Most liked posts in thread: 2021/22: A Season of Struggle?

Every season we’ve regressed both on and off the pitch since Wembley, worrying Orient esk when they went from League 1 to non league. If you don’t have concerns then you’re deluded, our league position has got worse every year and season ticket sales have always been lower than the previous season. Let’s be honest this ownership has been a total disaster. Hope I’m wrong but until we get better stewardship at the top I can’t see us progressing very far.

 

I think every manager has been backed, and I don't recall anyone not getting players they wanted from bowyer onwards certainly. Our problem is that our management of those players has been completely inept

 

I don't for a minute think that everything will change all at once but there are people at the club who have been there for most of the years of our decline and it's hard to remove the negativity while they're still there. Of course, Rupp and Sparks won't leave but many more need to. I've watched City for 60 years and throughout that we've very rarely had the dynamic and ruthless approach needed for success. Sparks comes over to me as the kind of bloke who knows all the cliches and soundbites but is really all about himself. Like others on here I've come across countless people like him over the years and they can be quite dangerous in any organisation. He also sounds a bit dim to me. Whether he's a success or not only time will tell, and if he is fine. But at the moment we've got an uninterested and inexperienced owner, an inexperienced CEO and a very inexperienced management duo. That doesn't fill me with any confidence at all. And when you add in the almost total lack of talent on the pitch I don't think it's going too far too say that unless we see huge change throughout the club not much is going to change next year.

 

Supporters will inevitably come to their own conclusions but in the cold light of day the table doesn’t lie.
You get what you deserve and I would hope each and every player knows they simply haven’t done enough.
Performances have been so disjointed and aggressively toothless, seldom did we see the quality and skill required to entertain the pandemic armchair army.
Even when we had that little run to secure our League Two status for another season we didn't look comfortable in possession.
It's been a season to forget.
Would it have been any better Infront of fans?
I'm sure everyone will have an opinion on that question but the fact is we will never know,time moves on.
The 21/22 season is all but over with very few memorable highlights of mention.

 

I can see why this thread has been started especially after the recent run of losses and poor displays.

Clearly T&S can get a tune out of a team and be organised etc and with a team of their type of player (whatever that may be) can they be as equally impressive next season as they were in that good run?

Was it a fluke or did Cookes injury really have that much of an effect on the team? He certainly was noticed against Salford for his midfield influence.

And we definitely missed Canavan.

At this level losing 2 decent players has proven to be enough of a difference to affect our whole team dynamic. I think we would be there or thereabouts with a fit Cooke and Canavan.

The jury is out with me as to whether T&S are what we need for promotion next season.

 

I don't understand the suggestion of bringing in someone experienced to 'oversee' T&S.

Unless I'm missing something they're hardly a valuable, precocious talent that we must nurture at all costs.

Just give them their old jobs back and bring in a manager with experience at scrapping at this level
(Yes I'm aware that doesn't guarantee anything!).

 

good points these are worrying times.

all I can say is even though personally sparks was an underwhelming appointment but he has surprised me. he seems to know what he wants. plus with the addition of turnbull sacking a manager won't be as destructive as it once was. do think the club is on the mend.

 

I am mostly with you on this, I think some of those making the really negative comments just need to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks re backing and changes - I will nail my colours to the mast in that at this stage I have more confidence in RS than I do in T&S, and I am pleased about this because a lot has to happen this summer and he will be making the decisions and I for one am prepared to give Ryan proper support in overseeing this. Dubois wants a complete overhaul but 1) this aint going to happen and if it did 2) where is our new Owner/CEO/Manager and Coaching staff/Back room staff/total evolvement of players etc etc going to come from in the next 2 months?? Linking RS to all the crap that has happened over the past 3 to 4 years is both unfair and a load of bollocks anyway - a lot has to change and he is our best chance right now whatever your opinions on him

 

If FGR concentrated on their football instead of the constant sh!thouse tactics that they employed for most of the game they might have got something.

 

This kinda tells you that it's nigh on impossible to predict the lower leagues. Who would have thought Morecambe would be near the automatics or that Cambridge would have done so well. My concerns at Bradford are the complete football inexperience of the two managers and the CEO in charge. Nothing to say they won't be successful but none of them have any real experience of their roles in professional football. And as Parky showed, it takes a certain type of manager to get you out of the bottom division.
Good luck to all concerned because they are gonna need it.

 

My knee jerk Bradford City self wanted to disagree with this - but I can't. Your overview is correct. Season upon season, we have been moving backwards in terms of league positions, performances on the pitch, the overall character and identity of the club. Again, we go into an uncertain summer, many players likely (and mostly, rightly) to leave, another massive job of team rebuilding to do. Unless we get a good start to next season, I can see our support dropping big time. Wish I could feel more confident, but this is what it is.

 

I have very little confidence going into next season, simply because there's very little to base anything on. We continue to regress and until we have a new owner with real vision, we won't go anywhere.

 

Fordy, you are forever coming out with simplistic solutions that as a business man you know are far from that easy - either do something about it or stop posting what are effectively just soundbites

 

From what I've read of Sparks' comments, he seems to have been well aware edin was a nutter but theres only so much he could do in his role at the time. For me I wanted to see things happen off the pitch which give us continuity of approach like the fitness stuff, as this should help stop this mass crisis we have every time a coach isn't working out for us. He seems to be putting in place the right things off the field which is what I as a fan wanted, as I think our complete non investment in the off field performance stuff is hampering us on the pitch. Alongside putting the recruitment stuff in place with Turnbull and that is pretty much exactly what I wanted from my CEO so I have no complaints atm. The results of any of this stuff probably wont be immediate so I dont see the point of sacking sparks before he's actually had a chance to implement anything. In January nobody complained at the business we did and I still think we did good business for a january window, but our issues have come from T+S not being able to get the best out of who we brought in, not sparks failing to close deals because he doesn't know what he's doing for example.

 

One thing we do agree on is a lot needs to be done this summer!

 

As I said yesterday, a bug lump of reality is needed for the support base.

Big changes would potentially be great but that ain't gonna happen. The nucleus of the squad may already be here with additions from our level maybe and young players from maybe the league(s) above us. And I'm very certain T&S will be here...

As for Rupp, yep love him gone but he's commander in chief so that be what it is.

As for league positions or prediction, far too early.

 

We will always dream that something better might be just around the corner - despite the vast bulk of our history indicating the opposite! Keep hoping mate, when a club is in your blood it cant go away - and you never know.............just maybe

 

Can you tell me all the scores for each of the games so I can clean up at the bookies.....

 

What worries me about T&S as managers is that we never looked that good when the results went for us, Couple that with a poor run of displays leads me to suspect we are seeing the real T&S at the moment and next season will be just as bad,