Get out of this club

If Rupp goes, possibly the club will go too. Sparks looks to have turned the club around off the field and has been able to support the manager with a good budget. To carry on doing that however, he needs success on the field. I lost faith in Hughes last January when he went into the window completely unprepared. To measure the strength of a team, you look at the bench. I did that when we played Carlisle. Just how weak was that bench? A couple of seasons ago, we all knew that any team capable of scoring 2 goals would beat us. Early days I know but what has changed? Hughes has signed a lot of players as he has had a far superior budget than his peers. The quality of his signings leaves a lot to be desired. I hope the current crop will be different as they settle in but I am not holding my breath.

 

What a bitter set of respondents on this thread. Pour INVESTMENT in - you mean get the owner to give the Club oodles of cash in the hope that the fans are happy. Get rid of Sparks 'cos he's only good at getting cash and publicity from local businesses. Get rid of Hughes because we've all changed our minds about the one that we lauded as saviour when he was appointed and he could only get us into the playoffs in his first full season. Now I'll sit back and take the venom that's due to come my way!

 

We are allowed to form opinions over time and have as much right to do so as you. To me, Hughes seems to take the Peter Taylor approach of having 2 mediocre players for every position and I am not being venomous. However there is time for the season to pan out. Let's hope.

 

I think we have decent players a good keeper one good centre back another steady and a third who apparently had a good game yesterday but still to be proven full backs one past it the other decent in my opinion. Not sure about wing backs yet. But we have two ex championship midfielders another who has a proven goal scoring record from midfield and another with a very good record in Scotland and last years leading goal scorer so I wouldn’t say that was mediocre at this level. You might level mediocre against the management though

 

Think back to when Lennie was manager. We had 11 players who probably formed the best team in the division. Problem was, we quickly got injuries and the 2nd string just weren't up to it. In the last 2 games(without Pattison), we haven't looked like scoring, a divisive penalty decision apart. Smith's movement off the ball is excellent but unfortunately so far he has shown little end product.

 

Which Kammy turned into a promotion winning team

 

Great show. Do you think he might have read up on General Ulysses S Grant to figure out how to transform his team?

 

It's not really about the owner pumping in money at all, it's about direction.

I think the budget is more than enough to get out of this league, but time and time again we squander it.

Rupp has no interest in football or progressing the club and it's why we've done awful under his ownership. If he left, the club wouldn't go too, Sparks said we've had zero investment and we're completely self-sustainable. Surely someone more clued in on the business side of things could explain the benefit of having an owner that invests "zero" whilst we're completely self-sustainable? Do we just have an owner for the sake of it? Genuinely asking as it doesn't sound right

Sparks for me has done fine with the business side of things and for me we've improved in that regard, I just think he doesn't know much about football and his lack of experience there is really hurting us. Should he be CEO? Probably not but he could still be useful within the club.

Hughes - I don't know anymore. Every manager under this ownership has been crap and he's been the best of a bad bunch. Not really adamant he be hounded out when I don't trust the ownership/management to appoint a suitable replacement.

 

Got to love this comment "And as for your mate Sparks - who you are clearly here to defend" from a new poster who recently signed up to the forum Aug 19, 2023 and hasn't posted a single positive comment with regards anyone or anything at Bradford City Football Club, take a bow fella, another 7 day wonder as we've seen in the past.

 

I posted the face book picture that had said comment in it, but on listening to the full interview he mentioned being self sufficient but not the quote about Rupp putting no money into the club during his time here, didn't Rupp put money in during the Covid pandemic ?.

 

I've not read anything from fans who went being disappointed a few comments with regards the price of beer in the fanzone, have a couple before you enter the stadium as many do before home games in the suites or North Parade as far as I know fans made their own decision to go or not to go, what a strange post.

 

Is that a promise ????????????????????.

 

Not a bad strategy, really.

Give it a few weeks, if it hasn't turned round now that the horrendous run of tough away games is out the way, come back and demand change.

If it has turned round, you'll join the season at a much more fun point.

 

Every away game sells out so bloody fast some of us who have to actually plan our weekends never get a chance.

Then those that are going are telling us what a chore it is!

I agree, stop hoovering up the tickets just to be miserable, let someone else go have a fun day out somewhere in your place. Who knows, they might actually enjoy themselves....

 

Very similar to my thoughts, and why I at least keep saying we should change the structure/hierarchy of the club to have at minimum two departments with their own heads: football and non-football operations. In that sense, I suppose I'd have to say the owner should put in the money needed for this, if it can't be covered from other income.

I agree, Sparks has done well on the commercial side -- so put him in charge of commercial operations and let him continue to do what he is good at. In time he may prove capable of rising higher -- head of non-football operations, CEO -- but at the moment the lack of footballing experience is leaving him dangerously close to fulfilling the Peter Principle: everyone rises to their level of incompetence. The solution is to take a step back to where we can all say "the lad done good", and not have someone adding "yeah, but..."

Of course, who in the club would be qualified to assess candidates for DoF?

RCB

 

Agree with a lot of this, people think as soon as you criticise an owner you’re throwing a tantrum demanding money but the reality is far different. For me an owner at least has to have some passion/interest in football this is more likely to have accountability from the top down.

Regarding Sparks, I think he’s doing well as CEO but I still think a DOF is needed, I mean can you imagine someone like Sparks holding someone like Hughes to account on footballing matters? I just don’t see a world where Hughes would take a blind bit of notice. I’d leave Sparks to deal with the business side of things and look to bring in a Barry Fry type(not him obviously, but someone with plenty of knowledge and contacts in the game).

 

Rupp did which has been paid back to him I believe. This leading to sparks self sufficient comments.

 

Agree entirely
Take Stevenage last year I doubt their chairman poured the money in some of our fans expect Rupp to do
However with a modicum of interest am sure Rupp would cautiously invest (more in the hope to recoup some of his outlay rather than anything else) At the moment we are at a stalemate mainly due to personnel at the club
We are told that off the field Sparks is doing well generating enough income to keep us self sufficient however
he's failing badly due to his lack of football knowledge with matters on the pitch that's very apparent
Until we appoint a director of football sadly we are going nowhere someone who will have complete charge of all on field/football matters an owner with any football knowledge would instantly recognise this
At the moment MH or any future manager has no one to answer to no one to "suggest"to him what's going wrong we are currently pinning all our faith on a man who I imagine has made a good living from football fulfilling his spare time by being our manager
How I wish his application had remained in the "junk folder"
The big question as @River_City_Bantam posed in his excellent post
Who at the club is qualified to appoint a director of football

 

Some direct correlation there. The Yankees went through many top generals, even re-employing some more than once before they gave total control to USG. The rest is history.

 

I don't have a problem with paying his loan back that has to be a positive not owing the owner money if anyone did come sniffing around, there was money available from the government not sure if Bradford City received it and Rupp made up the short fall.
There positives with regards owners knowing a little bit about the game and what can be done to help the manager bring success (promotion) but from what I understand Hughes has been well backed financially over his three transfer windows.