Squad Size. Hughes being backed.

And of course the Academy team……Their revenue income is akin to selling a £0.5 million player?

 

I thought the two youngsters had brought in that already.? Sparks won’t talk about income from that area but he called it “ healthy “ from memory D?

 

Threlkeld an Kelleher will be the first ones to go

Staunton an Wood will need to be sent out on loan

I can see FCD being kept as CB cover, especially as Hudds have form for pulling back players in January (Crichlow)

Scales will stay on an be understudy to Walker

We still need a right winger though

 

Can’t believe some are focusing on whether Rupp has done enough to back us this season.
I cannot ever remember the club having such a structured overhaul. The Richmond years were great but it was all built on sand. Rhodes and Lawn gave us 2013 but our business plan was season by season. Edin’s ill thought out scatter gun approach to recruitment was a disaster. This looks like a grown up approach. It feels different. Hughes has been backed to take the club to a professional standard and I would suggest this is the best balanced squad in a decade. Everything about Hughes oozes professional.

I watched a very good Derby side make us look hapless. We won’t see their like in L2 this season.
Where will this season end for us? I don’t know but I can’t wait for it to start. It may take a while to gel. Slim pickings but this is building up to be our best season since our Millwall defeat at Wembley.
Let’s enjoy this moment.

 

Ah yes our “makeshift” defence looked hapless, but the rest is great

 

Yes, I cannot remember the club having such a structured overhaul either.

Two points though:

1) Clearly we needed a massive overhaul, which is a concern
2) How much of this overhaul has been masterminded by Mark Hughes?

I'm sure we're all looking forward to the new season and hoping for big things, but who oversees everything when Hughes is no longer manager? Can we entice him upstairs to a Director of Football role? Seems unlikely... we're the smallest club on his résumé, after all. Are we planning for life after Hughes already?

Rupp and Sparks should already have ideas in motion for what Bradford City will look like after Sparky walks out the door in any eventuality.

 

Perhaps he hasn't but he's agreed to the spend. Clubs should function within their income, we know the catastrophic impact of not doing that only too well, and there is no obligation for any owner, anywhere to put their own money in to fund out of budget player acquisitions that could potentially cripple a club in the long term.

If this is done within budget, then you have to take your hat off to him for the way it's been done.

 

And why should he ?

 

No surprise that Gilli was top of his fitness groups. He is Mr Perpetual Motion and never seems to get tired. He also has quick feet and very good ball control. His problem has been lack of end product when played as a winger/wide striker, but that's much less of an issue when played centrally and further back. In the deeper role he does what Nicky Law used to do for us - retain possession, carry the ball forward and exchange passes to help set up those more likely to create and finish chances.
I think he'll be an important cog in the wheel and his versatility also helps his cause - he can play wide midfield in a 442 or wing back in a 351 if Sparky needs to change formations or in the event of an injury crisis. I don't think he's going anywhere (cue imminent announcement that he's leaving).

 

Bloody hell! He only turned up a few months ago and the owner/CEO need to start looking for a new manager!?
If you're recruiting a manager and almost as soon as he's walked through the door you're looking to replace him then you've recruited the wrong man.
Hughes has a point to.prove to the football community. He was over looked for a number of higher profile jobs. He's with us because no one else wanted him. I suspect many in the game think he's a has-been with outdated ideas and methods, in an era of foreign coaches with supposed fresher ideas.
He's found a club in BCFC he thinks matches his own ambition of being far higher up the football ladder.
I think he'll stick with us for longer than one succesful season.
Whether he becomes another statistic in our managerial merry-go-round is another matter

 

And then took the money straight back from the McBurnie sale that he knew was coming.

 

No different to Mark Lawn with Fabian Delph...

 

I get that but Mark Lawn isn't the debate here.

I'm just not giving Rupp brownie points for clearing up his own mess whilst knowing that it's not going to cost him a single penny.

 

A point i would like to make is the change in league rules allowing 5 substitutions in a game. This will likely be a factor in our increased squad size. Clubs that have better strength in depth will have a greater advantage with the extra 2 substitutions available especially when teams become stretched through injury and suspensions as the league gets into the winter months.

I think this is in the clubs thinking - although still expect Kelleher and Threlkeld to be moved on.

 

What?

I think you misunderstood.

Big difference between a succession plan 5 years down the line and looking for a replacement...

 

Well he did clear up and thats the top and bottom of it. He also invested during Covid - Sparks clarified that. Im not a Rupp fan btw.

 

Correct, money in the bank from the youth players and the commercial backroom staff are doing better season on season.

 

He's rarely here watching games, but your right ultimately Rupps poor management has got us where we are, be that because of no knowledge of running a football club or very poor appointments in the past the main one being Rahic and not keeping tabs on him, the buck stops at Rupps door.

 

He did but the McBurnie money must have offset a lot if not all of Rahics tenure at the latter end.