The Voice - Match preview Bradford City vs Walsall Saturday 30th September 3:00pm

Only if Phil and Grant are on the management team

 

Not sure Ryan would be.

 

I believe both Rupp and Sparks are aware of what's going on and will act before the month is out if things don't change.
Didn't Rahic class himself as the DOF during his time at Valley Parade he made worse appointments that Sparks.

 

You say we’ve got some good players. How many do you honestly believe are that at level?

How many are MH signings over 2 seasons? I can name only one that would meet that level that he has brought in.

 

At what level? Good enough for promotion?

We've got a core of 8 or 9 that are good enough in the right set up and can probably name a first XI that would match anyone in this division.

Our problem is, alongside the set up, we have very little strength in depth despite having a bloated squad.

What we needed was the trim squad that Sparks championed pre season and just 3 or 4 very strong signings to compliment what was actually a decent base to build from.

 

If you're referring to the Wiki list of club owners I posted, then I'm sorry but I don't think you can draw that conclusion from that list alone. 'Owning' does not necessarily include 'running', especially nowadays with so many offshore and/or corporate owners. To know if 'football people' are running clubs, we'd need to know the organisational structure(s) and personnel of the clubs.

RCB

 

Using your anology, how many “football people” are CEO’s of the CC , 1/2 and the prem? There arnt many , and that’s my principled point .

 

Draper has played a handful of games. Spent last season in Ireland. He is a Lincoln city player that they had the foresight to acquire and develop. Draper bossed our CHs today. He should not be getting the better of established men at the heart of our defence but did. He has had rave reviews already this season. Looks a player with the ability to play much further up the pyramid. Disrupted our defence at corners. However Lewis has to do better. TBF Lewis has lots of credit in the bank but needs to return to the keeper we saw last season.

 

Lewis has lost the credit he had. Too many mistakes since and inc the Spanish trip. I was impressed with the lad leading the line .

 

As I said….the failing is on the green stuff.

 

That was nearly 25 years ago. A completely different generation...

 

Other clubs have a chairman that knows the game though. To have so little football understanding so high up in the club is shocking - this is a business completely different to other normal businesses, Kev.

our chairman is effectively a sleeping investor who is here because he was shafted by Rahic and felt some obligation to stick around and recover his investment. He’s rarely at matches and is more interested in motor sports, which he’s entitled to be of course.

But he’s appointed a bloke whose interests are speedway and whose history is in RL, to be CEO of a football club, a unique industry where your customers are mostly set year to year and you need to keep them onside.

If the fans aren’t behind the manager, he has to go. Football fans come back for more even when the product is garbage because once you have your team, you are set for life. Its not like an oil pump manufacturer going to a different steel supplier if they fall out with the previous one.

you are always a City fan, its just whether the package offered tempts each fan into renewing under their own circumstance.

new fans signing up are the minority of ticket sales each year.

Credit to Sparks where it is due for boosting off the field income etc but for as long as we have a passive investor as an owner we need a football specialist to have some input in footballing matters.

you see it in the working world all the time - big wigs get promotions from other departments to lead up teams, sometimes they come from different industries and blag it with their ‘transferrable skillset’. You can wing it to an extent in business as brown nosing and playing the game works for those types, but you can’t wing it in football.

Rupp and Sparks have been winging it footballing wise (not financial or business wise) in their time here so it comes as absolutely no surprise to me we’ve done nothing but regress on the pitch under them.

Sparks’ brief is no doubt to run the club sustainably and provide the manager with a competitive budget. On that score he’s succeeded. But there is more to management than number crunching and looking at Excel spreadsheets as you very much know yourself, and it is in the other aspects we fall short. Our product is terrible, and the figures are purely obtained on price.

Unless a new investor comes in (doesn’t seem likely at present) Rupp would be better served investing in a football man as DoF to cover his own inadequacies.

The closest we have is Gent, who is seemingly beneath Hughes, but has a say in recruitment. Other than Hodges, who is Hughes’ sounding board at the club? He gets a very easy time of it.

he should have been fired after Carlisle, yet here we are week to week, dropping cheap points to Grimsby, Harrogate, Walsall at home, and nothing changes. Same old soundbytes. Same old shortcomings.

the problem is that everything said to Rupp goes though Sparks. Sparks isn’t gonna be the turkey voting for Christmas and going to go to Rupp to say he needs moving aside himself……

 

We long ago nailed the rumour that Rupp is investing . It’s clear he’s sitting on what he’s got , safe in the knowledge he has little need to spend more. ( I don’t blame him if he’s decided he wants out long term) That we all agree. We mostly agree that Sparks is doing a good job in providing more than enough commercial activity under inflationary times, to keep the status quo on Rupps behalf. All in addition to providing sufficient funds to deliver a “ competitive” playing budget, keep the ground in sufficient condition to meet the landlords needs and break even whilst covering other staff salaries.

That portion of the business is therefore functioning very , very well imho. I’m sure there are many who disagree of course but hey they probably don’t have industry and business knowledge, so are reliant on “ unsupported opinion” . That I fully understand and won’t knock them for it.

If only the actual footballing could reciprocate !

 

So the question, then, is how do we improve our on-the-field failings?

It seems like Rupp’s answer is to sit tight and hope Hughes comes good, but there must be other alternatives?

we have a squad of players on longer-than-normal contracts (for our standards) so I can’t imagine we can vastly change this squad. I think we have enough of a core to think we should be doing better, though.

replacing Hughes conflicts with the ‘sustainability’ brief in the short term but i suppose it depends on how urgent Rupp wants promotion. Letting Hughes ride his contract out will alienate fans and hinder ST numbers for next season.

 

How, a change in playing emphasis , plain and simple . How would that be achieved ? Clearly the footballing side of the club is RUN and managed by Hughes/ Hodges/ Gent. That’s their paid job. ( I deliberately don’t include the Academy “team” as their record speaks for itself) . I have now concluded that it’s just not working . I never fall into the trap of knee jerk reactions because I and others “have seen it all before” over many, many years . The outcome of continuation is exactly as you describe, clearly that’s not in need of debate . Hence Sparks needs to act and act quickly .
We know the answer collectively ! However the solution is who can take us forward on the footballing field ? I just don’t know .

 

Luckily when Hughes goes, the club can use it's many contacts within the game and reach out to...

... Oh.

 

How do you know what contacts they have seen the contact book

 

Nope, but I've seen how we've recruited so far.

Trueman and Sellers already in the building.
"We're not looking for candidates because we've got the perfect man" in Derek Adams.
"I've found an email in my junk box" for Mark Hughes.

 

Only if the spam folder is unleashed.

 

And if all that fails, I've got the number somewhere for a bloke called Stuart.