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Bradford in need of a new beginning after sorry story of mismanagement

Discussion in 'City Talk' started by SydneyBantam, Nov 28, 2018.

  1. SydneyBantam

    SydneyBantam Impact Sub

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    Copied and pasted from this mornings article in the Telegraph. Link is here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/11/28/bradford-need-new-beginning-sorry-story-mismanagement/


    The news that League One Bradford City’s joint chairman Edin Rahic is expected to leave the club will likely only be celebrated by their embattled fanbase once the departure they have spent many months calling for is sealed definitively.

    Much has happened to the club, which reached the 2013 League Cup final as a League Two team, since its relegation from the top flight in 2001. They dropped like a stone and in 2007 landed in League Two, still cash-strapped from maxing out every credit card going during their lads’ holiday to the Premier League at the turn of the millennium. There were two administrations during that time and they woke up in the bottom tier as all of us do after headier days: hungover and terrified of checking their bank balance.

    It took them six attempts to reach League One but they did so in 2013 under Phil Parkinson. Two years later, two German investors, Rahic and Stefan Rupp, paid £5million for a 100 per cent buyout.

    Parkinson was so perturbed by whatever their vision looked like that he willingly jumped ship to a Bolton side entrenched in off-field calamity. Three years and five head coaches later, Bradford are currently bottom of League One with the worst record of any club in the four professional divisions over this calendar year.


    It is difficult to know where to begin unpacking the network of systemic and fundamental failings at Bradford that have claimed coach after coach as collateral. Club legend Stuart McCall became Parkinson’s successor but tensions quickly became apparent. Rahic made public his desire to influence player recruitment, and often the full extent of McCall’s assessment of signings went: “I don’t know much about him.”

    Nonetheless, the team thrived under McCall’s human touch. Within nine months he had them walking out at Wembley in the League One play-off final. They were defeated 1-0 by Millwall, and, in hindsight, that success feels more like a final attempt at a sticking plaster to a now-gaping wound. He was sacked in February this year, with the team inside the top six, and since then Bradford’s annus horribilis has played out like a grim tragicomedy.

    Even the parts that are public knowledge verge on the scarcely believable. The Bradford local paper, the Telegraph and Argus, alleged Rahic attempted to ban McCall from covering a game at Valley Parade for Sky on ‘safety grounds’. Simon Grayson was so jaded by his brief tenure that he summarised it with the words: “three months that felt like years”.


    It took them 61 days to find someone willing to succeed him, and in the end they went for the 32-year-old youth team coach, Michael Collins, who never even applied for the job and was sacked 77 days later. They replaced him with former Livingston boss David Hopkin, who revealed in his maiden press conference that he’d had to “introduce” ice baths to the players’ recovery plans.

    The kindest thing you can say about the playing squad this season is that they have, on occasion, demonstrated a vague look of a football team. As a rule, it is not a good sign when a centre half begins his assessment of the playing group with the words: “I’ve got to call a spade a spade.”

    Relegation to League Two looks increasingly likely but the blow will be softened for supporters should Rahic, as Telegraph sources have suggested he will, actually step down. His reign has comprised of too many missteps, like a bored office worker blindly tapping Minesweeper squares on Windows 2000, and a plausible route back into fans’ affections does not look forthcoming.

    Coach after coach has departed from the club this year parroting the same list of grievances. Complaints about interference have soundtracked Rahic’s tenure like an incessant echo, and it will come as a relief to all involved if and when they finally have to stop hearing them.
     
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  2. CT Bantam

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    No mistaking Katie Wyatt's style in this
     
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  3. brisbanebantams

    brisbanebantams Impact Sub

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    reads like a WOAP article, so did the other one. nothing new in it.
     
  4. Rogered Tart

    P.L. 23/24 Top 30 Euro24 PL Entrant P.L.24/25 Entrant

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    Certainly isn’t written by a journalist from the telegraph. More like someone from a fans forum.
     
  5. JonButterfield

    Euro24 PL Entrant P.L.24/25 Entrant Qatar 2022 Entrant

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    Why are people saying 'nothing new in it' when clearly almost all of this is going to be brand spanking new to the vast majority of the Telegraph audience :confounded::confounded::confounded:

    Are people that blinkered that they think City is the whole world for everyone in the UK??

    Lighten up - it's another good article spreading the story of Bradford City.

    It's a good thing - new or not.
     
  6. Botswana Bantam

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    That minesweeper comment - ouch!
     
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  7. How

    How Knows Football
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    Weren’t we promised a ground breaking and explosive article?

    It’s nothing new and just states everything that has already been put out by the mirror I think it was originally or possibly the star. But point being we are just having regurgitation of that.

    Jon posts it’s opening it up to new audiences, well maybe but sky have already commented on this on their soccer Saturday show and with the other articles I think most football fans will know the situation now.

    I can see Rahic been here until at least the new year. Whether he has any influence or not we probably won’t know but it won’t be a quick exit. One things for sure he has no say over recruitment currently
     
    Jay and brisbanebantams like this.
  8. Ricc

    Ricc Impact Sub

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    did Katie Whyatt write this? i suspect so since it reads more like a fan penned blog than a jounalist article. all it's missing is a "in this reporter's opinion..." line.

    still though. well done on her for getting it into national press.
    I sincerely hope that in a few days we are all put out of our misery and the official departure of the megalomaniac is announced.
     
  9. brisbanebantams

    brisbanebantams Impact Sub

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    to be honest, she didn’t get it in the national press as it’s already been written about in the mirror and the star as stated earlier, and it’s also been discussed on skysports news.

    what she has done is use her employment within the telegraph to write it in their pages and regurgitate previous articles, previous fan posts on WOAP and what people have written on these pages. although later than many other news outlets.

    like @How@How said, it’s not the groundbreaking piece that people were given the impression it was going to be.

    plus, does anyone outside of the south-east read the telegraph?
     
    How likes this.
  10. PlatinumChaosX

    PlatinumChaosX Squad Player

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    Good article in my opinion.

    I enjoyed reading it.

    I'm glad Edin is leaving, it's the right thing to do for his family who are probably fed up of the bad publicity and just want to leave and it's good for us supporters, I wonder what Rupp will do with the club? I wonder if he'll try and sell?

    Either way, we've got some serious rebuilding to do moving forward.
     
  11. Nick_W_

    Nick_W_ Squad Player

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    I think she is the women's football writer for the Telegraph.
     
  12. Bronco

    P.L. 23/24 Top 20 Euro24 PL Entrant P.L.24/25 Entrant P.L. 20/21 Top 30 Supporter Euro 2020

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    Never say never.
     
  13. Bigrod

    Staff Member Moderator P.L.24/25 Entrant P.L. 20/21 Top 30 Qatar 2022 Entrant Supporter

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    I think your hunch is correct. My guess is that he will want to ‘wring the pips dry’! Even if he is not directly involved with City, then his spectre will linger and ensure that the toxicity doesn’t dissipate.
     
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  14. Interested Bystander

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    The Telegraph article credits her with Tom Morgan
     
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  15. Interested Bystander

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    Yeah, best keep it local.
     
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  16. CT Bantam

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    You're right, nothing us fans and much of the football world don't already know.

    However, I doubt Katie wrote this to please us. As far as I'm concerned, it's another nail in Rahic's coffin and it will be news to some people.

    I see no harm in more public damning of the man who thought he knew football and chose to demonstrate his incompetence at our club. We need the pressure to continue so there's no prospect of any backsliding.

    Like us Katie is a Bantam and she will be as keen as the rest of us for Rahic to go.
     
    SJBantam, Chad, QCFC BANTAM and 3 others like this.
  17. Ollylondonbantam

    Ollylondonbantam Squad Player

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    I hope this national article also serves as a warning to other clubs with prospective new investors, to carefully select someone who truly understands what it takes to own a football club.

    For the sake of lower league football, owners like Rahic have to be avoided wherever possible. The outcome could be much worse than just relegation.
     
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  18. Onside

    Euro24 PL Entrant P.L.24/25 Entrant Supporter

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    You mean she didn’t get it into the National Press first! The Telegraph is a national newspaper.
     
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  19. Interested Bystander

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    Surely the more coverage the better if only read in the South-East.
    Whilst The Telegraph may not be the most popular newspaper, it probably has more readers then the T&A or WOAP,.
     
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  20. Interested Bystander

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    Apparently only read in the south-east
     
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