30 years ago today

After the Villa game we got diverted south down M6 , i knew the area so directed him on to the A38 through Burton , Derby onto M1
Instructed mini bus driver to head for Chesterfield for a few quiet pints . What i didn't realise was our good friends from Leeds did the same . We had a wonderful " debate " for the rest of the evening till the Police arrived , oh to be younger again .

 

Got me started now , we went to Stoke city and set a new world record for the most people ever in a hired Luton transit van , we won 2 - 1 .After the game we got chased by a group of their fans . I ran into a pub car park and jumped over a low wall at the bottom of the area ---- 10ft drop into the river , to be fair to them they stopped dropping stones on me when i faked drowning.

 

And what’s your point?

 

We've been tin pot and skint ever since. We had to sell off the family China. Years of regression prompted a cycle where fans left in droves and at least in part, came back because we had to underprice tickets and have stuck with that approach. A lack of assets, poor infrastructure, years of short term planning and living hand to mouth, having to sell decent young players before they got anywhere near the first team. Everything has been reactive and in the back foot ever since.

OK, we've had 15 years to get our shit together. But we havent.

 

The only thing we lost asset wise from the Richmond era was Valley Parade and that ain’t worth much. We were tin pot and skint before Richmond came to Bradford, just a lower league shit kicker with the odd season or two of success. You say years of regression but we only regressed to where we have been most of our history. Without Richmond we wouldn’t have the Valley Parade that we see today. We had nothing like an infrastructure till he came to the club. History will show he fecked up big style at the end but until that point he got pretty much everything right.

I’ll ask you a simple question. Do you wish Goeffrey Richmond had never taken over Bradford City?

 

I dont really disagree. He created a platform for us to be better off, an opportunity for a lasting, positive legacy. He then undid it all but you’re right to say that we ended up in a place that we have simply remained in anyway had he not arrived.

No I don’t wish he’d never been here. I’d rather have had the good times. I just wish we’d managed our shot properly.

 

In life what happens is you normally find your level, ours is mid table league 1. You want a taste of the top table, its only natural, but its gonna cost you. We had a born gambler in Richmond, he was bloody good at it but went all in on the wrong hand and we paid the price. He gambled every season and got one wrong. But thats the gamble. The bigger the highs the bigger the lows. Now thanks to Phil Parkinson we are back to our realistic natural level. We have little debt in what is a debt hungry sport. We are probably in as good a position as we have ever been in. We are not paying for Richmond's madness anymore, we haven't for a couple of season.

 

As my strap line suggests.

 

Yes a win for us with other results in our favour would have seen us promoted. Boro lost and Villa went up with a 0-0 draw I think. Remember the Ipswich game primarily as a young Dalian Atkinson ripped us apart. Convinced Hendries red card at Man C ultimately cost us promotion.Some great memories in this thread as that was a fantastic season. Ultimate disappointment but that made 1999 all the more enjoyable!

 

Yes that was a brilliant signing "not"

 

I remember those Villa fans getting on the pitch after they scored. We were in the same stand.
The police got the whole lot out of the ground within minutes.

 

Didn’t Kennedy nut him on the bus back for saying he didn’t care cos he was off allegedly

 

Yes. A late frigging David Platt goal

 

Aparrently. It's been stated so many times it must be true