The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Crawley Town Saturday 6th January 2024 3:00pm

Look at the comparison between Lawn as owner and Rupp as owner. I'm by no means the biggest Lawn fan, but it could be argued that the only two mistakes he made in management positions were Peter Taylor who made no progress and Peter Jackson who (dependant on how you look at it) was either past it as a manager or had an impossible role because of Archie Christie's involvement.

Lawn's master stroke was to have a football man there in the early days in Baldwin and in the later days, a man in Mason who was (is) a real people person. Both acted as effective buffers for him and got on with implementing a vision.

Rupp being absent isn't itself an issue, and neither is his funding as we should be able to get out of this league with the funding we have, but as owner he has failed massively by firstly bringing in Captain Admin, a man whose only role in life was to balance books, and then promoting Sparkes to a level way above his competency. The result of which is we haemorage managers at a rate of one every year.

Successful clubs become that because they have a vision and manage that vision right down the club. Chelsea are failing now because Boley can't do that, Man United because the Glazers haven't, Everton because Kenwright couldn't and it goes on.

Bradford City's success in my life has all come when we had owners and/ or chief execs with vision and passion - Stafford Heginbotham, replaced by Tordoff (then Simpson) and it went downhill. BFG replaced replaced by The Rhodes and ditto, Lawn replaced by Rupp etc. This will continue to fail until someone grabs the culture of the club by the gonads and changes the culture.

Replace the man running the club on a day to day basis, set a vision, carry that vision down the club and the managerial turnover will cease and success will follow.

 

I agree with you, Rod, I think if anyone was the 'football man' it was probably Mark Lawn - which is how it should be, with an owner driving the club forward.

Now, though, Baldwin would 100 % class as a 'football man'.

If only we could bring him in...

 

We are indeed, and that’s the point ……Change the players???

 

It's a chicken and egg situation.

Change the manager and new guy comes in and wants his own players. Change the players to fit current manager and then if current manager goes, the players won't fit the new mans style.

We're in the first part of it now. We need to really stick with GA and let him have 2/3 windows to bring his own players in and see where we are.

 

There was no "football man" (whatever that really means) in that leadership setup, just fans who had the means and/or time to be involved.

Baldwin and Lawn were involved in the failed appointments of McCall, Taylor and Jackson. Lets also not forget the development squad and Montegnee debacles.

When they eventually stumbled across him Phil Parkinson was the only "football man" involved and the person who saved us from a worse position than we are in now.

Sheikh Mansour must be a massive "football man" if the only way you can achieve success is by the owner being one.

 

The CEO with “ knowledge of football” hardly exist anywhere. It’s a myth.

 

Lawn was a lifelong fan as opposed to a “ football man” . Not sure where he would remotely fit in that category Jon?

I would suggest anyone that has played, managed or coached would fit ? That’s the fundamental problem, they rarely exist with applicable business acumen and skills to boot.

 

Doesn't really matter when the owner is interested in football. He was our footballing man pressuring the manager on individual decisions.

 

We are mixing words up Jon. Lawn was a football supporter, other than coming to the rescue as a fan , he had zero professional football knowledge .
Of course he pressured managers, he owned/ part owned the club. That is entirely to be expected. However can you imagine ML telling Parky we will play such and such a formation…….The worst set up of all is the owner getting “ involved” in the game by interfering.
Let the manager manage.

 

Yeah, if you're an interested owner, great.

If you're not, you obviously need a footballing man outside of your manager.

It went wrong with Edin, clearly, but it's still the right strategy.

 

Agree wholeheartedly . Gent it is to take over as CEO . .

 

Lawn when he joined Rhodes had 5 seasons of failure including 2 relegation battles before things went right in the 2012/13 season and had a lot of luck with cup runs, something the club are incapable of doing now.

 

Let's see how January goes first

 

I'd argue Rupp being absent is the biggest problem we have and I suspect it's one of the reasons the Cowley's turned us down.