The Voice - Match preview Most liked posts in thread: Bradford City vs Walsall Saturday 30th September 3:00pm

2pts off the play offs and secretly willing we get hammered so the gaffer loses his job. What a fan you are.

Call me old fashioned but id prefer us to win.

 

I honestly haven't a clue where we go from here. I've no faith in Sparks making the right appointment. We've a bloated squad of mainly average players, sat comfy on 2/3 year contracts. Whoever comes in will have the problem of a sizeable number of disenchanted members of the squad, unable to make the match day eighteen, with the potential damaging consequences to morale of idle hands. Some players must already be thinking "what the hell have I done coming here?" What the hell was Sparks thinking of, allowing Hughes to bring in so many players? There needs to be wholesale changes - Hughes, Hodges, Trueman and Gent shown the door.

I said on here a few weeks ago that I'd like to see Morais on the staff in some coaching capacity. Listening to him....and then Hughes....is like chalk and cheese. The players would be in no doubt what was expected of them given the articulate manner and clarity of his comments.

We're on the slippery slope and I'm really fearful of how this is going to end up.

 

Strategy, vision, the tools to be made available which include recruitment approach, all start at the top. What happens when you let your football manager dictate your strategy? You're back to square one every time the manager is sacked. It's why we keep going round in circles, because Sparks and Rupp have no idea what they're doing on the football side.

When you're repeatedly and systematically failing, accountability goes right to the top.

 

Morais is a great guy and the best commentator we've had at city in my opinion

 

Post match, how many times have we heard some kind of variation on 'teams come to VP and set up to play this way or that way and it makes it very difficult for us'. Stubbs did it again today and I'm sick and tired of hearing it trotted out as an excuse. We have the biggest crowds and stadium in the league and should be using that to our advantage, not making out that it some how makes us the underdogs at home. It's ridiculous and pathetic.

 

Ever since zee Germans we have been on a downward spiral. Folk can talk about lack of investment all day long but we got relegated with a £4.5m playing budget and while Rupp hasn't invested since our relegation, he has not bled the club dry either. The budget is competitive enough to get out of L2.

There is something that needs to change and its not a problem where you simply throw money at players. Investment is/will be required but not in L2...

We are a major city, located well, with a decent sized stadium and a decent fanbase - so the foundations are in place for a competitive championship team - IMO of course. Yet we are the biggest perennial failures in English football. 90% (an educated guess) of our history spent in the lower league doldrums.

 

Just setting off home. Hopefully get there just in time for @banbrotam to let me know how pleased he is with the progress like he did after the Newport game.

 

McDonald is way passed it. It was like watching a slower version of Smallwood today.

 

I will never set foot inside valley parade whilst Hughes is Manager of our club
1 shot on target against Grimsbey
Same against Harrogate
No shots on target from open play upto 80mins when I walked out in digust
Hughes your football is boring the player do not want to play for you or the shirt
Get out if our club NOW

 

I don’t understand ripping up the formation and starting again this season!

in my opinion we needed a left back (Richards) a centre half to replace Chritchlow (not seen a decent one yet) and cover at RB (Oyegoke) Then a new midfielder (MacDonald and Pattison), 2 good wide players (signed a load of nobodies) and cover for Cook.

I think we could have been a decent side with that recruitment but no, we change formation and sign players in desperation. Adding a load of bodies that don’t fit any style of play!

Signs of a management team that have no idea what to do.

 

I think many fans are using the “c” word again.

It’s becoming a chore on a matchday.

We spend all week listening to the inane,cliche ridden drivel from press conferences about how together the squad are, how hard they’ve trained and we are determined to get it right etc.which the same fans who clap like seals lap up.
But deep down we know what we are gonna get served up to us.
After a half decent first 20/25 minutes yesterday,we go in front but once they equalised within a couple of minutes did anybody genuinely believe we’d have the nous or the fight to get back in the game?

Even the few who thought we might,surely realised that once the second goes in we might as well not bother with the second half.
And we were right.Absolutely no idea how to get back in to the game and another limp 45 minutes of nothing.
I didn’t boo.I shouted a bit during the game but when the whistle went,just like every game at home this season I just stood up and went home.

Maybe fans like me are the problem.
Fans who go because they’ve been going for donkeys years.
Fans who renew because it’s what my wife and I have done for years on a Saturday.
The club know that there are lots like me who will renew because “its what I do on a Saturday”

The sad thing is,even after yesterday I’ll do it again next Saturday and hope it’s different.

More fool me.

 

Yeah, leave at least one on the edge of the box and one near the halfway line.

That's at least 3 opposition players that won't be in the 6 yard box and with the keeper and corner taker they've only 6 outfield players left which immediately makes that area less crowded.

 

I have been critical of Halliday in the past but he was probably the only one to come out with any credit. Gave it everything yesterday, especially trying to drive us forward.

 

The reason we are doing well commercially and struggling on the pitch is due to a lack of expertise at the club above Hughes. He gets a free pass because the only talk Sparks and Rupp (and Longo) can understand is financials, marketing, sales and business. None of them could sit down with him and analyse a segment of a match, discuss fan criticisms, or offer any meaningful footballing input of their own.

we are crying out to appoint a football man - a DoF - to hold Hughes accountable

 

I applauded Halliday at the end, the lad never stopped trying all game.

 

Daft thing is before their goal we'd played alright without really being threatening. Most of our good position build up led to Odour who was simply awful, how different it would have been watching a Scott Banks or a Tyriek Wright attack the exposed full back, instead he simply stopped time and again.

 

Better in what way? What has Mark Hughes achieved at this level?

I'm not absolutely guaranteeing the next manager will be better but at the moment I'm not sure it can get much worse in terms of performance.

We're 14th and if we're honest with ourselves, we've probably collected a few more points than we have actually deserved to already.

 

I dont think a manager change will make alot of difference. We have exhausted almost every type out there during our L2 tenure. The club is rotten, poisonous with some deep rooted issues.

 

I can put my finger on it.
A management team that hasn't a clue on how to coach a league 2 side to promotion and really poor recruitment of players tied together leaves us in the state we are today.