm as a clueless retard