Article in The Athletic

It’s down to the players it’s up to us to make sure we bring in ones who can make a difference. Hopefully Hughes contacts can help in that

 

Cullen, Burke, Evans, Pickford, they don't all go on to better things but they were head and shoulders better than what we had at the time, Mansfield had 2 young Premiership players the other week when they played us Bishop (Man Unit) Matty Longstaff (Newcastle Unit) ran the game for Mansfield and Murphy who was rumoured to be one of our targets.

 

I think the loan market is one we have an advantage in. Not necessarily for prem youngsters, but for youngsters at championship clubs who are on the fringes of the first team but need to be tested, we should be selling ourselves as the ideal development opportunity. I.e. ‘we may be in League 2 and you’re probably looking at League 1 as preferable to test your player, but the standards aren’t different and here, we can expose the player to the demands of playing in front of 15k supporters every other week and the pressures that come with an expectant fan base’. We can also offer up coaching by a highly experienced premiership and international manager and hopefully by the summer, we have a bit of credibility of being a side that tries to play ‘the right way’.

Honestly, there isn’t a single club in this league in as strong a position to exploit the loan market.

 

As you say the lad Daly was brought back from Harlepool by Town to give him experiance of playing in front of large crowds, and allowing him to come to Valley Parade.

 

Contacts are a start. But better players generally cost more money. Are we prepared to pay what it takes? There’s a fair argument to say that we need to use the resources we have more effectively than we have, which is absolutely true, but it’ll need more.

For all that Adams time here ended up being a bit of a car crash, lets not gloss over the systemic issues that this club has had for a while. Adams, and several managers before him, made thinly comments about not being backed properly. Hughes is more qualified than any manager we’ve ever had to improve our fortunes and right several wrongs - but he needs to be backed. He doesn’t have a magic wand. There’d be no point at all recruiting a manager of Hughes calibre and then forcing him to work within the same parameters as our recent managers. And I hope that this point is well understood by Rupp and Sparks, but I can’t same I’m massively confident that it is. Its why our approach in the summer will be fascinating to watch - I cling to the hope that we’ll do very good business, do it early, and show proper ambition.

 

Rupp out

 

If you are hoping for a further cash injection from Rupp I think you will be disappointed according to the article we are already in hock to him to the tune of 1.6 million. The transfer budget will be made up of season ticket sales and commercial activity plus I just have a feeling with Sparks saying he has developed “great relationship with Gibb” he might have negotiated something on the rent

 

I think people are correct in thinking we can really launch a promotion push next season even if it means relying on bringing in two or three quality loan players. This could keep costs down, though we'll definitely need to have our own core members that are quality as well.

We're basically placing all of our hopes on Mark Hughes dragging this club kicking and screaming into League One as a professionally run outfit.

In terms of what useful, meaningful support he'll get from either Rupp or Sparks... probably very little, if we're telling the truth, though Sparks will tell us at every opportunity what a fantastic job he's doing.

 

Zero point relying on a manager alone to change our fortunes. What happens if/when Sparky gets a better offer?
A repeat of when Parky left, leaving us desperately looking for the next 'Saviour'.

I'm hopeful Hughes will get a large budget to get us out of this league but we'll have to wait and see.

 

Yep, and some of us have made this point when we signed Adams and put all our eggs in that particular basket.

But we know for a fact that Rupp and Sparks aren't going to augment the running of the club with a Director of Football, and there can be no real faith in the 'vision' behind the Head of Recruitment other than Hughes probably told Sparks he doesn't expect to negotiate the nitty gritty of contracts himself.

So, in my opinion, we simply have to accept that Hughes is the 'manager alone to change our fortunes', or our fortunes won't get changed. The club don't have the vision.

 

I'm not only hoping for a cash injection, I'm expecting it. Its about time.

As for the idea that we're in hock to Rupp:

1. I don't believe it
2. That would be his own fault anyway.

Run this club like you want it to be something or sod off. We're way beyond shiny managerial appointments and hoping for people to pull off miracles.

 

Frankly, if Rupp doesn't latch onto what Hughes can bring and backs him, he deserves to lose the lot.

 

Hughes' is both Rupp and Sparks' last chance to get this club heading back towards the state it was in before Rupp bought it. Should we be sitting here in 12 months time (or less) and Hughes is no longer the manager and the team isn't much different from what we've had to suffer this season. Then every single supporter should get behind a concerted effort to remove Rupp from the club. I'd say we've been more than fair given what's happened to the club over the last few years, but we can't keep supporting a regime that's overseen a pretty dramatic decline in both standards and performance.

 

Free stadium advertising ?.

 

Parky leaving was more down to Rahic than a offer from another club.

 

Bloody hand dryer we need in Bantams Bar Dave . Remind Sparks when you see him.

 

You know the stock reply to this, 'But, but, but Morecambe did it with the lowest budget in the league blah blah blah.'

 

If Mr Rupp wants the business to grow he needs to get someone in to replace Ryan Sparks; get Ryan to shadow an experienced CEO in the same vain as Mark Trueman is learning from more experienced managers. He just doesn't do his research and it appeared the way Adams went about things was a shock to him hence the occasional poisonous inuendoes he fires at the former manager now. He sacked Stuart saying we were heading for non league which was a ridiculous statement with 90 points to play for as Stuart says. And his broken bottle victim story is embarrassing for a grown man to blab about especially as he failed to mention all the other bottles smashed around other cars. Someone who wrongly paints city fans as bottle smashing thugs making threats just to get sympathy is out of order in my opinion. The sooner he's gone the better. And I think are new manager getting his name wrong twice in the announcement press conference was not a mistake by the way.

 

Of course, I just don't believe Ryan was a target of anything. Mindless thugs smashing bottles is one thing, sending a sinister message with precision placed bottles is another.