Are we no longer the big fish in this division?

There are mitigating circumstances such as having two football teams for a long period in a city that can't sustain one successful team but yeah, most of our history has been spent in the bottom divisions. We aren't unique in this but for some reason we are built up as this mythical large city with a latent fan base just waiting to be discovered. In truth its never been there, the crowds we saw rise under Parkys reign were pretty unique in my 40 years of following them. As it stands now, apart from having a fan base bigger than most if not all in league 2 we are no different to most teams in this division in terms of potential and ambition.

 

I love McCall to bits, i'd love him to be successful. But the appointment of McCall for a third time was for one big reason, it was easy and required no behind the scenes work. The lad bleeds claret and amber, just one phone call to him and he would be back in a flash. Which, ironically, he did. No interviews with other managers, no shortlist of up and coming young hungry managers with a vision to take this club forward. No, the appointment had no ambition at all to it, it was because it was the easy option with no caveats.

 

It sounds ominously like the Peter Jackson appointment when you put it like that.

 

Kind of agree, but I think the decision was probably pre-made the second Rahic left the club.

McCall's second stint ended prematurely, albeit we were on a bit of a bad run, and I imagine he was reinstated once Bowyer left as a fairness to Stuart.

Whether that's good, bad, right, or wrong is one thing - but I doubt anyone will argue that the timing of the appointment, directly after yet another transfer window had closed, was farcical and actually reminiscent of the Rahic era.

Whatever the reason for the convenient delay of the Bowyer sacking, the club need to ensure we aren't operating like that going forward and that decisions are made within the context of a season - not in the context of not having to oversee a mini overhaul.

I won't say whether I think Rupp is responsible for the bad timing or not, but it doesn't reflect well and must be improved upon.

 

IMO it was more likely the perceived impact on sluggish ST sales than a sense of fairness that put McCall number one on the list.

 

No doubt that will have been a factor, but if it was the main factor when it came to not interviewing other candidates that suggests none of the candidates were likely to inspire City fans or didn't look likely to improve our fortunes.

I don't know how likely that is?

 

As much as I liked our time under Richmond it was Rhodes money that he used

 

Not sure that's true.

We have the same stadium capacity as Wigan Athletic and similar attendance figures.

We're both Rugby League territories, at least historically, and yet who is saying Wigan Athletic's limited potential is actually crippling them? They have less potential than we do.

Ultimately, there are a number of incorrect arguments - people are calling for benefactors losing money to make things happen - then they're talking, on the other hand, about potential.

If we had had a Dave Whelan ploughing money into us, we'd be way ahead of Wigan - so which is it? We're limited by potential and history, or we're limited by the fact we don't have a megabucks owner who is prepared to lose significant figures?

We all know it's the latter - and unfortunately, that isn't something you can criticise the likes of Lawn or Rhodes for, and we know Rupp's heart isn't in it. Rupp is propping the club up in this crazy times, and there must be a degree of gratitude for that. He's not going to fund a Premier League-or-bust campaign, and nor should he. But unless someone else comes forward who will, it's silly to describe the club as 'lacking potential'. At least they wouldn't need to build a 25,000 seater stadium, as we have one. At least they wouldn't have to increase the catchment area for fans, as it's already massive.

If you can't see the potential, you have to be trying to deny it.

 

You've misunderstood my points. I fact you answer some of them with your comments. What is 'potential'? It's something I see mentioned regularly. Unless that potential is putting large amounts of money on the table to fund this so called potential then in real terms it's an irrelevance. You mention Salford and that sums it up well, they may not be everyones cup of tea but are going forward because of what potential really is, a group of business men with a plan and deep pockets.

 

Bowyer was sacked on the 3rd Feb and McCall was appointed on the 4th. I don’t believe from that, and that McCall took training before being announced, that a huge range of other candidates were interviewed and considered, do you?

 

It was typical of how this club operates at this moment in time, an appointment to appease the growing resentment toward the club from its fan base and not specifically for football reasons. Don't get me wrong i was happy to see him back from my own purely selfish reasons as i love the guy to bits. Lets face it, we should have sacked Bowyer earlier, instead we waited then pulled the trigger and looked for the first name to come into the phone book.

 

Like you I want McCall to succeed because of the legend he is but it was a lazy appointment. Bowyer should have gone after the Mansfield game although to be fair, the Salford away game was no better.

 

Correct....please add to list.

 

But the a large portion of the fanbase love it and would keep bringing him back, and back and back until at some point he gets lucky.

We talk about the club needing to restructure from top to bottom to rid ourselves of the 'lower league' mentality but we won't 'rid ourselves' of this hankering for this glorious ex-player.

Step one of the clean sweep McCall needs to be pushed up into the McCall suite as a game day host.

 

I also think if they had taken 2/3 weeks to bring in a new candidate any posssible chance of a top 4 finish would have gone, where as the quick appointment of McCall might have had the new manager bounce, unfortunatly if didn't happen and then Covid struck

 

If 15,000 fans were prepared to pay say £250 for a season ticket and not £150 we could realistically be a top end league 1 club with the odd season here and there in the Championship. I’d take that in a heartbeat. Anymore than that would rely on Rupp investing significant sums of cash which he’s seemingly reluctant to do.

The potential is there, and I’d argue it’s both the fans and those at the top that are holding us back and not one or the other.

 

It wouldn't make much difference.

We'd still be 5th or 6th in terms of finances, we'd still be staring up at the budgets of Sunderland, Ipswich, Hull, and Barnsley, with teams like Portsmouth and Peterborough thereabouts, plus Bolton and Salford to come up.

Rhodes and Lawn often increased our budget to the levels you're talking about, and Rupp has done the same.

 

Exactly my point. 5th or 6th in terms of finances= a realistic view of achieving a playoff position with an opportunity to reach the Championship. That’s probably our potential if the fans did their part. Key word there being potential, whether we go on to fulfill that potential is a different matter.

Point really is, everyone needs to pull their weight. The owners, the fans, the manager, the players. When you lack in those areas you end up where we are now.